Near miss on the motorway.

[Conor]

I just wrote this up on another group and thought i'd share my experience on here too.

So you guys.. who's ever had a serious near miss in the car?! Ever wonder how accidents happen on the motorway....? Well, let me tell you.
Saturday evening, motorway, cruise control at 120KPH. Very little on the road, approximately 9PM. Music on, not too loud. Two other passengers and we are chatting. I am driving. I'm just setting context here.

I'm cruising along in the "slow lane" and see flashing amber lights ahead. Grand, I tell myself. I glance at Waze to see if anything indicated.
Still a bit back from the spreader.. All around the same time, the rear seat passenger is telling me to "watch out!" .. turns out I am right up on a car. The car was going super slow.. say 50/60KPH and had super dim rear lights. By the time I have digested the passenger warning i'm right up on it. I brake and adjust to the "fast lane". All was well.. albeit frightened all around. It is at this point that things could have gone super wrong. I could have swerved to avoid but lost control.

..

I then said, ok, let's discuss what happened there.. because hot damn. I didn't see that car!
Rear passenger says it was going super slow in the fast lane and basically pulled out in front of my car slow lane as I was fast approaching it. There was no indicator used.
Firstly let me say I feel embarrassed that I didn't see it, and I might very well have been in the wrong. But I will say that contrasting the very weak lights of the car against the very numerous, bright and flashing lights of the spreader made it quite difficult to notice. Also, note that it is very plausible that had I been on my own, with no music I might have had less "mental load" and as a result been more attentive.. who knows.

From the other drivers perspective, I could guess that perhaps they saw me approach at speed (remember, they were doing only an estimated 50/60KPH), were in the fast lane and decided to pull in out of my way.. but in fact I was in the slow lane and not fast, so they pulled out right in front of me.
This isn't a finger pointing exercise at all.. I just thought I'd share it with you guys as this is a driving group at the end of the day... and this is just a some food for thought on how things can quickly go wrong.

 

[Conor]

So just to be clear, the point of this post isn't finger pointing. I could clearly have been in the wrong there.. and as one person pointed out. The rear seat passenger might have been the better driver as they were paying more attention than me.

Was putting my pride to the side with this post and trying to just give an example of how this stuff happens.

 

[Blobcat]

Very easy to come across a slow or stopped vehicle on the motorway. Especially bad if they've stopped and not kept their foot on the brakes to highlight to the traffic behind...

If you've not done it get yourself on an IAM or Rospa course. Your observation skills will improve more than you realise. It's also good skills to improve for your track day racing

 

[M80]

Consider Specsavers, no insult intended.
Maybe the other driver needs to consider advanced driving, maybe he has those damned dim rear light covers.

My point is and not with fingers also, is our eyes get worn out with age.
I should have gone for a new lens today due to cataracts, but the snow fell so that's Thursday now.
It is said that Eye will see better than Eye has for years (a bit of levity intended there).

Just as a heads up for the naive but Specsavers did my examination for free, the operations, one now another later, are NHS.
If you're still in Ireland Conor maybe go for it when back in London.

 

[Rory]

Certainly night vision gets worse with age, and ability to see contrast.

Probably glancing at Waze didn't help as eyes adjust to the light of the screen and short distance.

I wouldn't use cruise in the dark when it's cold enough to be gritting. Cruise keeps you heading towards an issue when your natural reaction would have been to ease off the gas pedal.

Oh, and what's with 'slow' and 'fast' lanes!?

 

[Conor]

Very easy to come across a slow or stopped vehicle on the motorway. Especially bad of they've stopped and not kept their foot on the brakes to highlight to the traffic behind...

If you've not done it get yourself on am IAM or Rospa course. Your observation skills will improve more than you realise. It's also good skills to improve for your track day racing

Yea it's true. I've often had to slow down a lot in response to something ahead and i'll often repeatedly tap the brakes in order to flash the brake lights.

Yea, i've been meaning to do one of those courses alright.

Consider Specsavers, no insult intended.
Maybe the other driver needs to consider advanced driving, maybe he has those damned dim rear light covers.

My point is and not with fingers also, is our eyes get worn out with age.
I should have gone for a new lens today due to cataracts, but the snow fell so that's Thursday now.
It is said that Eye will see better than Eye has for years (a bit of levity intended there).

Just as a heads up for the naive but Specsavers did my examination for free, the operations, one now another later, are NHS.
If you're still in Ireland Conor maybe go for it when back in London.

I hear you. I was wearing my specs alright and was tested with new prescription 12 months ago.

I just put it down to a pure freak thing really.. but has certainly been a bit of a wake up call and a reminder of what can happen and how things can go wrong. I do consider myself fairly alert and attentive usually.

Certainly night vision gets worse with age, and ability to see contrast.

Probably glancing at Waze didn't help as eyes adjust to the light of the screen and short distance.

I wouldn't use cruise in the dark when it's cold enough to be gritting.

Oh, and what's with 'slow' and 'fast' lanes!?

Yea that did dawn on me after, but it wasn't that cold really, like 4 or 5 degrees. I guess they were gritting it for night?

Oh, I originally wrote that message for an Irish group.. In Ireland there are typically only two lanes on motorway and often referred to as fast and slow.. with "fast" being the outermost lane, which should be used for overtaking only. Motorways in Ireland are a bit of a mess really and I hate driving them. You end up with cars on the left lane doing about 100 and then on the right lane the cars sit there doing anything between 100-120 .. you then get a bit of a backlog when the cars doing 130-140 come on the scene.. one or two of those guys get a bit fraught, and try various tactics to get ahead.

