The media were calling Friday just gone "Black Friday" due to so many people going out on the razzle for pre-Christmas celebrations. A time when the emergency services would be pushed to their limits around towns all over the country dealing with people a little worse for wear and any incidents resulting from that.
For me Black Friday had a very different meaning.
I, along with my colleagues had been called to the office in the North East for company meetings starting from lunchtime until about 4pm. There was to be a buffet after to round off the year before we headed for home or in my case cross country to the Lake District to collect MB for a few days.
In the morning we had light snow showers, nothing to worry about, and the journey over to Sunderland went smoothly taking the usual 3 hours. It was nice to see the other staff, as being a remote chef I don't get to see anyone from work that often. I took a batch of cupcakes, my stand and some candles as it was our youngest presenters 21st Birthday.
The main meeting was scheduled for 3pm. The company has had it's fair share of troubles this year, pay cuts in July, redundancies in October and I for one thought this was an onwards & upwards kind of meeting to give us a better idea of the way forward in the New Year. I'd been told there were lots of opportunities arising in my area and everyone had been really working hard to secure future bookings and appointments. WRONG!
What we had been asked there to hear was that the company is in Liquidation, and the likelihood is that we will all be out of work. There may be a couple of post for people to help out the liquidators in the office, but that doesn't apply to me, as I don't live anywhere near the office. As much as it wasn't what I was expecting, I can't say it was a total shock, not with all the other things that had gone wrong in the business over the past few months.
The Boss left us to talk among our selves and have our buffet, not that any of us felt much like eating, so we pretty much said our goodbyes, a few tears were shed and we all set off in our own direction.
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| Me, at work. |
I decided not to tell Mr P about my job until I got home. He wasn't feeling at his best and I didn't want him stressing while I was driving. I knew he'd want all the details but all I wanted to do was pick up MB and get home. So I let him know I was setting off and went on my way.
The weather wasn't too bad in Sunderland but the traffic was heavy. My satnav said it was going to take 2 hours to get to the Lakes, I thought that was a little optimistic bearing in mind I was setting off just after 4pm on a Friday when many people would be wanting to get home early to get ready for nights out.
The satnav took me on a different route to the one I've taken before, I'm guessing due to traffic. Unfortunately for me that involved driving through the North Pennines, on the
A686 , through Alston which claims to be the highest market town in England. Don't get me wrong, the scenery was amazing, snow blasted trees, a castle and fields and fields of snow. It was a winter wonderland in the middle of nowhere. It was as if all the snow that had been talked about had landed on this one road and as beautiful as it was, all I wanted was to get off this road and onto a nice big motorway, with lights and lots of traffic. The road I was on was narrow, unlit and pretty much deserted, it has hairpin bends and after Alston it zigzags down hill for miles. Some of the bends are so sharp they have 20 MPH speed limits, and that wasn't taking into account the weather. It was a horrible drive all I could do was slow down and concentrate on the road. I tried to stick to the tracks made by other cars, if i caught the snow in between I could feel the car slide one way or the other. On many parts of this road there are no fences on the roadside even though there are steep drops. I crawled down some very steep sharp bends and finally came to some road that was in comparison less winding. That's when I hit an ice patch and came off the road.
It all happened so quickly but at the same time felt like it was in slow motion. I came off the road and veered towards a mound of snow, hoping that would stop me, but instead I went right over the top I could see a low wall coming towards me, I wondered if that would stop me or if I'd go over the top of that as well, it was probably only about 2 feet high. Thankfully I wasn't travelling at any real speed when I came off the road and the snow mound must have slowed me down some more. I stop at the wall, knocking it down.
The first thought to come into my head was that I had no clue where I was, and bearing in mind that I could see nothing around me, no lights, buildings etc, I may well not have a phone signal.
It was pitch black, the only lights I could see were a long way off (I now know they were light in Penrith, 10 or more miles away) Right in front of the car I could see a bench. I tried to find my phone but couldn't. Everything had shot off the front seat on impact so I had to get out and go round to the passenger side to see if I could find it in the foot well. I was shaking from head to toe. When I got round to the passenger side I literally lost my breath. The bench I had seen in front of my car was there for people to sit and look at the view across the valley. Had I have been a couple of feet to the left my car would have gone between a gap in the wall and down a steep hill. I saw car lights a long way off and a long way down and there was nothing in between. I got back into the car and tried to call Mr P. I was terrified and I kept losing signal on my phone Mr P was very calm. I gave him my coordinates from the satnav and he contacted the insurance company to arrange recovery. I just had to sit tight and wait for a call. I can honestly say I have never been so frightened in my life. Hardly any cars passed, it was pitch black and very cold. I didn't want to risk running the engine as I had no idea what damage had been caused.
A very kind man stopped. He pulled over behind my car and asked if I was OK. He insisted on trying to move the car as he was concerned that, if another car did what I had done My car could have been tipped over the edge. I didn't hesitate in handing over my keys. He moved the car to safety asked me several times if I was sure I was OK and carried on with his journey. He had told me that I'd ended up in a car park, and once he'd moved me I could see behind me there was a cafe, all closed up for the winter but at least I could give Mr P some idea of my location.
The recovery vehicles were having trouble getting to me so Mr P called Cumbria Police. I'd been sat there for a couple of hours and was becoming more frightened as there had been a couple of cars full of 'lads' doing handbrake turns and stupid stunts in the car park. One lot pulled along side my car and asked if I'd hit some thing!?! I told the the Police were on their way and that was enough for them to spin off and leave me alone.
The Police arrived. A lovely Officer in a 4x4 from Bampton. First thing he did was to get me to sit in his car in the warm. He made it very clear to me how lucky I had been. As I'd already worked out for my self, I had come close to going between the gap in the wall, That, he said would have probably resulted in me flipping the car over down the hillside. As he said, I wouldn't have been sitting talking to him in his car, had that been the case, and there's also a strong chance that my car would not have been spotted from the road. He also said that if I'd come off on the bend before or the bend after it would have been a very different outcome. I seem to have picked the 'best' place to have come off as there was a nice stretch of car park for me to come to a stop.
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| Nothing for miles around |
Eventually a recovery vehicle came to pick up the car and transported it, and me safely home.
The car isn't actually too badly damaged, mainly due to the fact that I was going so slowly.
I walked away extremely shaken but totally unharmed. I've very stiff and achy but hardly feel that's anything to complain about.
The Thoughts of what could have been will probably stay with me for sometime. I really was very very lucky to walk away. The thoughts that were going through my head while I was sitting there in the cold and dark don't bare thinking about. The fact I've lost my job just pales into insignificance. The reality of that will catch up with me I know but for now I'm just happy to be alive.
The picture above is where I came off the road. I left the road at the righthand corner of the carpark, crossed that little green island, which was a mound of snow and stopped at the far side where you can see cars parked against the wall. You can't really make out the gap in the wall or tell how steep the hill looks when you're standing in front of it but I have no idea when these pictures were taken. I got them from the
Visit Cumbria website. It's a beautiful place, just not on a dark snowy night.
