Finebyme wrote:
...gone in an instant.
Sadly, that's the reality of motoring. I've had a few mates go this way over the years. But cars are lethal weapons, both to those in them and to pedestrians. Reading 'between the lines' on this case fills me with trepidation as to what the coroner might say.
Around 1992 I had one of the last twin carb' mini coopers. Being truthful, it went like stink and around the town there was little to touch it. One Sunday afternoon I was tootling down the Kenilworth road at about the speed limit. A youngster came blatting past me in some small hatchback. My laughter quickly turned to horror as his car spun round and went through a wall.
Stopping, Mrs Rebbonk went and sat with the driver until the emergency services arrived. It turns out it was his mother's car and he was worried sick about what he would tell her. I ushered Mrs R away and had a few quiet words with him. I explained he was lucky to be alive and was lucky he'd not injured anyone. I told him that cars were only bits of tin and could be repaired. I then asked him why he had come belting past me. "'Cause you've got a mini cooper!"
In very simple terms I told him he was a complete ar$ehole and I hoped he had learned his lesson. He said he had. I then suggested that if pressed he should tell anyone that he'd lost the car on the greasy road. (It hadn't rained for a few weeks until earlier that day and the roads were a touch slippery.) He looked at me and asked me if I was going to drop him in it with the police? I simply said, "No point mate. Your insurance will cover the damage, nobody's been hurt, you've learned your lesson and your mum's going to kill you!" Never have I seen such relief on a youngster's face.
