Wrong way up hard shoulder
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Discussion

Mojooo

Original Poster:

13,287 posts

202 months

Monday 14th August 2023
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I was on the M3 yesterday when traffic came to a standstill on both sides. After about 15 minutes a car decided to do a u turn and drove the wrong way back our side of the hard shoulder.

I saw 3 or 4 more cars follow.

Pretty ballsy if you ask me (and not in a good way)

After about 30 minutes the traffic opened up again and I was on my way. Depending on where they were going they probably didn't save much time.

The biggest risk of doing this I spose is that you potentially block off emergency service vehicles

What would be the crime, if any?

Gary C

14,622 posts

201 months

Monday 14th August 2023
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Dangerous driving is a guess.

DodgyGeezer

46,281 posts

212 months

Monday 14th August 2023
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happens in a few places - idiots everywhere

https://www.thedrive.com/news/toronto-drivers-are-...

Ninja59

3,691 posts

134 months

Tuesday 15th August 2023
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It is bloody stupid.

Happened here recently at J9 M20, crash at J11. J9 still open and idiots reversing down the slip road! In the end it took about 45 minutes to get through. People are bloody idiots.

Hugo Stiglitz

40,509 posts

233 months

Tuesday 15th August 2023
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Have you got dashcam of it? Submit it to the Police

Tango13

9,825 posts

198 months

Tuesday 15th August 2023
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I've used an entry slip road to exit a motorway after doing a U-turn from lane two to the slip road but in my defence it was under instructions from a police constable and I double checked what he was asking me to do.


TUS373

5,033 posts

303 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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Going back 20 years ago, I doubt any motorist would have even dreamt about such a manouvre. There are some things that should just not be done. This, and travelling in a lane closed with a red X.

It should not just be a fine, they should get a ban for these offences. Chances are they, they will get away with it.

soad

34,304 posts

198 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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Seen similar, reversing on a M62 near Brighouse.

budgie smuggler

5,922 posts

181 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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TUS373 said:
Going back 20 years ago, I doubt any motorist would have even dreamt about such a manouvre. There are some things that should just not be done. This, and travelling in a lane closed with a red X.

It should not just be a fine, they should get a ban for these offences. Chances are they, they will get away with it.
Always been the same IMO. Only takes one cool dude to do it, then a bunch of sheep will follow. I saw the same thing around 20 years ago on the m4. Also around 15 years ago I saw people doing a u-ey on the a130 to avoid a queue, by cutting across some roadworks where the central reservation had been removed. Police helicopter overhead for that one as well, I always wondered if they got a ticket.

Edited by budgie smuggler on Wednesday 16th August 09:08

vikingaero

12,230 posts

191 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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If you drive near any of the airports, Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton etc, and the traffic snarls up, you will get a procession of cars, normally #premium #uber #scabbies driving up the hard shoulder to make flights.

Once in a blue moon you will get a patrol car policing it, with an officer further down, telling drivers who have seen the jam sandwich and are desperately trying to merge back in, to stay on the hard shoulder for a ticket. biggrin

skwdenyer

18,511 posts

262 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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TUS373 said:
Going back 20 years ago, I doubt any motorist would have even dreamt about such a manouvre. There are some things that should just not be done. This, and travelling in a lane closed with a red X.

It should not just be a fine, they should get a ban for these offences. Chances are they, they will get away with it.
Such driving *has* gone on since the dawn of motorways.

Over 40 years ago now, a French exchange group from my school, in a coach, crashed into a lorry that was reversing up a slip road (having taken the wrong exit) ostensibly on the hard shoulder but failing IIRC to stay in that lane.

The coach overturned. My French teacher was killed, and some children I knew suffered life-changing injuries.

Which is why such manoeuvres are so stupid. Moving traffic isn’t expecting you, and the slightest interaction at the “wrong” moment can be catastrophic.

TUS373

5,033 posts

303 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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That is truly awful.

Underlines why such offences need to be dealt with robustly. Reversing off a motorway should be a ban. The driver's judgement is unfit...and thats potentially when they have not been drink or drug driving.

Have a licence is a privilege not a given.

Bobtherallyfan

1,465 posts

100 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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Presumably the Police will already have been given the footage from the traffic cameras….it’s hardly going to have been missed is it.

Mojooo

Original Poster:

13,287 posts

202 months

Wednesday 16th August 2023
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No idea if anyone is really watching the cameras to that extent - if we are x miles back and the motorway is closed in both directions then maybe their attention would be on that.