Miracle escape for Porsche crash driver

[austin552]

A Porsche driver has spoken of his miraculous escape when a car he was driving plunged down a railway embankment.
Richard Harrison, who lives in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, was driving a Porsche 911 when it crashed through a fence and fell 50ft down a hill, landing right beside a railway line.

The accident, which happened at about 7.30am yesterday on a country road between Harlestone and Church Brampton, caused major delays to train passengers as the railway line was closed for four hours to allow the car to be removed.

Mr Harrison, who walked away from the crash without a scratch, said it was remarkable he had not been hurt.

He said: "It was a very lucky escape. Crashing in a field is one thing but crashing on a railway line doesn't bear thinking about."

According to Mr Harrison, the accident happened after he lost control of his car when it hit a wet patch of road.

He said: "I don't really know what happened next, but I was told I did some somersaults in the air before I came to rest on the railway line.
"I got out of the car as quickly as I could. I was told that I had landed on a power cable that had been disabled only last Sunday.

"It's like they say in the films. It happened so quickly, you don't really take it in. I just wanted to get out of the car as quickly as I could, because I had landed on a railway line."

Police officers questioned Mr Harrison before he walked away from the accident scene, saying he did not want to watch his damaged car being pulled up the embankment.

Sgt Peter Winterflood, of the incident response team, said: "The driver of the car had no injuries; he was extremely lucky.

"We're now investigating what happened, along with our accident investigators and in conjunction with the British Transport Police."

The accident caused major delays to train passengers, as the railway line between Northampton and Rugby was shut for several hours while Network Rail workers removed the car.

Among the commuters caught up in the delays were passengers on a train, which had been brought to a halt only yards from where the Porsche landed.


http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Miracle-escape-for-Porsche-crash.3433936.jp

[johndglynn]

I am pretty sure the driver is a Pelican user - a lucky escape.

That crash site not far from me, or from where Aerkuld used to live.

That will be some mega bill for disruption to the rail line.

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by johndglynn

I am pretty sure the driver is a Pelican user - a lucky escape.

That crash site not far from me, or from where Aerkuld used to live.

That will be some mega bill for disruption to the rail line.

Spot on!

That is only about three or four miles from where I used to live and I used to drive that road everyday. In fact, it's right next door to where a good friend of mine used to live. He owns a silver 996 funnily enough.

Here you go.



The map shows the section of road, the red square by the bridge is the location my friends house. I can't imagine how the driver would end up where he did unless he was going waaaaay too fast and traveled a long way once he lost it. The road from the bridge goes quite steeply downhill in the direction shown and levels out about 200ft away from the bridge at about the point where the slight left/right 'S' bend starts. From there I seem to recall it climbs very gently up towards Church Brampton. In the other direction the road is slightly uphill, but as good as flat. The fast bend is probably 900ft before the bridge, and I reckon you could very easily take it at 70mph. The rail line itself sits in a cutting, probably 30ft below the road level.

Close up view. Again, friend's old house is on the end of the row right next to the railway.

[Aerkuld]

Another view from further out...



Looking at the photo the car is on the sunlight side of the bridge which must be the southside.

Like I say,I've driven that road hundreds of times and I just cannot see how the guy could end up where he did. It's virtually straight!

[livi]

Maybe he was going for a Paris-Dakar stunt. Glad he was not hurt.

[austin552]

Patch of wet pavement???

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by austin552

Patch of wet pavement???

More like his right foot hit a patch of locally increased gravity at the exact moment his brain entered a patch of reduced responsibility if you ask me.

[Aerkuld]

Well, acording to my sister who is a paramedic that works in the area, there have been several accidents on that exact piece of road recently. It seems as though the direction of travel is right to left on those maps/photos and the drivers of the vehicles involved have normally lost control at the bottom of the hill heading up towards the bridge. It seems as though this guy might have been very lucky as the other vehicles normally head off the road on the other side and hit the large tree at the side of the road just before the bridge, often with fatal results.

[SLO-BOB]

964s rock!

[johndglynn]

I was over this way with my kids today so we went down there and had a look at the scene. There is giveaway red paint on various poles, posts ripped up, bits of broken Porsche plastic everywhere. The guy is seriously lucky to be alive.

Standing at the scene you can see how it probably happened. It is not flat and not straight - those sat pics are quite misleading. The road is very bumpy and there is a pronounced hump as it rises up to cross the tracks. Too fast there in a 911 with slightly tall ride height (as the 964 had going by the pics I have seen) would be lights out once the rear started to lift after hitting the hump while the suspension was recovering from compression at the bottom of the hill, especially if one had actually lost it in the right-hander before the hump. Looks like a quick road from the air, but it is not so fast on the ground and demands total respect.

The car managed to travel through an insanely tight slot to avoid hitting the end of the solid bridge wall, which would probably have seriously damaged a driver, or killed him outright at any decent speed. What a lucky guy. Will post some pics or a vid to show you the road surface Mark.

Fresh flowers left at the base of that tree on the right - someone else was not so lucky.

[johndglynn]

Some more pics, look at the space he went through where the copper is standing - it really was a miracle:

[Aerkuld]

John - I have to say that my impression at the time of my first post were that he was traveling from left to right, probably because that is the most likely direction to be carrying a lot of speed in my opinion. From my recollection that part of the road is relatively straight and flat if a little downhill. I later came to the conclusion it must have been the opposite direction of travel which was confirmed by my sister. She said that what has happened in the past is that people have come out of Church Brampton, accelerated hard once they leave the restricted speed zone and lost it at the bottom of the hill about where you are suggesting. She says that there is a small bridge over a stream at the bottom of the hill which at high speed would likely make the vehicle lift slightly which would make the steering or backend go light. This then makes negotiating the next little kink much more difficult, if not impossible, while maintaining control of the vehicle. Apparently the incident she had in mind, which was probably the one linked to the flowers that you saw, the vehicle was estimated to have been traveling at about 100mph according to the police accident investigation team. She had a bit more detail here but it wasn't plesant and probably doesn't warrant discussion. I will tell you that I have never even considered driving that fast through there, so the road must be worse than the pictures suggest and I can believe it is probably not as level as I am remembering. I can easily imagine it's one of those instances where it's relatively easy to drive that road at legal speeds (60mph), but once you start pushing it 20 or 30mph over that it would get nasty quickly.
I was stuggling to see how a car could end up down there and your pictures confirm the lack of an obvious path. It does seem that the guy was extremely lucky to have missed a multitude of posible objects and it was a very small gap that the car managed to get through in order to end up where it did.
Thanks for the additional photo's and information. If you are able to get a piece of video showing that road it would be interesting for me if only for memories sake.

Thanks - Mark.

[johndglynn]

Originally Posted by Aerkuld

Thanks for the additional photo's and information. If you are able to get a piece of video showing that road it would be interesting for me if only for memories sake.

No prob mate, I will go back and do it but I think the fastest I would be any way comfortable through there is a lot less than the ton - it is a mad bit of road. I can't understand why there isn't the usual Northants barrage of signs and crash barriers in there - from googling I reckon it is three deaths or more a year at that spot.

Lucky guy!