A busy and dangerous dual carriage way (East Kilbride express way) near me has had more than it share of strange "how the **** did he/she manage to do that ?!!!" type accidents. The majority seem to involve older Fiat Puntos spinning out under braking in the wet ----- I strongly suspect the cause is the Fiat rear brake pressure valve failing in the full on postion.

I passed that shunt today as well. Not really a bend in the road at that bit - just before the right hander going down the hill. He/She was lucky in that a Police 5 Series was about 200 yards behind her going down the hill.

I thought the pressure valve stopped being used when the Uno faded away

Interesting. Not sure about Puntos but I managed to spin my Fiat Coupe a couple of weeks ago - went round one corner pretty quick, only to find there was another straight after it (didn't know the road as well as I thought!!). I must have braked fairly hard I think, but suddenly found myself spinning round - nice 360, caught the kerb slightly, finished on the wrong side of the road, drove over to the right side, got out and had a look and had not done any damage, but I have wondered since why it happened. There may have been some ice or diesel on the road, but maybe the back brakes locked up (although it has abs so shouldn't do). I keep thinking that a nose heavy, front wheel drive car with good tyres on the back and fronts in need of replacement should not spin! It is not easy to get the back end out even when trying, but I don't want to repeat the spin on a road - a nice big airfield with large run off area might be OK!

[Edited on 1/12/05 by andyps]

there is an ordinary looking bend not far from here that i used to pass each day to work. I once had a tank slapper on it and didnt even touch the brakes of push limits. Then over the next two years I saw 6 or more crashed cars who didnt make it. I have no idea why the road was like that - it must just have been a poor surface once it was damp.

atb

steve