I’m not sure if this is anecdotal or a 30 hour “urban myth”………………………
About 19 years ago I loaded peaches out of Italy on a Friday……I cleared Saturday morning in Cuneo and made my way around via Turin to head up the valley to Tunnel du Frejus. During that day torrential rain fell in the region, all on the back of a three week heat wave. For my sins I was piloting an Iveco 220.30 which was a “spare” motor for Murfitts. I had just passed the village of Exilles when there was a sharp left hand curve in the climb (remember there was not much autostrada in the valley built then if any) the newly laid asphalt combined with rain and no air dump on the 2nd steer axle meant that my drive axle just wanted to spin out.
Being the calm, relaxed character that I am I decided to rest tires and clutch on an over run area on said left hand curve. This meant I could park safely and still let better prepared vehicles head up the hill.
After about four hours of waiting……reading a book….waving to other Brit drivers to let them know I was OK I decided enough rain had fallen to wash the oil out of the road, I would also be no problem to following traffic if I made a break for it. Off I went spinning my way up to speed and eventually up through the tunnel, it was quiet by now as the “Northern European rush” had gone. I parked up late in France (can’t remember where) but it was the only available parking space I could find for hours of searching.
Late Sunday morning I surfaced…………it’s always strange when you park up in a hellishly busy rest area late on a Saturday night to find you are the only one left there late on Sunday morning. I pushed off towards Calais with an easy shift ahead; somewhere south of Paris I took a break. Grabbing a coffee and Danish thingy I heard from a quickly departing Thompson Jewitt pilot that he had heard about a Murfitts that had wrecked and gone over the mountain on Saturday………mountain unknown!
Arriving at Calais, back in the day when you parked and did custom formalities, I found a sign above P+O’s office hatch. “All Murfitts to call Barry Hall at home” Barry was our handler and all things Italian, so this I did. Apparently a Murfitts lorry has gone off the road heading up either Valle de Aosta or the Frejus route. I called Barry and gave my report of seeing nothing and hearing only that rumor was abound that a Murfitts vehicle was lost!
Arriving safely in Dover and custom paperwork lodged I headed off to the Wheelhouse for a coffee to find a bunch of drivers all in bound to the UK talking about the Murfitts driver that had pitched off over the side of the mountain to certain death!
After a few minutes of dialogue with the assembled posse of Europe’s finest drivers I realized that I was the driver who was deemed dead and wrecked!
Despite my hurried rush home I could not beat the speed of the rumor that had developed from me being parked up on an Italian mountainside, to being wrecked, and it had also made it back to the company!
So, the moral of this story is this….if a story has not been dispelled by the time you reach the top of Jubilee Way…………. it must be true.
bullitt:
I used to work on one firm with a chap who was known as “no-neck” for obvious reasons!!!..newmercman knows him, and believe me he could fill this thread on his own, no problem.I`ve had heard some ridiculous, tall stories over the years but this guy would beat anyone else hands down!! The strange thing was he actually believed his own tales himself!!
I never actually ran with him (thankfull!!
Cheers Bullitt, please refrain from using my name & No Neck in the same sentance
You’re right though, boy could that bloke talk some crap, thing is he has been almost everywhere so why he comes out with so much drivel is beyond me, I was captured by him on a boat to Greece once & he was telling his tales & including me in them, he had a big crowd listening to him at the bar when I thought I’d put a stop to it once & for all, so when it came to the bit where we were supposdley doing internals in Saudi (furthest I ever got was Adana) I stood up & announced to all concerned that I had no idea what he was talking about as I had only passed my test the week before & was on my first trip, the bar soon cleared
Handy enough bloke to have around if you had problems & a pretty decent driver, but he really needed a mute button, oh & a wash wouldn’t have hurt either 