Rolled My Car!

[Woody27]

O right didn't realise people still read this. Yeah the car is fully back together with all the parts back on etc. The wing and bonnet aren't perfect fits which is my fault for not going with official parts to save some money. Also there are stil a few scratchs and small dents here and there that i didn't get fixed with the rest of it. This will be sorted when i get the funds in summer (at uni so only see car in holidays anyway). Until then i am still slowly modding it with the exhaust next the summer wheels still in the pipeline and few other lil bits but as a student the funds are a little low :P

[gar]

I take on board both what arthur and seveer have said and realise i sound like a silly boy racer! I admit it was my fault and i hope as much as you guys that i learn my lesson! I for one can assure you i obviously will calm down...how could i not?! I have ruined my pride and joy through no fault but my own! I know this and comments like "the road layout changed" i know are useless as i should have been going slower! However i admit i enjoyed driving that roundabout on the old layout but thought i was being safe by not going near the maximum speed that old layout could be done at. Like i said it isn't really an excuse it just annoyed me as i thought of myself as a safe driver and i would still say i am.

TPFT was mainly due to not being able to afford to insure fully comp (over 2k which is over half the value of the car and i obviously didnt expect to crash! Also i saw it as it would atleast teach me a lesson having to save up again!). Also my brother had TPFT for the first few years on a KA and carried across ncb to his new car fully comp so that is fine. Also you will find most young drivers, or most of the ones i know, have TPFT insurance.

I hope you see i am trying to take your points on board as best i can and all your constructive criticism is welcome :)

I know this is an oldish thread but wanted to say.. Bare in mind, if you had TPFT as a way of building your no claims bonus, that will go right out the window, even if you made no claim as insurance companies want to know if you had any accidents, claims or convictions. It sounds like you tick two of them boxes!

I do know where you are coming from though, I used to have TPFT as, in London, it always costs a lot to insure. I just HAD to drive sensibly or take a bus. A lesson I learned straight away as I was a very young father so my boy racer days never happened. I am now learning to teach (ADI) and hope I can do my bit to stop young drivers passing and then disregarding the rules.

Best wishes, Gar.

P.S. if anyone asks what you drive, you could always say "A roller"!

[PTDriver]

Hi,

quit old thread, but anyway, I am new here, was reading around and wanted to add here my own experience (not a native speaker so sorry about some mistake).

Sorry about your accident.

I need my car to go work every day, and to move from work to customers and back, I don't make many miles per year, about 5000 kms this year (2000 in previous ones) mainly for work, some shopping, and a few trips over the year.

Urban drive most of time with a bit of highway weekly.

I like driving, I am very quiet driver, I don't exceed limits but I don't consider myself experienced, licensed since 1998. I got used to replace the pleasure of speed with the pleasure of managing to drive safely every day, and feel happy when I see that I am safe or I help others staying safe, instead of racing. This is not easy, because driving can be fun, others are aggressive, specially in Lisbon, everyone seems to be in a hurry, traffic gets stuck or very annoying in high hours, lot of accidents with rain, some

people have never driven cars (probably) and so they throw themselves (by walk) happily into walking crosses, or even out of them.

I have relatives and friends that crashed very badly, don't want to crash, and don't want to spend lot of money with cars anyway.

If I think about it I can remember making small mistakes very often, usually by minor neglects, and almost always because of excessive speed for the situation (not beyond limits), so this is very much like a game, and if you like learning it can be fun because we are always learning.

It hasn't been always like this, in the begining, after getting used to my car, I felt quite safe while urban driving, because of low speed, but it is just not like that.

If you approach a walking cross near speed limit (50km/h) you cannot stop in time if you need (and if you do cars behind probably will not do). Slowing down in the near to 30km/h you can always do it. What I learned based on the number of almost crashing situations I went myself through in city in a single month "many years ago", is that driving agressively or

always at maximum speed in city adds to the probabilty of crash at least 5 times, from driving normally (and I did not race!).

So nowadays I am not in the mood of making "driving experiments" but I consider that the better you know your car the better. Realizing how much distance one needs to

an emergency stop, and improving the ability to react faster, use gearbox, and the like can make no harm.

I was caught several times by slipping at very low speeds in roundabouts and going in front when turning close corners at low speed with rain.

I learnt also that this is much worse if you inflate your tyres a bit more than recommended pressure (just 0.2bar front and 0.1bar rear)

That also gave some feeling about my car reaction while escaping roundabouts with rear sliding a bit, (and I don't now nothing about this matters technically).

When it recovers grip (usually while unsteering the wheel) it "kicks" all the car violently in the opposite direction of the turn (always low speed, no throttle, front wheel drive).

So one day while working, I had just left off from a customer, stopped in a stop signal, then entered an access lane for a main secondary road slight turn to the left, while going down, at about 60km/h (secondary is 80km/h max), but it had just started to rain and it was the first rain in that year, I remember thinking "this is too fast" its getting wet, and

car was already sliding with rear to the right, I was looking scaringly to a rail in front of me, turned wheels to the right, no brake no throttle, it happened (luckily) to recover

grip and before it went straight, I was already turning a bit to the left again with fear of the "kick". And it happened violently, I have made at least 2 Ss before it slowed down straight again (no brakes ever). I was very lucky, was saved also because of some concepts discussed in the thread, but I where partly unaware of some of them.

Happened to have read about correct wheel direction in case of slippery in a very old book of auto mechanics. But I didn't know that braking or throttle could have thrown the car away.

So I think learning how to recover things can be very useful. Unfortunely, advanced driving courses aren't cheap.

Also I will want my next car to have stability control, cause I feel those things can happen much more easily than we think, and that can save from small errors (perhaps not as big as the one described).

Take what happened to you as an welcome chance of becoming a much better driver, be always careful, and good luck ;)

[PTDriver]

oh and by the way, that was not with a yaris, but an old fiesta. beware, yaris may somehow behave different way.

[Taylor6971]

Woody

Good on you for being so honest and frank on this thread. There are plenty of people who have accidents and they are never intentional. Your inexperience probably resulted in you completely rolling it when more experienced drivers (read older) may have been able to read the situation slightly differently. I was in a car (driven by somebody else) when it rolled, and it is a noise you will never forget. I should imagine that it goes without saying that your driving will have changed.

My wife is just shy of 40 and she rolled her Yaris this year. Mud on the road was the probable start of the skid, but the root cause of it was she was just going too fast. Thankfully she walked away and is okay. We are also old enough to have good protected No Claims ;)

Your pictures made me smile as I thought that between you there may be one good car. However this is also a good advert for the strength of the Yaris. Like some people have colour phobias, my wife didn't want the same car again hence opted for a Corolla in replacement.

I thought I would include some of the pictures for comparison. It was a write off by the way!

Regards

Richard

[Baby Yari]

That's some scary pics there Taylor! Great advert for the strength of the wee little Yari but could of been a costly one, glad it wasn't though eh!

It looks like the car is proper high up in a tree!!

[Woody27]

Wow that is a roll and a half! Yeah my driving has changed as i've matured but i do stil enjoy a spirited drive but it is not so much pushing the limits of the car or the driver. Also i would say i have learnt from the experience though in the same situation it is hard to say i could keep a cool head specially when i should have been accelerating when in a slide (feels unnatural).