Hard Shoulder T***s.

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Discussion

hugerr

139 posts

240 months

Wednesday 17th August 2005
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Got stuck heading north on the M6 a few years back. Nasty accident. Motorway ground to complete halt. I was a couple of miles from the next exit which was unseen around a corner. After a while a few isolated cars started to drive up the hard shoulder and disappear round the corner in the distance. Gradually more and more went that way... and then the parked traffic started to crawl slowly foward.

When we came around the corner and could see the exit, 'imagine our surprise' to see a long queue of cars trapped on the hard shoulder behind a police car leading up to the slip road, with a pair of Plods walking slowly down the line issuing tickets to one and all with huge grins on their faces.

Strangely, no one in the now slowly crawling lane 1 would let anyone back in from the hard shoulder...

hugh

option click

1,164 posts

227 months

Wednesday 17th August 2005
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edited due to double post

>> Edited by option click on Wednesday 17th August 11:56

option click

1,164 posts

227 months

Wednesday 17th August 2005
quotequote all
I saw a really bad case at the weekend on the M1 - a big, blacked out Merc had been weaving in and out of lanes, undertaking and cutting everyone up.

He was in the fast lane when he saw some congestion ahead and cut across all three lanes of the motorway in one movement and continued up the hard shoulder at 80+.

How he made it across the three lanes without hitting anyone is a miracle in itself, but to use the hard shoulder as an extra lane for undertaking...

A57 HSV

1,510 posts

231 months

Wednesday 17th August 2005
quotequote all
hugerr said:
Got stuck heading north on the M6 a few years back. Nasty accident. Motorway ground to complete halt. I was a couple of miles from the next exit which was unseen around a corner. After a while a few isolated cars started to drive up the hard shoulder and disappear round the corner in the distance. Gradually more and more went that way... and then the parked traffic started to crawl slowly foward.

When we came around the corner and could see the exit, 'imagine our surprise' to see a long queue of cars trapped on the hard shoulder behind a police car leading up to the slip road, with a pair of Plods walking slowly down the line issuing tickets to one and all with huge grins on their faces.

Strangely, no one in the now slowly crawling lane 1 would let anyone back in from the hard shoulder...

hugh



So a Police car causing a deliberate multiple car blockage of the hard shoulder & then the two officers "walking slowly". What if an emergency vehicle needed to use the hard shoulder to exit the M6 at that junction. What was John57 saying?
I appreciate rules, but also think common sense should play a part. A typical example being the case of a motorist driving through a red light to get out of the path of an emergency vehicle, against the law, but the most sensible thing to do. IMO of course.

>> Edited by A57 HSV on Wednesday 17th August 18:53