... I hope this never happen to you ....

[jackwall5]

I was driving this evening on a 2 lane dual carriage in the inside land behind a lorry and gaining on him. I checked the rear view and side mirrors, had a quick look over my left shoulder [driving in Austria] to check the blind spot and began indicating to overtake.

As it happened, a W204 coming up steadily in the outside lane gave me the quick flash of his lights to let me out. I accelerated and began the pass. The Lorry and I were doing between 80 - 90 km/h and the W204 had left me plenty of space.

As I came fully into the outside lane and already past the tail of the trailer, the draft/wind of the lorry caused a large sheet of cardboard which must of fallen from another vehicle to lift off the road in front of me and suddenly, I'm driving at 110km/h into a small cardboard wall.

Visual recognition and BANG !!!!!!!!!

I recognised it instantly as the type of packaging cardboard used in industry for transporting goods. I've used it myself. This 'sheet' was 1m odd x 1,5m odd in size. It corrigated and about 1cm think. Fairly solid as 110km/h.

It happen in a flash and frankly, I was just an observer, though I did manage to keep the car straight, I didn't panic break and managed to make it over the hard shoulder without too much drama.

The cardboard impacted the front of the car and caused my number plate to fly off. It cracked the grill fins badly with a clear impact point just under the edge of the bonnet. The grill needs to be replaced but it also appears to have done it's job very well indeed.:-|

The Merc star was bent back onto the bonnet also, but not broken off thankfully. Otherwise, no appartent damage. The lights were OK and there is no evidence of any serious damage. It appeared, I'd gotten away light enough.


The W204 driver pulled in ahead of me and came back to ask if I was OK. Much appreciated was I for the jesture. I was fine, and my car seemed to be relatively OK. He had seen the cardboard fly over his car's front end and was naturally relieved. We parted company with our own versions of the story to tell no doubt.

I, having checked all I could including opening the bonnet to check the radiator, continued on my journey.

Half an hour later, a 'Malfunction' was reported on my display, my RHS low beam was out.

So, I've a blown bulb. Now, as I'm typing this longwinded message [therapy] I'm growing more worried that what I thought might be just cosmetic damage to the front grill, may become worse.

If you've made it this far, perhaps a penny for your thoughts.

The blown bulb, just a bad coincidence or a symptom of something more worrying?

Safe Driving.

 

[dave.robbo]

Blimey! I hope it's pure coincedence! Cardboard is fairly flimsy, but at those speeds it could do a fair bit of damage. Guess you got away with it lightly, all being well...

 

[mercmadjim]

That could have been so much worse, glad you are ok, and I sincerely hope your car is ok........and as for the bulb, I think the impact of the cardboard would have been enough to break an element, after all bulbs are not the toughest of things.

 

[paul c]

Low flying cabbage stalks

I was hit by a cabbage or brussel sprout stalk wilst traveling at 85mph behind a 911 it kicked it up with its rear tyre, smashed a large hole in the grill and just missed the air con rad and scared the cr--p out of me not much fun also had near misses from rear lights flying of lorrys and sheets of board etc theres loads of rubbish out there and its pure luck sometimes wether you can avoid it.

 

[hairyg]

That has to be a true accident and you have all my sympathy.

The impact would have considerable but spread over a wide area. Light bulbs could well be damaged by something like that but I wouldn't have thought the damage would spread too far beyond that if the cardboard didn't penetrate.

A pigeon smashed the grill on my W202 C200 at about 70 mph but only left the slightest mark on the radiator matrix. Apart from the grill I can't remember any other consequences so hopefully you will be OK

 

[JEZ.S320L]

My son had a birdstrike whilst travelling at 125mph (ahemmm) in France in his M5. Very little damage to the front bumper The bird was another matter.!!

 

[stuartmac]

Oh yah,

The old W124 had a low-speed altercation with one of the lower orders. Slight ding in the top of the grille and MissusMac (who was driving) needed clean underwear. When she reported the incident to the local constabulary, they were more interested spending time going over her and the car's documents with a fine toothcomb than enquiring why the aforementioned member of the lower orders was running away from the town centre with his pockets full of CD's.

Toodle pip,

 

[PeterCLK]

I was driving a Sierra up a fast hill near Sheffield. As a flat bed van coming down approached me something came off, hit the front of my car, bounced up and over the car. I thought it was a piece of drainpipe. The car immediately started to lose power so I pulled over. In the bonnet was a perfect tubular depression and the whole front of thecar, including radiator was smashed in. Turned out the van half shaft had come adrift just at that point and had flipped over onto my bonnet. A few inches higher and I would have been de-capitated. The idiot driving the van calmly picked up the half shaft and said "I only fitted it last week - must have come loose " and proceeded to get under the van to re-fit it. Rac man who came for me said he had never seen a half shaft come loose without it flipping the vehicle over.
Needess to say his insurance paid in full.
He carried on with his journey after re-fitting it.

 

[Splatt]

My friend had a very similar accident , a lorry had dropped some sheets of Formica in the road . He was following a lorry and as the lorry drove over them the air suction caused one sheet to stand up right in front of his bonnet. Bang and it disintegrated. Not much damage fortunately.

 

[Myros]

M56 1993

a fork lift transporter lost one of its railway sleepers (used to help the forkers up onto the ramp) Guess who was parallel with it as it landed in the roadway right in front of him. Yep, Mr Brown corduroys himself. I drove over it as it skittered along the road at 50-ish, me still doing 70-ish. all four wheels. i expected multiple blow outs, but none occured. (Had the tyres checked, no damage) When i caught the lorry up, could I get the driver to twig to what had happened......no way jose. Still, I gave the police his vehicle description and got them to move the considerable piece of debris off the road.

 

[jackwall5]

Thanks for the comments all and glad to hear your own near misses were exactly that. 'They make more than one car ... but they make only one us' as I've heard said. I changed the H7 bulb this morning [decided to do both for the ''just in case'' reasons].

I suppose when you drive the miles we do, this experience, unwelcome as it is, can be expected. I do hope I've had mine now however.

At the end of the day, I know I've gotten away lightly. I'll change the grill soonish as I don't want it rubbing and causing rust spots.

Safe Driving