Incident 10

Incident 10 - Two cars meet on a hill

Please note that these photos were taken some four years after the event. I have used a vehicle to try to represent the locations of the two cars involved. You will have to use your imagination to see them as a Toyota Carina and a BMW 3 series! I enclose a few photos to show what Stuck Lady was wearing, so that you do not have to use your imagination for that as well!

I think the lane has been tarmaced in the intervening years, as there was definitely mud between the edge of the tarmac and the bank at the time. The tarmac now seems to go right across to the bank (certainly on the up hill side), although it was covered in leaves and therefore still slippery when I visited!

Stuck Lady was wearing this dress, along with these shoes and stockings when she got herself involved in the real stuck incident! (she wore a black jacket on this day, as we had been to a funeral)

Details of Incident 10 - Two cars meet on a hill

Stuck Lady and I had been to a funeral. She was wearing a tight fitting corset under a straight plain black dress, black Contessa stockings and black high heels. She drove back from the funeral and we had a look around a small village that we do not normally have time to stop and look at. She was driving a Toyota Carina E front-wheeled drive car (as seen in Photo set 6).

After looking at some of the nicer houses in and around the village, we then went along a back lane before turning up Grove Lane. It was pretty narrow and we were travelling very slowly, still looking at houses. After a few hundred yards, Stuck Lady said: "I can not look at the houses anymore, as I need to carefully watch the road. It's so very narrow I have no view of any vehicles coming around the tight bends”.

She drove slowly up the hill past the last house in the village, and around the last of the bends. The lane was then straight and almost flat for a short distance, before starting to climb up a steeper gradient. There was then a slight right hand bend just after which the gradient eased slightly before the lane continued straight until it approached the junction with the main road about 100 yards further on.

As she approached the bend at the top of the steepest part of the hill, a car turned off of the main road and came down the lane towards us. The lane was single track, with sloping grass banks on both sides and hedges. About 20 yards in front of us there was a slightly wider section, where cars have obviously passed each other in the past, as it was muddy next to the grass bank. She headed for this section and pulled over to the left and stopped. The road at this point was still on the steepest part of the hill, it being just prior to where the gradient eased.

However, Stuck Lady stopped a bit too soon, because the car was still on an angle heading in towards the grass bank, and her front wheel was on the mud very close into the bank. The rear of the car still projected out across most of the lane, and there was not enough room between the rear of our car and the opposite grass bank for this oncoming car to pass. She realised that she needed to move up the hill a bit, to get the rear of the car a bit further over towards the hedge, and so she let up her clutch as the other car was getting close to us. Immediately her front nearside wheel span in the mud and she did not move. She stopped straight away, as the other car was now starting to come past. I saw that there was a woman driving it. The woman looked rather worried that she could not fit through the gap between the rear of our car and the bank on her nearside, as she was leaning towards the windscreen looking from side to side at the front corners of her bonnet.

As she got her drivers door level with ours she stopped. As she did so Stuck Lady said: “I hope she can get through, I don’t know if I can move”. The woman then obviously decided that she could not make it through the gap, and so she stopped. Her front offside wing was about level with our rear offside wheel. However, because our car was still on an angle and we were not stopped parallel to the grass bank, our rear wing was jutting further out into the lane, reducing the gap that was available for the other lady to drive through. It was obvious that she would hit our car if she carried on, as the gap between the two cars was pretty narrow even by the drivers’ doors.

The other lady then tried to reverse back up a little way, presumably to get away from our car and to allow Stuck Lady to try and pull further forwards. I am not sure if she would have realised that Stuck Lady had tried to pull further up as she had approached us. She probably did realise, as obviously we would not have deliberately left the rear of the car jutting out so far on purpose!

The other lady looked over her shoulder behind her, and then tried to reverse. Her car did not move and she started to look very worried as her rear wheel started to spin on the mud on her side of the passing place She was driving a BMW and it was rear wheel drive, so that, coupled with the fact that she was trying to reverse on mud, back up a hill was pretty likely to result in a spin!

She could not go backwards, and after spinning her wheel non-stop for about 15 seconds, she gave up and stopped. I knew that this was now going to be fun as it was obvious that Stuck Lady could move forward either. She said to me: “Oh I don’t like this much. I don’t think I am going to be able to move up any more to make more room for her”.

