12 September 2008

Lucky Escape for Ben in Ainslie Car Smash

| rosebud
Join the conversation
34

Last night at about midnight, I was woken by what I thought was a hoon burning bitcumen up my street. This time the usual kabooshhh noise didn’t stop, but escalated into a bang, wallop, smash, screech, crash, kaboom! I ran outside to a bent and busted car, door open and shadowy figures staggering about a fair distance down the road.

It was cold and deadly quiet down the street. I called out ‘are you ok? do you need an ambulance?’, and had to wait a few seconds before a weak voice answered back, “I’m alright” and then a few seconds later “can I talk to you?”

Ben, as the young driver turned out to be, had just had a miraculous escape from certain death. Starsky and Hutch-like, he came down our street, swerved (or lost control, not sure which) onto the wrong side of the road, smashed our wheely bin, mounted the curb, pulverished a street lamp – miraculously missing our three large deciduous trees that stand between bin and lamp (they are set back only centemters), rolled the car twice – at least one time on the wrong side of the road and avoided all the other trees that line both sides of the street, and came to rest facing the right way in the correct lane. He opened his car door and merely stepped out. There was amazingly no oncoming traffic (it is a reasonably busy through road), and no-one ran into him from behind (it was dark and his rear lights were not working).

The things he said to me, standing in my front yard as pale as a ghost and vauge from the shock were: ‘I’ve totalled my car; my parents will kill me; sorry, I smashed your wheely bin; lucky I didn’t hit a tree’ in that order.

The ambulance and police were on the scene incredibly quickly – mere minutes later.

There were no passengers – lucky again because the roof on the passenger side was very badly damaged.

I saw him again today with a friend, still with the same amazed look on his face. There was absolutely NOTHING wrong with him. They kept him overnight in hospital but he didn’t even have a SCRATCH or BRUISE on his face or body! He was perfectly OK!

I told him he should race out and buy a dozen lottery tickets, because his parents could have so easily have been organising his funeral today.

I said to him, “you must have come FLYING down here, because you hit this and that and rolled and rolled and ended up about 50 metres down the road.” But he didn’t reply.

Even after everyone had gone, we couldn’t sleep because the road people came and used a grinder (at least that’s what it sounded like) to cut down the street lamp and then clear the glass. It took hours and hours.

Yawn, I’m so tired today, but kind of elated because I feel as if I saw a miracle last night, and then to see him again today, just walking down the street…it could have ended so very differently so very easily.

Join the conversation

34
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Danman said :

So let me get this right… You would only have a go after he rolled the car.

You really are a big man eh…

He’s being practical, he wouldn’t have caught the hoon by running after him after all, and you know they go past your house so fast you don’t really have a chance to see the car unless they come back for a second go – or come to an unplanned stop.

Drifting slightly here

Sounds like that was Bens problem

oh and BigDave

He can count his lucky stars he didn’t do it outside my house. I’d have knocked the shit out of him. Fcuking little twat.

So let me get this right… You would only have a go after he rolled the car.

You really are a big man eh…

Drifting slightly here, but has anyone else noticed the increased police presence on Canberra’s roads? The last half a dozen times I’ve been driving somewhere I’ve spotted a couple of marked cop cars about.

I was also lucky enough to see a d!ckhead who’d fanged it sideways through the traffic lights below my apartment pulled over 5 seconds later by a paddy-wagon earlier this afternoon 🙂

Yeah, Peugeots have become luxo-armchairs. They used to be lovely drivers’ cars, now they’re still good, but they cushion the driver too much, they’ve become cushion-cars. The fun’s gone.

Rosebud, given what Jeremy Clarkson and co have said on Top Gear, I am surprised anyone could roll a Peugeot with a cement mixer and a degree from Cambridge with first class honours in rolling.
Let alone twice!

Stupidity isn’t just restricted to P platers like this, the vast majority are fully licenced drivers.

Hive mind: It was a Peugot. And I am certainly not condoning high speeds that would seem to focus on destroying defenceless wheely bins (especially when they are mine), but I just can’t help but be totally f***ing amazed at the outcome. Moriarty, this accident could have been choregoraphed by a team of James Bond movie specialists…someone hand that man a martini!

Good story Rosebud, and well told! Do you know what kind of car it was?

timgee said

timgee2007 said :

Sorry to be so negative sounding, but I’m farken sick and tired of dealing with d-heads on the roads. Jeez I’m sounding old – and like a proper RiotACT poster now, ain’t I?! Enjoy your weekend, folks – but make sure you stay under 40kmh and avoid fun at all costs!

