screw through clips: u clips, spire clips?

[Tim Lamb]

Very OT and only AJH and Mary might remember. A gentleman from Scotland with an amusing set of life experiences including adventures with a 2CV called Hubert in the Iberian peninsular:-)

[Vir Campestris]

You've been lucky - and probably good as well. The guy in the van/car/whatever wasn't.

I've only been tailgated once in ... lets think... half a million miles or so. That doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow. A colleague of mine was braking for some roadworks, and looked in his mirror. Swerved into the cones, and watched the car he'd been following get tailgated.

Andy

[Adrian]

A few years back, I lost two friends in separate car accidents within a month or two of each other.

One is thought to have passed out, and swerved into a laden HGV, head-on, at a closing speed of about 100mph. The truck rolled, and the driver of the truck was also badly injured.

The other was a ridiculously minor low-speed traffic collision, but an insecure box of books flew forward and took the back of his head out.

One was in a 2cv. The other was in a brand new EuroNCAP 5* rental.

I'll let you guess which was which.

When your number's up, your number's up. And I don't particularly want to spend a decade drooling and having my arse wiped in a care home anyway.

[Clive George]

Are you using the word "tailgated" differently to the way I normally understand it? Normally "tailgating" is driving close, not sure what I'd use for actually being hit.

[charles]

tailended?

[The Natural Philosopher]

anything loose in the rear seating area is a potentially lethal hazard.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Rear ended.

[Clive George]

Ah yes - rear ended would be what I would say. Thanks for the reminder.

[Bob Eager]

It's only happened to me once in 47 years of driving. It was slightly unusual. A line of cars was cruising along a straight road (one lane either way). A boy racer came up behind and overtook the entire line. He then either (a) noticed a sharp blind bend ahead or (b) saw a vehicle approaching from the other direction.

In any event, his solution was to swerve into a small gap in the line (behind me). He was going far too fast and rear ended me.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I've been rear ended once by a car that simply failed to watch when I slowed for a roundabout. In it were two Irish lads. I didn't even bother to take the car number or their insurance, I assumed they had nicked it for a joyride, and had none.

[ARW]

I hope they used lube:-)

[NY]

I was driving along a residential road, at about 20 because there were lots of driveways with kids playing in them, and I didn't trust any of the kids not to do something stupid. Suddenly from a driveway that had no children near it I saw a football roll lazily into the road. I braked to avoid it and in case a child appeared - and sure enough a toddler toddled out from behind a gatepost, straight into the road to pick up the ball.

Luckily I was going slow enough that my emergency stop stopped me well before the child. The car behind me stopped fast as well - and the three cars behind him hit each other and then him - luckily without catapulting him into me.

There was a lot of arguing and I got most of the blame for braking without a good reason - until the child's mother rushed out to check that her son was OK and to thank me for stopping in time. Even then one of the guys thought I had "caused" him to crash into the car in front.

Surprisingly, although I gave my name to all the drivers as a witness, none of their insurance companies contacted me for a statement.

[Tim Streater]

Something not dissimilar happened to me on the Fulham Palace Rd in

1968. I was in the middle of the Q of cars which all had to break sharply. Since I always leave a decent space in front mine was the only undamaged car.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But how do you arrange for a decent space behind you? ;-)

[Tim Streater]

With a decent space in front, you're less likely to need to brake quite so hard, thereby giving the klod behind more time to stop without hitting you. Of course, the likelihood is that *he* will have to slam on the anchors to some extent, because he'll be driving too close. So

*he* will get rear-ended.

If the driver at the front of the Q has to stop in a hurry, all those behind need to stop also, and at the same instant. But they can't do that because they each need a fraction of a second reaction time, meaning that the less time they have to avoid a collision. Which is why you leave a gap.

[news]

Stubsy's wife must have buried him by now.

AJH

[Tim Lamb]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Along with the Ardbeg whisky?

[Johnny B Good]

So it would seem if the cover artwork of the double album, "666" by Aphrodite's Child, is any indication (ICBW but it *does* look rather like a "2CV" in the artwork that's revealed when the cover is opened out). :-)