Stupidest thing for me was being too young and stupid to refuse to drive the following for my 1st boss after leaving school :-
Audi 100 + 4 wheel stocktrailer.Now this is a stupid combination any way you look at it,but completly no-brain senseless in this case as the trailer hitch was 6in higher than the car hitch,so it was basically lifting the back of the car up when we eventually got it on.I did say i wasn't happy about it,but he said it would be ok if i drove slowly and the trailer was empty - just taking it 20 miles to his brothers. Anyhow,got most of the way nice and steady,then on a completly straight bit of road (doing c40mph) there was a lorry coming towards me with a few cars behind him,thought nothing of it until the lorry went passed and the turbulence hit the trailer
Completly lost control,and through shear fear I just turned the car away from the oncoming traffic into the fence on the side of the road.Luckily i didn't hit anyone and two cars stopped to check i was ok,but i was too shook up and too naive to even think of getting statements of them as to what had happened,and as i was ok they left me to it.
Phoned boss,he went ballistic -didnt believe anything i told him about what happened and just said it was me being stupid and driving too fast.I got sacked at the end of the week,and by this time we had also found out that although there was very little exterior damage bar the passengerside wing,it was a right-off because the chassis had been twisted by the drawbar.
With more experience the accident wouldn't have happened -i would have known to expect a bit of pull from a passing lorry;i would know what to do to control the snaking etc,etc;but more importantly,with more experience i would have had the guts and sense to tell the man exactly where to go and how stupid he was being to even suggest driving such a thing .Lesson learnt tho
This **** of a boss is the same bloke whose pathetic homebrew repair to a pto shaft had very nearly killed me a few months earlier as well
In hindsight i should have got H+S on his ass ,but hey-ho ,as it was me driving it,i rightly or wrongly believed it was all my responsibility.I got off lightly from both accidents and a really,really bad boss
Not me this time,but a friend coming back from a 'do' with his GF as front passenger and another couple in the back.Goes round a corner a bit too fast to react quickly enough when he is met by a stationary queue of cars in his lane,skids a bit and hits the back of the car in front.
Wasn't much of an impact,as he was barely moving by the time he hit,but his GF was crying in agony.
Turns out she'd broke her ankle through trying to slow down the car by pushing down hard on an imaginary brake peddle.Apparently this type of thing is not uncommon in accidents,but is the only one i have heard of.