burntcopper | When cars turn into pinballs

Yours truly has screwed up in *spectacular* style. No, I mean really SPECTACULAR style. Driving home from Blackpool from Prime, the last Starfury Buffy con, where one had a fabulous if relaxed time, (more on that later), had about 12 hours sleep as I usually do at these things, due to partying and then having to get up for stewarding duties/photo shoots (delete as appropriate reason for getting up at ungodly hour of 8/8:30 am on a weekend), dropped Taz off at Watford, and was driving back on the M4.

Cue me losing concentration for a second or so in rush hour traffic, blinking when I realised the car was doing 10 mph more than it should, braking a bit to slow self down. Car fishtailed a bit and I clipped the person in the other lane. This, due to speed, caused car to turn into pinball and lose control, going across the lanes (and amazingly not hitting anyone else), hit the barrier on the other side, bounce off and do a 180 degree spin and crash headfirst into the barrier in the middle, one wheel coming off on the second impact. According to the drivers behind me, they thought I was going to flip over, which I apparently would've done if I hadn't hit at the angle I did.

Car complete and utter write-off. (pictures later). Inside is surprisingly intact. All doors able to shut and open with no problems. The wheel that came off was leaning against the car, and the bumper was on the hard shoulder, along with one wheel rim. I may have a scratched CD :sulk:, but that's it.

Cue police, ambulance, exchange of details, etc. Copper, a PC Treacher, says I'm being cautioned and charged with careless driving, which will involve doing driver awareness classes. (mostly since I didn't hurt anyone else, and fully admitted I'd been driving since 11:30 with regular stops and didn't get enough sleep over weekend)

Mostly thankful that I'm the only casualty - some truly spectacular friction burns from the seatbelt, (which go nicely with the stuff written on my back in permanent marker on sunday night - Dennis, Davey and Steve will suffer horribly if it's not come off by Serenity Squared. The problem with hanging out with staff and being a steward at these things: your mates can get their hands on a sharpie in under 30 secs.) a few bruises and a bit of whiplash. The woman I hit, her little boy and her are absolutely fine and were just shocked. I only cracked her rear light and dinged the bumper corner. No-one else involved, apart from the very nice guys behind me who stayed until the police got there and called 999. And this was in the bloody rush hour on a monday night when the average speed was 70-80 mph - I was in the fast lane and doing 80, and at that stage no-one's bothering with overtaking and staying in lane. The only other damage aside from the car is that the barriers I hit will have to be replaced, as they are every time they're hit due to special design for stress and crumpling.

I will end this with one statement : Wear seatbelts.

Oh, and action movies when they show a car pinballing and so on? Completely fucking accurate. Really and truly. Except for the whole bursting into fire thing. There you want your Hong Kong action movies.

Am now going off to doze until it's time for doctor's appointment.