I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The worry now is how much has the towing link and the structure of the trailer been weakened by this. I presume the part that drops over the tow ball will need replacing because those are cheap pressed steel. OTOH they seem to be regarded as maintenance parts and are fairly cheap to get hold of.

Have you upgraded your vocabulary to "industrial" to tell them what you think of half-sighted drivers?

%steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Have you seen the price of an auto-reverse hitch?

No point. He seemed to be doing a good enough job of beating himself up.

When it comes down to it, the worst that can happen is that I get squared- up with what I paid for the trailer. Change from a ton and a half.

Nobody's hurt, and nobody else's vehicle or property is damaged.

Last I heard was that it was all out of the ditch. Trailer & 2cv moved to layby by the farmer who used his loader to remove the Pug from the ditch. It drives, but is very ex.

The back seat of a stripy Volvo was in use...

Oh dear is that a DWDCA coming on?

Ooops. Nearly made that mistake coming out of work once, and never again: it's double white-lined to stop overtaking up the (steep) hill, but that doesn't stop a few fuckwits.

Probably the better choice.

D'oh indeed.

Weep gently, but with dignity :-)

Can't be too hard to repair the trailer, I'd have thought, and the rest isn't yours....

This is the important bit. Cars , however much you may get attached to them, are repairable or replaceable lumps of metal. People aren't.

Chris Bartram gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Turns out I misunderstood. The 4x4 was in front, and slammed the anchors on, reason unknown. And there wasn't enough stopping distance...

Chris Bartram gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

You could say that.

Like I said, ditch the lesser of 2 evils. Lucky escape for the 2cv.

Got the trailer back yet?

Chris Bartram gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Yup.

It was going to be away for a few weeks anyway, purely for logistical reasons.

Adrian this will provide you a grin a day for the rest of your life, main thing is no one was hurt. They will never live it down lol

Heh.

Just got back from a trip to Norway where one of the party managed to put two cars in the ditch in two days. Except the ditch is covered by several feet of soft snow.

Fortunately they both merely required digging and towing, though the second one did require a few hours work.

He wasn't allowed to drive again :-)

Meanwhile I discovered even little toyotas have traction control which starts with a light flickering and then starts chirping if it really doesn't like you. Cue shouting at it "Stop whining, it's a snow/ice covered mountain road, what do you expect?". OTOH even studless winter tyres seem pretty good (some kind of Conti) - I think we had to use the plastic mats once.

For some reason I expected more out of a modern 1.4 TD though - couldn't maintain 2nd on some of the hills, and really ran out of puff on the motorway.

Back in the UK, and I got a go in a new Astra. Brrrrr. Crap rear visibility, fairly weak petrol engine (5 up probably doesn't help there), freaky "handbrake" switch, tacky chrome, far too many buttons, but the much criticised indicators weren't a problem at all.

I'm sorry to say that my first thought was, "that'll mostly polish out." :)