Adrian
It only takes a moments lapse of concentration to get into trouble. I have witnessed several drivers go to sleep at the wheel where serious damage was done to driver and car. Most times they just drift onto rumble strip for a few seconds and wake up again - but sometimes they derail trains.
The worst life threatening mechanical failure I have had was *caused* by having the brake shoes incorrectly fitted by a main agent dealership. The fault was found by a local back street garage after I realised the car pulled heavily to the left on braking hard. Some piece of plastic or other had been left loose inside the brake buttembly. It went into the nip one day without warning when I had to make an emergency stop.
120mph on the A1M what's the damage 822saying : Perhaps you shouldn't be driving, then. I - together, hopefully, with most other drivers - manage to keep a fairly complete mental picture of what's going on...
The other was caused by hitting a 3" nail on a motorway at speed and it went straight into the outside tyre side wall. Fortunately it didn't blow out instantly at high speed but still deflated rather fast. Debris on the carriageway is something you always try to avoid but you cannot see small hazards like nails.
120mph on the A1M what's the damage 823saying : Ah, so we're extending it to harnesses now? Compebreastive impacts aren't very similar to road impacts - I can't recall many international rally special stages...
It is a sobering thought that on the section of A19 that I have statistics for about 10% of accidents are due to drivers falling asleep and nearly 20% are mechanical failure mostly blowouts (probably caused by underinflated tyres running hot).
Regards, Martin Brown
