Thought I'd had my chips earlier

[Nigel]

I had a scarey experience today, those of you that know me will know I drive 40 - 50,000 miles a year for work, but I haven't experienced such a close call as this one.

I was travelling north on the M6 intending to head off on the M62 eastbound to Bradford.

As I approached the exit from the M6 I became the last vehicle in a queue of stationary traffic, I was in lane one, lane two was flowing quite freely , 50 mph plus, as people continued up the M6.

It was rianing, so lights on my car, despite being stationary I had my foot on the brakes in a so called non advanced fashion, I do this so I'm showing both standard brake lights & the high level one, I'd also chosen to put my hazards on as I'm tail end charlie ( I do turn these off as soon as someone stops behind me), so my car would have looked like a christmas tree from behind.

Up comes a 40 ton artic, he's going a bit fast I thought, quick check around me, only escape route possible is the hard shoulder, I'd just engaged 1st when I noticed him lurch left, he went onto the hard shoulder and stopped with his cab alongside the artic in front of me, his rear wheels by the side of my car.

He would have crashed into the lorry in front of me, let alone me.

Bulgarian redg plates.

Any thoughts on this ?

I basically had no real escape route, I would have gone for the hard shoulder regardless if he hadn't of gone left at that point, but I didn't really know if it was clear as I couldn't see down the inside of the artic in front of me.

I can honestly say it frightened me, and I'm not often frightened on the road, as I'm so familiar I'm probably over confident.

[vonhosen]

Kiss those you love & be thankful for the day.

[Susie]

Nigel, thanks heavens you're OK ...and I agree with VH's sentiments entirely!

How the foreign lorry driver failed to see the stationary traffic ahead beggars belief, but believe it we must because there have been similar situations that did not end so well

When the gearbox on our family car recently decided to go into 'limp home' mode, we found ourselves being terrorised by several of these monstors as we made our way to the garage. On several occasions we watched the rear view mirror in horror as these leviathons thundered menacingly towards us - and, like you a quick flash of hazards failed to alert them to the situation. One particularly inattentive driver just kept coming and we were almost literally forced off the road on to the hard shoulder!

It's not just lorry drivers who are at fault, foreign or otherwise. How often nowadays do we find that the extra (rather large) space we leave in front of us when approaching stationary traffic has to be utlised in order to avert a rear-end shunt?

One of the questions regularly Hugh poses to people is: "What component in your car should wear out first?"

People rarely answer, "the rear view mirror". Even early learning states that one should precede every action or possible action by a look in the mirror and so many incidents could be avoided. Eco-driving does not mean being economical with the use of this vital component.

Thank goodness you were able to go home and hug the ones you love.

Best wishes
Susie

[SammyTheSnake]

First of all, let me echo the sentiments of Von and Susie, I'm very glad you came out of this situation unmolested and I hope you had a particularly rewarding hug with your loved ones when you got home

I didn't really know if it was clear as I couldn't see down the inside of the artic in front of me.

I think this is the only area I can see where what you did could have been improved. Leaving a larger gap in front might have provided you with more view ahead on the hard shoulder, might possibly have given you enough space in front that you wouldn't have been sandwiched if the Bulgarian had hit you, might possibly even have given enough space to accelerate into a gap in the next lane out?

On the other hand, it would've been quite a gap to provide all of those

Another thought just struck me, which is probably very much open to discussion. Would leaving your extra lights on until the lorry was a little closer, then switching them all on at once have made them more conspicuous to the lorry driver? While I'm on the subject, would flashing your brake lights also make them more conspicuous? How about a pip or bare of the horn?

Perhaps all the above would've been enough to alert the lorry driver a little earlier and given him more time to respond?

Back on the first hand, it's possible that the reason for his difficulty in stopping was mechanical rather than mental, but I guess we'll never know without tracking him down, learning bulgarian, and asking him :p

All in all, I'm glad you're still with us

Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

[TripleS]

Hello Nigel, I'm very glad to hear you're OK but that must have been been very frightening. I can picture the scene very well and I can almost feel the fear as I sit here.

I've no doubt you were more alert and better prepared than most drivers would have been, but even so, I would like to make a suggestion for future reference, if I may.

Perhaps leaving a much bigger gap to the vehicle in front, or my own preference, which is to roll up to a stopping point quite slowly from way back, taking quite some time over it. This means that if somebody else comes up behind you they are induced to get their speed down early and roll along steadily with you. Within reason I don't think this would upset them and it helps to keep things a bit more orderly.

Very best wishes,
Dave.

[martine]

Phew I can well imagine how you must have felt from your description.

I believe foriegn lorries are involved in a disproportionate number of incidents and this is pretty typical.

Difficult to see what more you could have done - just think if you hadn't had your brake lights and hazards on...actually it doesn't bear thinking about.

I hope the lorry driver learnt from this.

[MGF]

Perhaps leaving a much bigger gap to the vehicle in front, or my own preference, which is to roll up to a stopping point quite slowly from way back, taking quite some time over it. This means that if somebody else comes up behind you they are induced to get their speed down early and roll along steadily with you. Within reason I don't think this would upset them and it helps to keep things a bit more orderly.

