Two near misses - third time lucky
Discussion
I've gone about 15 years without seeing a car crash and in the space of five days seen two quite bad ones.
Last Wednesday 6.25am southbound M40 near the A34 junction I'd just pulled out into lane 3 doing about .8 leptons and bang! car I'd just pulled out behind (and was accelerating to stay with the flow
) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.
Fast forward to this morning about 7.20 on the M25 going past the M4 exit slip. All of a sudden there's a load of smoke and a car spinning round and round on the exit slip hits a car in front of me, showering debris everywhere. As I pull up a Passat curves out from the left, backwards, and slides a few feet in front of my bonnet to a slow stop in the "fast" lane.
I am thinking that I might let the train take the strain next week
Last Wednesday 6.25am southbound M40 near the A34 junction I'd just pulled out into lane 3 doing about .8 leptons and bang! car I'd just pulled out behind (and was accelerating to stay with the flow
) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.Fast forward to this morning about 7.20 on the M25 going past the M4 exit slip. All of a sudden there's a load of smoke and a car spinning round and round on the exit slip hits a car in front of me, showering debris everywhere. As I pull up a Passat curves out from the left, backwards, and slides a few feet in front of my bonnet to a slow stop in the "fast" lane.
I am thinking that I might let the train take the strain next week
The first one is a prime example of why I try and avoid the outside lane when it's busy. Cars nose to tail, speed varying between 60 and 90, just waiting for some to hammer the brakes and catch out the guy behind.
The 2nd one just sounds like bad luck, but again with enough space you should be able to avoid it.
The 2nd one just sounds like bad luck, but again with enough space you should be able to avoid it.
As a commuter of may years on the M62 I also subscribe to the "avoid lane 3" rule. Usually. I was a bit caught out in my first one as I was accelerating out into lane 3. Can't have been too close as I did stop - but it was scary. It wasnt even that busy either.
Second incident - stuff all I could do about that - it was all off to my left.
Second incident - stuff all I could do about that - it was all off to my left.
ArsE92 said:
VR6 Turbo said:
ArsE92 said:
Sorry, what I meant to say was:
"You were driving too close. I would never have been that close. Only a fool breaks the 30 second rule, or something."
Forgot where I was for a moment.
2 second rule I thought?"You were driving too close. I would never have been that close. Only a fool breaks the 30 second rule, or something."
Forgot where I was for a moment.
VR
anything that needs that distance to stop should be on the sea not our roads.
VR
Edited by VR6 Turbo on Monday 9th January 15:17
Dog Star said:
Last Wednesday 6.25am southbound M40 near the A34 junction I'd just pulled out into lane 3 doing about .8 leptons and bang! car I'd just pulled out behind (and was accelerating to stay with the flow ) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.
Must have just missed this one on my commute to Theale. ) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.I saw the three cars in the outside lane and driver's out of their cars. Problem here is that a number of drivers leave it far too late to get off the M40 and onto the slip road for the A34 or A41.
hora said:
On the motorway I sit in the middle of the busy spots. Look for them next time- you always have a fast clump infront and slow clump behind. Instead of driving fast through these 'blips' lift off and sit in them. Every so often a fast car will pass you in the fast lane to catch up with the fast drivers.
Wierd but I always find the quiet spots- unless its a feature particular to the time of days I drive?
It is odd how you get blobs of traffic like this.Wierd but I always find the quiet spots- unless its a feature particular to the time of days I drive?
I tend to pootle along at about 60 on my way home as my current banger isn't that suited to the motorway and I can't be bothered playing stop/go.
For a mile or so the outer two lanes will be jammed up nose to tail and then after they all pass there is a period of almost nothing apart from the odd saloon going at a rate of knots only to get stuck at the back of the blob that has just passed.
Then I catch them all up at the roundabout
Dave Hedgehog said:
i find driving twice as fast as everyone else means you are long gone before any accident can happen
its amazing how many cars you see having accidents in your mirrors thou
Yes, I do this especially when it's raining hard. Then I both miss all the accidents and dodge most of the rain at the same time.its amazing how many cars you see having accidents in your mirrors thou
The traffic pockets always make me laugh - I tend to travel a bit below the speed limit as, well, I'm not really in a hurry to go and sit in a traffic jam and it's more pleasant to just waft along (if you can call getting battered on solid suspension wafting).
