My first official 'Nearly got killed' experience

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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Well after just over 2 years of horse ownership and hacking out around the local lanes and houses I am sad to say that today I had my first official 'nearly got killed' experience.

Three of us from the yard went out together - all in hi-viz jackets and my boy had a hi-viz breastplate on too - Chico is mainly white as is one of the other horses - basically you couldnt really miss us!

We had been out for about an hour, had a really lovely time then just on the lanes back to the yard when it happened....

Chico and I were leading along a narrow lane when a silver van came tearing around an upcoming corner. I had heard it coming so already had my arm out giving the 'slow down' signal.

Well.....the driver was either not paying attention or just a total ar*e as he didnt slow at all - he came speeding past the three of us.

All three horses spooked and spun and panicked. The van had to go up the bank slightly so dirt was flying everywhere. Chico had spun around so i was facing the others and had to watch in horror as the ladies horse behind me missed the van by inches.

The van stopped a bit further down the road, as we were calming the horses and getting ourselves back together, but the driver didnt get out to apologies. After a minutes he carried on and drove off.

We were all a bit shaken and the horses were understandably a bit edgy for the rest of the ride. We just couldnt understand why the van hadnt slowed down.

One of the others riders said she thought he might have been on the phone and possibly stopped because we were all doing our best impression of Police officers (ex-police jackets) and only drove off when he realised we werent coppers.

Afterwards we all wished we had taken his registration or made note of the business name that was on his van but you know what it's like, it all happened so fast.

Anyway miraculously no one was hurt and we got home okay.

Sorry for the long post but I still cant believe it didnt end badly, we were very lucky.....
 
I wear pink hi viz now as the yellow is not much good in bright sunlight. Much the same as you cannot see silver cars easily.

it's shakes you up when something happens on the road but its also a reminder of how dangerous the roads are.

Glad your all okay.
 
What an a**e :(. There are so many careful and considerate drivers on the roads, that take the time to pass wide and slow, and there is just a handful that are complete a**ewipes
 
It can be hard when these things happen to think to get a registration number but even without one it might just be worth reporting the incident to the police if you've got some detail that might identify him - someone else might also have had a run in with him. A couple of friends and I had a chap in a sports car deliberately slow and rev his engine at the side of us a couple of years ago (he was annoyed that we were politely flagging him to slow down please as he approached us at high speed on a narrow lane) My friend ended up lying in the road and he simply drove off despite the fact that he knew what he'd done. We got him into court and he ended up with a hefy fine and points on his licence - we had to plug away at the police to take action but it was worth it in the end.
 
not a nice experience but sadly one i can sympathise with:( 2 years ago i had a close encounter with a box van which resulted in my mare trying to climb onto the verge and ending up on her knees, i only managed to get the company name on the van rather than the reg as it happened so quick and i was more concerned with staying on and controlling the horse! i did contact the company and they were very apologetic but without the reg said they couldn't identify which driver it was:rolleyes:
 
Makes my blood boil! I am so glad you are ok PMP... My heart was in my mouth reading that.... Poor you. It was your lucky day. Hope you got some sherry to calm your nerves.
 
Glad your all relatively unscathed, its incredibly scary.
I just don't get some people. I have a young girl who I am brining on, she needs backing and traffic proofing. Well I was out with her a few weeks back and some idiot woman came flying past and actually clipped her slightly, made the poor thing jump. I mean, I am trying to get my girl used to cars and safe around them and I get an idiot like that ruining things, thankfully Nell only jumped but settled right back down, fortunately she is a very confident filly.
What an ar*e, I hope he is not such an ar*e in the future driving alone country lanes. It is the countryside and there are horses, so people should be more flaming careful.
There were so many people out and about today, it could have been a bunch of cyclists or walkers who he could have mowed down, lets hope he gets caught next time he is on his phone
 
MoggyinManolos said:
It is the countryside and there are horses, so people should be more flaming careful.
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actually we arent in the countryside at all, we are in a small area of greenbelt squeezed between Birmingham and Walsall. Sadly our lanes are a rat run for commuters etc trying to find a quicker route between the main roads.

I have just been on googlemaps streetview and taken a screen shot of where it happened so you can see how narrow it was.

There were three of us single file on the right hand side of this image and a transit type van squeezed between us and the trees at what must have been at least 30mph!

image002-6.jpg
 
Paint Me Proud said:
actually we arent in the countryside at all, we are in a small area of greenbelt squeezed between Birmingham and Walsall. Sadly our lanes are a rat run for commuters etc trying to find a quicker route between the main roads.
Click to expand...

Green belt is kind of countryside imo, but yes, as you say, these double up as rat runs. Either way, glad your all relatively unscathed
 
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