A34 closed - how long?
Discussion
Very lucky incident ( or unlucky whichever way you look at it)
Bus breaks down & pulls to side ( no room to pull off road) truck hits bus.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-3...
They close the road (it says 0:30am to 11am) but motorists still drive through on the remaining lane
What's the downside to allowing that one lane to remain open, while they decide what to do?
Perhaps close it for the half hour to pull the bus out
Bus breaks down & pulls to side ( no room to pull off road) truck hits bus.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-3...
They close the road (it says 0:30am to 11am) but motorists still drive through on the remaining lane
What's the downside to allowing that one lane to remain open, while they decide what to do?
Perhaps close it for the half hour to pull the bus out
Edited by saaby93 on Monday 15th December 11:22
This is the A34, round Oxford, at rush hour. People have enough problem not running in to each other at the best of times. Running it all down to 1 lane, with a crashed lorry and bus to gorp at, is a good way to get more crashes. That and I can't imagine removing the bus being very easy, people were injured, and people will have to be working on removing all of that and cleaning up the mess. Not something I would want to be doing with a live lane of traffic, IF there is even room in one lane.
The road was closed for that long for 3 reasons, firstly for the safe removal of injured passengers, treatment of injured passengers and getting them off the carriageway. You then have the accident investigation work which a lot longer at night due to the lack of decent light. Then you have the recovery.
You don't just pull it out of the ditch, for starters it was on its side so it had to be righted first. Even on its wheels you still cant just tow it out, it has to be lifted and for that you need one of these:
When i went past around 8am there was 3 rotators like that on site, 2 of which were parked across both lanes with slings and straps to lift the coach. Only the rear 3rd of the trailer of the DHL truck was on the carraigeway, the rest was in the ditch with part of the cab jack knifed under the trailer that had been torn open. It was also loaded with 20 tons of bog rolls which were falling out the now open side of the trailer.
You don't just pull it out of the ditch, for starters it was on its side so it had to be righted first. Even on its wheels you still cant just tow it out, it has to be lifted and for that you need one of these:
When i went past around 8am there was 3 rotators like that on site, 2 of which were parked across both lanes with slings and straps to lift the coach. Only the rear 3rd of the trailer of the DHL truck was on the carraigeway, the rest was in the ditch with part of the cab jack knifed under the trailer that had been torn open. It was also loaded with 20 tons of bog rolls which were falling out the now open side of the trailer.
Blown2CV said:
i used to drive it at least twice a week M40 to A303 and it's a f
king dangerous road. Busy A-roads during rush hour are the least funnest of roads anyway though.
I only used it for a short distance, M4 to Milton Interchange, but it always struck me as a very dangerous road. Not sure why, but I always felt extremely vulnerable on it. king dangerous road. Busy A-roads during rush hour are the least funnest of roads anyway though. The road itself isn't dangerous, i've travelled it everyday for 15 years without incidednt
The problem comes from the large amount of complete fktards who use it. It's a major truck road carrying a huge amount of freight to and from the ports on the south coast. It's also used by a large amount of people to amble from town to town, agricultural vehicles, mopeds, cyclists etc. That mix of different types of traffic is a recipe for disaster.
I've had people pull out of laybys yards in front of me doing 50mph, i've had someone pull out of a sliproad in front of me then stop in lane 1 to let a car in front of them join, not to mention those who speed up/slow down/speed up/slow down then match your speed when you're half way past them.
Never really have those problems anywhere else, just the A34
The problem comes from the large amount of complete f
ktards who use it. It's a major truck road carrying a huge amount of freight to and from the ports on the south coast. It's also used by a large amount of people to amble from town to town, agricultural vehicles, mopeds, cyclists etc. That mix of different types of traffic is a recipe for disaster.I've had people pull out of laybys yards in front of me doing 50mph, i've had someone pull out of a sliproad in front of me then stop in lane 1 to let a car in front of them join, not to mention those who speed up/slow down/speed up/slow down then match your speed when you're half way past them.
Never really have those problems anywhere else, just the A34
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