Sunday afternoons are the best for traffic pockets - the traffic on the M4 is generally pretty light, so I can sit there for mile after mile only seeing the occasional car go past. Then, for no reason, an entire procession of cars parades past, nose-to-tail, all bunched up. Once, when travelling at 55mph (I was in a heavily loaded van), I watched an entire traffic pocket come past like a swarm of angry braking bees.
Sunday afternoons are the best for traffic pockets - the traffic on the M4 is generally pretty light, so I can sit there for mile after mile only seeing the occasional car go past. Then, for no reason, an entire procession of cars parades past, nose-to-tail, all bunched up. Once, when travelling at 55mph (I was in a heavily loaded van), I watched an entire traffic pocket come past like a swarm of angry braking bees.
Bitzer said:
Dog Star said:
Last Wednesday 6.25am southbound M40 near the A34 junction I'd just pulled out into lane 3 doing about .8 leptons and bang! car I'd just pulled out behind (and was accelerating to stay with the flow ) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.
Must have just missed this one on my commute to Theale. ) hammers on the brakes - I'm anchoring on as hard as I can and am thinking "I'm never going to stop here". Obligingly the guy in front stuffs his car up between the pile-up and the central reservation and I actually do manage to stop in good time. This is followed by a sphincter-puckering period watching people in my rear view mirror almost hit me. Not nice.I saw the three cars in the outside lane and driver's out of their cars. Problem here is that a number of drivers leave it far too late to get off the M40 and onto the slip road for the A34 or A41.
Basically lane 1 is crawling. Lane 2 maybe 50ish. Lane 3 maybe 80ish. Then some dick decides to pull from lane 2 into the queue in lane 1 he was trying to push into, and so basically stops in lane 2. This causes cars from lane 2 (doing 50) to be forced to stop suddenly for the dick, or move quickly to lane 3 (hopefully into a space, but possibly not matched speed) and then there's a big potential for someone hitting dick in lane 2, or the guy who avoided dick when the arrive in lane 3 doing ~30mph less than the flow.
(PS - yes, I know how merge in turn works, and that driving down the outside of a lane thats closing to get the "the front of a queue" isn't a problem. However that's not the situation with the A34 exit of the M40, because the queue backs up onto the carriageway, and it is just that - a queue. So you shouldn't nip along lane 2 and push in, because lane 2 isn't closing.)
Bitzer said:
Must have just missed this one on my commute to Theale.
I saw the three cars in the outside lane and driver's out of their cars. Problem here is that a number of drivers leave it far too late to get off the M40 and onto the slip road for the A34 or A41.
Unbelievably immediately after I'd pulled up and was sat there wondering if I was going to get hit from behind the bloke in the front car was getting out waving a notepad around. FFS - if another car had piled in he could have been killed.I saw the three cars in the outside lane and driver's out of their cars. Problem here is that a number of drivers leave it far too late to get off the M40 and onto the slip road for the A34 or A41.
42.627439,26.353202
At this junction in Bulgaria, so we're driving on the right heading north. Brit registered car overtakes me, on my left obviously, stays on the wrong side of the road, and shoots up the slip lane on the left. This is actually the ON-slip for traffic heading south, and, sure enough, there's a car using it properly. There's a massive head-on collision and the brit car spins back across my front, shedding large bits that used to be under the bonnet, missing me by a few feet.
There were casualties, including my underpants.
At this junction in Bulgaria, so we're driving on the right heading north. Brit registered car overtakes me, on my left obviously, stays on the wrong side of the road, and shoots up the slip lane on the left. This is actually the ON-slip for traffic heading south, and, sure enough, there's a car using it properly. There's a massive head-on collision and the brit car spins back across my front, shedding large bits that used to be under the bonnet, missing me by a few feet.
There were casualties, including my underpants.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff