The harder I pushed on the brake the faster I went!!!

[chris.t]

This is a description of what happened on 18 June 2000. The link at the end is to some photos.

I was just sitting down in the kitchen to have some breakfast when I heard a very loud crash eminating from the rear of the house. I quickly rushed round to the back of the house to find a Peugeot embedded in my house/garage. There were 2 old ladies (85 years old) sitting in the car looking a bit dazed. It took me a while to get a grip after which i rushed over to see if they were all right. Thankfully they were.

I made a decision to get them out ASAP as the CH oil tank was ruptured and leaking oil over their car. Remarkably they appeared completely unharmed. I sat them down in the conservatory and asked them if they wanted some tea (thought that was best for shock). All they were interested in though was using my toilet!

I called the police as a matter of course but it took about 2 hours to get to me because they were looking for a car hitting the front of a house. While we were waiting for the police the driver tried to explain what had happened. Apparently they had just been to the doctors surgery. She couldn't explain what happened apart from the car seemed to get a mind of its own. Instead of turning right out of the surgery the car went staight on into a cul-de-sac then over an empty building plot through the fence to our back garden, across our garden and straight into our house. She was adamant that the harder she pressed on the brake the faster she went!!

Whilst relaying this story her passenger started to complain of chest pains so i called the local surgery who sent the same doctor that the lady had seen earlier. In the meantime I called a building firm to get the roof of the garage propped up because it would have come down had the car been moved. Also I called a firm who could supply an oil tank and decant my newly filled oil tank (2500 litres) of its contents.

Eventually the police arrived and breathalised the driver which proved negative.

As you can see the Elan was in the garage at the time and the rubble you can see is how it finished alongside the car. There was also a chunk of masonary consisting of about three bricks which had completely flown over the car and landing behind it. There was only one tiny scratch on the car - absolutely unbelievable!!

One last thing, our house insurance company went bust on the same day which meant we had to claim through her motor insurance (Norwich Union) who were going through a merger. As a consequence getting anything sorted was very frustrating as I never spoke to the same person twice.


Click here for pictures

[Sy V]

Brilliant tale!

[wilcox]

Holy s**t

didn't you offer the peogeot drivers a proper test drive in the yellow beast?

[Dave M]

Wow. Hopefully the two ladies ended up OK and glad the Elan was spared all but a scratch!

Had a less-destructive but interesting moment outside our home a week ago as well. A young gal was apparently speeding through our neighborhood about 10:30 pm paying more attention to her cell phone than her car. Went off the road, over my drive and through my side yard and my neighbors front yard. Took out our mailbox and our neighbors', then took my neighbors' 30' tall maple tree off at ground level. Must've been lucky things were frozen as the tree just snapped! The car was driveable afterward, but after seeing her parents' faces after they showed up to get her, I don't think she'll be driving much for a while.

[Doug]

christ, that is one freaky story!

did you just finally sober up and remember that ??

[chris.t]

Doug, all the photos were on my old computer. It was raining all day sunday here so i decided to fire it up and get all the jpgs off. It just brought back memories. Can laugh about it now and feel satisfied that i managed to cope with the situation.

A foot note to this story is and i'm surprised i forgot to put it in the original post. The old lady went straight out and bought another car. She was charged with driving without undue care and attention. When it went to court the CPS lost all the paperwork and therefore the case was dismissed!!! The police called me to tell me this and i couldn't believe it. They said they were going to try and get it back into court but said that the defendant had a perfect right to refuse. Somehow though they managed to get her back into court where she was given a £20 fine and asked to re sit her driving test. She opted not to take the test.