To ask about driving near misses?

[Whynosnowyet]

Just driven home 2 hours earlier than usual on a usually manic motorway. What a difference 2 hours makes!
Courteous drivers moving lanes to let me off the slip road. Big gaps between vehicles. No wanna - be rally drivers zooming past...
No stress at all!
Made me remember one morning in a city centre when I drove a Shogun years ago - a truck shunted me onto the path and a good few hundred yards along it!! Outside a school - luckily past 9 am.
Got to work and my customer offered me a Brandy I was in such a state!!
What near misses have you had?

I was once driving along on the dual carriageway home, Redcar in front of me and blue car behind. My boyfriend at the time was on a stag do that weekend and I hadn’t heard from him the whole time he was away when he ring me - luckily I was going past a parking area so I pulled in and had a conversation. 5 or 10 minutes later after we’d spoken I pulled off and further up the road saw that the red and blue car had collided and were both smashed up at the side of the road. Convinced that if my boyfriend hadn’t of phoned me then I would of been involved.

The day after we almost bought a new car, I was driving to work a bit later than usual one morning after dropping DD off at school. Coming off the motorway on to a slip road there’s a busy roundabout at the top which can be a nightmare in the morning to get around due to heavy traffic, so it’s set with temporary traffic lights at the top of the roundabout.

It was about 9.30 - bit quieter and less traffic so the traffic lights were off at this time of morning. I got to the top but had to stop due to a few cars coming around the roundabout.

An older lady in a very flashy ‘low to the road’ sports car obviously didn’t realise the lights weren’t on and came up the slip road full speed now expecting to stop, bumped in to me and pushed my car in to the middle of the roundabout! Luckily the cars had passed on the lane nearest to me, other wise I would have been hot back end and driver door side.

I hurt my neck either the force and in a daze it took me a good ten seconds to realise what had happened... I looked behind and saw the lady and the car, so I put my hazard lights on and tried to get out of the car with shaky legs... cars from the roundabout were beeping and trying to get around me by this point.

I’d gotten out of the car and the thoughtless bitch had reversed, realised she hit me very low on the springy back bit of my car which extends down over the exhaust rather than hitting the boot so she got lucky not to full on dint my car as it had spring back out with hardly any damage, drove off, and left me shaken and crying in the middle of the roundabout

She must have damaged her fancy car more than mine as her screws from her reg plates were stuck in my car

I was upset nonetheless, spent the day teary in bed and I had whiplash in my neck and shoulder for 6 months after... and now I’m writing this I’m starting to realise it was more HER near miss than mine because we never found her

Doing circa 60 on a dual carriageway. Car same straight out of a side road, ignoring the "give way" sign and into my lane, literally just a few feet in front of me. I swerved to avoid it and ended up fish-tailing past it in the right hand land and then in front of it and ended up in the verge on the left. The idiot driver just carried on past me and didn't stop. Luckily verge was flat and dry and I could drive the car out. Very shaken up for the rest of the day.

Driving down the M8 into town to pick up husband from a night out take the Glasgow slip road and as I'm driving down I can just see these lights coming towards me and I', like 'surely not?' but yip there was some plum coming up the slip road onto the motorway in the wrong direction.

I managed to stop before hitting them, put my hazards on and luckily the guy behind me was on the ball too. We both had hazards on and waited for them to about turn and go back the way they came. Absolutely shit myself!

Also not too long before (maybe a week) that I swerved just in time to miss someone’s ladders falling off a van in front of me on the motorway

Came around the corner yesterday to a van in the middle of the road

I'm just wondering why incidents like these are called ' near misses' when they are actually 'near hits'.

Today actually. Going round the roundabout third exit and past 12 so I took the inside lane. Car that entered the roundabout at the same time as me on the left, suddenly decided they were going all the way round the roundabout started indicating right just after the first exit, l pretty much had to stop so they didn't cut me off. Passenger DP was completely aghast.

I was coming down a hill near my old house. The road is very bendy and there is one last curve before it straightens out. I was being tailgated by some dickhead who didn't like that I was going 30 in a 30 zone.

As I came round the corner, a line of traffic was waiting for me. It remains the first and only time I have seen traffic after that bend. I slammed on my brakes but knew the driver behind me was too close to me to stop safely.

I still don't know what possessed me to do this, but I pulled out onto the other side of the road with my last bit of momentum. The tailgater squealed to a halt just a few inches from the car that had been in front of me, but no-one got hit and he sheepishly let me back in when the traffic moved forwards.

A proper near-miss!

I was driving behind a small lorry and noticed it's back door (one that pulls down to close) was half open and literally the next thing I know I'm slamming on my breaks as a sofa had fallen out the back onto the road!

