Incident 01

Details

I was due to attend a meeting at an Agricultural Showground, along with my assistant. She was due to have a driving test to authorize her to drive our business van (a Mercedes Sprinter). She had previously mentioned that she was a bit worried about reversing it, as it is quite large, and she is used to driving a car or a Landrover. I therefore had a bright idea, and I invited her to come with me to the meeting, so that afterwards, she could have a drive around the private Showground to get used to the size of the van, before her test.

I managed to fit in a quick visit to the site the day before and was able to find a suitable location where she might get stuck. Once I had formulated a plan, I found a piece of chain to hang around a gate and it post to give the impression that it was locked.

The night before our visit, I had asked her to dress smartly for the meeting, and was pleased that she turned up the following morning wearing a beige pleated mini skirt, black stockings, and (unfortunately!) fairly flat black shoes (She always wore stockings to work, normally with quite short skirts, but the stockings were always quite long, and so only rarely did I get a glimpse of her stocking tops!)

The final piece of good luck was that during the previous afternoon and evening, it had rained quite a lot, and so I knew that the grass at the Showground would be quite wet, even if it was not likely to be muddy, as the Showground had not staged any events for a couple of months.

I drove to the site and parked the van on the side of the road near to the main office building, with all four wheels on the grass. We went off to the meeting (where I found concentration difficult, thinking about what might happen next!)

When we went back to the van, she got into the drivers side without asking who was going to drive. She reversed a little because of a car parked quite close in front of our van. She then turned the steering wheel sharply to the left and let up the clutch intending to pull away up the slight slope onto main access road. Her wheels immediately span and she did not move one inch. She dipped the clutch and tried again. The wheels just slithered round. She said: “What’s wrong, I’m not moving, am I doing it right?” I said: “Are you sure you are in gear?” She said: “Yes, but look I can’t move, am I stuck?”

I told her to look out of her door and see. She opened the driver’s door, turned and leant out whilst at the same time letting up the clutch. Her legs looked lovely as she stretched to look back. She said: “It’s not spinning this side, but I am still stuck, I can’t move forward”.

She tried three or four times to move, but her wheel just span round and round as I watched her outstretched left leg work the clutch pedal up and down. I then looked out of my door and watched as she tried again. The nearside wheel was turning round and round on the wet and now rather muddy grass. She said: “Its no good, I can’t get going, I’ll have to reverse”. She then selected reverse and managed to get back up onto the road. I thought to myself, “Not a bad start”!

She drove around for about 15 minutes, practicing reversing and parallel parking etc. I then got her to turn off the main access road, and drive along one of the emergency exit roads, which was only a gravel track, not tarmac. I already knew that the gate at the end would be locked, and so when we got to it she had to reverse. She went back and was doing really well for her first attempt at reversing some distance. However, I had a plan that needed her to stop!

I suggested that she stop and then turn off right across the grass and drive down the hill to re-join the main access road at the bottom. Down to our right, about 200 metres away there was a gate in the fence. The area between the gate and us was all grass and was on quite a steep slope. I suggested that she drive across the grass, down to the bottom gate, so that she did not have to reverse all the way back along the gravel track to the main access road. She was not too keen, and said: “Will it be alright, the grass looks a bit wet”.

I said: “Yes its fine, because its down hill all the way and through the gate onto the road”

She was not too sure as the grass was quite long and did look quite wet, but I reassured her it would be alright.

She drove down the hill keeping parallel to the hedge, but as we got about 30 metres from the gate, I said “Oh no, its locked, you had better turn back up the hill before you go any further”. She immediately started to turn the steering wheel hard round to the right. She allowed the van to slow down, as though she was not quite sure what to do. She said: “Which way?”. I said: “Round to the right, its less steep” (if you look at photo 5 you will see that with this comment, I was being slightly economical with the truth!). However she continued to turn hard to her right and having let the van just about stop, he engaged first and pulled away until she was almost facing the trees. She then said: “Do you want me to go between the fence and the trees or back the way we came”. I replied: You might as well go back the way we came”.

She continued to turn to the right and managed to get nearly all the way round, but then as she started to turn more up the slope, her rear wheels started to spin in the wet grass. Almost immediately the van stopped moving forward. She carried on trying to move but she just span the wheels. She gently pressed the accelerator pedal up and down whilst the clutch was still right out. She said: “Oh no not again, the grass must be wet”. She then stopped and selected reverse and let up the clutch. She kept the steering wheel turned hard to the right, which meant that after just a few yards the rear of the van was starting to go back up the slope towards the hedge. She managed to go back a few more feet, but then more of the van had to start going up hill, and again her wheels started to spin.

