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LoneSomeDove
28-May-11, 13:30
Driving back from Thurso yesterday evening on the Castletown road I got the scare of my life.Driving at a steady 55mph because of the winds when suddenly the bonnet of my car came unlocked and sprung up smashed into my windscreen.
Slamming on the hazards and brakes at the same time hoping that no-one was behind me or infront .

My kids were stunned and to say the least surprised. It turns out that the bonnet catch had become loose and let the lid rise.

I assume tht the wind must have caught the bonnet at the right angle and tore it out.

Thankfully i managed to sucure the bonnet and the glass that was broken was not in line of sight so i managed to drive home.

Now im hunting for a new bonnet and have Autoglass coming out next week to replace the glass. I just thanks my lucky stars that it was not worse and all of us were unhurt and thankfully no others were hurt.

So please if you decide to travel in high winds be very aware that things like this can happen so quickly.:(

emszxr
28-May-11, 13:36
what kind of car was it. there was a big thing on watchdog about this happening to lots of clios and renault finally accepted it was the catch

lasher
28-May-11, 13:43
Why you blaming the wind, its obviously been the bonnet catch that was at fault.

Kodiak
28-May-11, 14:26
Sounds like it was the Catch and the speed you was travelling to blame and not the wind. If the wind was a dangerous as you say you should have been driving at 40mph and not 55mph.

lasher
28-May-11, 14:47
Sounds like it was the Catch and the speed you was travelling to blame and not the wind. If the wind was a dangerous as you say you should have been driving at 40mph and not 55mph. Where does it say drive at 40 if its windy!!#

Kodiak
28-May-11, 15:13
It is common sence that if conditions are Dangerous to High Winds you slow down and this does not mean slowing by just 5mph.

Something does not have to written down to make it the correct thing to do.

badger
28-May-11, 15:35
Where does it say drive at 40 if its windy!!#

60 is the max. anywhere in Caithness and much of this road is 50 max so 55 is hardly driving more carefully than usual due to wind, especially with children on board. Just as well there wasn't a car behind, although if there had been and this had resulted in a collision it would have been the second driver's fault. Not much consolation if the children had been hurt.

Why is everyone in such a hurry? The death/injury toll on our roads is appalling but it seems to make no difference.

Kevin Milkins
28-May-11, 16:48
I'm glad to hear that what could have been much worse turned out OK for you, a friend of mine had the same happen to her on the way to work and it gave her the fright of a lifetime, (she was driving a Clio)

cherokee
28-May-11, 16:51
Just glad that you were all safe and unhurt, LoneSomeDove. :D

You must've got a real scare, good thing you had the presence of mind to stop safely and quickly. I think I'd have ducked under the steering wheel with my fingers crossed, LOL ! :eek:

Mystical Potato Head
28-May-11, 17:15
Deadly Caithness winds last night??????????? You gotta be kiddin,it wasnt even gale force last night.

Bazeye
29-May-11, 17:39
Thought this thread was going to be about the Howlin' Gaels.

PantsMAN
29-May-11, 18:48
Apparently it's just the usual large volume of hot air.... but travelling at speed!

lasher
29-May-11, 20:09
60 is the max. anywhere in Caithness and much of this road is 50 max so 55 is hardly driving more carefully than usual due to wind, especially with children on board. Just as well there wasn't a car behind, although if there had been and this had resulted in a collision it would have been the second driver's fault. Not much consolation if the children had been hurt.

Why is everyone in such a hurry? The death/injury toll on our roads is appalling but it seems to make no difference.
You mean 60 is the legal max, which I think should be increased.

sids
29-May-11, 21:05
Let's be sensible. The bonnet is supposed to stay shut, even at illegal speeds. Does the bonnet even know what the limit is in the area you're driving through?

The catch might be faulty or the bonnet was never shut properly.

lasher
29-May-11, 21:15
Let's be sensible. The bonnet is supposed to stay shut, even at illegal speeds. Does the bonnet even know what the limit is in the area you're driving through?