Very best wishes,
Dave.

I agree with this entirely. It is much easier to escape from a following vehicle bearing down on you if you have a large gap in front.

[Nigel]

All points noted, and thanks for the best wishes from all.

I have to admit, for the few brief seconds this took to happen, I'm struggling to think when I've been more frightened.

I have no real excuses for not knowing what , if anything, (nothing as it happens) was on the hard shoulder at that point, other than to say I had traffic leaving to go M62 westbound, I needed to be in the correct lane for M62 eastbound, which is the same lane as the late leavers for westbound were using, and I was keeping an eye on the vehicles intending to continue on the M6 northbound.....as well as watching the traffic in front of me, and in very heavy rain in busy motorway conditions.

Add to this that on this occasion (as in many others) I was surrounded by very large lorries.

Every now and again with my excessive milage I get a reality check, the last one was watching a lorry driver die as his vehicle went through the crash barriers on its side, my own well being was only secured by a very attentive lorry driver (driving a TNT artic) who cleared a path for me by driving his vehicle onto the grass verge, as I was approaching these two vehicles who were in lanes one & two with a view to overtaking them, I was in lane three and my speed differential over them was large.

I'm not normally frightened like this, I do this high speed all conditions long distance driving, interacting with hundreds of other motorists every day.

What really frightens me is there was just about nothing I could do, no amount of courses or whatever can protect me from these large vehicles.

I guess I'll get over it, but even today I'm still spooked, even more so than when I watched that poor chap & the crash barriers, I imagine because I think I wouldn't have survived yesterdays one.

[BillZZR600]

PHEW!!! must have been scarry right enough. Glad it ended as an incident not an accident.

The question of the Heavy heading into the hard shoulder which would in most cases be your safety escape, is probably answered by the Bulgarian plates.
His panic reaction to being suddenly aware of you (he was probably half asleep and over hours) stationary ahead of him was to go into autopilot and attempt an avoidence overtake.........in his usual and muscle memory left hand drive world that meant dive to HIS offside lane to pass you on your LEFT!!!!!

I have seen this several times with Polish and Spanish waggons and foreign plated tourists, up here and suspect it is the cause of many of the Hard shoulder incidents you get on Foreign plated HGVs

[James]

Glad to here your OK. I have often heard of HGV drivers becoming more mesmorised with the more lights they see, so that if they are tired or in a daze they aim unconciously towards the lights. Perhaps it is better to be inconspicuous? I don't know the answer, but of all things on the road HGV's are the ones I tend to be most wary of.

[SammyTheSnake]

Glad to here your OK. I have often heard of HGV drivers becoming more mesmorised with the more lights they see, so that if they are tired or in a daze they aim unconciously towards the lights. Perhaps it is better to be inconspicuous? I don't know the answer, but of all things on the road HGV's are the ones I tend to be most wary of.

My daily commute at the moment includes the M40, the M42 and the M5. I wouldn't even begin to try to count the number of lorries I've seen (particularly in the morning) going over onto the rumble strips, or even into the second lane.

Scary.

I would imagine that the various laws covering the length of time lorry drivers can go without a break have their equivalents overseas, and most of them apply to overseas drivers over here, but I'd love to know for sure. I've not really noticed any obvious correlation between the plates on the lorry and the alarming road behaviour they exhibit, myself, though...

Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

[Nigel]

I'm afraid I have sammy, at the moment the foreign plated ones know our scameras etc can't touch them, I've been seriously seriously tailgated through roadworks by these menaces more times than I can remember.

I'm not a scamera fan, but the situation at the moment is stupid, one section of driver (the british redg one) can be got at, the foriegn one is away scot free, and they know it.

[James]

Its all about Tachographs!!!

[waremark]

Nigel, given the difficult circumstances your level of awareness was amazingly high. I am sure I would not have done better, and of course most ordinary drivers would not have known there was a problem until after the moment had passed! Well done, and thank heavens.

Did you think of reporting him?

[notaboyracer]

Very scary I'm glad you were OK

The most scary thing I find about these situations is that it is completely out of your hands, and there is very little you can do to avoid it. I think it's a problem when motorways' capacities are exceeded, anything to do with the M62 seems particularly bad as it's almost always very busy and has a large proportion of lorries and vans as its the only really major road that goes across the country for miles.

I use the M62 from Leeds to Manchester quite a bit and if I'm approaching a busy junction at a busy time of day I tend to make sure there is a vehicle behind me while we are still moving so I can 'pace' their stop as well as my own, leaving plenty of space from the vehicle in front so I'm in control but not left being at the back of a queue; kind of using the vehicle behind as a safety buffer. I don't know if this is a good way of doing it or not but it makes me feel safer, like I have some control of whats behind me, the only problem is that you can only do it on roads that you go on all the time and know what the traffic is likely to be doing at certain times of day. (You kind of have to predict that there will be a queue ahead before you can see it)

I don't know whether that would be any use in the situation you describe though, it sounded like there was nothing behind you for quite a while apart from the lorry that caused the problem.