Extremely lucky to be alive...

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: SonofJoe
Thanks to everyone who commented on this thread. Also many thanks for the good wishes.

For those who offered advice, I can tell you that my situational awareness is wound up to max now (almost paranoid even!). I've also been given a VW Up! by the rental company and this feels a bit more first-world than the Etios.

The great irony for me is that one of the reasons I so look forward to coming out to South Africa is because driving there is infinitely more enjoyable and less stressful than doing daily battle on the M25!


Glad you are OK and walked away from wreck.

 

[SonofJoe]

Apologies peeps if it's seemed like I've been neglecting to answer questions on my own thread. Today has been the day for multiple phone calls back home to various relatives to say what happened, how we're feeling, etc. Save to say we don't do short phone calls in my family!!

In retelling the story I remembered a couple of interesting details...

When I picked up the replacement rental car, it too was parked on the central reservation. This meant to continue our journey, I have to drive from a standing start, into the fast lane of the N2 highway. Scary! I did ask one of the traffic cops if he might slow the traffic for me but he said 'Ach! Are crazy? They won't stop for me!'. So I wait for the first gap, floor it and barge my way in whilst the good lady wife quietly sits next to me convinced we're going to die!

I also forgot that 15 minutes after rejoining the N2, I have to go from sea level and drive over a mountain range via the spectacular Sir Lowry's pass. Well it would have been spectacular had it not been completely covered in low cloud and visibility is nigh on non-existant! Over here, people just put on their hazard lights and you just hope to God that there's someone in front of you to follow. But I managed it!

To the person who asked if the car that precipitated the accident stopped, the answer is no.

To whoever said, watch out for my wife's health, my son's a doctor so I have him to help if needs be.

To those who question the safety of the Etios, you have point but I have driven one before with zero issues. I think I was just caught out by a combination of circumstances.

Finally, regarding avoiding South Africa because it's 'unsafe', please don't! This country and especially The Western Cape is spectacularly beautiful, the food & wine is to die for (hopefully not literally!) and the people are in the main just wonderful. Yes, there is crime and yes, you need to be careful but honestly, with nutters on the loose everywhere, where in the world IS safe these days? Do come. You won't be disappointed...

 

[53' Stude]

SonOfJoe: I’m very glad you and the family are ok sir

 

[ZeeOSix]

Glad you two came out of this incident virtually uninjured. Strange that no air bags deployed after seeing the front end damage. Maybe best that they didn't go off.

 

[Sayjac]

SoJ, glad you and your wife came out relatively unscathed. Might sound obvious now but I'll say it anyway, be safe.

 

[fdcg27]

Bad luck to have had the event, but good luck in the outcome.
The little Toy appears to have kept its passenger compartment intact and you were even able to open both front doors.
The airbags didn't deploy because acceleration high enough to trigger them was never reached, part of the reason that you and your wife came through with such minor injuries.
Glad that you and your wife came through the whole thing so well.
I'll not speculate on what you might have done, since it wasn't me sitting in the right front seat.
You've driven enough miles in varied conditions over the years that you're as competent a driver as anyone else here.
Bad luck can strike at any random time as can good luck.
You appear to have had more of the latter in this case.

 

[StevieC]

WOW!

 

[Tom NJ]

Glad to hear you both are okay! We need your sanity here.

 

[bigjl]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: bigjl
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
It was likely a combination of a third-world-country car's engineering, not very good tires, and wet conditions.

Originally Posted By: SonofJoe

So BITOGers! I'm been driving for 40 years and nothing remotely like this has ever happened before. It felt there was this massive, heavy, swinging pendulum attached to the front of my car. What happened and what should I have done differently??? I should add that all this happened in a matter of seconds and all rational thought stopped functioning almost immediately but even so, any thoughts???



What I'd do differently is move over if possible, but don't swerve out of the way. Let them hit you, it's their fault. I have a dash cam running at all times, and take it with me when traveling. If someone wants to scrape the side of my car while driving, go for it. I️ have a video showing me in my Lane.

But all of this is easy to say when I wasn't in the situation

Glad to hear you guys are ok.


Erm.

3rd World vehicle engineering?

Poor tyres?

You do realise there is a difference between South Africa and say Namibia?

Here is an article showing the Top 10 Exports from SA.

https://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/these-are-sas-top-10-vehicle-exports-9338768

General Motors are apparently closing operations this year.
The Toyota Etios is primarily made for India, the engineering specs probably aren't up to par with the u.s. stuff, it's all for a budget.



Initially India but since then Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia.

Aren’t up to par with the US?

Really?

I suppose the same thing could be said about the Land Cruiser Troopy.....

 

[SonofJoe]

Since I had my accident, I've been trawling Google in an attempt to answer the basic question, what happened? This is what I think I've learnt...

First, when I first picked up my rental, I jokingly asked, 'Where's the sun gone?'. I was told this was the first rain they had had in ages and they were duly grateful for it after the prolonged drought. I now know that there is a 'first rain syndrome' which can make roads extremely slippery as the rain leeches out all the accumulated oil from the tarmac. If you are just driving straight, it's not a big deal but if you make a sudden movement, you can easily lose grip on newly wet roads.

Second, I read a review of the Toyota Etios. It said the suspension set-up 'betrayed the car's Indian roots' and that it was set very soft in order to cope with bad Indian roads. The review said as a consequence, the car was prone to oversteer. The Etios does have a sway bar but no Electronic Stability Control.

Third, the Etios is a typical FWD hatchback with a lot of weight at the front. We naturally put all our luggage (all five weeks worth!) in the boot space. This meant the car had a lot of weight at both ends but not much in the middle (like a dumbbell). If you're going straight, it's no biggie but if the car turns suddenly, the axial forces want to rotate the dumbbell. This is exactly how the car felt in those critical few seconds (pendulum-like).

Fourth, I read on one of the VW forums about a VR6 driver whose car started to 'fishtail' violently and he ended up having a head-on smash. He insisted he was only doing 50 mph when it happened (a bit like me).

Finally, I read several articles about how to recover a car if you badly oversteer or enter a fishtail oscillation. It all got a bit technical talking about limiting events & stuff, but the upshot is that things can spiral out of control such that even a professional driver cannot effectively retrieve the situation. I take great solace in this!

Put all of the above together and I think I have the answers I was looking for. It wasn't just the car or just conditions or even my driving; it was an unlucky conjunction of several circumstances.

Fortunately I had good luck as well that day to be hit the way I was and we both managed to walk away unscathed thank goodness!

 

[Cujet]

You are very fortunate and I am exceedingly glad you guys are OK. I'm a race car, dirt bike, and overall performance driver. I'd never been in a street crash, right up until it happened to me in my Turbo Miata. Around I went and into the guardrail backwards. The heavy rain was a factor, but the deep water under the bridge was the real problem as it looked like the rest of the road, and I hydroplaned. I was going about 45mph in a 70 zone. In my case, very minor damage.

Sometimes a situation is impossible to foresee, and there is nothing that can be done once traction is broken. I had zero indication that the water on the road under the bridge was deeper. I was going cautiously slow due to heavy rain and absolutely did not expect to crash.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

WOW!
That is truly incredible how well the crumple zone worked in that massive impact to preserve the passenger compartment.
I am very glad you and your wife are OK, SoJ!!
Hope the rest of your trip is all fun and no scary stuff!