Philip Norton » crash

A Close Driving Shave

Philip Norton — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:00:00 +0000

On the way into work today I had just about the closest thing I have had to an accident with another car.

I was in Macclesfield and was just driving along a very straight road with no turns when I noticed this guy in a white van indicating to turn right on the other side of the road. I had no idea where he was meant to be going to I just continued on. The thing is so did he. I was only when I got level with him that I realised that he was trying to get to these two large billboards on the other side of the road. He just turned in while my car was level with his and only just missed me. I actually winced, expecting his little van hit my car. It was only down to luck that he didn’t and I saw in my rear view mirror that he mounted the curb on my side of the road.

How impatient can you get? I can’t really swear on this blog (I would like to keep it clean), but that guy is a rumba rumba snort rip do wally wally ding dong foonar dingbat wibble monster! And I would say it again!

Computer Dies

Philip Norton — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:00:00 +0000

I was sitting in front of my computer today when it died. It has been acting funny for a few days but tonight I was watching an online video when the hard disc failed. The computer turned itself off, and when I tried to start it again all it could manage was a "critical disc error – can´t boot from system disc!". I can´t get it to do anything. It was a lucky thing that I did a backup the other day otherwise I could have lost the lot. I did manage to get SuSE linux to boot from the DVD which is how I am able to write this. I have managed to install WindowsXP into a small disc, which is sat outside the machine on a smaller pile of books. I needed to use WindowsXP as there is this really cool disc recovery software that I have used before, but is only available on XP. I will do some data recovery activities over the next few days but it looks like I will have to order a new hard drive from Ebuyer.

Fiesta Troubles

Philip Norton — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 21:00:00 +0000

Drove the Fiesta into work today and booked the Octavia into the local Skoda dealer/garage.

However, on the way home it was raining really badly and the roads were very wet. There is this section of road on the Buxton to Congleton road that is quite windy and hilly at the same time. This bit is no trouble for the Octavia, but when I drove the Fiesta around it I found that comming out of the last turn the car didn’t have any stearing. It took all of my driving skill not to hit the opposite bank head on straight away. I managed to slow the car down quite a bit before it finally hit/slid into the bank side on on the wrong side of the road.

If there had been anything comming the other way I would have had a really nasty accident. As it was the car was fine. I just had to wash the wheel free of all the mud it had collected and it was good as it was before.

Funny thing that. I hit the Octavia off of a curb and it costs me over £400. But I take the Fiesta and completely throw it into the hedge and it drives away just fine!

Witness of a Crash

Philip Norton — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:40:58 +0000

I was almost home today and was following this large truck transporting a crane, which wasn’t going that fast, but the road was windy so I wasn’t in any hurry to overtake.

All of a sudden the car behind me decided that they wanted to overtake. I thought this was a little dangerous. untilI was lights comming arounf the corner. Then I thought it suicidal!

You would think that any normal person would have stopped at this point and pulled in. Well any normal person wouldn’t have overtaken in the first place! This car put his foot down and sped up towards the omcomming traffic

He (I presume it was a he) did actually manage to overtake, but the car on the other side of the road had to come to a complete stop to allow him to do this, and even then it looked like a close call. Just as I passed the stopped car he was hit from behind by a car behind him who couldn’t stop in time.

I didn’t stop as the accident (well, incident really) didn’t look that bad, and I doubt that anyone was hurt. Gave me a bit of a shock though, I’ve only been doing this route a week and already I have seen an accident.

The guy who caused the accident sted off into the night and was gone. What a first rate, complete and total idiot! If the guy who did that ever reads this, and the chances of that are very small, you are a total fool and I hate you.