It's a moment we've all seen a thousand times before.
A car teetering precariously on the edge of certain doom.
But despite how many times you may have seen it - can you think of a single example that
wasn't staged for the screen?
A real car perched on a real precipice - with real occupants genuinely fearing for their
lives?
Here's one.
This is from the Tasman Bridge collapse - when a large ship ploughed through the bridge's
supports, sending a huge section of road plummeting 45 metres below.
Our story takes us to Australia, 1975.
More specifically, Hobart - the capital city of Australia's island state Tasmania.
It was around half nine at night on a Sunday, January 5th, when the bulk carrier Lake Illawarra
was carrying 10,000 tonnes of zinc ore concentrate up the Derwent River.
The Derwent River divides the city of Hobart into two, east and west.
The two halves of the cities are connected by the Tasman Bridge, which is over a kilometre
in length, and suspended some 45 metres above the Derwent River.
The Lake Illawarra would have to pass under the Tasman Bridge then.
It made its approach near the eastern shore.
The ship slowed down to allow for a safer passage, but it was struggling to align itself
with the span it intended to pass through.
At this slower speed, the captain stuggled as he wrestled the ship against the strong
current, all the while the ship drifted towards the bridge.
Eventually the captain realised he would not right the ship before it reached the span
and called out "full speed astern", attempting to pull the ship back out of its current predicament,
but it was too late.
Lake Illawarra crashed through two pile cappings, bringing down the piers - and with them - three
now unsupported spans of the bridge.
Around a hundred and thirty metres of roadway came crashing down - some straight into the
water's depths, some onto the ship's deck.
Fortunately, the Sunday night traffic was light, and there were no cars on the section
of bridge that collapsed.
However, there were still motorists travelling across the bridge, which was now split by
a huge divide, unbeknownst to them.
Murray Ling was travelling with his wife and two kids, when suddenly the lights on the
bridge flickered off, alerting them that something may be wrong.
Murray slowed the car as he and his wife watched ahead for a potential accident, though they
were straining to see through the foggy night on the unlit roadway.
There were two cars ahead, allowing them to follow their lights, but suddenly these two
cars disappeared.
They had driven straight over the edge.
Murray slammed on his brakes, bringing the car to a halt just before the plunge.
However, the reaction time of the car behind them was not as quick, and it slammed into
the back of Murray's car.
The car was propelled forward, but thankfully stopped with both its fron wheels hanging
over the side.
Murray helps his family out of the car, then notices two cars coming up in the adjacent
lane.
He tries to wave them down, but the cars drive past, one even has to swerve to avoid Murray.
Both cars fly off the bridge.
In total, five people across four cars have been killed.
Murray Ling does manage to wave down a bus full of people, which swerves and crashes
into the side railings, the occupants unaware that the accident they have suffered at the
hands of the madman on the road had saved their lives.
But there was another motorist on the way.
Frank and Sylvia Manley were travelling in Frank's Holden Monaro, apprehensive at the
lack of lights on the bridge.
Frank slowed to 40 kilometres per hour and the two kept their eyes peeled for something
wrong.
There were stationary tail lights ahead.
Suddenly Sylvia noticed the white line down the middle of the road appeared to abruptly
end.
Realising the bridge wasn't there, she called out to Frank to stop.
He slammed on the brakes.
The Monaro screeched towards the edge.
It looked like they were going to slide into the drop as the front wheels passed over the
brink, but thankfully, the car came to a stop and balanced on the large automatic transmission
pan.
As the two got out, Frank peered over the edge.
Below he saw what he described as a massive black hole.
What he was seeing was a whirlpool.
The Lake Illawara had sank.
Seven crew members were trapped on board and drowned as the ship went down.
With the two cars teetering on the edge, the tragedy was over.
But the story wasn't.
Emergency service, as well as private citizens and businesses with boats at their disposal,
descended on the scene - saving the lives of many Lake Illawara crew members.
A court of marine inquiry found the captain of the vessel guilty of careless navigation
and suspended his certificate of competency for six months.
In the wake of the incident, Hobart found itself lacking a bridge, which saw heavy use
as it connected the two sides of the city.
This image shows the importance of the bridge in relation to the area.
Residents were forced to travel kilometres away to make use of a bridge out in the suburbs.
For some, what was once a three minute trip across the Tasman Bridge had turned into an
hour-and-a-half long journey.
This was incredibly frustrating for residents, made worse by the slow progress in repairing
the bridge.
Before construction work could even begin, a lengthy process of surveying and clearing
the massive debris underwater had to be carried out.
It would be nearly three years before the bridge was reopened.
This had a significant impact on the city, especially the eastern shore, which was home
to about 30% of Hobart's residents.
Most of the businesses and facilities were located in the west side.
This eventually resulted in developments in the east's services and amenities, as they
became a more self-contained community.
Many ferry services were set up to take travellers across the Derwent River while the Tasman
bridge was unaccessible.
A year after the incident, a temporary Bailey bridge was installed that allowed one lane
of traffic in each direction to once again cross the river.
In October 1977, the Tasman Bridge was reopened.
The repair had cost 44 million dollars and featured some new additions, including a new
lane and improved safety measures such as a guidance system for passing ships.
In 1984, an extra bridge crossing was completed a few kilometres north of the Tasman Bridge.
And so, Hobart has not only minimised the chances of such a tragedy occuring again,
but also mitigated the resulting hardship of losing such an important bridge.
Of course, that doesn't bring back the twelve who lost their lives that night.
There is a plaque commemorating the tragedy on the bridge, but perhaps a more striking
reminder is the gap where one of the two destroyed supports once stood.
This single pier was not replaced as there was too much debris at the site.
Its absense now serves as a permanent marker, for the place where twelve people spent
their last moments.