Remember to look Right a second time
Discussion
A bit of a "cool story bro'" I appreciate.
Approaching a T junction as the minor road onto a "main" but ordinary residential road in a busy London suburb I see the traffic from the left is dawdling at 10-15ish mph. Ar$e, I think, they've started those temporary road works again. I'm turning right so indicate as i approach a stop. Looking right there is no traffic to be seen at all for the 200 yards or so to the works. Looking left, I creep forward maybe three feet so I am now protruding across one carriageway. Two cars pass but the third flashes and slows. I raise a hand and mouthe "thanks". Looking right as I release the brake pedal I'm met with the sight of a violently decelerrating grey Aston Martin, its nose hunkered down and ABS grabbing.
"$hit!" methinks, as I smash the brake pedal again (I doubt I'd moved at all in that briefest of moments) and I turn the arm that had been politely thanking the Focus driver to apologise to the Aston driver while saying (out loud) "Sorry" (I was brought up properly after all).
He couldn't pass in front of me without me reversing (I had a car behind me but if it had come to it could have rolled back a couple of feet I suppose), so still holding my hand up I move forward into the gap left by the Focus and into the traffic flow. Sure enough he had beans to spare as he offered me some with his right hand and then gave even more to his car. Like many on these fora I enjoy the sound of a V8 at high revs, but I'm unconvinced I needed to hear them to their extreme as you passed through first and second into third gear. Tyre costs clearly weren't your immediate concern either.
Truly, Aston driver, I apologise for slowing your progress, and I accept that the "incident" was more than partly of my making, but in mitigation, it did appear to my (uncalibrated) eyes your progress must have been perhaps more than a little in excess of the posted 30 limit - a view reinforced by the distance between yourself and the second and remaining cars also held at those temporary traffic lights on your side. Also, where the hell did you intend to go? Only with a healthy dose of vaseline might you have squeezed between my bonnet and the traffic flow countering you - unless you'd intended to somehow magically timed a perfect slalom. I dunno.
Anyway, back to my thread title, please everyone remember to always always look Right a second time. Next time the Aston driver might not have such good brakes or he might be sneezing or changing radio stations.
Approaching a T junction as the minor road onto a "main" but ordinary residential road in a busy London suburb I see the traffic from the left is dawdling at 10-15ish mph. Ar$e, I think, they've started those temporary road works again. I'm turning right so indicate as i approach a stop. Looking right there is no traffic to be seen at all for the 200 yards or so to the works. Looking left, I creep forward maybe three feet so I am now protruding across one carriageway. Two cars pass but the third flashes and slows. I raise a hand and mouthe "thanks". Looking right as I release the brake pedal I'm met with the sight of a violently decelerrating grey Aston Martin, its nose hunkered down and ABS grabbing.
"$hit!" methinks, as I smash the brake pedal again (I doubt I'd moved at all in that briefest of moments) and I turn the arm that had been politely thanking the Focus driver to apologise to the Aston driver while saying (out loud) "Sorry" (I was brought up properly after all).
He couldn't pass in front of me without me reversing (I had a car behind me but if it had come to it could have rolled back a couple of feet I suppose), so still holding my hand up I move forward into the gap left by the Focus and into the traffic flow. Sure enough he had beans to spare as he offered me some with his right hand and then gave even more to his car. Like many on these fora I enjoy the sound of a V8 at high revs, but I'm unconvinced I needed to hear them to their extreme as you passed through first and second into third gear. Tyre costs clearly weren't your immediate concern either.
Truly, Aston driver, I apologise for slowing your progress, and I accept that the "incident" was more than partly of my making, but in mitigation, it did appear to my (uncalibrated) eyes your progress must have been perhaps more than a little in excess of the posted 30 limit - a view reinforced by the distance between yourself and the second and remaining cars also held at those temporary traffic lights on your side. Also, where the hell did you intend to go? Only with a healthy dose of vaseline might you have squeezed between my bonnet and the traffic flow countering you - unless you'd intended to somehow magically timed a perfect slalom. I dunno.
Anyway, back to my thread title, please everyone remember to always always look Right a second time. Next time the Aston driver might not have such good brakes or he might be sneezing or changing radio stations.