Fun that endangers others, or makes their lives miserable, ain’t defensible fun.

Great post, rosebud. What an incredible thing to happen on an ordinary night. The portrayal of the crestfallen and profoundly shocked young man is well-drawn.

Don’t know what happened to my quotes, but I’m sure all of you can figure it out.

Sorry to be so negative sounding, but I’m farken sick and tired of dealing with d-heads on the roads.

I think we all are, but it’s been going on for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if it’s getting better or worse. We can whinge and complain all we want, but it’s just falling on deaf ears.

Jeez I’m sounding old – and like a proper RiotACT poster now, ain’t I?! Enjoy your weekend, folks – but make sure you stay under 40kmh and avoid fun at all costs!

You seem to have slotted straight in. I think it’s a pre-requisite to be old and complain about someone enjoying themelves. “Back in my day, we…..” You know how it ends, we’ve all heard it.

He can count his lucky stars he didn’t do it outside my house. I’d have knocked the shit out of him. Fcuking little twat.

timgee2007 said :

Enjoy your weekend, folks – but make sure you stay under 40kmh and avoid fun at all costs!

Yes mum… 😛

Yeesh, the zombies in ainslie sounds reasonable..i guess i’ll stay away from there then 🙂

But arrrgh, typical stereotypical p-plater behaviour!! its people like him that give us all a bad name!!
(Note: I’ve had my p’s for like almost 6 mounths?, and i have to drive in the night plenty of times..and know way better to speed down streets!! gah!)

Miracle? No. A miracle would be going a fortnight without some young twat totalling his car doing something stupid.

Hmm – typo. If only it was ‘mindnight’ and not midnight, eh?!

I’m happy for the positive result, but at the same time, and as a late night road user (driver, bike rider and runner) pretty pi–ed off that this sort of behavior comes down to ‘wow, what a lucky escape/miracle/whatever’. I wonder how the post would read if your new mate Ben came crashing through the front of your house at mindnight, taking out family in the process? Let’s be serious here – the guy was driving like a moron, and he f–ked up, big time. Thankfully, it was only his car and ego (at least we can only hope), and not the usual innocent bystanders who paid the price.

Sorry to be so negative sounding, but I’m farken sick and tired of dealing with d-heads on the roads. Jeez I’m sounding old – and like a proper RiotACT poster now, ain’t I?! Enjoy your weekend, folks – but make sure you stay under 40kmh and avoid fun at all costs!

The Crescent I live on curves somewhat sharply coming down hill, which many people have learnt the hard way at night speeding through the suburb. Last time there was a smash they wiped out our recycling bins, the yellow one was chock full of glass and softdrink cans so the sound was more akin to a plane crashing, scared the crap out of us…

When someone loses it around the corner they inevitably hit the lamp pole in front of my neighbour’s house, I think it’s been replaced 5 or so times in the last decade.

It was late…maybe it was just one shadowy figure…

“sorry, I smashed your wheely bin” LOL! Thats gold!

Actually they are yellow topped H1NG0.

Ainslie, and Haiti.

Is it just Ainslie that’s full of zombies?

Your correspondent in Turkey

damn my lack of html skills. and beer.

peterh said :

Swaggie said :

So who were the “shadowy figures staggering about a fair distance down the road?”

zombies – ainslie is full of em.

Zombies?

Swaggie said :

So who were the “shadowy figures staggering about a fair distance down the road?”

zombies – ainslie is full of em.

So who were the “shadowy figures staggering about a fair distance down the road?”

Aurelius said :

Noone driving legally rolls a car twice.

eh?

what?

at 110kph on a freeway, swerve to avoid shredded tyre and over I went. 3 times.

I did brake, but obviously not enough.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy5:20 pm 12 Sep 08

… except someone driving on a highway at the speed limit who swerves to miss a kangaroo.

(Which clearly isn’t the case here.)

Noone driving legally rolls a car twice.

Aurelius said :

So he was done for DUI? or speeding?

Don’t know! I asked him if he is P plater – he said (rather miserably) he WAS…so that may say something. Young boys hey? I feel like one of the grumpy old ladies from the BBC TV show, because I have an almost instinctual urge to tsk and tut. Watch out Ms Greer!

So he was done for DUI? or speeding?

“sorry, I smashed your wheely bin” LOL! Thats gold!

tylersmayhem4:26 pm 12 Sep 08

Oh F.F.S.!

Well, at least his parents didn’t kill him…yet!

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.