I'm bummed i just screwed up my car on an icy road.

[sweetheart]

Near where i live is a single lane track, and just as i was driving
on it, all snowy and icy. Well as i'm driving at the place where
the track joins the double lane road is a cattle grid... and in my
mind's eye, i can see this in slow motion. I'm coming down hill
on a track that is ICE... slowly, about 20mph. This bozo schmuck
is driving uphill on a double lane plowed road, and decides to make
a go for the cattle grid, as i'm approaching it from the other
direction. Had i not braked, we would have hit head on, right
smack in the middle of the cattle grid.

Instead, being the fool, i drove off the road to the left, and he
passed the grid and drove away as fast as he could... I smashed the
whole gate assembly on the side of the cattle grid. Its destroyed
my front bumper, punctured the radiator and bent the hood.

I wish i'd not turned off the road and just whacked the asshole head
on and made him stop for what he was responsible. So whilst i am
fine, my car's dumping its radiator fluid out on the drive outside,
i'll be penalized for smashing a gate, my insurance rates will go up,
i've got to get the car 100 miles to a fixing shop... and some smug
asshole "*£($&" moron driver who would not even stop after running
me off the road, gets away scot free.

I've to be thankful that things were not worse. Nobody was injured..
but i'm taking the fall for someone else's poor road judgement and
it really... ooh... upset... I've not had any cannabis in a month,
nor have i had anything to drink since a couple of glasses of wine
with last nights dinner... 20 hours ago... but i'll be blamed for
possibly being drunk, be charged probably with driving penalty points
and really screwed ... Ain't it fun to be alive... :-) FUCK!

[tridim]

1. I don't understand most of what you just wrote

What the heck is a cattle grid? Can't you just blame the whole thing on the ice?

[sweetheart]

3. cattle grid

Is a series of steel bars separated by about 4 inches each, with
about a foot of air below the grid. These run perpendicular to the
road. The grid keeps wandering livestock from crossing, as they
get their feet stuck in the holes. It replaces a gate between
wandering grazing pastures.

I guess ice is the main cause... bad luck and ice.

Single lane roads are dodgey as well, as one car must stop at
a passing place in order for another to go... and the car coming
the opposite way was on non-ice ground coming uphill, and he should
have stopped on seeing a car on ice coming down hilll.... woof!

but as he was on a 2 lane road, there is a tendency for people to
drive on to the single track with the same divine right of kings they
drive on the double track.

[qnr]

5. Also known as a "cattle guard" in some areas of the country. n/t

[RebelOne]

2. Sorry to hear of your problem.

If it's some consolation, at least you were not hurt. I had a mishap on ice a few years ago. I was on a main highway and hit a patch of ice. Luckily, I was only going about 40 mph. The car skidded and finally stopped without me hitting anything. But the truck behind me was not so fortunate. He skidded right into my rear end. At least his insurance company paid for the damages and I was not injured.

[sweetheart]

4. Thanks, consolation yes

Nobody was hurt, the car still runs, though i've yet to test out with
missing radiator fluid... All the doggies were safely flopped on the
floor. Indeed, things could have been sooo much worse, and i was
very lucky. Just when things like that happen, the adrenalin gets
going and there is the pure frustration of being powerless to the
whims of the gods.

There is that totally helpless feeling when the wheels break loose
on ice, and i just caclulate physics and momentum, hoping, praying for
the coefficient of friction to increase, as if by magic... like if
some bars or spikes could drop down from the car and slow it down...