ENGLISH FLUENCY SECRETS | 10 MUST-KNOW Traffic Accident Verbs

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to advanced  English lessons with Harry, where I try to help  

you get a better understanding of the English  language. Improve your conversational skills.  

Improve your business English, whatever it  takes, we're here to help you. So back to our  

lesson. So the lesson today is about accidents  and incidents in the traffic driving a car. So  

different accidents and incidents that can take  place. So these are advanced expressions that you  

need to know. So if you're a stranger in a foreign  land, and something happens, you'd like to know  

what these words mean and how you describe the  particular situation. So accidents and incidents  

advanced vocabulary relating to those accidents  and incidents and traffic and in cars. As always,  

we have 10 particular expressions to give you and  phrases so I'll go through them in the list and  

then I'll go back and give you some examples. And  then you can practice them on your own. So number  

one to collide. Well, collide is when usually  two cars crash into something, okay? Or into  

each other, or a bus and a car or the tram and the  car or the truck and the car, or even the bicycle  

and the car so they collide. Means they crash into  something so you might see the report or hear the  

report on the news. There was a big holdup in  the city centre today because a truck collided  

with the tram. So the driver of the truck thought  he could get to the red light ahead of the tram,  

but unfortunately not and they collided. So when  they collided, they crashed into each other. And  

they held up traffic for many, many hours. He  collided into the post besides the roadworks  

because he didn't see the sign to slow down so the  motorist wasn't injured. But his car was damaged  

because he collided with the post, the lamppost or  the signal post or the traffic lights. He collided  

with it. And so he had an accident. Okay, so we  often hear things like colliding head-on colliding  

with oncoming traffic. For example, if the dog  ran across the road, and he tried to avoid the  

dog would collide it to an oncoming bus or an  oncoming truck, there will be a lot of damage  

and perhaps some injured people, hopefully not.  To skid. Well, the car will skid when it's on a  

wet surface or the bus will skate or the bicycle  will skate. So when you try to apply the brakes  

or pull the brakes or put your foot on the brakes,  nothing happens and the car skids. So we're often  

given warnings in the wintertime in particular,  be careful there is ice or black ice, and you  

might skate or you might have a skid. So the car  skidded on the black eyes and hit the wall. Okay,  

the man came around the corner a little too  fast, and his car skidded in a pool of water,  

and he lost control. So when we skid, the water  or the surface of the road doesn't grip with  

the rubber on our tires. And we lose control very,  very quickly. Okay, so if you're driving too fast,  

and you hit a patch of black ice, you can go into  a skid, or if you're driving around the corner,  

and there's a pool of water, then you the car can  skid, the bus can skid, the truck can skid. Okay.  

To swerve. Well, when we swerve we do that  trying to avoid a particular accident. Okay,  

he swerved to avoid the dog on the road. So my  little example before is that the dog runs out  

on the road or the cat runs across the road, and  you see it a little bit too late. You swerve. You,  

you drive either to the left very quickly, or  to the right very quickly, to try and avoid that  

particular person, that child, the dog or the cat.  To swerve. Or somebody pulled out from a side road  

and you saw them a little bit late, you swerved  to avoid having an accident. So you went over on  

the other side of the road very, very quickly.  So your hand action was very quick. And the car  

you don't lose control of the car, but you have to  move very quickly left or right. So the difference  

between skidding and swerving is usually when  you skid, you lose control of the car and then  

you have to try and gain control. But when you  swerve you have to drive very quickly left or  

right to avoid having a particular accident. To  hit the car head-on. Well, when you hit the car  

head-on it means you crash right into the front  of the other car so you have no option but to hit  

the car head-on because if you had swerved,  you would have had another bigger accident,  

you might have hit the people. So you had no  choice but to hit the car head-on. Or if one car  

coming towards you is driving on the wrong side  of the road, which can happen sometimes if they  

are strangers to that particular country, they may  have forgotten which side of the road they should  

drive on. And they hit the car head-on really,  really bad that happened to me. Many, many, many,  

many years ago when it was wet evening and a car  skidded came across onto my side of the road and  

hit me head-on. So I had no way of avoiding  him. And luckily, while I'm here today, yeah,  

so luckily I am but it was a really nasty accident  at the time. So when somebody hits somebody else  

head-on, they don't hit them on the side, they hit  them front to front, so like this head-on. Okay.

I just like to ask you if you do like this  particular lesson, and please like the video,  

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To jackknife. Well, jackknife is this expression  we use to describe particularly trucks. And when  

trucks are driving along the road, as you know,  they often can drive really, really quickly. But  

if they have a problem on ice, then the brakes  lock, and what happens is the weight of the truck  

from behind brings it forward and the truck ends  up in a V shape. So instead of a line like this,  

it ends up in a V-shaped like this. So we  call it to jackknife. So the back of the car,  

the truck comes forward and blocks the other side  of the road. So you have the whole road the left  

side and the right side completely blocked because  the truck or the van or the articulated lorry has  

jackknifed. So we can read the report this is all  terrible delay in the city today. Truck hits some  

black ice, the brakes locked or jammed and the  truck jackknifed on the road blocking both lanes  

the lane in and out of the city. So to jackknife  is when that weight from the back of the truck.  