The catch might be faulty or the bonnet was never shut properly.
Yes your right, mine has never opened even at 130+

Spongeboab
30-May-11, 00:36
Yes your right, mine has never opened even at 130+

that would make a great epitaph

donnick
30-May-11, 11:25
Glad to hear you are all well and safe ,hope the kids are ok and no to scared to get back in the car ..

badger
30-May-11, 20:41
At the risk of going slightly off thread - please don't tell me you live up here and don't know the speed limit? The police confirmed at a CC meeting a while ago that this is the limit even when overtaking so I guess most drivers up here don't know, or choose to ignore, the law. Why should it be increased? We don't have dual carriageways and there aren't that many long straight stretches. What's the hurry? If you leave in time you'll arrive in time. 55 mph is 5 below the legal limit, or 5 above if the driver here was on the 50mph stretch of road, so hardly driving slowly for bad conditions.

Leanne
30-May-11, 21:32
60 is the max. anywhere in Caithness and much of this road is 50 max so 55 is hardly driving more carefully than usual due to wind,

So that is why everyone in Caithness drives so slow... The speed limit was increased nationally roughly at the same time the speed for motorways and dual carriageways was raised to 70mph. If there are no reminder signs at the side of the road and there is an absence of streetlight then the speed is 60 mph - usually marked at the beginning of the change by the national speed limit sign but usually not repeated. Check out the highway code :)

Dadie
30-May-11, 21:39
Had the catch on the clio bonnet come undone on me on the road back from Dounreay, in the Dounreay traffic...I was lucky the windscreen didnt break..but a new bonnet was needed.
It was scary.
Especially as cars behind were close.....
The Clio bonnet catches were on recall not long after!

bluechesse
31-May-11, 09:49
At the risk of going slightly off thread - please don't tell me you live up here and don't know the speed limit? The police confirmed at a CC meeting a while ago that this is the limit even when overtaking so I guess most drivers up here don't know, or choose to ignore, the law. Why should it be increased? We don't have dual carriageways and there aren't that many long straight stretches. What's the hurry? If you leave in time you'll arrive in time. 55 mph is 5 below the legal limit, or 5 above if the driver here was on the 50mph stretch of road, so hardly driving slowly for bad conditions.

How does the fact that you got the speed limit confirmed by a nice policeman lead you to concur that "most" people "up here" don't know the speed limit or choose to ignore it?
Have you drawn this startling conclusion from the comments here only? Or do you have experience of "most" people driving to fast? If it's the latter, may I suggest that you just have that impression as every one is over taking you because your driving more slowly than every one else!

The OP didn't state what the speed limit was, so who are you to suggest she wasn't driving carefully enough?

Personally I agree the speed limit should be raised. It was set god knows how many years ago when brakes were far inferior to the brakes of today And as far as I'm concerned, speed does not kill. It's just inappropriate speed that's dangerous.

And no more so that the inappropriate slowness of some people, which causes frustration in those trying to make progress and often leads to accidents.

I always leave sufficient time to complete my journey. It's just that I often assume that everyone will be driving at a speed appropriate to the road and conditions. Perhaps in future I should allow for the doodling dilberts who can not seem to make progress regardless of the conditions, but who point blank refuse to get the hell out of the way of those who can. [evil]

LoneSomeDove
31-May-11, 12:41
Sorry for not replying sooner broadband was down.

Thanks for all those that were decent to show concern for my self and my children.

I was in a 60 limit, and believe me if the winds had not been pushing the car sideways then i would have probably been doing more of an 80mph in a sports car, but thankfully the wind was gusting enough to make me stay below the limit.

I'm sure that most on here that are negative in their replies are the ones that do over 80 to get home quicker.
Even before the incident the cars had been overtaking me as i was traveling slow and could see them finding it hard to maintain a straight line, at least i was being cautious, and thankuly for me 'im a good driver and remembered MSM and to hazard and brake safely.

Koi
31-May-11, 13:07
At the risk of going slightly off thread - please don't tell me you live up here and don't know the speed limit? The police confirmed at a CC meeting a while ago that this is the limit even when overtaking so I guess most drivers up here don't know, or choose to ignore, the law. Why should it be increased? We don't have dual carriageways and there aren't that many long straight stretches. What's the hurry? If you leave in time you'll arrive in time. 55 mph is 5 below the legal limit, or 5 above if the driver here was on the 50mph stretch of road, so hardly driving slowly for bad conditions.

The only 50mph road in caithness is going through murkle. Everywhere else not in a town or village regardless of type of road is 60mph. Sometimes it not safe to do 60 mph and that is up to the driver to decide if it is safe to do so. It's their peril if something goes wrong if they are driving too fast.

