That's it. Summer is over. Our three days of glorious sunshine has been brushed aside by grey cloud and chilly wind. Weather forecasters say it will improve this afternoon, which pleases me no end. Very soon we'll be in that dangerous Autumn season when car drivers forget that mist, fog, and frosty roads aren't as safe as the as they were in the last few months.

Going back a few years, back in the days when I drove my trusty Toyota MR2, I was on my way to work early in the morning. It was still dark and the sun wasn't due to rise for another hour. The vehicles ahead were held up by one driver in a blue saloon who wasn't going to be rushed, much to the annoyance of all of us following adter. Eventually the cars in front either turned off or got past, leaving only a white van ahead of me which to my relief turned off the road. I accelerated to catch up with the slow moving saloon following the road ahead.

I came round the bend and glanced alongside the car ahead. Can I get past here? Strictly speaking I could, but on a snap decision I considered the road to be too narrow and too short before the next junction to pass safely. It was easy to bleed off speed on the curve and I slowed down at a reasonable distance from the car ahead, which also seemed to be slowing down. Perhaps he meant to pull over for me but I shall never know. As I fell in behind him his car flipped into the air, right in front of me.

It was a shocking experience. I pulled over to the side of the road after watching his car drop into the roadside ditch. I didn't know this at that moment, but he had in fact collided with a tree before he came to a halt (which hadn't caused the accident). What could I do? I stuck around, tried to help, and made myself known to the policemen who arrived shortly after. Clearly they had suspicions I'd pushed the man off the road. Of course I hadn't, and I was never prosecuted, but perhaps more importantly I never found out what happened to the badly injured man whose car had crashed for no apparent reason.

There was one accident where I did see what happened. We were on our way to a gig in London and I was driving our somewhat scruffy van up the hill towards Membury. On the opposite side of the motorway, I saw a van bounce into the air, swerve off the carriageway, and up the grassy embankment. It rolled over rapidly and as it did so, the van body peeled open like a ripe banana. Several people had been sitting in the back. They were flung across the road like rag dolls and not suprisingly, there were deaths. Certainly I shan't ever forget that scene.

It makes a strange comparison with events in Formula One recently. Felipe Masse being hit by a debris and driving unconcious into a tire wall, or Lewis Hamilton spinning off into a concrete wall at high speed at Monza this weekend with no more than inured pride.

Speed kills? Apparently it's safer than everyday driving. Where can I buy a Formula One car? Finance available? I'll just have a word with my insurers...

Car Accident of the Week

Some young scallywag wasn't looking where he was going at the Rodbourne roundabout. In the midst of his conversation with his mates, no doubt conducted by telepathy over the noise of his mobile nightclub, he managed to force my sister off the road. No-one was hurt but we notice the young man chose to drive away. She really isn't that scary you know.