Graebob said:
Hmm. You pulled out in front of someone, but that's OK because he might have been going quickly?
Nope, I was stationary, partially blocking a carriageway by my placement and would have been for the entirety of the time I was in his vision. This is London, to give some perspective, each of us at some point during our journey will trangress the unrealistic academic niceties of the Highway Code and I don't claim to be a Saint.Besides, I'm not trying to score points, while I might consider the Aston driver was at best a bit of a fool for his speed on a normal residential road and for his gestures and his re-acceleration, my post was to remind everyone that even when you "know" or think you know your passage is clear, remember things in the real world can happen very quickly, events occur, maybe other road users also have moments of indiscretion, whatever, just make sure you look Right a second time just in case. Who's to say a juvenile cyclist with poor roadcraft might not have left his house in those brief seconds I was busy looking Left and had intended to pass in front of me - after all he'd easily have fitted through the gap? That's all.
The minor event brought home to me how vulnerable we all are and in the spirit of humanity I thought I'd take a moment to share.
I had something similar some yrs ago.
I was reversing off my local pub car park when I worked there.
I looked up the hill where you can see for about 500yrd and it was clear, I reversed out in my defender and was meet with a screech of brakes and an impact.
I got a load of verbal from the driver, so the owner of the pub called the police, police issued a statement to my insurance saying the length of his skid marks be would have been doing double the 30mph limit and the claim went against him.
So he dropped it (no damage to my defender).
I was reversing off my local pub car park when I worked there.
I looked up the hill where you can see for about 500yrd and it was clear, I reversed out in my defender and was meet with a screech of brakes and an impact.
I got a load of verbal from the driver, so the owner of the pub called the police, police issued a statement to my insurance saying the length of his skid marks be would have been doing double the 30mph limit and the claim went against him.
So he dropped it (no damage to my defender).
scenario8 said:
Each of us at some point during our journey will trangress the unrealistic academic niceties of the Highway Code
The minor event brought home to me how vulnerable we all are and in the spirit of humanity I thought I'd take a moment to share.
Wow, that is beautiful! I have never seen such eloquence on Pistonheads!The minor event brought home to me how vulnerable we all are and in the spirit of humanity I thought I'd take a moment to share.
As for who to blame...you, as you admitted but also the AM driver. He accepted the risks of driving at a speed that seems to be higher than the limit for the road/conditions.
This one is a classic:- Sunningdale
I am leaving Buckhurst Road to turn to my right to travel west, a 'lady' is sitting at the exit of Silwood Road to turn right to travel east. The road she's in is a residential minor road joining a major road. She looks right sees nothing coming, looks left and sees traffic a long way off and dives out. Meanwhile I had moved off, accelerated and was doing about 25mph along the 'A' road when she left her line not realising that the 'clear' road she'd seen was now far from clear. I swerved to my right to avoid her but was T-boned by her which was the first time she knew anything of my existence. I could have avoided her if I'd accelerated faster and been able to swerve farther to my right, but that 'distant traffic' she'd seen was now too close for that to work and my 2.5 litre diesel Granada was accelerating as hard as it could.
.
This is roughly the view: Street View and the red van represents me at the impact point and the silver car is her BMW 320 about to hit me.
The case went 100% against her thanks to a very good witness who stayed around, unlike many others who scurried off like scalded cats.
I am leaving Buckhurst Road to turn to my right to travel west, a 'lady' is sitting at the exit of Silwood Road to turn right to travel east. The road she's in is a residential minor road joining a major road. She looks right sees nothing coming, looks left and sees traffic a long way off and dives out. Meanwhile I had moved off, accelerated and was doing about 25mph along the 'A' road when she left her line not realising that the 'clear' road she'd seen was now far from clear. I swerved to my right to avoid her but was T-boned by her which was the first time she knew anything of my existence. I could have avoided her if I'd accelerated faster and been able to swerve farther to my right, but that 'distant traffic' she'd seen was now too close for that to work and my 2.5 litre diesel Granada was accelerating as hard as it could.
.This is roughly the view: Street View and the red van represents me at the impact point and the silver car is her BMW 320 about to hit me.
The case went 100% against her thanks to a very good witness who stayed around, unlike many others who scurried off like scalded cats.
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