Driver Asleep When Towing A Caravan!

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SilverSaloon

MB Enthusiast
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Mar 16, 2004
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1994 W124 E300D Estate, 1985 R107 280SL
Hi

during my drive to Dorset with the caravan for a couple of weeks holiday, i saw the following;

on the way (around stoke on trent area) of the M6 i came up behind a car and caravan (irish plate i think) that kept on creeping into the middle lane when cars were parallel with it. looked really dodgy, then swerving back into the proper lane again. at around 50 to 60mph.

as i travel this speed myself whilst towing i stayed behind for about 10 mins (at a safe distance i might add) watching this repeated over and over again. really dodgy.

then he started to move onto the hard shoulder and slow down to about 45-50mph. i thought he may of broken down as he gradually crept onto the hard shoulder, but he continued at 50mph. then the entrance sliproad to the motorway at the next junction was approaching it looked very worrying, but he kept going, across the chevrons, straight acrosss the two lanes joining the motorway and then across onto the hard shoulder. luckily no one was joining the motorway at this time. i think he was ASLEEP!!!

i was still behind but flashing my lights, and horn at him but no reaction.

then after about 30 seconds he moved back into the correct lane again like nothing had happened. we phoned the police and then overtook, with a hoot of my horn as i overtook! the guy didnt even look across.

i hope the police caught up with him!

scary stuff, stay safe out there!!
 
The cause of many motorway incidents/accidents.:devil:

Tiredness Kills is the slogan I believe.:thumb:
 
Bet it wouldn't have killed him though... not sure about other road users :(

the police did call us back about 2 mins after our inital call to verify the car details we gave them, so hopefully they did pull him.

i figured i was best ahead of him, than behind him!

my wife was in tears afterwards - it was a very scary moment watching him drive straight across the sliproad entrance onto the motorway - we really thought he was going to just drive straight off the side of the motorway into the hedge/field at the side of the hard shoulder at 50mph with a van in tow.
 
When you say you phoned the police I assume you dialed 999. That is something I have never done, and in your situation a decision had to be made as to whether it was an emergency or not. Good for you SilverSaloon.
 
When you say you phoned the police I assume you dialed 999. That is something I have never done, and in your situation a decision had to be made as to whether it was an emergency or not. Good for you SilverSaloon.

yeah. definatly an emergency - he could of easily wiped out people joining the motorway as he cut across the lanes - luckily no one was there at that point. it was quite a busy stretch of motorway though. an accident waiting to happen, and i feel if he was to continue his journey i would say almost definatly something would have happened at some point.
 
Sounds as if he'd been driving far too long without a break - maybe trying to connect with a ferry on an impossibly tight deadline ?

You were quite right to call it in .

I think I'd rather have stayed behind him than risk coming to a hold up further ahead and risk him ploughing into the back of me ?
 
I think I'd rather have stayed behind him than risk coming to a hold up further ahead and risk him ploughing into the back of me ?

true, i never thought of it that way. he was going between 40 to 50 and i was going 60 so i soon got away from him. we stopped in a service station about half an hour later so not sure where he was at that point (probably/hopefully) in the back of the cop car.

i decided to stop about 2am for about 5 hours to get some rest for the final stretch of journey as i was feeling tired. we parked up in the service station caravan parking and went to sleep in the back of the caravan!
 

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