All was going swimmingly until about 1245 today.
I’d just finished my lunch on a 45 at South Mimms, and was cracking on towards the M11. Just going through Bell Common Tunnel, bimbling along in lane 1, when a silver car came spinning across the fron of my unit, about 10-15’ in front.
I braked hard, and he cleared me, then bounced off the tunnel wall and smashed back into the side of the unit and trailer. 1 bent mudguard bracket, broken light lens, twisted mudguards, and on the trailer the side box smashed to buggery and a large tear in the curtain.
The car itself was a hell of a mess, but fortunately the driver was OK, although I suspect he’ll need new underwear. The old bill were already on the scene when I’d pulled over and walked back, and after half-hour or so of taking statements and photos, they were happy for me to go once I’d got the mudguard away from the wheel and safed up the damage as best I could. Gave me his details to contact in case I had a run-in with VOSA on my way back to the yard.
Got back OK, and got the unit sorted out, but the trailer is going to need a bit of work. Funnily enough, it was when I walked into the office and the boss asked if I was OK that I started shaking.
Not a major accident in terms of injuries fortunately, but shook the hell out of me.
So if you were caught in traffic at the Bell Common Tunnel clockwise today at lunchtime, I apologise, but for once it really wasn’t my fault!
Gary
delayed shock, probably replay it a lot and go through ‘what ifs’ but the replays will become fewer as time goes by. Just be gentle with yourself and be aware you might react differently to situations for a while.
Very sound advice Chicane , have deleted 2 replies already because your post says it all , tnx .
It spoiled my otherwise smooth run into Bayswater and back when I got stuck in the traffic. However seeing the state of the silver car and knowing that everyone had stayed intact does tend to make that problem insignificant.
Pretty nasty business to be involved in. Glad to hear all parties OK
F me, them old bill were fast, you had an accident with a car spinning in front of you, damaged your unit and trailer, and the Police were already there by the time you stopped, thats got to be premonition on their part…good on them…was the ambulance there too.
When he asked me what happened, I did say to him ‘you must have been right behind me, can’t you tell me?’ He said they were only 1/4 mile or so back.
A foreign artic pulled up in lane 2 to stop the traffic, he confused the coppers because they thought he was involved and he didn’t speak enough English to make them understand. All got sorted fairly quickly (from my point of view), I don’t know how long it took to get everything cleared away.
Would make a good topic"not a good day" .Heres mine back in the seventies.Working for wh malcolm was sent to Purfleet for news print and the weather was wet and i mean very wet,loaded a part load of reels and was told that was the load,sheeted and roped it in the rain and rang south mimms depot and was told to unload the reels as they wuold not accept a part load.Unsheeted and wrapped 2 bottle sheets and a bottle skin in a lake, could hardly drag the sheets never mind lift them.Rang the office again and was told to go to Sheerness to load oranges for glasgow.By this time iam soaked and its mid afternoon on a friday,i get there and its going dark get loaded in the shed and told to pull out, its throwing it down ,windy ,and dark,sheets are on top of load and with difficulty spread a 50 foot long black plastic sheet on first ,then sheet and rope as normal, the amount of water in the sheets was great, they where sopping as i was,nearly lost one sheet in the wind but finally got going , made it to scratchwood and preston sat. morning where a glasgow driver took it north.the load of oranges was refused in glasgow and i got the blame along with south mimms office for messing me around.Was not a good day at all.
I know that feeling, yesterday (21st) I was travelling south on the M1 between Leicester forest and J21 at about 7:20, I was in lane 3 of 4 to avoid slow traffic queuing to exit at 21 moved back into lane 2 as soon as I saw it to be clear and I also had a silver car spin across the front of me.
I don’t know where it had come from, maybe lane 1 or maybe crept up the inside of me in lane 2 but I spun it, it hit the central reservation then bounced back into me taking out the tyre on my 4th axle and then it got hit by a Jag so I was told by the police later on.
No injuries thankfully, Spanish inquisition through Hanson including drugs and alcohol tests, it has left me very nervous about overtaking.
I sat in traffic today on the A38 south at Derby and the amount of cars that managed to be completely hidden in my blind spot was alarming to say the least.
Just come back through there tonight in my car and noticed two bloody great gouges in the tunnel wall.
They are some pretty impressive gouges aren’t they?
The strangest thing on the day was seeing the bloke’s panama hat sitting quite happily on top of all the shattered glass and debris, where it had come off of the parcel shelf!
Saw my trailer in the yard today, stripped of it’s side boxes, waiting for a bit of TLC 
Gary
Saw you this afternoon on the A12 as I was lurking in a Transit. Good to see you still out and about and intact.
Did anyone see ‘Oncoming vehicle’ yesterday on the matrix? 
It was on the M621 and when I joined the '62. Never saw the vehicle thankfully. Wonder where it went??! Was looking for a lorry to get behind!!