I started to get rather excited by the prospects of what might happen next, especially when I watched as she tried to pull away. Her left leg was stretched out almost straight, pressing the clutch down. Her black dress was not quite covering her stocking tops. Her left thigh looked lovely, all tight and firm and covered in a stocking that was being pulled tight at the side of her leg by her rear suspender. She lifted up her leg and accelerated to try and move up the hill to give the other car enough room to pass. As soon as she did so, her nearside wheel started to spin again in the mud. She accelerated a bit more to try and get out of the mud, but it made no difference, the car did not move an inch. She realised that she was stuck as she said: “I can’t move, I’m stuck on the mud”. She looked quite worried and had gone a little red in the face. I think she realised that she now had quite a problem!

The other woman then started to edge forward. She must have realised that our car was stuck as well. She slowly moved forwards a few feet and then stopped again. The front of her car was now only about a couple of inches from the rear wing of ours, and it was obvious to her (and to us) that it was impossible for her to get through.

She then tried to reverse again. She looked over her shoulder and carried on doing so as she let up her clutch. I heard her wheel starting to spin and again she did not move. She was now completely trapped, unable to move forwards because the gap in front of her was too small, and unable to reverse due to spinning her wheels.

She put her window down and said to Stuck Lady “Are you stuck as well. I can’t move forwards or backwards”. Stuck Lady said: “Yes, I am on some mud and my wheels just can’t get enough grip. I only need to be able to move a foot or so and you would be able to get by”

I leant across slightly and said: “We will try to go backwards, it’s our only hope”

To get out of this problem, the obvious answer was for us to drive back exactly in a straight line. Provided that we stayed in a straight line, we would miss the BMW (just) and head back into the centre of the road. We could then go back far enough to take a faster run at the hill. Our momentum would then take us further up into the passing place, allowing the BMW to get passed us. We would probably spin trying to move away afterwards, but if that happened, then we could always reverse back into the centre of the road again, once the BMW had gone on its way.

However, I suddenly had a very devious thought! Later when I thought about it, I was really impressed with myself with having had this idea so quickly, on the spur of the moment, so to speak!

I suggested to Stuck Lady that the easiest way out of the problem was to get her front nearside wheel off of the mud, as she would then be able to drive off up the hill.

She said: “Go straight backward you mean?”

I said: “No, not straight back, as the wheel will still be on the mud for quite a distance, while you are parallel to the hedge. You need to turn the steering wheel to the left, and then very slowly allow the car to roll backwards. The front of our car will start to move towards the side of this ladies car, so you will have to be careful. However, you will only need to move back about a foot to be off of the mud. You will then be able to turns your front wheels so that they are straight and then carefully pull away up the hill, but driving on the tarmac road and without any more problems. If you don’t turn off of the mud, you will have to reverse much further back before the wheel gets onto the tarmac, and you will need to watch very carefully that you don’t scrape down the front wing of this ladies car. I think it will be much easier for you to just go back about a foot or so with the wheel turned sharply, so that you off the mud as soon as possible”

She replied: “I don’t like it, I wish you would drive”. I told her that neither of us could get out of the cars and anyway, she only had to move a foot or so, and then she would be able to drive away.

She said: “Okay, I will try”. The other lady had been listening and said: “I think that makes sense, and will be easier than trying to reverse right back the whole way”

There was an element of risk in this idea of mine, in that it might actually work! I was hopeful that she would not be able to move back and sideways enough to get her nearside wheel off of the mud, as she only had about two feet between the front offside wing of our car and the rear offside wing of the BMW.

I told her to turn the steering wheel hard to the left before she started to move which she did. I then I watched as she let off the handbrake and using the brake pedal, allowed the car to very slowly run back on an angle so that the front of it moved slowly nearer and nearer to being parallel with the BMW. She stopped just before the two cars were actually level or parallel, which meant that she had not gone back quite as far as it was technically possible to do. There was then a slightly better chance that her front nearside wheel was still on the mud!

She stopped with the cars now only a matter of inches apart at the back of ours, and about a foot apart at the front. I told her to straighten her steering wheel and then to pull away normally.

