Accident in Heavy Rain - BMW

Srdl

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I see it weekly on the A21 to work and back. Cars driving 80mph plus in the torrential rain. Last week as an Audi in the grass that hit standing water and ended up 15 ft up on the grass.

Seems to be worse now than 10 years ago.
An earlier Tweet from Hampshire Roads Police says it all “It's fair to say that we have been inundated with collisions across the county this afternoon. #StormDennis has brought widespread flooding and we ask drivers to drive to the conditions. Standing water and aquaplaning is a common theme. It's a speed limit - not a target!

and, it seems, many of today’s new drivers can’t drive at night either:
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/109124/thousands-of-new-drivers-have-never-driven-in-the-dark
 

Srdl

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I hit standing water in my SL ~50mph - came around a bend and the road was flooded (never seen it flooded before or since) and (I think) the ESP kept me out of the farm fields....it immediately cut power and the car stayed straight & on the road - it all happened so quickly, I'm not sure what my actions were (WRT keeping the car on the road o_O).....
It may well be your experience and instinct that kept the car on the road. I hit a patch of water running across a Swiss motorway once and I’m sure it was instinct that got me through - take foot off the power, hold the steering straight and wait for a good surface again. What most inexperienced drivers do is to hit the brakes and then they’ve lost it.
 

umblecumbuz

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Systems like ESP are reactive to a situation that has developed. They can't be proactive to prevent the situation in the first place.

That's probably a broader subject worthy of a separate thread.

Systems like auto wipers, auto lights, auto gearboxes, cruise controls, and many others, are all reactive.
For example, alert drivers, seeing a lorry coming towards them throwing spray from a damp road, will increase the speed of their wipers before the lorry passes by, rather than wait for the auto function to do it for them once the screen has been splattered.

Dozy drivers just wait for the auto systems to kick in, and are always at a disadvantage.
 

LostKiwi

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That's probably a broader subject worthy of a separate thread.

Systems like auto wipers, auto lights, auto gearboxes, cruise controls, and many others, are all reactive.
For example, alert drivers, seeing a lorry coming towards them throwing spray from a damp road, will increase the speed of their wipers before the lorry passes by, rather than wait for the auto function to do it for them once the screen has been splattered.

Dozy drivers just wait for the auto systems to kick in, and are always at a disadvantage.
Not forgetting auto dipping headlights...
 

rorywquin

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That's probably a broader subject worthy of a separate thread.

Systems like auto wipers, auto lights, auto gearboxes, cruise controls, and many others, are all reactive.
For example, alert drivers, seeing a lorry coming towards them throwing spray from a damp road, will increase the speed of their wipers before the lorry passes by, rather than wait for the auto function to do it for them once the screen has been splattered.

Dozy drivers just wait for the auto systems to kick in, and are always at a disadvantage.

Much as I like & trust technology, I have to agree. Driving back from London up the M1 this week (lateish), I had the car on 73mph with distronic and self steering activated. Suddenly there was a car right up my A$$ - I don't think it had been there long but normally I'd have spotted the headlights long before he got to me. I was a little tired (had also stopped for a burger after 2 hours drive) and relied on the technology.....no excuses but a timely wakeup call for me. Attention was not what it should have been because of the driver aids.
 

rorywquin

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ESP can help but only when the car can find traction on the road. If all 4 wheels (or even just 3) are riding the little wedge of water even the best of ESP systems is powerless to help.

I agree. However, I do know that ESP does cut engine power in severe situations - I've been to a couple of MB driver days where the purpose was to demonstrate how good their driver aids are and we drove on skid pans etc with and without aids.
 

JBell

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BMW's seem more susceptible to aquaplaning than other marques due to their propensity to for very wide tyres. These struggle to remove the water more than narrow tyres.

No different to MB, my friends 330d has the same size tyres as my C350CDi but I have Rain Sharks :cool::cool::cool::cool:
 

d215yq

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In Spain most areas have a higher annual rainfall as the UK but only with 10-15 days of rain per year. Makes for some interesting driving. I had the unfortunate position of being on a DCW with rain hitting the windscreen so fast it was like a bucket of water being poured constantly. Was of the opinion that it was more dangerous to stop so hazards on and down to about 30mph. And just concentrating on the barriers to guess where the lanes were - also had to be in 4th gear not 5 as there was not enough power to get through the water otherwise. Drove 5 miles like this with the van behind was just following me also with hazard lights and nobody went past.

When we crested a hill and suddenly it cleared checked the rear view mirror and behind the van there were about 20 cars and lorries in a line with hazards on a sensible distance apart and nobody had tried to overtake depite the clear L2 of the DCW. I couldn't help but think in the UK or even sometimes in Spain there would normally be 10-15% of people flying past the queue at 60 and ending up off the road but was thankful on this occasion no-one did.

That said here I have seen cars in the barrier on other occasions. The scraier thing for me is having queued and past a completely wrecked car in the barrier on many occasion most cars just speed up to what they were doing before, not even go a little slower for a few miles or so. Worst was on an autobahn; seriously poor visibility and still cars flying past at 100mph plus through the spray. 5x accidents in a 3hr drive, two of them looked fatal or nearly. No change in behaviour after each one...in the end the back roads were quicker as no accidents and stupid driving (Germans obey the speed limits off the motorway very rigorously).
 

Srdl

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Another BMW driver locally who couldn’t handle a wet road:
IMG_3656.png
 

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