Thread: Defenders are tough, but not unbreakable

Last Thursday I was heading north in my 03 Defender Extreme. About 50 kms north of Bega I had a blowout on the front drivers side tyre.

I was just going into a wide left hand bend, down a hill and was doing about 70kph. I tried to control the car but there was really not much I could do with the front tyre gone. We hit the barrier on the opposite side of the road and the car turned onto it's side, so it was leaning on the rail.

The roof was torn off and we slid like that for a while before the car righted its self again and we slid then about 40m down the road on the front diff and the wheel, which had torn off the axle and was lodged underneath the bull bar.

A quick thinking truckie coming the other way had pulled the cab of his rig right into the barrier so we could hit him and stop sliding.

I had done a thourough visual inspection of the tyres when we stopped at eden, and found nothing out of the ordinary. I had checked the pressures the day before.

I managed to escape with two missing front teeth, a broken and chewed up finger and a broken nose, all wrapped up with a severe concussion. My sister, in the passenger seat, was even better off and she just had a cut just above the hairline needing a few stitches.

Moral of the story: make sure your tyres are good

Here are some pictures:







What a mess! Lucky the insurance has paid out. I'm in the market for another one I think.

I'm very glad to here you and your sister are all ok
Poor defender, not shore how you escaped with only minor injuries