I knew that she now had a problem. Previously when I had driven this van, I had noticed that especially when it is empty, it was pretty rubbish at getting any grip on a slippery surface, as there was no weight pressing down above the rear wheels. I once span the wheels reversing up a slight incline on a driveway to a house, even though it was dry and the surface was tarmac!

She said: “I thought I was going to be alright then, but I’m stuck again”. She selected first and said: “Which way do you want me to try, up the slope or along by the fence?” I suggested that she try along by the fence until she got going a bit, and to then gradually turn up the slope between the trees to get back up to where we started.

She turned the steering wheel straight so that they were facing towards the gap between the fence and the trees in front of us, but as soon as she let the clutch up her wheels span again. She kept trying to get going by repeatedly letting the clutch up and down. The van rocked as she tried like mad to get going. She said: “I can’t move it. I don’t like this I’m getting really stuck again”. I was surprised that she could not move forwards, as the front of the van was now almost horizontal, and so I had expected her to be able to move forwards for some distance, at least until she met the start of the steeper incline by where the trees started.

I told her to try reverse. She did, and surprisingly she managed to get back a few more feet, even though she was reversing up a slope towards the hedge, before she lost traction and again got span to a halt. She seemed more cheerful now that she had managed to move, as she said: “That’s better, I’m going to get out this time”.

She selected first gear and said: “Here we go then”. She let up the clutch with extreme force, which was a big mistake, as of course her wheels immediately span round in the muddy grass and she looked surprised when she did not move an inch. She turned the steering wheel to the left then the right, but still her wheels span and she stayed where she was. She started to sound desperate saying “Why can’t I move, I thought I would get out then, but I’m stuck again”. I said: “Try reverse again, as you moved back last time”.

She selected reverse and then gently let up the clutch. She managed to move a foot or two before she span to a halt yet again.

I told her to look at her wheels to see what was happening. She opened her door and turned to look at her offside rear wheel. She had to really stretch her leg to enable her to keep the clutch depressed to the floor. She was still in gear and whilst she leant out to look at her wheel, she was still holding onto the steering wheel with just one hand. She then slowly lifted up her foot and let the clutch pedal rise. She said: “The wheel is just spinning and spinning on the muddy grass”.

I looked at her lovely legs, as she was almost completely turned away from me in her seat and was stretching round to her right to look out of the door. I said: “Keep trying, you may get on better if you can see what is happening to the wheel”

She continually pressed the clutch pedal up and down and was also repeatedly pressing the accelerator with small foot movements. Her skirt was pulled further up across her thighs, but the hem just managed to keep her stocking tops hidden from my view. It was so tempting to move her skirt whilst she was so pre-occupied, but I knew I could not risk it. After all, here I was with a beautiful girl, wearing a short skirt and stockings, driving a van that she had got stuck in the mud. It does not get much better than that!

Suddenly she sat back up in her seat and closed the driver’s door. She immediately tried to go forwards again and straight away her wheels just span round and round. This time she looked in her offside door mirror, and said “Its no good, I can still see the wheel spinning round”. She then started revving the van very hard, pressing her shoe up and down on the accelerator pedal. She appeared to be getting cross as she gradually got faster and faster until she was actually hammering the pedal up and down with her foot. The van just rocked like a tethered bull, as she slammed her foot up and down. Still it did not move and it was obvious that she was now totally stuck. She continued revving the van with the mud flying up under the mudguards. She said “You fucking van, get me out of here, pleaseeeeeeee”. I had never heard her swear like that before! She banged her hand down on the steering wheel and continued to hit it whilst still trying to get going. This really was a side of her that I had never seen before, even after 4 years of working together every day.

I was sad for her in a way, but what with her getting cross, her leg moving up and down on the clutch, her shoe slamming onto the accelerator and her wheels spinning like mad whilst she was totally stuck in mud, I thought I had gone to heaven!

Her skirt was quite short and so I had a good view of her great looking legs. If only she had been wearing shoes with a higher heels, instead of her low ones! This was one of only about half a dozen days in the 4 years, that she had not worn high heels (as she is in the above photo).

By the time she gave up about a minute later, she was almost crying. She was so upset at the thought of being completely stuck. When she could still move a little one way or the other, she was okay, but now she realised that she could not move at all.

