Interesting start to the weekend

Been a couple of eventful weeks. More about that later.

Saturday we decided to go to a local country fair. Family loaded up in land rover. 5yr old in front - everyone happy. End up being 3rd car in line at notorious junction. You can see the junction on the right hand side of picture (we approach junction from righ to left). You've probably guessed where this is going. First car goes across staggered junction, second car (an old volvo estate) waits, takes a look and then proceeds to cross major road. Problem was white escort car approachs out of dip. Difficult to judge approach speed as its open country and no reference points. Estimate the contact at approx 40 mph! Escort t-bones volvo around driver door. Both cars run parallel with the impact and the resulting momentum, mount a grass verge and end up in a field. You can just see both cars in the photo. Not bad when you think it just moved 3 tonnes of metal that far and that high up. You can see the resting place to left of the open door on the Land Rover! The banking is about 5-6ft high at that point. Instinct takes over, i protect vehicles and occupants with land rover (as the road i am parked on is on the wrong side of a dip and is national speed limit and people like to make progress), wife jumps out with first aid kit we carry and starts to check folks and we call emergency services from landie.

Outcome - Land Rover: one shocked and upset 5yr old. There was alot of noise, glass shattering, crumping metal. Volvo: 4 ladies and a dog get out of volvo, shocked but physically ok. Escort: Driver shocked but physically ok. Passenger not wearing seatbelt. Broken noise, neck injury and alot of blood etc. Really struggling to understand why people do not wear seatbelts. The car he was travelling either did not have airbags or they did not activate. I saw where he hit the laminated windscreen. It was not pretty. 20 mins after calling the police and paramedics they arrive en masse. Gave statement and let the professionals to get on with it!

Volvo driver could be had for driving without due care and attention - lack of attention whilst entering a major road. Escort driver could have approached at a slower speed (though i do not believe was breaking the speed limit) and assessed the risks better. At the end of the day there was fault on both sides. Luckily no-one was killed.

An unplanned start to the weekend.