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Newlands Corner sits at the top of a pretty steep hill by UK countryside standards, so it's not that unlikely that a 1920s car would have struggled around there

Newlands Corner sits at the top of a pretty steep hill by UK countryside standards, so it's not that unlikely that a 1920s car would have struggled around there. I just cycled up that hill earlier today and it wasn't fun. There are a few photos around [0] from the original incident. However, the whole thing is fairly universally assumed to have been a publicity stunt. This is a fairly well known story locally. Here's a local tabloid [1] with a few original newspaper articles, and a sprinkling of sensationalism for good measure. [0]: https://www.prints-online.com/agatha-christies-abandoned-motorcar-surrey-1926-4399563.html https://www.prints-online.com/agatha-christies-abandoned-mot... [1]: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/agatha-christies-disappearance-how-two-18562395 https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/nostalgia/agatha-christies-...

throwanem 3y ago
Bit silly as a publicity stunt, I'd think. But presumably that photo was taken after her car had been recovered, because the incident report describes it being piled nose-first into undergrowth not evident here. That suggests the accident started with a loss of control - which, at night on an unlit road in a century-old deathtrap like that one, wouldn't just be easy to do but likely quite hard to avoid. I've been in enough car wrecks, and those in modern cars, for it to strike me as arrantly foolish no one ever seems to consider the possibility she got her bell rung. Even an airbag will do that sometimes - I've had two of those go off in my face, and one of them did exactly that; it's more than anything else like taking a hard, well-aimed punch, and even if it does save you ending up with much worse, you still are liable not to be thinking right for a while after. And that's with a hundred years of safety engineering! Christie's car wouldn't even have had seatbelts or safety glass - it's got to be at least half a miracle she made it out alive.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
  > But presumably that photo was taken after her car had been recovered, because the incident report describes it being piled nose-first into undergrowth not evident here. Also, that doesn't appear to be a Morris Cowley. It's much too tall, and the grill is all wrong. That's likely a police vehicle.

throwanem 3y ago

Bit silly as a publicity stunt, I'd think. But presumably that photo was taken after her car had been recovered, because the incident report describes it being piled nose-first into undergrowth not evident here. That suggests the accident started with a loss of control - which, at night on an unlit road in a century-old deathtrap like that one, wouldn't just be easy to do but likely quite hard to avoid. I've been in enough car wrecks, and those in modern cars, for it to strike me as arrantly foolish no one ever seems to consider the possibility she got her bell rung. Even an airbag will do that sometimes - I've had two of those go off in my face, and one of them did exactly that; it's more than anything else like taking a hard, well-aimed punch, and even if it does save you ending up with much worse, you still are liable not to be thinking right for a while after. And that's with a hundred years of safety engineering! Christie's car wouldn't even have had seatbelts or safety glass - it's got to be at least half a miracle she made it out alive.

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago
> But presumably that photo was taken after her car had been recovered, because the incident report describes it being piled nose-first into undergrowth not evident here. Also, that doesn't appear to be a Morris Cowley. It's much too tall, and the grill is all wrong. That's likely a police vehicle.