I saw this post the other day and thought "interesting" and now am thinking - "BLOODY HELL".
Subconscious brakingPeter, how many rallies have you seen, even on TV? The roads don't change, but the drivers might only see them once a year, and get a slow drive over them the day (usuall) before...
Tonight, driving home, going down a dual carriageway heading towards the end where some traffic lights are - for some reason, there are always LOTS of back enders at this end of dual carriageway which I can't explain, other than the end of the carriageway seems to come to a quicker than anticipated end (if that makes sense) - the fact that it's also on a descent which is hardly discernable doesn't really help braking either. I drive down this road every night on my way home and have done so for the last two years - however, it always gets me how quickly the end of the carriageway suddenly appears.
Anyway, here I am coming to the end of the carriageway and I notice a dead animal in the right hand gutter (I'm in the right lane). I remember thinking "don't want to hit that" - next thing I remember is seeing a blaze of red lights in front of me and without even realising what I was doing, I swerved right, and ended up with car half on-half off the carriageway and grbutt verge with front half of my car parallel with the back of the car in front (who is now on my left hand side!!). I've no idea how I made the decision to be there or consciously remember taking the decision to dive for the grbutt verge to avoid the car in front (BMW - dark green!!), but whatever I decided sub-consciously, I managed to avoid hitting the car in front completely.
I did stall - so I just calmly restarted the engine and drove back on to the carriageway, feeling somewhat embarrbutted and looking around to make sure nobody saw me!
Personally, I blame the dead animal on the side of the road that caused me to distract my attention from what was going on in front of me - but hey, I don't need to prove that point - luckily!!
