thoughts on this accident
Discussion
Someone I know has had a bump and everyone believes its their fault but I am wondering if its really a 50/50.
Two cars A and B travelling down a slip road onto a reasonably busy dual carriageway.
A truck is already on the carriageway but a reasonable gap is available for both cars to enter the lane in front of the truck.
Both A and B prepare to move over and the truck flashes his lights and backs off slightly so B accelerates and A does a full blown emergency stop.
B runs into A.
The damage to A appears slight but B needs wings , grill etc
I know the unwritten rule is run into the back of someone its 100% your fault, but slamming on when on a slip road is a odd thing to do .
Im guessing A thought the truck was flashing a warning and panicked.
Any thoughts
Two cars A and B travelling down a slip road onto a reasonably busy dual carriageway.
A truck is already on the carriageway but a reasonable gap is available for both cars to enter the lane in front of the truck.
Both A and B prepare to move over and the truck flashes his lights and backs off slightly so B accelerates and A does a full blown emergency stop.
B runs into A.
The damage to A appears slight but B needs wings , grill etc
I know the unwritten rule is run into the back of someone its 100% your fault, but slamming on when on a slip road is a odd thing to do .
Im guessing A thought the truck was flashing a warning and panicked.
Any thoughts
robwilk said:
Someone I know has had a bump and everyone believes its their fault but I am wondering if its really a 50/50.
Two cars A and B travelling down a slip road onto a reasonably busy dual carriageway.
A truck is already on the carriageway but a reasonable gap is available for both cars to enter the lane in front of the truck.
Both A and B prepare to move over and the truck flashes his lights and backs off slightly so B accelerates and A does a full blown emergency stop.
B runs into A.
The damage to A appears slight but B needs wings , grill etc
I know the unwritten rule is run into the back of someone its 100% your fault, but slamming on when on a slip road is a odd thing to do .
Im guessing A thought the truck was flashing a warning and panicked.
Any thoughts
A would have an argument that they thought it unsafe to join the motorway, and were running out of slip road. It’s pretty hard to disprove this, unless the incident happened on one of those really long slip roads and they were miles from running out. B has no excuse, they were driving too close to A and should have anticipated that strange things may happen on slip roads. Two cars A and B travelling down a slip road onto a reasonably busy dual carriageway.
A truck is already on the carriageway but a reasonable gap is available for both cars to enter the lane in front of the truck.
Both A and B prepare to move over and the truck flashes his lights and backs off slightly so B accelerates and A does a full blown emergency stop.
B runs into A.
The damage to A appears slight but B needs wings , grill etc
I know the unwritten rule is run into the back of someone its 100% your fault, but slamming on when on a slip road is a odd thing to do .
Im guessing A thought the truck was flashing a warning and panicked.
Any thoughts
Joining a motorway or dual carriageway
Slip roads allow you to join a motorway or dual carriageway.
Use the slip road to accelerate until your speed matches that of the traffic on the motorway.
Check there’s a suitable gap in the left-hand lane.
Use the Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre/Position – Speed – Look (MSM/PSL) routine before you merge onto the motorway.
You must give priority to traffic already on the motorway: don’t force your way into the traffic stream.
Avoid stopping at the end of the slip road unless you’re queuing to join slow-moving traffic.
After posting I found this on the DVSA web site, note the last line.
Slip roads allow you to join a motorway or dual carriageway.
Use the slip road to accelerate until your speed matches that of the traffic on the motorway.
Check there’s a suitable gap in the left-hand lane.
Use the Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre/Position – Speed – Look (MSM/PSL) routine before you merge onto the motorway.
You must give priority to traffic already on the motorway: don’t force your way into the traffic stream.
Avoid stopping at the end of the slip road unless you’re queuing to join slow-moving traffic.
After posting I found this on the DVSA web site, note the last line.
KungFuPanda said:
B’s fault 100% I would say. He should have anticipated what A was going to do prior to planning his own entry onto the main carriageway.
Anticipate a sudden stop? B's fault I agree, but with mitigating circumstances given that his attention would be largely on the main carriageway traffic.Dr Jekyll said:
KungFuPanda said:
B’s fault 100% I would say. He should have anticipated what A was going to do prior to planning his own entry onto the main carriageway.
Anticipate a sudden stop? B's fault I agree, but with mitigating circumstances given that his attention would be largely on the main carriageway traffic.Don't get me wrong, I use the M6 every work day and often overtake trucks on the slip road when joining. I sometimes decide to hang back and stay behind the slower moving truck in the left lane of the slip as something about the vehicle creeping past said truck in lane 2 of the slip makes my biker's spidey sense tingle (I'm in the winter shtbox until Marchish from now).
Experience tells you when discretion is the better part of valour and it's often a tatty Meriva or a metallic sticking-plaster pink Jazz which makes me feel like following them past the truck will result in a chaotic and dangerous entry to the main carriageway.
It's usually not that hard to swing across into L3 and get past everything that was on the slip with me and a few more in any case.
The OP's scenario as described sounds eminently avoidable and will be on my mind for the next few journeys, so that's been useful.
Nervous drivers and those who don't use the motorway very often can make for fraught slip roads. They're hazards we all often treat with gay abandon instead of the extra care and concentration they deserve.
If this gets to Court, the driver of vehicle A will in all likelihood say that they miscalculated their entry onto the main carriageway, saw the HGV in their mirrors and decided it was too close to pull out in front of. In the circumstances, they had to brake sharply when they were hit from behind by car B who was following too closely.
robwilk said:
Joining a motorway or dual carriageway
Slip roads allow you to join a motorway or dual carriageway.
Use the slip road to accelerate until your speed matches that of the traffic on the motorway.
Check there’s a suitable gap in the left-hand lane.
Use the Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre/Position – Speed – Look (MSM/PSL) routine before you merge onto the motorway.
You must give priority to traffic already on the motorway: don’t force your way into the traffic stream.
Avoid stopping at the end of the slip road unless you’re queuing to join slow-moving traffic.
After posting I found this on the DVSA web site, note the last line.
The last line may be good advice, but at the end of the slip road there is a give way line.Slip roads allow you to join a motorway or dual carriageway.
Use the slip road to accelerate until your speed matches that of the traffic on the motorway.
Check there’s a suitable gap in the left-hand lane.
Use the Mirrors – Signal – Manoeuvre/Position – Speed – Look (MSM/PSL) routine before you merge onto the motorway.
You must give priority to traffic already on the motorway: don’t force your way into the traffic stream.
Avoid stopping at the end of the slip road unless you’re queuing to join slow-moving traffic.
After posting I found this on the DVSA web site, note the last line.
More the following car’s fault than the other car.
Another lesson also to anyone who flashes anyone out.
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