My 17-year-old had a car accident - he’s okay, but I’m shaken [Title edit by MNHQ]

[ThatVividPinkOtter]

My 17 year had crashed his car. "Mam I've had a big crash, the car is on its side and i can't get out im trapped". He's fine, shock up and devastated he's written his car off. He was going through lanes ( told him never to go through lanes) and a van came around a blind bend, he swerved to dry to avoid him, went up the banking and flipped into the van. He's been driving for 6 months and all fairness hes a careful driver. He wasn't speeding as his black box didn't show it. Im so gutted for him. Everyone is saying this will be a big lesson for him. Anyone's teenager had a accident and learnt from it? I was really nervous when he first past, but I got over that. I dont want to be over the top in the future 😫

still doesn’t make sense.

if they live in the country, how does anyone get anywhere without driving through lanes?

o/p has said she has told him “never to drive through lanes”

so what’s he supposed to do? Only drive on motorways and dual carriageways? If you live rurally you usually have to drive along lines”through lanes” to get to an a or b road. And if you can, you’d choose that way because it’ll be quicker.

I would tell your DS @ThatVividPinkOtter that braking would be a better option than swerving, and that he in general needs to slow down when driving on country lanes, even if he wasn’t actually speeding. Glad he’s ok and that it was only the car that was damaged and not him or any other people.

Clearly they didn't.

Massive lack of comprehension from posters here!

"Through lanes" is a normal turn of phrase that just means going on the back roads, which are often not wide enough for two cars and need people to drive slowly, pull into hedges or reverse back to allow others to get through.

You are very aggro with everyone today. You ok?

😵‍💫🙄

Very scary - glad he's OK.

I'm confused by 'he was going through lanes' - what do you mean - that he was driving down country lanes, I assume that's what you mean?

Some of these ‘lanes’ comments are brilliant. I live in a city, we have rural lanes but have regular 2 way B roads we can use to drive around the lanes (the long way). Just because the OP lives in a place with country lanes doesn’t mean she lives rurally.

To the OP, just because his black box says he was driving within the speed limit doesn’t mean he was driving sensibly for the type of roads he was on. If he was unable to stop without needing to swerve to avoid the van then he was definitely driving too fast. So many country lanes have a 60mph limit which is way too fast for the type of roads.

Glad he’s ok, hopefully this will teach him to slow down.

I’m glad he’s ok, OP. We had similar when ds hit a deer on his motorbike on a lane. We live rurally and driving on lanes is impossible to avoid. We are all mega aware of deer in the morning and at dusk, but this was in the middle of the day. He broke his arm, wrote off the bike but was ok.
Like your ds, he called me first while a kind passer by called the ambulance.
For a lot of the population, driving down single track roads is the only way to get places.

Yes, my brother crashed my parents car when he was 18 and driving for a few months by then. Its important to make him go behind the wheel asap so he doesnt develop a fear which will be hard to overcome.

Shock for both of you - glad he’s ok.

It will be 4 years tomorrow when i actually did get the worst news of my life that my 22 year old son had died after being hit by a car.
I am genuinely glad your son is ok though as I wouldn’t wish the pain and heartbreak of losing a child on anyone.

I’m glad your DS is ok. What’s baffling is the lack of comprehension from posters that don’t know what a country lane is. I live rurally and the roads are narrow and national speed limit (60mph). Most normal drivers don’t drive at 60 mph but more than enough do and more. Advise him to take every blind bend as if there’s a brick wall/tractor round it and slow accordingly. It’s a completely different type of driving to main roads. Apart from arsehole drivers there are horses, tractors and lost tourists to contend with. It’s not for the faint hearted. You need to be confident and assertive but not arrogant and complacent.

He's not injured, he didn't injure someone else, and he learned a valuable lesson.

It's normal to be shaken, but it's far from the worst thing that could happen. He was cocky (as he was doing something he shouldn't have, or he was driving too fast), now he knows.

And he will drive sensibly from now.

Every parent dreads that phone call when their kids start walking to school alone because of horrendous drivers putting them at risk you know.

I've had a look through the thread and I still can't work out what "he was going through lanes" means.

It means driving along narrow country roads/lanes.

Rural lanes are a nightmare, sounds like your ds was being sensible and not speeding. We had a very near miss yesterday in almost the exact same circumstances. Narrow single track lane (we live rurally) technically a 60mph road, inwas doing less than 30 because I know the roads and at this time of year the hedges are bushy and obscure the view, van doing about 55 came the other way, round a blind bend without slowing. I had to bury my car in the hedge to avoid an accident.

Had I been doing 60 we would have been discussing a very different outcome.

There is no lesson to learn for your ds from the info in your post, other than not everyone drives carefully and he needs to be aware that some drivers got their licences from a kellogs giveaway. Stop being so hard on him.

Country lanes. Narrow roads, usually NSL with hedges either side.

Not motorways or A roads.

I am so sorry for your awful loss. I am actually crying here for you.

Round by me, it's semi rural. So you can get everywhere you need to go via A-roads and B-roads, but sometimes it's a longer route than if you cut through the lanes.

For instance, I've got a ruddy great hill behind my house. On the other side of that hill there's a Tesco express. There's two routes I can take to get to Tesco. Round the hill one way goes through town, many traffic lights, traffic, takes about 20 minutes on a good day. Or I can go round the hill the other way, which takes 10 minutes, but if you meet a tractor coming the other way it's an absolute pain in the arse.

I'll take the lane, because I'm a good driver and I can reverse a decent way if I need to. There's no way I'd want DD who's just passed her test to take the lane, because it's more dangerous and she just doesn't have the experience.

For the people confused about what a lane is. Narrow roads, often with banked sides/verges that are designated NSL (60mph).

Sorry for all your losses Dd crashed the car when she had her lisence less than a week. Thankfully she was ok, she is now a very sensible driver (2 years on)

All those moaning about the title are completely over the top 🙄

round here the lanes are single track country roads or did the OP mean lanes on a dual carriage way?

yup, there are places round me where its the done thing to sound your horn before entering the bend.