Woman Drives Car Off 100ft Cliff And Survives.
30 Mar
A woman has survived an amazing 100 foot plunge over a cliff in her car, without her seatbelt on. Barbara Tyreman from Whitby, North Yorkshire was left shocked but unharmed after the incident last week. Her Mini was completely ruined but Mrs Tyreman is just happy to be alive.
“I can’t believe I escaped unhurt, It’s unbelievable. When I look at the car I just think ‘How did I survive without a scratch?”
Mrs Tyreman was trying to put her seatbelt on when she accidentally stepped on the accelerator. Then when she trying to stamp on the break she pressed the accelerator again before swerving to avoid another car and plunging over the cliff. She was cut out of the car by firefighters before being airlifted to Scarborough Hospital where she was given the all clear.
Luckily two trees had stopped the car from hitting the ground despite Mrs Tyreman’s best efforts. If I worked for a car rental or car insurance company I would keep a note of Mrs Tyreman’s name 
The ironic thing is getting insurance after that would be a nightmare, would it count as a no claims?!
Hello,
Not that I would want to dispute the facts as presented by the luvverly ole’ gran in the story I read the other day in one of my Mum’s old mags. I was petty enough to notice a couple of discrepancies in her tale of heroism. (She risked herself to save others, after all…ignoring the fact that it was HER that jeopardised them in the first place.)
As far as I can tell, you can’t DO 50mph in first gear in a mini. (An old sports bike of mine would just about crack 70 in first, but you could hear the 11000 odd rpm racket from the other side of the planet. To stand a chance of doing anywhere near that, you would have had to have been STANDING on the pedal, and that for some time. (Minis don’t usually have a 0-60 time in the sub five second bracket.) In addition, since when has 50mph been “too fast to brake”?
Even when she realised that she was hitting the accelerator, why not remove her foot? Engine braking in first from say, 30-40 odd would be noticeable. If she had the presence of mind to swerve to avoid the other car, why not just drive off the road into the hedge or field? (I had to go offroad recently when I discovered on a very steep hill that my rear cylinder had failed and allowed the car to vomit most of the brake fluid onto the back wheel, leaving little for the remainder, as I decided to stop before driving into another vehicle. I certainly gave the guy towing the horsebox a start when I drew up BESIDE him…lol)
I found the story entertaining, but it got me thinking, and on rereading, I started paying more attention to these petty details. Which the gran had not seen fit to explain. The story appears to have been carried by a number of papers at the time, as I found out when googling it. IMO, people who panic to such a degree, that they cannot drive the car properly, (especially when given so much room to function), should not be allowed behind the wheel again. People’s lives are at stake. Just my opinion.
Peter M.
i read elsewhere that she was testing newly fitted diabled driver modifications which included full hand control of acelerator and brake functions which would explain the confusion
I don’t dispute that, but at no point was any mention made in her story about any modifications. Her description was of someone driving an ordinary car. In any event, how difficult is it to stop accelerating in a car if you have over 100 metres space? At some point one would expect to be able to remember where the controls were? Where was the article that you refer to about disabled modifications?