When you press the brakes moves forward, and  the car the truck goes into like a V shape,  

and then you get this jackknife effect.  To overshoot. Often when we use overshoot,  

we talk about aeroplanes so they can overshoot  the runway, so they land on the runway,  

but they don't apply the brakes quick enough.  Or perhaps there is ice or water on the runway,  

and the brakes don't work properly. So the plane  overshoots. So comes off the runway, and if it's  

lucky, it landed on some grass. If it's not so  lucky, it might land in a pool of water or a  

lake or something worse. Okay, so to overshoot,  but you can also when you're driving your car,  

you might overshoot the corner, meaning you take  the corner a little bit too fast. And when you get  

to the corner, you're not able to control the  car as well. And perhaps you run out of road  

to overshoot. So overshoot the corner overshoot  the band causing some accident. Simply to crash  

into something. Well, it's an example and an  explanation we hear all the time. I crashed into  

something last night and damaged my car. I crashed  into the tree. I crashed into the gatepost I

did it myself many years ago had crashed  into my gateposts outside my my house,  

when somebody had parked a little bit closer than  I thought, I tried to turn the corner a little  

bit too sharply. I crashed into the gate post and  did a lot of damage to the rear door of my car. So  

when we crash into something, we hit it either on  the side, or head-on, he crashed into a tree, he  

crashed into a lamppost, he crashed into another  car. So everything is all about hitting something  

else crashing into something and hopefully not  into somebody. Damage can always be repaired,  

crash into something. So the next expression  is to write off and if any of you have had this  

particular problem, then you have my sympathies to  write off the car is not a next a nice experience.  

So if somebody's driving too fast or that take  the band too fast and they crash into the wall,  

they're going to cause a lot of damage to the wall  to the car hopefully not to themselves or it is a  

big pile up often you hear that a number of cars  were written off because of the impact of the the  

accident so your phone your friend and he says,  Where were you I was expecting you to call me  

last night or you won't believe it. I had a bad  traffic accent. Oh my God. Are you okay? Yeah,  

but I wrote the car off of the car has been  written off. It's a complete shambles. Hopefully,  

you're okay and there's no damage to you. So  to write off means to completely destroy or  

have an impact on the car that is so bad that  nothing can be salvaged, everything has been  

damaged the chassis, or the engine, the axles,  the suspension, everything has been destroyed.  

So to write off your car. Now, to shatter is  another expression we have when we're talking  

about traffic incidents and accidents. So if a  stone hits your window, the window might shatter,  

meaning it would break into many small pieces.  If you drive along and a stone is thrown up by  

the car in front of you. And if it hits the  windscreen in the wrong spot, then the whole  

class will come in on you and the windscreen will  shatter the modern Windows a little bit better,  

they just crack and they don't completely break.  But you do have to get them repaired. Or at worst,  

you have to get them replaced. So when something  shatters, it breaks into 1000 little pieces or  

it feels like 1000 little pieces and you spend  forever cleaning it up from the car hoovering  

these little pieces of glass, so a stone or a  brick. So some bad guys, some thugs were standing  

on one of these overpasses on the road, and they  dropped a brick onto a car travelling along the  

road and the windscreen shattered, okay, so to  shatter means to break into 1000 pieces. And then  

finally, we've got to run someone over or to run  something over Well, again, not a nice experience,  

particularly if it's a dog, or a cat or some  other wild animal, you're driving through  

the park late at night, and you see something  running in front of you, you jam on the brakes,  

but it's too late. And you get that terrible  sound of bump that you've run over something in  

the park. And when you stop the car, it could be a  rabbit or a fox or something like that. Okay. Now,  

hopefully you never have to run over somebody.  But you do hear about these unfortunate accidents.  

And you'll see it in the the newspapers or on  the internet and the social media, a young boy  

was run over by a car late on Saturday evening, a  young child run out on the road and was run over  

by a passing bus. So all of these unfortunate  accidents happen. So we use the expression to  

run somebody over or to run something over. So  if you are the person in the car, or the bus,  

you run over that person, that child or that  animal. But if you happen to be the person on  

the road, then you get run over by the car or run  over by the bus or run over by the truck. Okay,  

so these are all of these expressions and words  connected with traffic incidents or accidents  

and they're at a high level an advanced level,  so try to practice and try to understand them.  

Let me give them to you one more time. To collide  with something. To skid on something. Like skid on  

a slippery surface. To swerve across the road to  avoid oncoming traffic. To hit the car head-on,  

it was unavoidable to hit it head-on. To jackknife  a truck or jugger or jackknives when it puts on  

its brakes, not able to stop the truck in time.  Jackknives. To overshoot. That plane to overshoot  

the runway or to overshoot the band and the role  that you missed to crash into something. Crashed  

into the lamppost crash into the tree . To write  off the car now it's a goner, it's written off,  

to write off. To shatter. The windscreen shattered  when the brick hit it full-on. To shatter into  

1000 small pieces. And then finally to run someone  or something over. Okay, as I said, all advanced  

English words and expressions connected with  those traffic incidents or accidents. I hope  

you enjoy them. I hope you understand them. And I  hope you can practice them. Thanks for listening.  

Thanks for watching. This is Harry saying  goodbye. Join me again for the next lesson.