A British driver was killed after his Volvo literally flew into a first floor (American translation: second floor) flat (American translation: apartment). The Daily Mail reports that John Gordon entered a roundabout on the A15 in Werrington, Peterborough and somehow clipped a tree. His car became airborne, bounced, somersaulted then crashed backward into the flat's lounge (American translation: living room) which 19-year-old Laura Stevens had vacated literally seconds before. Gordon died of his injuries later that day, but his nine-year-old son escaped with cuts and bruises. There weren't any details about how fast he was going or other contributory factors that would explain how the Volvo managed to achieve liftoff. [Click through for a truly mind-boggling photo. And thanks to Starlightmica for the link.]
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Too bad it wasn’t a Saab. They could use the incident to go along with their “Born From Jets” slogan.
I swear I didn’t read the caption before I posted that.
“first floor (American translation: second floor) flat (American translation: apartment). ”
OK, I get the flat, they called them that in NYC at one time. But when is the 1st floor the second floor? Does it mean that ground level is the lobby and first floor is the first floor where the apartments start?
see, this is why we can’t have roundabouts in the US
First Floor Flat!
Say that ten times fast!
Windswords, I believe that to be the case. When I last went to France, the first floor was the second floor of the ground, but the first floor that actually was the lodging for the hote we were at.
Yeah, in the UK and Spain, and probably the rest of Europe, the lobby doesn’t count as a floor.
The picture doesn’t make it look like a 2-story building though.
windswords:
No. The ground floor is the ground floor. It confused the hell out of me when I moved to Australia (who do floors the British way). I kept going to the wrong floor.
A Hummer H1 wouldn’t have bounced 15 feet off the ground.
When will we ever learn?
“…see, this is why we can’t have roundabouts in the US”
We do have some roundabouts in the US. The regionally famous Carrier Circle in Syracuse immediately exposes those who are not familiar with them. And there are many minor crashes (almost daily) to prove it. But once you get the hang of them, they’re really quite efficient.
A Smart would have bounced over the entire building and landed in a parking space, nose to the curb.
They use this in Canadian buildings to. I learned to think about the floor number as how many floors above the ground.
As a pilot, I find this story especially interesting. People who live around small airports are constantly using any excuse they can to try to get the airport closed. It’s the worst kind of Nimbyism because in 999 out of 1000 cases the airport was there decades before their home was even built. At any rate, they always swear that they live in fear of a plane crashing into their home and killing them.
In fact, you are more likely to get hit by a car in your home than a plane. Most small planes don’tmake it through the roof. And now, we have cars hitting the upper stories. Gotta love it.
A Ford would have been returned to the road after the wall thought about it, but was turned off by the styling and lack of cash rebates in light of massive depreciation.
You gotta love the British press. A story like this would never get the green light from the compassion-fascist editors at 99% of US papers.
The photo is priceless/unique. Funny car wreck photos also seem to be editorially verboten in the US.
Landcrusher,
Glad to hear there are some fellow aviators on the site. Keep airports open!
Try going to Savannah where they have squares. Basically a roundabout with 4 corners. And you have to deal with tourists that have no clue how to use them(driving the wrong way) and horse drawn carriages crawling around them, plus parked cars and clueless pedestians.
Actually you sometimes see the 1st floor up at the second level here in the states. It was a sneeky way to get around the codes several years back and build 6 stories when you were only allowed to build 5 out of combustibles(wood studs). I must have done a dozen projects like that in Atlanta and Florida while was working for a multifamily firm way back when. The codes have changed a lot since then with all the damn apartment fires killing people over the last decade. Don’t you love developers anything to save a buck. Always make sure your apartment is sprinkled, it could cost you your life if it’s not.
Actually I think I am confusing 2 things together, retail had to be at the first level in one case, or you could get away with a Terrace apartment that was half the foot print. Old codes are meant to be reviewed in books and not memorized forever, plus they are boring if you haven’t fallen asleep already. I have been trying to block out those multifamily memories.
I’ll stop before no one ever reads a single post of mine again.