You definitely did 
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Well then I must have done. Generally I swear a lot but only when alone, but I remember on our meeting at Francheville you asked me if I had brought something vital with me and I remembered it was back in the car, and I swore then and was most ashamed afterwards.
My excuse on the video is I thought I was alone. 
Warned you about leaving the recording on, could be contentious in certain circumstances
Todays highlights:
Small white car (Kia Picanto IIRC) doing about 70-80kph in the middle lane of a 3 lane 130kph autoroute, causing a tailback and everyone to drive round them.
On the same road, people overtaking, then pull in sharpish and then decelerate in front of me.
Peugeot coming from the opposite direction turning left across the path of the car immediately in front of me, requiring a real emergency stop on their part - I saw hands waving and head shaking going on afterwards before they could drive off.
In our village there are many zebra crossings. Sometimes my dog Agnes decides to sniff about on the pavement, probably where some previous dog had sat waiting.
At that point, an on coming car kindly slows down and stops, thinking I am waiting to cross the road. So, we thank them with a smile and a wave, even though I had not wanted to cross. Then I wait until they are well out of sight before crossing back towards my destination.
This happens so often that I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a local sport.
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Not ‘a very near miss’ yesterday!
Returning from yesterday’s morning market in torrential rain - lot of water on the road so slowed down. Then, approaching a bend, saw a white A3 suddenly shoot out from a line of oncoming traffic then slide diagonally across the road towards us very fast! Swerved to avoid, it but we still got hit on the nearside front wing. Got out quick, ran round and helped my wife and Gigi out then ran to the other car. Female driver slumped forward with blood pouring from her nose - didn’t know if she was unconscious or dead. Fortunately at that moment some men appeared and took over controlling everything till the pompiers arrived.
Taken a couple of minutes after the crash. Our wreck’s the one on the left. in the background you can see the bend where the woman lost control. Far right someone is checking the other car’s occupant.
We didn’t seem too badly hurt and spent ages in the back of a stationary ambulance waiting for a friend to come and take care of Gigi, who wasn’t allowed in the hospital and would have had to go to the police station. Poor little dog was already shocked and traumatised, and that would have been too much.
We then spent the next nine hours in Urgences being very thoroughly examined, tested and scanned. I’m OK apart from some severe bruising and a new scar where I’d bitten through my top lip (never done that before!) Unfortunately my wife wasn’t so lucky and has to spend the next couple of weeks in bed due to a slight fracture of the sacrum. Our friend took Gigi to the vet and she’s on meds like the rest of us (arnica, not paracetamol). Still wanting to play with ball collections, but thankfully not yet ready for a long walk…
The car was a higher than average spec that I’d sourced and imported from Germany, so am a tad p----d that it’s a write-off,. OTOH it did its most important job well and probably saved our lives. Unfortunately, the lighter A3 didn’t seem to have given its driver quite the same degree of protection as she was in a bad way and her legs seemed trapped.
So, that’s what happened…
PS. Thanks to friends, Gigi will still make it to her toilettage rendez-vous tomorrow afternoon, though we won’t now be driving down to Spain on Friday morning.
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Good grief Mark, that’s an appalling thing to happen! Thank goodness you are all (reasonably) ok. In the end, that’s all that matters…
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Wow, that sounds really nasty. I’m glad you survived without being very badly hurt, if not exactly walked away from it, but that’s a really nasty accident. Hope you all heal quickly and the insurance comes through without difficulty so you can source another car in reasonable time.
Any news of the other driver - from your description she has done badly.
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Oh Mark how awful - what a shock for you all. Glad to hear that it wasn’t any worse and that you both were very well taken care of by the hospital and shame to hear the Spanish trip is on hold. Take care of yourselves - you may find you suffer from delayed shock. I found after I had a couple of minor accidents that loud horns, squealing of brakes, lorries getting too close made me jump. So be kind to yourselves and good luck with getting the replacement car.
