About 2.15pm this afternoon I got the sort of call that every parent dreads. My teenage son had been involved in a crash on the motorway with three of his friends in the car. Thankfully they were all OK, but honestly, my heart literally stopped.
They were very, very lucky. They had all just put their seatbelts on and were only going about 40 miles an hour in the outside lane when the car in front slowed down suddenly. My son didn’t have enough time or space to stop before crashing into the back of him. The airbags and the seatbelts saved them. They got out in the fast lane but again thankfully a police van was driving past and got them to safety before anything else could happen.
Just a nightmare. Lets hope that a very sobering lesson has been learnt:-
June 20th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Good grief….very sorry to read this but equally relieved that you are not attending a bedside vigil, or worse! He’ll never follow another car too closely again….
June 20th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
I know. That’s the thing. They really have no idea about distance etc. Just thank god they’re all OK x
June 20th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Thank goodness they are safe. I’m sure your knees went all wobbly and your heart raced.
June 20th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I( am so glad they are all OK. Sod the car
June 20th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Gee Whizz – lucky kids – 8 lives left xxxx
June 21st, 2010 at 3:08 am
Phew. How terrifying! Very glad he and his friends are all OK.
x
June 21st, 2010 at 3:58 am
Ooooh really scary x.
June 21st, 2010 at 4:06 am
Aagggghh! Teenagers in cars. I’m there with you. So glad they were all okay and hope it has taught them a lesson about distance although I wish they hadn’t had to go through it.
x
June 21st, 2010 at 4:27 am
Lucky boys. Hopefully this will be the accident that is their learning curve.
Probably more scary for you than them!
June 21st, 2010 at 10:08 am
How awful, though glad they’re ok and hopefully have learnt to be extra vigilant when driving. It’s not their driving they have to worry about, it’s everyone else on the road!
June 21st, 2010 at 11:30 am
Thanks Vege and that is what hopefully he will have learnt from that – they all have super fast, playstationed reflexes designed to react in a split second to anything that is thrown in their paths, but they haven’t allowed for the fact that you never know what the other people are going to do. The real world. It’s a very different place to be Lx
June 21st, 2010 at 11:53 am
Thankfully they were all OK! The car can be repaired or replaced….
I know I dread getting a knock on the door one day, Jonny has a powerful car and doesn’t drive it slowly.
June 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Thank goodness they were all okay. Scary, very scary. Hope you’re okay too. X
June 21st, 2010 at 4:45 pm
L, that’s an interesting comment you have made above about ‘playstation responses’….do you really think that playing those god awful games helps or assists their response action? Are ‘todays kids’ better drivers (than we were/are) because they have honed their reflexes on an xbox? Discuss. x
June 21st, 2010 at 4:50 pm
I think they think they have better responses. They are certainly far more able to react than I am on screen, but that doesn’t mean it works in real life, they are not capable of being aware of everything else in the equation that needs to be taken into consideration. That said, it’s not only teenagers who drive like that – my brother loves computer games and drives like he’s in the middle of bloody Grand Theft Auto – it’s terrifying Lx
June 21st, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Oh phew….I mis-interpreted what you were saying/thinking. My view is that those games are a contributing factor to road rage and general rowdiness – I think they ‘rev’ people up and make them more aggressive (there are of course other factors to take into account for aggressive behaviour). I wonder how in 50 or 100 years time, social commentators will view those type of ‘games’.
I remember my nephew had a very similar accident at a similar age. You think it is bad now – just wait till he has to renew his insurance – we’re talking two arms and two legs!…..X
June 21st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I know. Hoping he won’t be able to afford it – well he definitely won’t be able to afford it and I’m certainly not paying for him to get back on the road Lx
June 21st, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Oh bloody hell! That looks pretty bashed up! Everyone still alright? Certainly the news all parents dread! x
June 21st, 2010 at 9:11 pm
So so glad everyone’s alright. Hope your heart has stopped racing now, what a nightmare. x
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 am
Thank god they are all ok xx
July 19th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
Am i allowed to make a suggestion? I think you have got something great right here. But what if you added in a number of links to a internet page that backs up what youre declaring? Or possibly you could give us some thing to take a look at, a specific thing that would associate what youre expressing to something real? Just a suggestion.
January 28th, 2011 at 11:35 am
I too just had this happen to me last night I got that call, I am still sick I thank god also that my daughter was okay. he rcar is totaled also. I could not sleep and am still shaking.
January 28th, 2011 at 4:21 pm
I completely sympathise. Terrifying to think what might have happened. At least, I think, it scared the shit out of him too and so hopefully he is now a much more careful driver Lx