(Kilometres per hour)

 

[Frontstep]

Very difficult to be clever in these circumstances as the roads throw up new hazards so regularly.
Lewis Hamilton tipped the back end of the car in front of him at the weekend and I would hazard a guess his fitness,eyesight and general driving skills are better than mine.

Well just a little bit better.

 

[Rory]

Yea that did dawn on me after, but it wasn't that cold really, like 4 or 5 degrees. I guess they were gritting it for night?

Oh, I originally wrote that message for an Irish group.. In Ireland there are typically only two lanes on motorway and often referred to as fast and slow.. with "fast" being the outermost lane, which should be used for overtaking only. Motorways in Ireland are a bit of a mess really and I hate driving them. You end up with cars on the left lane doing about 100 and then on the right lane the cars sit there doing anything between 100-120 .. you then get a bit of a backlog when the cars doing 130-140 come on the scene.. one or two of those guys get a bit fraught, and try various tactics to get ahead.

(Kilometres per hour)

I edited my comment about cruise to say the trouble with it is that it keeps you heading towards an issue (at speed) when your natural reaaction would have been to back off when you saw the flashing lights.

We have same congestions issues with 2 lane sections of motorway here too.

 

[Conor]

I edited my comment about cruise to say the trouble with it is that it keeps you heading towards an issue (at speed) when your natural reaaction would have been to back off when you saw the flashing lights.

We have same congestions issues with 2 lane sections of motorway here too.

Ah yes. It's very true.. I think I usually do disable cruise control as soon as something pops up. And to be honest I don't recall if I did or not in that case.

I do know that I only use CC on motorways. There is another quite "main road" that is sometimes used and even though it is long, relatively straight and non busy, it feels plain wrong to enable CC on it.

It's a learning lesson I guess and will put it down to experience.

 

[mioba]

Keep alert and keep safe!

radar cruise control is very very clever

 

[SL63 Mark]

I love Ireland, and lots of my dad's family live there. But, I would not be going fast on any road there. Their "A"roads are like farm tracks, and the motorways little better. They have no motorways in the UK sense.

So, to be driving 70 mph in the dark, closing on a gritter, when you can expect dimwits to be pulling out is asking for trouble. As far as I recall they don't have hard shoulders, or crash barriers as a rule, and the surface is usually potholed.

You were cruising, chatting, looking at WaZ, (whatever that is,) You should be 100% focussed on the road. I won't talk to anyone in difficult conditions.

Just a few random thoughts, no offence intended, I hope it is a wake up call to you. Next time might not be so lucky.

 

[Conor]

I love Ireland, and lots of my dad's family live there. But, I would not be going fast on any road there. Their "A"roads are like farm tracks, and the motorways little better. They have no motorways in the UK sense.

So, to be driving 70 mph in the dark, closing on a gritter, when you can expect dimwits to be pulling out is asking for trouble. As far as I recall they don't have hard shoulders, or crash barriers as a rule, and the surface is usually potholed.

You were cruising, chatting, looking at WaZ, (whatever that is,) You should be 100% focussed on the road. I won't talk to anyone in difficult conditions.

Just a few random thoughts, no offence intended, I hope it is a wake up call to you. Next time might not be so lucky.

Oh yea, couldn't agree more.

And that is the point of the OP really. People often wonder how accidents are caused, and that is how.

 

[LostKiwi]

I tend to leave cruise off when it's poor weather as all it does is guarantee what speed you'll hit the scenery at.
In poor conditions it's often safer to use the speed limiter. At least then when you lift your foot the car will slow a bit..

 

[Conor]

I tend to leave cruise off when it's poor weather as all it does is guarantee what speed you'll hit the scenery at.
In poor conditions it's often safer to use the speed limiter. At least then when you lift your foot the car will slow a bit..

Agreed. The speed limited is very useful. I have used it on occasion but still not enough.

 

[Naraic]

I love Ireland, and lots of my dad's family live there. But, I would not be going fast on any road there. Their "A"roads are like farm tracks, and the motorways little better. They have no motorways in the UK sense.

So, to be driving 70 mph in the dark, closing on a gritter, when you can expect dimwits to be pulling out is asking for trouble. As far as I recall they don't have hard shoulders, or crash barriers as a rule, and the surface is usually potholed.

You were cruising, chatting, looking at WaZ, (whatever that is,) You should be 100% focussed on the road. I won't talk to anyone in difficult conditions.

Just a few random thoughts, no offence intended, I hope it is a wake up call to you. Next time might not be so lucky.

Of course they have motorways like the UK (though, thankfully, none of those stupid smart motorways with no hard shoulders) and your other remarks...

 

[Naraic]

Oh yea, couldn't agree more.

And that is the point of the OP really. People often wonder how accidents are caused, and that is how.

Don't feel you have to agree Connor...in my experience you can get from Belfast to Cork more quickly than the equivalent distance in the the South of England. And on motorways with less traffic and no potholes.

Yes it gets a bit busy around Dublin and on the M7 out to Kildare and beyond...but it keeps moving.

As for your incident. It was the ambience...friends and conversation. Like the use of mobile phones...apparently handsfree is safe...neither is safe, it's the conversation that is dangerous.