A Brighton driver was “lucky to escape unscathed” after his car hit surface water, flipped and crashed off the road.
The 31-year-old man was driving his Nissan Skyline westbound in Mill Road when he crashed on Sunday evening (13 December).
Despite the dramatic crash, he walked away with only minor injuries.
PC Jon Ivatt, from the Sussex Roads Policing Unit, attended the scene.
He said: “In this case, the driver was extremely fortunate to escape from the wreckage relatively unscathed. However, his car was a complete write-off.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to remind all road users to drive to the conditions.
“In wet weather, stopping distances will typically be double the distance required for stopping on dry roads. This is because your tyres have less grip on the road and you should take this into account when driving.”
According to the Highway Code, in wet weather
- drivers should keep well back from the vehicle in front to increase their ability to see and plan ahead
- if the steering becomes unresponsive, it probably means that water is preventing the tyres from gripping the road so ease off the accelerator and slow down gradually
- the rain and spray from vehicles may make it difficult to see and be seen
- drivers should be aware of the dangers of spilt diesel that will make the surface very slippery
- extra care should be taken around pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders
…
PC Ivatt added: “We tend to see an increase in the number of road traffic collisions in wet weather and many of these could be avoided if people follow these simple steps. Please take care. Your safety is our priority.”
My old R33 was a proper handful in the wet!
sympathies go out to this fella
4 door saloon variant, even rarer than the regular R34 in 2 door form.
It was a HR34 with a swap to an RB26 and manual trans, plus a few other bits. Arguably “rarer”, though not even close to stock. Nether-the-less. It will be sorely missed.
What a wonderful website – both Greens Out and
Keith have specific knowledge of the unusual Skyline car involved – albeit it’s also important to recognise that something went well for the driver to escape unharmed (and that he had no passengers)
So on the one hand we appear to have our City Council failing to regularly inspect and clean the roadside gulley-pits, so that rainwater can drain rapidly from the carriageway.
And then we have a driver using such ultra-low-profile tyres that aquaplaning is almost guaranteed on most English roads when there’s rain!
So when the insurance claims come in will our Council already have had a professional accident-investigator secure all electronic data from the vehicle (plus any mobile-phone or internet activity) so that we taxpayers don’t have to compensate someone for possibly driving too fast in the rain on unsuitable tyres?
Which still leaves the issue of far too many gullies across the City not being regularly inspected (say every 3 months?), with emptying soon thereafter of those that need it.
Regrettably inadequate gully inspection & emptying has been a problem in our City for more than a decade.
Apparently the Council’s ‘defence’ is that gullies get blocked by ‘builders’ lifting the iron grating to dump waste into the gulley – quick & easy to do when you know how!
But, and to state the blummin’ obvious, society is imperfect thus the Council does need to spend taxpayers money on keeping the roads & gutters free of standing water, surely?
So how much liability will our Council accept for this written-off car – just 15%, or will our officers cave-in and award a seemingly undeserved 100%, from our taxes?