Selfish Tw*ts

[bourbon]

Didn't Frank Williams get paralyzed when his seatbelt was released when he flipped the car? Watched a Nigel Mansell programme last night and it said that Williams was the longest surviving tetraplegic on record.

 

[northwest]

you gave it a minute for the oil to settle, started the engine and raced on when they restarted

Dry sump mate, or it was after that little excursion of mine, there was bloody oil everywhere, I think we lost the dipstick!

 

[northwest]

Been driving around today in my Mazda and when I look at the driving position, how I am seated and the way the occupants cabin is constructed it is light years away from the cars I modified to go rallying in, when I think back to what I had and what I have today they are light years apart. In the Mazda I would suggest I could easily survive a massive side on impact, in the mini's we had a door skin, one and if we were rich we bought door bars for the roll cage. I always suspected I needed my bumps felt but this confirms it, you could do a cartwheel in the Mazda and you may lose your pen. In a 1965 mini you might lose your life. Modern tech never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Onoff]

Firemen often have a black humour. Lad did my first aid course was one and told some crackers. Said the first thing you do at the scene of a trapping is approach the car from the front and tell the casualty to keep looking straight ahead whilst you go to the door and assess access etc. As much so they don't turn their head and aggravate any spinal injury. Next, however bad it is you tell them it's going to be alright. Said he'd done his bit and a ******** of a paramedic sauntered up, looked through the car window and shouted back to his mate "Yep, proper bad one this is!"

My favourite was when they attended a really bad, no hope RTA and surveying the scene one of the firemen said "Oh, I know him, our kids are in the same class!" Their watch commander or whatever said if he wanted to sit this one out he could. The guy was like "Why?". Turns out he meant someone in the crowd of onlookers.

 

[Robotstar5]

I remember a momentous "off" on the moors one night when night rallies were a thing.. I found myself up an embankment on the roof and hanging from a harness, both my navigator and I hit hard as we pressed the release buttons almost simultaneously. couple of lads watching on another corner saw us go past. sideways and quite correctly calculated we wouldn't make the next corner. Bit of brute force and we were quickly on our wheels again and finished at Leyburn Marketplace I believe, not in the top ten.

I was running a check point on a night rally and on the way to it my mate was navigating, calling the bends etc. so I was giving the Mini some beans, the OS maps show bends but no elevation changes, I hit a dip and went airborne, but wearing a 3 point harness kept me pinned down, my mate didn't like wearing belts so when I looked over he was in the footwell

 

[badabec]

Stupid boy.

 

[m_c]

I was driving one of those once, allegedly when the Police pulled me over, apparently he wasn't impressed by the sight of the drivers side (or it might have been passenger side) door careering forward and then continuing on across the roundabout as I braked because I had spotted him. He came over, took one look and went back to his car for a bigger report form, half way back he was called to a major incident at the bottom of the bank so instructed us (my pal and I ) to "Stay put until I get back". Naturally we did nothing of the sort as we were short a bit of paperwork and some other stuff that may have contributed towards a valid MOT certificate. That night that van disappeared into the bottom of a quarry. Least said soonest mended.

I'm aware of a former hole in the ground that has at least a Ford P200 in it.
Was a POS that somebody had as a farm runaround, which was last sited in the car park of a big hole in the ground owned by the same people as who owned the farm, having been towed there to be repaired yet again.
Mechanic was told not to ask any questions, and nobody even knew if an insurance claim was involved in the purchase of a replacement.

 

[Robotstar5]

Never had to deal with a public rta but have dealt with a few accidents through motorsport marshalling.

Luckily we get a lot of training now to handle these situations and you go into autopilot when it happens. That being said I have had to shout at fellow marshals to either get out of the way or do something to help when they freeze.
Often the best thing is to send them back up the stage out of sight to get them to slow down the next car.

Luckily I've had no fatalities but some serious injuries.

Worst one was on my 2nd motorbike road race. Rider got the wrong line over a jump and landed on the grass verge and went tumbling with his bike.
He was very badly injured, multiple broken bones, damaged organs, etc. Air ambulance worked on him for ages to get him stabilised before taking him away.
I was impressed with the way the bike marshals dealt with the scene, guess they are more used to serious incidents at road racing.
Some of us were sent into the fields to chase away people with camera phones trying to film the incident!

The rescue wagon had a screen that was held around the casualty to give the medics some privacy.

But that incident scared me and I never did another bike event. There is too fine a line between fast racing and going off and if they go off it is going to be serious due to the speeds and not having a car to protect you.

There is a counselling service for anyone that needs it through the msa.

I've been to a couple of fatals with the rescue ambulance, the worst was a family group of 5 who were spectating from a normally safe position on the inside of a bend when a car got inverted and landed on them like you say the training takes over, we were 2nd ambulance on scene, our paramedic was first out and decided the Grandfather needed our help so that's what we focused on, once we had him packaged and on the way to the county RV point our crew chief asked me if I'd seen the deceased lad under the car, I hadn't because I was focused on our casualty.

 

[Dapph2]

Firemen often have a black humour. Lad did my first aid course was one and told some crackers. Said the first thing you do at the scene of a trapping is approach the car from the front and tell the casualty to keep looking straight ahead whilst you go to the door and assess access etc. As much so they don't turn their head and aggravate any spinal injury. Next, however bad it is you tell them it's going to be alright. Said he'd done his bit and a ******** of a paramedic sauntered up, looked through the car window and shouted back to his mate "Yep, proper bad one this is!"

My favourite was when they attended a really bad, no hope RTA and surveying the scene one of the firemen said "Oh, I know him, our kids are in the same class!" Their watch commander or whatever said if he wanted to sit this one out he could. The guy was like "Why?". Turns out he meant someone in the crowd of onlookers.

Not too sure of the honesty of this one:-

A part time fireman I used to work with told me that a dual impact RTI , one driver was well and truly trapped in the crumpled mess. So he was sent to the tender to get the big Hurst hydraulic cutter gear. Suddenly the trapped guy became very very agitated .. transpired he'd had a heart attack too boot .

When the senior Fire Officer present at the RTI wen to the hospital see the guy in the RTI who'd had the heart attack the guy said , "You put the fear of god in to me , I thought that big tall guy had said the hearse is here " .
Turns out Andy the big guy had said " The Hurst is here ".
Since then the Peterborough crews have called it the rescue shears .

 

[minimutly]

Back in my stock car racing days I have been upside down more than once.

I was well strapped in and protected. The standard thing to do was stay in the car until it was rolled back on its wheels. If the wheels were still attached you gave it a minute for the oil to settle, started the engine and raced on when they restarted the race.

The alternative was to undo your belts, fall onto the roof and crawl out through the side window onto a muddy gravel track.

I have, on one occasion come to rest with the car on its nose. MAP open meeting near Stratford, class 6 final, I was leading when the bottom balljoint (or rosejoint connection to the lower arm) gave way. Drove over a lorry tyre, up she went, and stopped there. Final lost...