Friday 18th May 2012 - 1500hrs. Today we were slowly making our way on the A22 Autostrada approaching Verona when an Italian in a BMW X1 approaching us from behind fell asleep at the wheel and after bouncing off the central reservation ploughed into the rear of us at vey high speed. The impact was so severe that Piccolo and the trailer was pushed inside the rear of the motorhome and then fortunately the safety couplings snapped along with the trailer emergency brake and both car and trailer bounced away from us ending up resting against the central reservation. My skid pan training kicked in big style as we initially swerved onto two wheels before coming to rest on the hard shoulder about 100yds further down. After several body parts stopped twitching uncontrollably we donned our reflective vests which are compulsory to carry and put Bradley securely in his harness. Ironically there seemed an air of peace as looking back along the Autostrada everything had come to a halt and there looked complete carnage and there was Bradley wagging his tail very calmly thinking he was going for a walk!. I stayed with Lorraine for a while who travelling on the offside saw everything in her mirror and was very upset. A couple of Italian motorists then walked down to us explaining that the driver of the BMW had fallen asleep and it was common for this to happen. Lorraine then attempted to call the police and I walked back towards the BMW surprised to see the driver stood up talking on his mobile phone… he didn't want to make eye contact with me but after I asked if he was OK he realised I was going to be perfectly civil about this. He could speak good English thank goodness and worked for a British Company in Worcester.
In Italy we were soon to find out they deal with things totally different than on UK motorways and within a few minutes recovery trucks and emergency highway vehicles were on scene with a very nice man in full reflectives and Rayban sunglasses taking charge of things. After they had established there were miraculously no injuries the road was opened again and we all had to start dodging two lanes of passing motorway traffic… but where were the police?. Piccolo and the trailer were being recovered and it was amazing to see the speed everything was being done.
Eventually two police cars arrived so with notepad in hand I found the Sergeant in charge and after he had lit his cigarette I grabbed the other driver as a translator and eventually established that there was going to be no police report and as there was no injury then the whole thing would be dealt with by the Highways Agency (The nice man in the Raybans!). The other ironic thing was that none of the three policemen wore any safety or reflective clothing but made the other driver put his on!.
Piccolo and trailer were now on the back of the recovery truck which then started to hook up the BMW and we were all told to drive to the nearby service area 500 metres further to sort out all the paperwork. As soon as I pulled away in the motorhome I realised it wasn't driving right and after all it was about 6 inches shorter with a twisted body and almost 2 thirds of all the inside furniture and woodwork severely damaged.
After filling out an extensive report I was handed all copies with the nice man in Raybans supplying me with various photo copies (Where was the photocopier?) He even gave Lorraine a hug to make sure she was OK. My heart lifted again when the other driver wrote with witnesses that he accepted full responsibility and signed the statement. He was genuinely apologetic and I did shake his had at the end coz I'm like that but I did keep him away from Lorraine for a while!.
So, after recovery to a commercial Volvo dealership in a small village beside the A22 we found a really nice hotel next door that had already heard of our plight and lifted their 'Sorry Dogs not Allowed' rule and left us have a nice room for the night.
So, what happens next?. Its the weekend first and that means everything in Europe slows right down so we have been told not to expect anything until Monday. What is for certain is that our adventure has to be postponed whilst everything is sorted out and they get us back to the UK but we have time to reflect and maybe there will be something happening again soon!
Big thank you to everyone who has been following us and sending us such lovely messages, we are all fine and in good spirits, so watch this space you never know!
Pictures of incident here
Caio
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