The first and only time I have come off the road was last January, under the single most slippery driving conditions I've ever encountered. It had been extremely cold (for the southern UK) for a couple of months, and snowed quite a bit. Most of the snow had gone, and the weather warmed up just a little, allowing some roads to thaw out.

There's a minor road near me that is a more direct route to where I needed to go, which had been closed for more than a week since they couldn't grit it. It was reopened on the day I decided go to see my bookkeeper, so I thought I'd go that way since it was quicker. Going up the slight hill at the start was fine, as the sun had been shining on it all day, and it was wet but ice free. As soon as I went over the top of the hill I knew I'd made a mistake, as it was a sheet of ice as far as I could see.

I wasn't going all that fast, but there was no way I could risk braking. I just shifted down a gear and let the car coast down the hill, slowing up as it wanted, with the intent of getting down to a walking pace and continuing on until I could rejoin the main road.

Unfortunately, as I came around the corner halfway down the hill, I found some IDIOT woman had preceded me, lost her nerve, and decided that she would do a three point turn in the middle of a road, on a hill, around a blind corner! So here I was, doing 10 miles an hour down a hill with near enough zero friction, with a car side on a hundred feet away.

The only thing I could do was brake, which of course made all four wheels lock instantly. I then had the choice of sliding into her, or into the ditch. I chose the ditch as the least worst option, hoping that when the wheels hit the side of the road the car would slow down. What actually happened was that the front wheel dug in and the entire car spun 90 degrees and put both front wheels into the ditch, rendering it immovable, although without any damage.

To add insult to injury, the damn lady finished her turn, very slowly drove back up the hill and past me, and as she passed waved and said "Thanks for not hitting me", and left!

The road was so slippery that when I got out of the car I immediately fell over and slid 50 feet on my back. I had to hang onto the car to remain upright. It took more than an hour and the help of some farmers with a landrover to extract the car.

They reclosed the road an hour later and it was shut for another 10 days

pca