She turned the steering wheel straight and then dipped the clutch and selected first gear. She was about to release the handbrake when she looked at the other woman and said: “Well here goes, I hope I can make it”. The lady replied: “You will be fine”.

I looked down and watched her lovely long left leg as it was stretched out almost straight whilst pressing down on the clutch. Her stocking top was still showing below the hem of the dress, which was still stretched tightly across her thighs. She had a very worried look on her face and was sat a bit more upright in her seat than how she normally sits when driving. She appeared to be really quite nervous and was obviously worried about moving off, or about hitting the BMW!

Her left leg started to lift up and she slowly released the handbrake. The revs were quite low and it was obvious that she was trying to do a really gentle start. However, almost immediately, her wheel lost traction and started to spin. She called out “Oh no, it’s still spinning”. I quickly commented “Keep trying, don’t stop”.

She allowed the wheel to carry on spinning but the car just did not move. She did not increase the pressure on the accelerator, as I would have expected, but just allowed it to carry on spinning at it’s fairly slow speed. She said: “It no good, I’m still stuck”. I relied: “Dip the clutch down and up again to try and get some grip, but don’t stop whatever you do”

She pressed her left leg down and immediately lifted it up again. The wheel momentarily stopped spinning but then started again. She dipped the clutch three or four times. I told her to give it more a few more revs. She then pressed the accelerator a bit more but stopped dipping the clutch. I said: “Keep on with the clutch dipping, and try rocking in your seat like I showed you once before - be more aggressive - go on, really go for it, or else we really will be stuck here all day”.

She replied “Oh God no, please car come on, get some grip pleaseeeeeee”

She then gave one of the best displays of rocking that I had seen for ages. She held the steering wheel really tightly and whilst lifting the clutch up and down, began rocking in her seat. I started to do the same in my seat to encourage her!

We both then felt the car slither forwards a few inches. She called out “It’s working, we are moving”. I said: “Well don’t stop then. Keep going like that, but be rougher with it. You can’t hurt anything, press the accelerator up and down in time with the clutch”

She then started pumping the accelerator pedal as well, lifting her right foot completely off of the accelerator pedal and then almost stamping on it straight afterwards, whilst lifting her left leg up and down on the clutch. All this time her wheel had continued to spin round and round in the mud, clumps of which now started flying up under the car and making quite a noise.

The extra leg movements had a beneficial effect on the hem of her dress as well, as it had ridden further up her thighs, and now almost all of her stocking tops were on display! I could see from the shape of them that the welts on the top of both thighs were being pulled up into the shape of a ‘mountain top’ as they disappeared up under the hem of her dress. I could also make out the bobbles of her suspender straps under the fabric of her dress just above the hem. The best bit of all was the fact that on the outside of her left thigh (facing towards me) her stocking top was even wider that on top of her thigh. It curved round towards the side of her leg and disappeared under the hem just before where her rear suspender was obviously attached. There was even a little bare flesh showing above the stocking top directly on the side of her leg. What a lovely site!

Stuck Lady carried on this fantastic show of being stuck and rocking for well over a minute and a half. She is a confident driver in normal circumstances, but in a pressure situation like this, she gets in rather a panic.

She then said: “I really am stuck. We are not moving anymore and I am doing exactly what you told me to. Can I stop, my left leg is really killing me, pumping this pedal up and down”

I said: “Okay stop for a minute then”

She stopped and gave out a great big sigh as she reached for the handbrake and put it on. She looked at me and was obviously about to break into tears.

The other driver said: “Well, you gave that everything. I would not have known that was what you were supposed to do when stuck like that. You did really well. I am sorry you did not make it, you deserved to”.

Stuck Lady replied: “Thanks, but what do we do now?”

I looked across and saw that the divers door mirrors on each car were almost toughing each other’s car. I realised that if we tried to reverse our car straight back, keeping it parallel with the other car, that after about four feet, the wing mirrors would collide.

I again had to think quickly. I suggested that our only hope now was for us to slowly reverse straight back, and that this would free us, as there was nothing to stop us going straight backwards. Stuck Lady suddenly seemed to brighten up realizing that there was still one more option to get us on our way. She sounded very cheerful as she said: “Okay, that’s a good idea. I will go slowly”. The other lady said: “You are brilliant, I had not thought of that” and she suddenly seemed to be very happy as well!

