Skip to main content

Impact resistance

A British woman discovered that her sturdy little Toyota Yaris was not quite sturdy enough to cope with an impact from a large boulder. The woman had parked her car by the roadside and returned to find it squashed flat under the weight of the 5tonne lump of rock, which had fallen from a quarry industry vehicle as it drove past.
February 22, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A British woman discovered that her sturdy little Toyota Yaris was not quite sturdy enough to cope with an impact from a large boulder. The woman had parked her car by the roadside and returned to find it squashed flat under the weight of the 5tonne lump of rock, which had fallen from a quarry industry vehicle as it drove past. The boulder was so large that it initially proved too heavy for the truck loader crane brought in to remove it. When she returned from her shopping trip to discover her vehicle had been squashed as easily as a soft drink can by the lump of rock, the woman was comparatively unperturbed by the incident and explained that she has had an eventful life.

Related Content

  • Skidmarks: Scaring speeders
    February 6, 2020
    Our Skidmarks page is highly rated by readers. Your input could help make this page even more entertaining. If you come across any amusing road-related stories or pictures email me at [email protected]
  • Love hurts
    May 20, 2015
    A British woman had rather a nasty shock while taking her young child to see African wildlife at a safari park in the UK. An amorous male rhinoceros first sniffed at her car and then repeatedly bashed into it, apparently mistaking it for a female of the species. Around €693 (£500) worth of damage was caused to the car, a grey Mitsubishi Warrior pick-up truck, although the woman and her toddler were unharmed. Luckily her choice of vehicle gave her and her child some protection against the over-excited creatu
  • Open and shut case
    February 21, 2012
    Two British police officers were surprised to see a woman driving her car with the bonnet (hood) open. They stopped the woman who explained that the bonnet was faulty and that she was taking the car to a garage to be repaired. She had been squinting through a small 100mm high gap between the dashboard and bonnet as she drove her car to the garage. The incident was recorded by police in the UK county of Dorset where the authorities have been cracking down on bad driving. In another case, police stopped a man
  • Top to bottom
    February 20, 2012
    Two long distance cyclists, one male and one female, have shown courage in the face of adversity, as well as sheer stubbornness, by riding bicycles from one side of the planet to the other. A New Zealand woman took 20 months to ride her cheap, 18 speed mountain bike from the UK to New Zealand. The journey took her through no less than 22 countries, including some of the world's most dangerous areas. The woman surprised members of the New Zealand Army stationed in Afghanistan when she turned up at their base