Car crash A car crash , also known as a car accident or a road traffic accident ( abbreviated to RTA ) , was when a car collided with something else , often another vehicle or a person . Car accidents often resulted in death . They could also affect participants in other ways , such as brain damage ( PROSE : " The Left - Handed Hummingbird " ) paralysis , ( TV : " For Tonight We Might Die " , " Nightvisiting " ) or recurring heart attack s . ( TV : " Mummy on the Orient Express " ) While the event often wrecked the car or cars involved , sometimes making smoke come out of the engine , the Doctor ' s TARDIS was entirely unaffected by cars crashing into it . ( AUDIO : " Blood of the Daleks " ) According to " Margaret Blaine " , car accidents sometimes happened when visibility was low , such as when it was raining . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) Another cause was sometimes alcohol , ( TV : " Fear Her " ) or the use of a mobile phone . ( AUDIO : " The Dead Line " ) Rani Chandra said that if things just disappeared all the time , like Clyde Langer ' s mother Carla did , there would be cars crashed everywhere . ( TV : " The Empty Planet " ) History . 20th century . Mary Elson ' s parents , Reverend Matthew Townsend ' s brother and sister - in - law , died in a car crash before 1951 . ( AUDIO : " Zagreus " ) On 18 August 1951 , Eddie and Barbara Smith , companion Sarah Jane Smith ' s parents , having abandoned their toddler in a pram , were killed when their car collided with a tractor after having attended the Foxgrove Village Fête . Though she didn ' t find out until much later on life , they did this , in fact , to protect the world from the Trickster . ( TV : " The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith " ) Sarah Jane was subsequently sent to live with her aunt , Lavinia Smith . ( TV : " The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith " , " The Day of the Clown " ) Sometime in the 1970s , Bernard Forbes was killed in a car accident . While there was a funeral , Krashen later changed history , for money , so that Bernard hadn ' t died in the accident . When the Third Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart visited the Forbes home , they found him alive , but slowly losing his mental facilities . After Krashen and his time machine were destroyed , Bernard just vanished . ( PROSE : " Honest Living " ) At some point after leaving UNIT in 1979 , Carol Bell was in a car accident that left her with brain damage . ( PROSE : " The Left - Handed Hummingbird " ) In 1983 , classmates Turlough and Ibbotson went for a joyride in Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart ' s antique car and crashed it . ( TV : " Mawdryn Undead " ) In an alternate Earth , Keith Gold was killed in a car accident . ( TV : " Inferno " ) On 7 November 1987 on Jordan Road in London , a beige car with the number plate NEH 793W , driven by Matt , hit and killed Pete Tyler , father of companion Rose . In an altered timeline , Rose Tyler pushed Pete out of the way , and he continued on to the wedding of Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clark . In the end , after Reaper s appeared because of the temporal paradox , the only way out of the situation was for Pete to die as he originally did . The car drove down the road in front of the Parish of St Christopher ' s in a loop ; Pete voluntarily ran out in front of the car , and was killed . Rose comforted him as he died . ( TV : " Father ' s Day " ) At 11 : 39am on 22 May 1988 , Alice was paralysed from the waist down when a Range Rover crashed into her parents ' car . Her parents were killed in the accident . ( AUDIO : " Swan Song " ) Carys Fletcher ' s mother died in a car crash in 1997 , leaving her husband a widower . ( TV : " Day One " ) Victor Zierath ' s wife was killed in a car accident , caused by his own carelessness . ( PROSE : " The Schoolboy ' s Story " ) 21st century . Sam Lloyd moved to Saint Anthony ' s Children Home in Danemouth when his parents died in a car accident in 2001 , when the boy was seven years old . ( TV : " The Mad Woman in the Attic " ) On Monday 25 June 2007 , Donna Noble purposefully let herself be run over to prevent her past self from turning right , averting the world from which she came . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) Less than an hour after Maggie Hopley ' s 2008 wedding with Brian Hopley , the couple ' s car flipped over , and only Maggie survived . A year later , Maggie intended to kill herself , but chose not to after listening to Owen Harper ' s story about his resurrection and the Pulse . ( TV : " A Day in the Death " ) When April MacLean was 8 years old , her father Huw MacLean purposefully drove off the motorway with April and her mother Jackie in the car . Jackie was paralysed as a result , while her daughter was not hurt . April ' s father went to prison for causing the crash . ( TV : " Nightvisiting " ) Jackie began using a wheelchair , and adapted to her new condition . April took care of her . ( TV : " For Tonight We Might Die " ) In 2009 , Jack Harkness crashed the Torchwood SUV . Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams witnessed the crash , and brought him to the hospital . ( AUDIO : " The Dead Line " ) That same year , Alison Lloyd was killed in a car accident , but was only dead for five minutes . When she was revived , a thought - form had attached to her that manifested as her doll Mr Pickles . ( PROSE : " SkyPoint " ) On 8 : 40AM GMT on a Wednesday in September 2009 , numerous RTAs occurred across Earth as a result of the 456 compelling every human child to suddenly stop and proclaim their message : " we are coming . " As noted by Torchwood Three , seventeen RTAs all involving children occurred between 8 : 40 and 8 : 41 across Britain from Glasgow to St Ives , fifteen occurred in France at 9 : 40AM French time , along with others in Norway , Sweden , Denmark , Luxembourg , Spain , Portugal , Bosnia , and Tokyo . ( TV : " " ) Prior to 2012 , Chloe Webber ' s abusive father died in a car crash while drunk . Chloe and her mother Trish Webber thought they were " safe " from him from then onwards . ( TV : " Fear Her " ) Rory Williams implied Amy Pond had been in a road traffic accident while driving his car . ( TV : " Space " ) In 2014 , Mary O ' Linne , wife of Tom , was killed in a car accident , three weeks before Tom met Leela . ( AUDIO : " Second Sight " ) Danny Pink was involved in a road traffic accident , being killed by a car . ( TV : " Dark Water " ) In 2016 , one of Gregson ' s colleagues , driving from a meeting , refused to give way to a car driven by a seemingly crazy young girl . The colleague swerved away at the last moment , and died after crashing into a truck . ( PROSE : " Joyride " ) In an alternate timeline , Ibrahim Hadmani was killed in a car accident in the first week of 2018 . ( PROSE : " Auld Acquaintance " ) Post - 21st entury . On the human colony Red Rocket Rising , Morgan crashed his solar - powered car into the Eighth Doctor ' s TARDIS while being pressured by " Asha Gryvern " to speed , causing his death . Another passenger within the vehicle at the time of the crash was Eileen Klint ; the three were leaving the mob behind , and on the run from them . While the TARDIS was not so much as scratched from the impact , but the car , as described by Lucie Miller , " bounced right the way over the other side of the road " . Smoke protruded from the solar cell engine . ( AUDIO : " Blood of the Daleks " ) Professor Emile Moorhouse suffered from regular panic attack s after surviving a car crash the year before his ultimate murder by the Foretold . He was selected by the Foretold because of his weakened state . ( TV : " Mummy on the Orient Express " ) Behind the scenes . Actor Roger Delgado , who played the original , to Jon Pertwee ' s Third Doctor , died in a car accident on 18 June 1973 . In later interviews , Jon Pertwee cited Delgado ' s death as a contributing factor , along with the departure of Barry Letts as producer , in his decision to leave the series in 1974 . " Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks " , the 1964 novelisation , changed the meeting of the First Doctor , Susan , Barbara and Ian in a junkyard in TV : " An Unearthly Child " to a car crash on Barnes Common .