Without any further prompting Stuck Lady selected reverse and was about to let off the handbrake, when I said: to her: “You will need to go really slowly”. She replied: “Yeah, I know, I am alright about this now”

She let off the handbrake and the car started to slowly run back down the hill. She was carefully watching over her right shoulder making sure that she stayed parallel with the other car. I was carefully watching the two door mirrors getting nearer to each other. When they were only about 9 inches apart I called out “Stop”. She immediately braked and turned to me and said: “What’s the matter I am fine”. I said: “No you are not, your two mirrors are about to collide”. She looked at them and said: “Oh my God you are right, I was so busy looking out behind I did not see that. What do I do now?” I said: “You will have to try and go forwards a foot or two and then swing out a few inches to miss them”

She replied: “But will I be able to move forwards?” I said: “I don’t know until you try it”

She put the handbrake on, selected first gear and slowly let up the clutch. Almost immediately her wheel started to spin. She said: “Oh no, not again, please get some grip, I only need to move about a foot or so”.

However, her wish was not granted, as the car refused to move at all, the wheel just continued spinning round and round. Without me saying anything she started to increase the speed and then even started pumping the clutch and accelerator all over again. She even did a few rocks backwards and forwards in her seat. It did not make any difference and she stayed exactly where she was with the mud still flying up under the car as before.

She gave up after about 30 seconds and said: “Well that’s it then, now I am really stuck. I can’t move forwards or backwards and neither can this lady. God I wish I had never started looking at houses around here and had gone straight on home after the funeral. What shall we do now?”

I said: “I am not sure. Perhaps I could try and get out and seen what is going on”

I opened my car door as far as it would open, which was not very far, due to the grass bank being adjacent to it. I managed to wriggle out and then looked at the front wheel of our car. I was amazed that it was so muddy. The side of the tyre was completely covered in mud. There was a slight rut where the tyre sat down in the dip between the edge of the tarmac and the start of the grass bank. I could not have positioned the wheel in a better place to get stuck if I had wanted to. There was also a smaller rut a couple of feet further up and slightly nearer to the bank. This was obviously where she had got stuck originally.

I then walked around the front of our car and across the lane to the grass bank on the nearside of the BMW. Her rear wheel was also quite muddy and there was a narrow patch of grass that she had stopped on. It was much smaller than that patch on our side and not as muddy. There was only about two or three feet to reverse, before the tyre would be back on the tarmac.

I squeezed along the side of her between it and the bank/hedge and asked her to put down her front passenger window. I looked in and said: “It’s much less muddy on your side and you only need to move back about a foot to get onto the tarmac. I will give you a push and tell you what to do, just like my wife did. You are now our only hope, as her car can not move as you saw, and you can’t go forwards”

She said: “Well I will give it a try, but I don’t think I will be very good at it”. I reassured her that it was not difficult, if she did what I told her. I explained about trying to time the pedals moving up and down at opposite times, and the idea of rocking back and forth in her chair was that she did it at the same time as she let the clutch up, to try and build up some momentum.

She now looked a little worried and my wife obviously saw this and said to her “You will be fine, it’s easy once you try. I do hope you can get back”.

I reminded the lady that she needed to turn her steering wheel hard to the right so that the front of her car moved away form our car, in order for the two drivers door mirrors to miss each other. I reassured her that her front wing would miss the bank.

She turned the steering wheel as requested and then started to let up the clutch. I was watching her rear wheel and immediately it started to slip around in the mud, nice and slowly to start with. I looked back into the car and told her to dip the clutch for a moment. I watched as she straightened her left leg out to press the clutch pedal right down. She was wearing blue coloured jeans along with black high-heeled ankle boots. Her jeans were nice and tight around her legs and so she looked lovely, although with quite a concerned look on her face.

She asked if she should try again and I asked her to start slowly, but then to increase the power a little if she did not move. Again her wheel started to spin round in the mud and the car stayed exactly where it had been. I indicated to try a little more speed, which she did. The wheel went faster but nothing else moved. I asked her “Try rocking it gently like I told you”. She started lifting the clutch up and down and seemed to immediately get the hang of balancing the two pedals opposite each other. The car started to rock in the rut that she had made but still did not move back. I said: “I will push as well, try rocking in your seat as well to try to get some momentum”.