Going too slow and too fast are the majority reasons behind accidents. Drivers going too slow causes frustration. Driving too fast doesn't allow you enough time to gain control over a situation. Both are as bad as each other.

From my own personal experience there are often times where i am doing the speed limit and people over take me and fly across away on the road. I have even been overtaken while doing 20mph outside mount pleasant school when the kids where going home. That really annoyed me as that was unsafe and the kids were in danger of an idiot on the road. Just now the speed limiter light sign isn't working and everyone whizzs past doing 30mph even when its obvious the kids are coming out going home as they are crossing the road.
As an example of the other side i was driving on the A9 back from inverness a couple fo weeks ago and i was struck behind this black clio for 5 miles. Over breaking constantly and was only doing 40 mph. It took some time before i could overtake the clio and i was very glad when i could. The most annoying part is that there was a huge mile long gap in front of the clio and the volvo in front! It is people like that, that should not be on the road as they only cause frustration in other drivers and this particular one obviously couldn't drive that well. thankfully for them they were only driving a clio as i'd hate to imagine the fuel cost that their deaccelrating and accellerating would make in a bigger car. My car is a thirsty thing so i defintly did not like being stuck behind this driver knowing how much petrol they were costing me. I was also trying to maintian a good distance often my work was wrecked as they'd slow down to 30mph for a corner i can take safetly at 50mph.

sids
31-May-11, 14:02
there was a huge mile long gap in front of the clio and the volvo in front!.

Doesn't that make it easier for you to pass?

Koi
31-May-11, 16:46
Doesn't that make it easier for you to pass?

Aye it normally would but that day there was alot of traffic and didn't get an opportunity untill after 5 miles.

LoneSomeDove
31-May-11, 17:58
Doesn't that make it easier for you to pass?

not if the idiots behind you decide they are going to double or triple overtake, which i have noticed on the watten rd to thurso. i have been traveling back from thurso and had muppets pass me whilst i have been stuck behind slow moving traffic.

sids
31-May-11, 21:36
not if the idiots behind you decide they are going to double or triple overtake, which i have noticed on the watten rd to thurso. i have been traveling back from thurso and had muppets pass me whilst i have been stuck behind slow moving traffic.

They certainly shouldn't do that while you're signalling your intention to move out and overtake.

oldmarine
31-May-11, 22:33
Driving back from Thurso yesterday evening on the Castletown road I got the scare of my life.Driving at a steady 55mph because of the winds when suddenly the bonnet of my car came unlocked and sprung up smashed into my windscreen.
Slamming on the hazards and brakes at the same time hoping that no-one was behind me or infront .

My kids were stunned and to say the least surprised. It turns out that the bonnet catch had become loose and let the lid rise.

I assume tht the wind must have caught the bonnet at the right angle and tore it out.

Thankfully i managed to sucure the bonnet and the glass that was broken was not in line of sight so i managed to drive home.

Now im hunting for a new bonnet and have Autoglass coming out next week to replace the glass. I just thanks my lucky stars that it was not worse and all of us were unhurt and thankfully no others were hurt.

So please if you decide to travel in high winds be very aware that things like this can happen so quickly.:(

Not much symphathy on your comments but lots of advice.

lasher
01-Jun-11, 07:30
not if the idiots behind you decide they are going to double or triple overtake, which i have noticed on the watten rd to thurso. i have been traveling back from thurso and had muppets pass me whilst i have been stuck behind slow moving traffic.
This must mean your taking to long to decide to overtake if cars behind you are going first.

LoneSomeDove
01-Jun-11, 10:16
This must mean your taking to long to decide to overtake if cars behind you are going first.

This just means i am traveling at a safe speed and distance behind a slow moving tractor on winding roads with children in the back waiting for a safe place to over take.
Why do people find it so easy to persecute a careful driver when in the news you never hear of some one driving carefully being in accidents, just idiots that take the roads on in caithness. They are small winding and many many blind spots.

Koi
02-Jun-11, 13:57
This just means i am traveling at a safe speed and distance behind a slow moving tractor on winding roads with children in the back waiting for a safe place to over take.
Why do people find it so easy to persecute a careful driver when in the news you never hear of some one driving carefully being in accidents, just idiots that take the roads on in caithness. They are small winding and many many blind spots.

Very true.