Yesterday, we all got up early in the Baloo Household. I went to work in Birmingham (we live in Bedfordshire) and left the house at about 6:20. My wife and the kids got into the other car about an hour later to drive to Norfolk to visit my MIL.

I spoke with my wife at about 9:00 and she said she had stopped for our 4 y.o. to go to the restroom. She would call and leave a message for me as I was in a meeting all morning.

When my meeting let out at 1pm, there was no message for me. I was worried (she should have been there by 10) so I called. Sarah had skidded out of control at 70 miles an hour, crashed into the barrier, and spun 180 degrees landing in the barrier again (with our 2 and 4 year old in the back). They were attended by 3 police cars, 2 fire engines and an ambulance. Thankfully they all walked away with no physical injuries!!! When I found out I was feeling sick and Sarah thought I would be angry. To the contrary, I was so relieved they were all alright. My family are my world! Thank god they are fine. But man, i am really impressed with the Octavia (1.8t 20v L&K automatic estate). If it was any other car, I fear I could have lost my family.

I wanted to go home to be there when they got home, but wife insisted I stay at work and go to my meetings as planned. I obliged and left the office at 6:15 (early for me, but I wanted to get home). I stopped to fuel up at 7pm and just after I pulled out of the petrol station, my foot slipped onto the brake and a guy went into the back of my 4 week old Superb L&K!!!!

The chrome exhaust is buckled and the bumper is shot. He near enough totalled his car. Injury wise, I hurt 3 of my knuckles on the right hand

When I have told people they cannot believe it and think I had a really unlucky day. But do you know what, I feel very blessed yesterday. Ok, there are some pieces of work that we will need to do to sort out the cars, and of course there will be some costs, but I am blessed because bar being shaken up and my minor injuries, we all walked away and have each other.

Materialistically it was a bad day, but in many other ways, I was blessed yesterday. But I am really impressed with the safety of the Skodas - just don't try this at home!

Today's a new day, let's hope it gets better.

Sorry to hear about this buddy. :( Glad you and your family are alrite, thats the most important thing. You are very unlucky to have two accidents i one day, i imagine the odds are pretty low!

Sorry to hear mate, glad everyone is alright.

i'm glad to hear that you and the family are ok. a family is irriplacable where-as a car is only a piece of metal.

Bad news! Happy to hear that you and your family are fine...damaging your cvar is one thing but if family get hurt that is just the worst!!!

I hope you get all things sorted.

The Octy MKI is an surprisingly strong car, glad you are all ok. I walked out of my octy with only a few injuries and there was nothing left of the car.

As said main thing is that everyone is safe.

:eek: glad to hear use all walked away from this.. maybe someones watching over use?

Glad everyone is ok, hope you get everything sorted smoothly but like you say its the people that are the things that matter.

Perhaps it was a full moon?

Nice to hear everyone is OK ......went shopping last night ...on the way there we saw a car just being rescues after smashing into a tree..........coming back from shopping came round a tight corner and a young lady had skiddeed and .....you guessed it smashed into a tree (not a good thing to do in a Peugeot 106) she was a bit shaken but otherwise OK.....drove home slowly after that

Certainly sends a shiver down the spine reading about accidents with kids in the car. Very glad to hear all OK.

Glad to hear everyone is okay and you have your priorities right. Cars are replaceable, family isn't.

When I found out I was feeling sick and Sarah thought I would be angry. To the contrary, I was so relieved they were all alright.

That what my GF said when she rolled my 405. She thought I would be mad (well I was not happy!), but I was more concerned that she was ok. Fortuantely when she climbed out of the car (it came to rest on the drivers side), the passenger door fell and gave her a bash on the head I guess the car has the final word on the matter!

Nice to see that everyone safe, & I bet the Kids will now buckle up without a word of protest.

I know whow awkward youngsters can be , getting them into safety seats . I hope they are not having nightmares.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. The kids are having a blast playing car crash games with their diecast car, and as far as they are concerned, they thought it was cool to ride in Mater (from Disney Pixar's Cars). My wife was shaken when she drove my car the next day (due to my injuries, I couldn't drive for a couple of days).

The Octavia is a write off :( but at least my family is fine . Hopefully the Superb should be fixed next week and the Octavia settlement is supposed to happen next week too.

My BIL reckons Skodas are now unlucky for us, but these accidents have made me a Skoda man more than ever. For my family to walk out of a crash that would have been fatal 10 years ago, I love Skoda more than ever!

Here are the pictures of the Octavia crash if anyone is interested:

Kodakgallery.co.uk

Here are the pictures of the Octavia crash if anyone is interested:

Kodakgallery.co.uk*Slideshow

Just looked at the first two photos and thought it wasnt too bad. Then I got to the third one :(

Still, seems like she did what she was designed to do I suppose

Just looked at the first two photos and thought it wasnt too bad. Then I got to the third one :(

Still, seems like she did what she was designed to do I suppose

Absolutely, the car took the impact rather than the family!!!! I am even more impressed with Skoda more now than ever.

Your octy looks very much in one piece for the impact you described.

As already said, sad as it is to see your car like that it did it's job.

Well pleased that everyone's ok. And scoring this as another hit for my general view that Folksam crash ratings (derived from real World shunts) are much more important than EuroNCAP ratings!