I started to push on the frame of the door, but still managed to look in at her. She was quite good! Her upper body rocked backwards and forwards in the car seat, in time with her lifting the clutch pedal. She could obviously feel the car rocking in the rut and I assumed felt that it would not take much more rocking to get it up and out over the lip of the rut. She start talking to the car saying “Come on, come on, you can do it”, followed by “Nearly there, come on, one last tiny bit, please”. She looked at me as much as to ask whether she should keep on trying. I shouted “Don’t stop, keep rocking, you are nearly there”. She carried on straightening her left leg and then raising it on the clutch pedal, whilst still trying to rock as hard as she could in her seat.

Her difficulty was that trying to rock a car backwards is more difficult, as the back of the seat stops you rocking in that direction as much as you want to. However, she did not give up and so I called to her to accelerate even more.

She still had the steering wheel hard round to the right and as a result she was also making it a bit harder for herself, as she was trying to go backwards whilst at the same time the front wheels were trying to go sharply towards the bank. In actually fact the front wing was almost tight against the grass bank and that was part of the reason why she was having so much difficulty getting back. I dare say that had she been just trying to go straight back she might have made it with the amount of rocking and power that she was using. The fact that she had to turn so sharply to try and avoid reversing her door mirror into our mirror was what was making all the difference about her getting out or not.

What a good thing that I had managed to persuade Stuck Lady to turn sharply off of the mud and swing the front towards the BMW, or else the stuck show would have been over quite a while ago!

Even with all her best (and they were good) efforts, she realised that she still could not back out, and she started to almost cry. She knew that this was both women’s last chance without having to call for some kind of help from a farmer or someone. I think it was dawning on her that she had failed and would have to face the embarrassment of asking for help, because she called out to the car “Please move back, I don’t want to get a tow, please get me out of here”.

I realised that I had probably taken this as far as I could, having had the best ‘double header’ of rocking action ever!

I therefore told her to stop for a rest for a minute. Before I could tell her my plan she said: “That’s it we are both totally suck here now. I have never been completely stuck before. I once span my wheels on the snow for a short distance but that’s it. I have never been somewhere like this where I cannot move my car at all, whichever way I try. What do we do now? Please tell me we don’t have to sit here while you go and find a farmer. There will be other cars coming along here going to pick their kids up from school like me. We are blocking the whole lane, and cars will continue coming down here, as they will not know that we are both stuck. They will think that we have stopped to have a chat. They then won’t be able to reverse back up all that distance, not with lots of them, all one behind the other. They will see it is my car and I will get so much grief at school. Are you sure there is nothing else that we can try. I am now really desperate to get out of here and I expect your wife is as well”

I said: “Well I do have one last suggestion”. She said: “I will do it whatever it is”. I said: “I could put your floor mat under the wheel to see if you can get some grip on that. We could also try turning the steering wheel back slightly, towards the middle, but you to would need to watch the mirrors very carefully” She said: “I understand the mat but how will turning the steering wheel help. Won’t I just hit the mirror?”

I said: “Not if you are careful. Part of the problem is that you are trying to drag the car back up a hill with the front wheels turned so sharp that you are pulling the front of the car into the grass bank. If we eased that a little, there might still be enough room for the mirrors to miss, but you would be heading back in slightly more of a straight line. That would be easier for the car”

She replied: “Okay, I see what you mean, but I wish you would drive it, I am scared stiff about hitting your mirror”.

I told her that she would be better at doing it as she knew the car and in any case I was stronger and better able to push more than she would be able to.

She said: “Okay I had better stay driving, and leave you to push”

I reminded her that I needed to put the mat under the wheel. She reached over to the passenger side and pulled up the floor mat. She said: “I forgot you wanted one of these. I am so keen to get on with this and get out of here”

She handed me the mat and I placed in behind the rear nearside wheel. I tried to force in back and under the tyre as much as I could, as I really did now want her to be able to get out. Once it was in place I stood back up and turned to hold onto the doorpost between the two nearside doors.

