I can't believe that there is another thread from RedMist about rolling his S due to standing water - had almost exactly the same accident, and suspected cause last Thursday.

So, here's the story....

About 3.30pm, rain chucking it down and driving my favourite 2 miles of lane very close to home. If anyone lives near Nuneaton, you may have heard of it - Gypsy lane - which has a bit of reputation for accidents over the years, mainly due to it being NSL, with no lighting, dodgy cambers and some nice bends.

For 18 months, this bit of road is the final flourish for me on my way home from work after the monotony of the M6, so I'm pretty used to what I can get away with. But I got bitten, big style.

There's a nice left hand bend about halfway down the lane with a slight opposite camber and a narrowing of the road. Nevertheless, I've taken that bend at 50-60mph many times in the wet without even a hint of twitchiness.

I guess the SO2's were on their last legs (fleet company won't let me change until they're almost down to the legal limit, anyway), and the rain was very heavy and the road cold. Took the bend at about 50-55 with the car nicely balanced (not accelerating or braking) but as I turned in the back started to drift out to the right.

I'm not really experienced with the tail stepping out (apart from a few carpark fun and games), so tried to correct the slide with more lock. I guess I should have steered into the slide to straighten the car, but I'm not Schumacher and was taken completely by surprise.

The sensation was a sudden loss of grip, and due to the rain I'm pretty certain I hit some standing water and began to aquaplane. Anyway, the car turned about 50-60 degrees in the road and piled up a low embankment (maybe about 2 ft high) with a nice tree at the top. I guess the impact with the tree must have caused both airbags to deploy, and the angle of the bank plus rebound from the tree pushed the car into a roll.

All that I really remember was a few bangs and crashes, airbags filling the car and lots of lurching about. The car landed on its wheels back on the road in the right hand lane about 50yds further on.

After a quick check to ensure I wasn't dead, I got out the drivers door which was undamaged to have a look. Also had a minor panic that it might combust, so thought it wise to get out sharpish.

In the road ahead in the left hand lane was a VW Polo with a small dent to the drivers door, the driver of which approached me (looking a little disoriented) and complaining that I almost killed him. I wasn't sure what had happened, but looking back at my car it was fairly obvious it had rolled.

I've no idea at what point I hit the Polo - I was upside down with an airbag in my face for most of the time, but after he'd calmed down a bit he said that he'd seen me roll twice. That would probably put me on the right hand lane, so makes sense although the experience is completely disorienting.

No serious injuries though to either driver - the guy in the polo was unscathed, just a little shaken. We were both checked over in the ambulance (took just 4 minutes to arrive - pretty impressive), and I had a few small cuts to my hands and the top of my head.

Also had a small bump on the right of my head which I guess must have hit the roof mechanism during the roll. Roof was up (no hardtop), and I'm fairly tall (6'2"), so I'd say I got off very lightly really.

Rear roll bars didn't really do much - the plastic on the passenger side rollbar was cracked, but the main impact seems to have been taken by the windscreen frame, and the passenger door & front wing. The roof frame and door were bent a bit, but the passenger cell was pretty much intact.

One of the paramedics said that she'd never seen serious injuries from a rollover, but was concerned on seeing it was a convertible that had rolled. I'm hugely grateful to honda engineering for making that windscreen frame so tough - would hate to have used my head to support the weight of the car rolling over.

Police attended (3 cars), and blocked the road for an hour or so while everything was cleared away and statements were taken. The Polo was still drivable so the owner went off, the S2000 was taken to the nearest repair centre and pronounced DOA.

I'm most surprised that the engine was still running after it landed, so don't think there's anything seriously wrong with that. And there are a few panels which have escaped unscathed - amazingly both the boot & bonnet are fine, so the weight of the car must have been take on just the roof.

Went to go and see the car yesterday and uninstall my stereo gear and took lots of pics. Just need to sort out some webspace somewhere and upload them.

Be back with the pics shortly...


Oh, and pls be carefull out there in the rain. I feel I knew the car and the road pretty well, but surprises are always there waiting!

 

One other thing I forgot to mention - I got a lift home afterwards from the very friendly police, but they received another call through on the radio, and turned the wrong way initially so I had a fun ride with the Blues & Two's on, barging everyone out of the way so they could drop me home first!

Police car was a diesel Nissan Primera, and took the same bend I'd crashed on an hour earlier much faster than I was going - with it still raining - without even the merest twitch.

So I'm guessing a combination of low tread depths (although still nowhere near the legal limit) and RWD must have been contributing factors...

Be careful out there!

 

You were lucky, Glad you're ok though

 

2 in one week - I starting to get scared

Glad you walked out of it

 

Glad your ok, you can replace a car.

I think the main problem with this and many of the others are THE S02's
And its about time Honda came up with a better all weather rubber for the 00/02

The S02's are ok for the track but not on the roads, especially the amount of rain we have in this country.

dave

 

Sorry to hear about another S, and glad that you got off mostly unscathed. It must have been a little unsettling navigating the same corner after your accident at higher speeds.

I wonder how much of a contributing factor the cold weather was in both these incidents ?

 

I do belive the S02's are a major factor in many cases. They have very little water channels as part of the tread, so when we have water on the road it has now where to go.

I have had 00/02 and now 04 and the difference is I can drive with confidence in my 04

 

Here's the pics - hope this works:































Not sure how long the bandwidth limit on my Pipex DSL account will hold out - I've reduced the image quality down so they load a bit faster - apologies to anyone on dialup.

Looking at the pics, there are a few panels which look okay, but everyone I've spoken to seems convinced this will be a writeoff. I guess the labout costs for fixing it will be the real problem.

 

Glad you're ok

Also nice to know that a driver of my height (6'2") can walk away from a roll - I had wondered

It would be interesting to see a percentage of accidents on the Carpers list for S02s and other tyres. I reckon 95% S02, and 100% of all wet accidents are S02s. There's no way they're going back on my car.

 

Nice pictures - I think it will be a writeoff.

Very glad to hear that you are OK.