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Not much. I now know from the newspaper that she wasn’t killed, but must have been in a much more serious condition than us because she wasn’t taken to our local hospital, probably went to Rodez
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I’m so sorry to hear of your nasty experience. I hope all goes well with your rétablissement.
This kind of RTC is the most worrying IMO. A situation where you are doing nothing wrong but end up suffering the consequences of another driver’s lack of skill or attention or, to be charitable, a random mechanical failure, blowout etc.
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Thanks!
I agree, the other car was in the middle of a group of several cars bunched together, who were all probably driving too fast (and perhaps too close together) for the conditions. She may have been keeping up with other cars, then got too close as the one in front slowed down slightly for the bend, so braked and lost control or aquaplaned across the road.
OTOH the outcome could have been much worse.
Really glad it wasn’t. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your wife, you and, of course, Gigi…
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Crikey Mark, that is a nasty accident, hope your wife is faring well thats a nasty fracture. No friction burns from the air bags going off?
Glad you are OK ish and hope your lip heals quickly.
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No but when the bags deflated there was grey smoke hanging in the air in front of my face and I thought something might be about to burst into flames, so got out of the car super-quick and got my wife and Gigi out, probably faster than they wanted and we got well away from the car.
But in retrospect the smoke was probably from whatever exploded the air bags. Have to say they were phenomenally effective. Not so sure about those in the Audi as the driver had a badly bleeding nose.
Terrible, I’m just glad things weren’t worse. To be honest I’m only waiting for the same to happen to us. At least you have a white line, the roads around us mostly don’t and I think we’d be stuck with a 50:50 even though we hug the ditch.
Forty years ago my little Golf which, I had only just acquired, was written off and I actually got more compensation than I’d paid for it only weeks earlier. So I think you’ve room to manoeuvre on the Insurance company’s assessment.
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The type of accident we all dread. As so many stupid overtakes by drivers here - really some of them beggar belief. I always worry about the person coming in the other direction whose fault it isn’t and there you are, Mark.
What was the combined speed of impact?
Has any information come through from witnesses or after police interviews with the other side?
It looks like a too-fast too-close set of cars came round the corner and was surprised by a standing or slow queue in front of them. Who braked too hard and either aquaplaned or skidded depending on a moment’s inattention from driver, mechanical condition of their car, etc. .
It would be really nice to know what happened when the accident investigators unravel it.
I thought you"d only just got your car back after 5 weeks in something inferior due to an expensive repair?
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Gosh Mark! I am so glad you and your wife and Gigi are all still here. It must have been a dreadful shock. Sorry that your car is not so well off but I’m glad that it saved you all. A good car in top condition worth every penny in such a pinch!
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Probably about 160kph - I’m normally a fast driver but was only doing 70 and 65 on the bends; The bunch of cars on the other side were probably going faster - the legal limit on that stretch of road’s 90kph and I confess if it’s dry and clear, I’d probably be driving in the 90-100kph range because its a good quality wide, well-engineered road (and a local/s shot up the only speed camera less than 24 hours after it was installed!)
Nothing to date, nothing from the police and the other driver may not be conscious, or yet be
capable of being interviewed. But when being interviewed by the police at the scene they only wanted to know where we lived now, when we were born and where? <<Angleterre et Afrique du Sud .>> Obviously essential info!
I don’t know whether or not the driver was local , but she must have been less familiar with the road or just less skilled or lucky than the cars in front of her. I drive this stretch of road most days - it’s about 2kms from home, so I know it very well. The bends on are very gradual, but it’s a very popular tourist route (even now) and many of them brake unnecessarily at these bends - and also so many drive to fast for the conditions and/or too close to the car in front.
Tell me about it. Just had a new clutch at €1300 also two new front tires. The car also had 22 months CT!
Lastly, not wishing to bridge two disparate threads, but the end result would have been the same if I’d been driving an EV or had been hit by one 
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That accident sounds horrible Mark but could have been much worse - glad you are (mostly) OK…
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