She put her car in reverse gear and started to try to reverse again, having turned the steering back slightly towards the centre. Her wheels started to spin, and immediately (and without me asking her to), she started rocking in her seat and dipping the clutch up and down as before. It was obvious that she really was very desperate to get out this time. On about the fourth or fifth lift of the clutch the rear wheel suddenly caught some grip from the floor mat and the car jolted backwards slightly. It was enough to cause her to stall the car, but when I told her to look again at the mirrors, she agreed that she had moved back enough to enable our car to reverse back parallel to her to get passed her.

I therefore walked around to the front and asked Stuck Lady to reverse slowly straight back. I could immediately see when looking down the sides of both cars, that there was just about enough of a gap for the mirrors to miss each other. She slowly allowed our car to roll back and once the mirrors were clear of each other, she allowed our car to speed up slightly. Once she was back far enough to be clear of the other car, Stuck Lady stopped and said: “Shall I go all the way back to the gateway of that field down at the bottom?” I told her that it was a good idea, and that I would stay where I was and she could pick me up on her way back up the hill. The other lady started to pull out forwards ready to fall in behind Stuck Lady’s car. She selected first and left the steering wheel still turned to the right rather than straighten it. She went to pull away and I was amazed to hear her rear wheel spin for a moment or two as she tried to pull forward out of the rut that she had made whilst trying to reverse for so long. She did not appear as though she was going to stop and so I had to call to her, to remind her about her floor mat. She stopped and I went and picked it up. There was a lovely wheel spinning mark along one edge and then a big wet tyre mark right across the middle of it. I took it down to her and she said: “Sorry, I forgot about that. Also I was being very rude, as I did not thank you for helping me to get out. I was really panicking that I was going to be stuck there all day and totally block the lane for the other Mum’s. Rocking the car like you taught me is a really good way to get yourself out of the mud if you get stuck. How did you know about doing that?”

I did not think this was the time or the place to let her into my secret regarding seeing women being stuck in their cars, so I made up some ‘lame’ excuse and then she drove off thanking me again as she went.

Stuck Lady had pulled into the entrance to a field towards the bottom of the hill and waited for the other lady to pass. She then drove back up the hill, and stopped in the middle of the lane right by where she had reversed out of the muddy passing place. Whilst waiting for her I had been able to have a quick look at both ruts that the respective women had made. The one from the BMW lady was much wider, probably due to the much wider tyres on her car. However, the dip and ruts that Stuck Lady had made were a bit deeper.

I got into our car and she held the car on the handbrake as I put on my seat belt. She then let up the clutch to pull away. As she did so, the nearside wheel span like mad on the muddy wet tarmac. She had obviously brought a lot of mud back out onto the road when she had reversed to get clear of the mirrors. She said: “I can’t even get going now, what is going on”.

She tried to accelerate and then she only just slithered forward and it took about another 5 to 10 seconds for her to get going before her wheel stopped spinning. She said: “Well I suppose you really enjoyed that little scene. Two women stuck for the price of one. I suppose she had a skirt on as well and you were looking at her legs as well as at my stocking tops?”

I said: “No actually she was wearing jeans and little ankle boots”.

She replied: “So you managed to notice that then”.

I said: “Of course, but you would not have expected anything less”

She said: “I even wondered if you had somehow managed to arrange for us to meet at that point so that we would get stuck, but I can’t see how you could possibly have done it, but I wouldn’t put is past you”

I replied: “I would have been very proud to have been able to come up with the idea, never mind actually pull of the experience”.

She said: “I could see you were enjoying it, you were like a little kid in the sweet shop. I was not so pleased, as I really did not like being so close to that other car. I don’t mind doing a few pretend ‘stuck in the mud sessions’ for you now and then, but not when they are for real, and we could end up scratching the car”.

I said: “You looked really worried at one point”.

She replied: “I was, I just could not see any way of getting either car out, so I was worried. I hate actually being completely stuck, when it’s for real. Pretending to be is fine, but only where I know I can always reverse to get out, but being really stuck by being trapped and unable to move in either direction is really scary and I don’t like it"

By then we had reached the junction with the main road at the top of the lane.

She said: “Lets see if I can pull away here without spinning my wheels yet again”.

She managed it okay this time and said: “I must have got all the mud off the tyres now, so we will are okay”

Not a bad way to finish a sad day that started off at a funeral!