First (and hopefully last ever) accident

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Yesterday I experienced the biggest shock behind the wheel so far and I don’t wish it to happen to anyone else.

6:45am driving a fully loaded rear-steer dustcart through the windy B road outside our depot on our way to the tip, it was raining and the road was wet so I was driving with extra caution naturally. Came to a slight left hand bend which is usually taken at ease anyway, however this time without any warning at all the back end suddenly kicks out and swipes the on-coming car taking out the front end and drivers door. Managed to grind to a stop on a bank and raced over to the car expecting the worst but miraculously the driver got out of the passengers door straight away, unhurt apart from a few cuts to their face (got checked up at hospital, came home straight away so I’ve heard). Police arrived and discovered a large patch of oil on the bend just before the impact site which may have answered why I lost grip so easy. They sympathised that the conditions were horrendous and there was nothing I could have really done to prevent it and left it at that, but I felt physically sick that I almost cost a woman’s life.

Company have been fantastic and offered a lot of support which isn’t always the case nowadays, and I’m cautiously back behind the wheel today but I’ll never forget what happened.

2

Learn, remember and move on. That sounds simplistic given your current emotions, but trust me mate, it’s the only way. What makes a good driver is the ability to learn from and not repeat his/her mistakes.

3

I don’t see this as the O.Ps. fault. I often go to the petrol station and there is a fuel cap been left. Self service is ok if the people have the wits to put their filler cap back on, and not over fill, and use the correct fuel. A lady came in and asked for “exhaust fluid” I sold her ad-blu, hope I did the right thing.

4

I completely 180’d my car on a bend just before a petrol station once, the petrol station was attached to the supermarket where I worked at the time and I’ve taken that bend hundreds of times, the road was damp but there MUST have been a fuel spill, I just remember quickly steering in to the skid but it did nothing at all, a total passenger. A proper fuel spill = big trouble. Sadly it probably goes down on your record as a ‘fault’ even though it really isn’t.