Several years ago my best mate was on the A 1. Left lane, car in front spun round and was facing hers. Cars going fast in the other lane so she couldn't move over.
She kept left and actually left the motorway. Down an embankment and into a field! Fire brigade were stunned she walked away unhurt physically.. Car in front had a baby in the back with the car unrestrained. Insurers stalled paying out as apparently she chose to leave the road. Doing so probably saved that baby's life at the very least.

Was on the M5 behind a huge lorry on the inside lane at 70mph.
I noticed a puff of what looked like smoke from one of the back wheels so slowed down to increase gap. Suddenly the wheel flew off, it was enormous . As it came towards me I instinctively ducked.
But it bounced over the top of my car into the cars behind. The lorry started to move to the hard shoulder and then other back wheel came off and bounced into the opposite lane.
I didn't see what happened next as really shocked and had to keep driving.
As soon as I could I stopped and phoned the police.
Later found out there'd been 2 deaths and lots of people injured.

When I worked in a rural pub we used to all stay for drinks after work. I noticed that one of my colleagues was having a few too many so offered to give him a lift (I obviously was on the soft drinks). As we were coming down a dual carriageway, he thought I was going to miss his turn off so grabbed the steering wheel. I ended up spinning and hitting the centre barrier but fortunately for us, the cars behind were on the ball as they all managed to stop and even came to help (which was really nice considering it was 3am!)

Driving to work one morning I saw a a coach stopped further down in the opposite carriageway with its hazard lights flashing, then noticed the what seemed like a black bin bag blowing towards me, I suddenly realised it was a huge wheel coming straight at me, should I go faster to try and swerve around it, or hit the brakes, I knew there was nothing
behind me for some way so I hit the brakes, the wheel passed 2 feet in front of me, hit the curb bounced 20 feet in the air flew over a ditch and rolled halfway across a field before it stopped. I must have took a hundred miles off my tyres and the skid marks were spectacular. I still have nightmares about it.

The closest I've ever been to a head on collision was on a residential road near home. A van came around the corner in my lane...the driver was face down in his phone!

I knew it would have to be a collision if he didn't look up in time because there were pedestrians on the pavement so mounting it wasn't an option and I couldn't risk swerving into his lane just in case he did the same (and then I'd be at fault).

So I did an emergency stop whilst beeping my horn and braced for impact. He saw me with a fraction of an inch to spare and swerved back into his lane.

I was honestly so shaken up I couldn't drive for 10 minutes.

It was the clincher for me...I now have forward and rear facing dash cams. At least if I encounter another idiot like that and I'm not as lucky I'll have proof of what they did.

On a roundabout with multiple lanes a van was in the right hand lane to go round I was in the lane to go over, cut me up because he was in the wrong lane and cut across the three lanes to get off the roundabout, had to emergency brake meaning I almost got ran into the back off because of the dick.
And on a country road doing 60 had to emergency brake again because someone was overtaking coming towards me and wouldn't get onto his side of the road again.

Nothing seriously lucky (and I don’t drive) but 2 occasions driving with DP when I’ve been shaken up.

Driving home from parents house this year (NE to Midlands) a lorry just swerved into the left hand lane where we were, first time I’ve heard the horn in our car being used! Luckily DP reacted quickly enough with horn and brakes.

2nd was we had driven to local beauty spot for a walk around. We got back to the car just as it started chucking it down. After 10 minutes of intense rain it died down and we drove off, but the roads were very slick and we suddenly aquaplained, 360d and ended up on the other side of the road. Luckily we had seconds before just passed a car and nothing was around.. it was scary as hell.

I was at a junction, waiting to cross a two lane road down a side street. DH has a habit of 'looking' for me and was moving his head back and forth whilst I was looking too. I thought the wave of traffic had passed and pulled out. I didn't see the white van. DH screamed and I emergency breaked. As did the van. It was a stupid thing for me to do as I was now in the direct path of the van. He managed to stop with a foot to spare. If he'd have hit me, I'm pretty sure I would have lost dh and my little dd. I moved and the driver of the van drove off. I wish there was a way I could tell him that I'm really, really sorry and thank him for his quick reaction. It was totally my fault and I feel so guilty.

I stopped to let an ambulance with lights and sirens on come past on the wrong side of the road as they had to pull round a bus, car behind nearly drove into the back of me because they weren't paying attention.

I was driving down winding country lanes and suddenly came across a huge feed lorry coming round a corner. I tried to steer into the side of the road but couldn't and ended up scraping down the side of it. I found out afterwards my steering rack had given way just at the wrong time. I was really lucky to have been far enough over not to have gone straight into it.