Most frightening one I've ever experienced was many years ago, early 70's I think, when we were on a camping holiday in south Wales - St Davids - our first child was still very young and traveled in a wicker cot/basket on the back seat. We were in our DAF 44 in St Davids. With cars parked nose to tail at the side of the road and doing maybe 25 mph on a trailing throttle so the Variomatic had gone well up the ratio range and the engine was more or less just ticking over when, very suddenly, a small child ran out almost immediately in front of us. I was "in my prime" at around 24 years old and also quite involved in motorsport so my reactions were super quick and I stood so hard on the brake pedal I recon the car stopped in about it's own length with all wheels locked and a hideous squeal of tyres! There was a bit of a "thud" just as we stopped and I thought "Oh no, we hit him/her". I was absolutely shaking as I jumped out of the car and rushed round the front to find the wee lad - it was a boy - sitting in the road in front of the car looking visibly untouched but crying. He'd fallen over with fright and luckily a passer by was able to tell us and the policeman who arrived almost immediately (there were Beat Policemen back in those days) that I'd not hit him and was to be commended for stopping so quickly. Phew! Oh, but what was the big "thud" I'd experienced while braking? Oh no, I wrenched the door open and there was the wicker basket with No1 son comfortably wrapped up in all his blankets etc on the floor behind the driver seat, still peacefully sleeping. He'd been on the back seat! By now I was a quivering emotional wreck and sat down on the ground with my back against the side of the car, because my legs felt like jelly, when there was an almighty BANG! Sounded like someone had hit a solid bit of metal with a very big hammer. Took a few minutes to realize what it was. The Variomatic pulleys, because I'd been running a very light, almost closed, throttle had been subject to maximum vacuum so had shifted into a high gear ratio. For those not familiar with the system this is where vacuum pulls the front (primary unit) pulleys together forcing the rear pulley halves apart against their very strong springs to achieve the equivalent of top gear. However, because I'd locked the wheel under braking the vehicle came to rest with the pulleys in this configuration. With the engine now stopped and the throttle pedal in the idling position there was no vacuum source to keep the front (primary unit) pulley halves drawn together so the very strong diaphragm springs in the secondary units were able to become dominant and force the primary unit pulley halves apart again. These springs are very powerful thus the primary unit pulley halves were slammed apart with considerable force, hence the loud bang. The only amusing thing about it all was the way that pretty much everyone standing around, including the policeman and me, just about jumped out of their skins at the unexpected noise. Good thing our police aren't armed or he might have shot me?@portland_bill. Regarding the dad and trike incident, the one I hate is the mother on the mobile phone, about to cross the road with a pram/pushchair and occupant where she stops at the kerb but her child is 3 foot further into the path of the cars.
