Driving dangers... and sausages!

[ozzy72]

Flying food doesn't figure large in the list of motoring hazards, but one driver is nursing a bruised nose after an encounter with a frozen sausage in Essex.
Police said John Hatfield, 46, was driving near his home in South Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, on Monday when the sausage was lobbed through his open window and struck him in the face.
Dave Holton, the paramedic who was called to the scene, said he had never seen anything like it in 30 years with the ambulance service.
"The man was simply driving home from work with the window open because it was a warm day," he said.
"He said he saw a car coming from the opposite direction and the next thing he knew he felt a searing pain in his nose.
"He lost quite a lot of blood from his injury. After we cleaned him he decided not to go to hospital but he has been left with a very swollen nose.
"I feel very sorry for him - it must have been an incredibly lucky or unlucky shot to get the sausage through a moving car window. I have never seen or heard of anything like this before."
Mr Hatfield was able to stop his car safely and passers-by went to his aid.
Essex police have now launched an investigation to try to identify the sausage hurlers.
A police spokesman said yesterday that they were treating the incident seriously. The spokesman said the sausage, type and flavour unknown, struck the driver on his sunglasses and fell into the footwell.

[Theis]

The spokesman said the sausage, type and flavour unknown, struck the driver on his sunglasses and fell into the footwell.

[AlphaBravo]

lol

[commoner]

....mmm...lol......why do the words "old banger" spring to mind.........or was that the car he was driving.......commoner

[Hagar]

Sounds nasty. Hope this doesn't give some of the less intelligent amongst us ideas.

This reminds me of a story I heard when they were testing aircraft windscreens for bird strike damage. This was done by firing chickens at the windscreen with a special machine. Not live chickens but the ones you get in the supermarket. The first results by one company were a complete failure as they found the chickens went straight through reinforced glass & made a right mess of the cockpit. After a lot of headscratching the designer of the machine suggested they try defrosting the chickens first.

[beaky]

Just this last holiday season in NYC some little monsters stole a credit card, used it to buy a large frozen turkey, then went joyriding and decided it would be fun to lob it at another vehicle in the oncoming lane. Some poor woman almost got killed when it went right through her windshield and hit her in the face... she was in a coma for a while, and suffered severe head and face fractures. Fortunately, they caught the idiots who did this (they were able to track them down because the label was still on the turkey, and they got a description from the staff at the grocery); haven't heard anything lately about their fate or her current condition (although I did hear she had more or less recovered)... :-/
Did my share of pranking when I was a kid, but there was always a limit. I just can't believe how stupid these guys were, if they really meant no harm, as they claimed. Let's see: 10-to-20-lb. frozen turkey, closing speed of about 100 mph.... nah, that couldn't hurt anybody!!

[TacitBlue]

I know some guys who used to drive around and throw water and occasionally, hotdogs on pedestrians for fun. I went with them once, it was funny and all, but I couldnt help but see it from the "victims" point of view. Plus, its pretty stupid, and I have better things to do.

[chomp_rock]

"The man was simply driving home from work with the window open because it was a warm day,"

Poor guy... I guess he has never heard of the aircon

[Craig.]

Not all cars here have Aircon like they do in the US. Plus it doesnt get hot enough to warrent its use as often:)

[TacitBlue]

All cars in the US dont have AC. Infact, its always 10 degrees warmer than it is outside in my truck in the summer time , even with the windows open... it sucks. Maybe I should euthanise my truck  :P.

[Hagar]

Poor guy... I guess he has never heard of the aircon

When I was in Las Vegas I was told it's easy to spot the locals. They're the ones that drive with the windows open as it's too expensive to run the air conditioning.