She said: “I’m now completely stuck, I can’t do anything. I don’t like this, what can I do?”

I told her I would get out and have a look to see what was happening. I walked to the rear nearside wheel and noticed that the tyre had made a few marks on the grass, where it had been spinning, but had only just turned the top of the grass to a muddy colour. I then went around the back and looked at her offside wheel. The grass here was all churned up in front of the tyre. Her front wheels were still turned slightly to the right (up the hill!). No wonder she could not move forwards!

I opened her door and asked her to try going forwards again. She had obviously calmed down a bit by then, but she still had tears in her eyes. She carefully pressed on the accelerator and slowly let up the clutch. Immediately her offside wheel started to slide round in the mud. I said: “There’s a muddy hump in front of the wheel, have a look look”. She continued to try and drive as she turned to her right and leant out of the door to see. Her legs looked lovely as she stretched to look below the van. She said: “No wonder I’m so stuck” when she saw the mud. I said: “I will give you a push to get you over that bit, you should then be alright”.

She said: “Shall I rock it”. I said: “Yes, but don’t rev the engine too fast, I don’t want to get covered in mud!”.

I went to the back of the van and shouted ‘Okay’. She tried to pull away, but her wheel just span round as before. I was stood on the nearside corner, as I didn’t want to get covered in mud from her spinning offside wheel. I pushed a little bit and I could feel the van rocking backwards and forwards slightly as she desperately tried to get going by dipping and raising the clutch pedal.

I then walked round to the passenger window and stood looking in, from slightly behind. She could not see me (unless she looked in her nearside mirror), but I could see her feet and legs. Her left leg was working the clutch pedal up and down and looked lovely with her pleated skirt gripping her thighs at the top of her legs. Her right foot was pressing the accelerator up and down. I watched for a moment or two, and then moved slowly forward. I could then see all of her, but luckily she did not see me, as she was still looking in her offside door mirror presumably watching her wheel spin.

I could not believe it when I realised that she was also now rocking in her seat. The whole of her upper body was moving backwards and forwards, from the hips up, as she held onto the large steering wheel. She appeared to be willing the van to get going and she had a very determined look on her face, although she also looked to be getting upset again.

Note - She knew all about ‘rocking’ to help get a vehicle out when it was stuck, as I had showed her what to do when she had got stuck on another occasion. She had told me that the other occasion was the ‘first time’ that she had ever been stuck, and that consequently, she did not ‘have a clue’ what to do to get out! I therefore had to show her how to try and rock a vehicle to get it out of a muddy rut. I will try to add that incident to this web site when I have a minute.

I opened the passenger door and she said: “I thought you were still pushing. It’s no good I’m completely stuck. I wish I’d never let you talk me into driving down here. What are we going to do?”.

Now that I was starting to get the blame, and having just witnessed one of the best stuck shows I have ever seen, I decided I ought to try and help!

I told her to hang on whilst I walked down to the gate. I opened it, as obviously there was no padlock!

I then went to the front of the van. I told her I had managed to unlock the gate and then told her to turn the wheels to the left (to make them straight). I then but my back against the radiator grill and told her to give the van full revs in reverse, and if she started to move, to keep going backwards as fast as possible, whilst gently turning down the slope towards the gate.

She did exactly as I asked! I think by now, she realised that this really was her last hope of getting out without having to call for help! She accelerated like made and I pushed like mad. The van started to move very slowly and she slowly turned the rear back round towards the gate. I shouted to her to keep going back towards the gate.

After about a vans length or so, she managed to stop spinning her wheel as she was then on a slight down slope. She made a brilliant job of reversing the van through the narrow gate, and kept going right back out onto the access road. I ran after her and shut the gate. For someone who had not been confident in reversing a van when we started, making comments like “It does not have any side or rear windows for me to see where I am going when in reverse”, she did a fantastic job. She just used her two door mirrors and went back right through the centre of the gate, whilst having to make a left hand down turn as she did so.

As I got into the van she said: “I didn’t like that very much, I thought I was going to be stuck there all day and you would have had to get someone to pull us out. I didn’t want them to think I had got us stuck. I was trying so hard to get us out. My left leg is aching where I have been pressing the clutch in and out so much. I never want to be stuck like that again. I am definitely staying on the roads from now on. The grass is too wet to drive on”.

Guess what, two weeks later she passed her authorization to drive the van with flying colours! I bet she did not dress for the examiner, like she had for me!