Lunacy on the M40

[minky monkey]

Jeez. Imagine minding your own business and coming up against that.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2018-10-15/crash...


Fella caught the vehicle on his dashcam.

https://twitter.com/mrmad1234/status/1051889617639...

Edited by minky monkey on Monday 15th October 18:40

[carl_w]

minky monkey said:

Jeez. Imagine minding your own business and coming up against that.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2018-10-15/crash...

Yet this is pretty normal in India

[Ahbefive]

Foreign? Elderly? Or just an absolute idiot?

Unbelievable. Proper Darwin award.

I was told about this on the way home and had to avoid the m40 before the tailbacks.

[marksx]

Travelling community getting settled for the night

[nyxster]

This is actually a ‘thing’ in Germany - Geisterfahrer (ghost drivers) who deliberately go the wrong way on the Autobahn at night with no lights on. Over 2200 incidents a year according to reports.

[Blue62]

There's a comment in there about policing and I have to agree, 20 years ago you would regularly encounter traffic cops, these days it Traffic Officers and camera's and I honestly believe it has contributed to a fall in standards. I'm not saying that it would eliminate cretins like the one on the M40, but surely it's time to realise that our roads cannot be effectively policed by camera's and toothless traffic officers alone.

[Nickbrapp]

Suburu forester must be a PHer

[ChrisNic]

I wonder if it has something to do with the road layout at junction 6, the slip lanes on and off the M40 all end up on one small stretch of road. I once almost collected a GT3 that took the wrong junction and was trying to go up the slip lane.

Doesn’t explain why they carried on but it might be a contributing factor.

[AnotherClarkey]

Glad I trusted Waze to get me round that this evening.

[Benni]

nyxster said:

This is actually a ‘thing’ in Germany - Geisterfahrer (ghost drivers) who deliberately go the wrong way on the Autobahn at night with no lights on. Over 2200 incidents a year according to reports.

Hello Nyxter,

I would like to see these reports, we have drivers going the wrong way

but most commonly they lost orientation entering the slip road, due to old age or stress.

Sadly, some cause bad crashes, head-on at Autobahn speeds,

despite warnings on traffic radio telling other drivers to keep in L1.

Some might be suicides.

The only time I read about "blackout drivers" ( properly equipped with old russian night vision goggles)

was in a 90s car mag story that was gonzo-journalism.

[Vipers]

carl_w said:

minky monkey said:

Jeez. Imagine minding your own business and coming up against that.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2018-10-15/crash...

Yet this is pretty normal in India

Who goes carvaning in India

[dandarez]

ChrisNic said:

I wonder if it has something to do with the road layout at junction 6, the slip lanes on and off the M40 all end up on one small stretch of road. I once almost collected a GT3 that took the wrong junction and was trying to go up the slip lane.

Doesn’t explain why they carried on but it might be a contributing factor.

Blue62 said:

There's a comment in there about policing and I have to agree, 20 years ago you would regularly encounter traffic cops, these days it Traffic Officers and camera's and I honestly believe it has contributed to a fall in standards. I'm not saying that it would eliminate cretins like the one on the M40, but surely it's time to realise that our roads cannot be effectively policed by camera's and toothless traffic officers alone.

Have to agree. I remember when traffic cops used to be in abundance (ie far too many of 'em!). Fast forward and now you can travel literally miles upon miles and not see a single one.

Re this incident, surely he (she, whoever) would have been facing a barrage of horns and headlight flashing? Then again, perhaps not. Nobody expects something like this. The standard of driving in recent years is probably now at the worst I've ever encountered. I have lost count recently of the numbers of drivers who seem clueless re give way to the right on roundabouts. Plus side is it makes me 110% alert at all times.

The slip roads at J6 as Chrisnic says can be confusing, I've had more than one occasion on that 'diamond' interchange (rare on m/way network) where a driver has thankfully realised their error just in time and I've approached as they're reversing back down! However, this person has not only driven up the incorrect slip road onto the m/way in the wrong direction, somehow they've miraculously managed to cross the inside and middle lanes of approaching speeding traffic to reach and carry on driving the wrong direction in the fast lane!
So it begs the question, even getting that much wrong, why the fk would you carry on regardless - unless you were on drugs/meds or something, or simply had a death wish?

Not read any updates but really feel for any poor innocent that has been caught in the pile up, and had not just a f imbecile coming towards them, but one also towing a bloody caravan and in the actual lane where many will be doing 70/80 plus.

[surveyor]

These are easily the most scary clips that I have seen on the internet this year...

[Gary C]

Still happens occasionally on the m6 in Cumbria due to a non-roundabout junction. People have missed the no entry signs in bad weather and turned down the exit, would be much safer with a roundabout.

Wonder where this idiot joined the mway

[Dr Jekyll]

Do we know where the rogue joined? I understood the crash was on the Northbound carriageway at 7, implying he joined at 8 rather than 6.

[Jonesy23]

Another view:

https://twitter.com/AlexVarga_/status/105189809442...

Looks deliberate to me.

[Biker 1]

Jonesy23 said:

https://twitter.com/AlexVarga_/status/105189809442...

Holy st that made me wince!!!!!! Amazing evasive action by some of the drivers.

[kiethton]

Also fair play to some of the oncoming drivers - the lorry and transit especially - flashing headlights will almost always make people think about what could be happening ahead

[Ron Maiden]

Possible contributor to this type of event... having many foreign drivers used to driving on the left?, The more there are the higher the chance
someone is going to make a dreadful mistake.

[coldel]

When travelling in Asia on a bus in Vietnam on a dual carriageway we came up to some traffic, so the solution was for the bus to cross the central reservation and drive down the otherside until we passed the blockage and rejoined our side of the road, again via bumping over the central reservation - absolutely terrifying, how anyone can drive down the otherside and not notice cars coming at you like that is just beyond belief.