Another big crash at Chicklade today - NUMPTIES
Discussion
Once again an early morning run (to Rockingham) ends in me seeing & helping out at a yet another big smash at Chicklade today. No doubt the road was closed for a good few hours as people were cut out, but I missed all that.
Basically someone going westbound tries turning right into the Q8 garage, the resulting smash resulted in the following car some 3 foot shorter than before, two seriously injured ladies with possible back injuries & three other cars involved. Petrol & oil everywhere, I was in the drift car so had two extinguishers at hand thankfully not needed. Gave first aid & kept them calm & still, as they clearly went through the shock cycle.
Paramedic arrived within 4 mins, firecrew & ambulance within 6
At the time I was travelling eastbound behind a truck with 6 cars all within half a second of each other & me thinking theres going to be an accident as someone ahead goes to pull into the garage. Only the smash was on the other side as I arrived.
A quick chat with some witnesses reveals classic numpty sindrome of not looking ahead, & all following too close.
Something that REALLY DISTRURBS me is the white lining here, wide central banding as we are all too familiar with, that 99% of drivers REFUSE to go over when making a right turn. This stops them being seen by the following traffic & hence following traffic who are all too close don't see the potential hazard ahead. When I learnt to drive I was taught by my instructor to move over the crown to make yourself visible to everyone. Something my brother once failed to do outside our family home resulting in a huge 3 car pile up & several people weeks in hospital including my brother.
THE WHITE LINING & PEOPLES RELUCTANCE TO CROSS IT WAS A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT I am aware that a right turn is not advisable but with the CORRECT procedure it can be done perfectly safely, only the correct procedure is being dumbed down to such a level & road planners are NOT HELPING, its causing accidents.
Best wishes to those involved, I believe they were going to Salisbury hospital
>> Edited by cptsideways on Monday 3rd April 20:32
Basically someone going westbound tries turning right into the Q8 garage, the resulting smash resulted in the following car some 3 foot shorter than before, two seriously injured ladies with possible back injuries & three other cars involved. Petrol & oil everywhere, I was in the drift car so had two extinguishers at hand thankfully not needed. Gave first aid & kept them calm & still, as they clearly went through the shock cycle.
Paramedic arrived within 4 mins, firecrew & ambulance within 6
At the time I was travelling eastbound behind a truck with 6 cars all within half a second of each other & me thinking theres going to be an accident as someone ahead goes to pull into the garage. Only the smash was on the other side as I arrived.
A quick chat with some witnesses reveals classic numpty sindrome of not looking ahead, & all following too close.
Something that REALLY DISTRURBS me is the white lining here, wide central banding as we are all too familiar with, that 99% of drivers REFUSE to go over when making a right turn. This stops them being seen by the following traffic & hence following traffic who are all too close don't see the potential hazard ahead. When I learnt to drive I was taught by my instructor to move over the crown to make yourself visible to everyone. Something my brother once failed to do outside our family home resulting in a huge 3 car pile up & several people weeks in hospital including my brother.
THE WHITE LINING & PEOPLES RELUCTANCE TO CROSS IT WAS A FACTOR IN THIS ACCIDENT I am aware that a right turn is not advisable but with the CORRECT procedure it can be done perfectly safely, only the correct procedure is being dumbed down to such a level & road planners are NOT HELPING, its causing accidents.
Best wishes to those involved, I believe they were going to Salisbury hospital
>> Edited by cptsideways on Monday 3rd April 20:32
?If I understand you correctly, there is a central cross hatched zone (probably with non-continuous edges) to separate the opposing traffic streams, with areas at junctions for right turners to use to await a gap for their manoeuvre. These are quite common around here and I, and I seem alone in this, always drive along the hatched area for about three times the length of the designated wating area to give myself a reasonable distance to slow down to a stop without either hard braking or causing following traffic to be inconvenienced. In my view, the slots allocated for waiting to turn are too short.
I've seen this on the A146 Norwich->Beccles road. Wheras there used to be cross hatched areas that one could move into for a braking zone (although most feckwits still insist on braking on the main road because they don't realise they can drive on dotted boundry hatchings), and decent sliproads for exiting left, some student in road planning has gone and put solid lines on the hatchings and actually landscaped away a good length of the sliproad.
It's absolutely ludicrous! Does anyone think of the impact/check the accident statistics before and after?
SM
It's absolutely ludicrous! Does anyone think of the impact/check the accident statistics before and after?
SM
motco said:
... always drive along the hatched area for about three times the length of the designated wating area
Same for me where I turn off the main road into our housing estate. The hatched area is far too large. The SAFEST thing to do is to drive on it and slow down gently, clearly visible to all around.
The white lines are clearly working AGAINST safety in this (and many other) cases.
motco said:
If I understand you correctly, there is a central cross hatched zone (probably with non-continuous edges) to separate the opposing traffic streams, with areas at junctions for right turners to use to await a gap for their manoeuvre. These are quite common around here and I, and I seem alone in this, always drive along the hatched area for about three times the length of the designated wating area to give myself a reasonable distance to slow down to a stop without either hard braking or causing following traffic to be inconvenienced. In my view, the slots allocated for waiting to turn are too short.
Exactly. I do the same. The "slots" should be long enough to stop from 60mph with gentle braking, but in practice they're too short to stop from 60mph without slinging a grappling hook round the nearest roadsign for extra retardation. User's solution: drive on the hatchings. Provider's solution: lay out the flipping markings properly. Why don't they?
supermono said:
I've seen this on the A146 Norwich->Beccles road. Wheras there used to be cross hatched areas that one could move into for a braking zone (although most feckwits still insist on braking on the main road because they don't realise they can drive on dotted boundry hatchings), and decent sliproads for exiting left, some student in road planning has gone and put solid lines on the hatchings and actually landscaped away a good length of the sliproad.
It's absolutely ludicrous! Does anyone think of the impact/check the accident statistics before and after?
SM
No, of course not. It's gimmick of the week. The *sole* interest on the A146 is getting the numpties from County Hall to their homes as fast as possible.
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