Many many crashes

[lfckeeper]

Saw three quite serious crashes on route to work this morning (thankfully they were serious for the cars not the drivers) and a car ass shaking as it slowed from 50mph for traffic lights.

My first though was 'idiots, you should be more careful in this weather'. However, as the roads had not neen salted (on major roads) I started to think actually rhe council should take some responsibility.

What do people think?

My third thought was this is the kind of nonsense I start to think about when working on a slow day between Christmas and New Year.

 

[renault12ts]

Responsibility is always with the driver...no question. People love to blame someone...yet hate the nanny state.

 

[AMGeed]

A woman has died in Oxfordshire this morning with 20 cars involved in crashes reported on the BBC.
Woman dies in A40 pile-ups involving up to 20 cars - BBC News

Far too many speed in poor conditions, especially fog, so I think the onus is on the driver, not the council to determine how fast they travel in adverse conditions.
Last night was very cold, so expect frost and ice and drive accordingly. Its not rocket science.

 

[zipdip]

Well all adverse weather finds out drivers who are not up to driving in them,without doubt fog is the most dangerous,many drive too fast,in the very dense stuff you are at the mercy of the worst driver on the road,that is why I hate the stuff,years ago I turned off the M4 into Membury services as I did not like the speed and conditions out there,by the time I had had a coffee there had been a very big accident,only time I have spent nearly a whole day in the services.

 

[lfckeeper]

Well all adverse weather finds out drivers who are not up to driving in them,without doubt fog is the most dangerous,many drive too fast,in the very dense stuff you are at the mercy of the worst driver on the road,that is why I hate the stuff,years ago I turned off the M4 into Membury services as I did not like the speed and conditions out there,by the time I had had a coffee there had been a very big accident,only time I have spent nearly a whole day in the services.

Very true, id be happy to turn off if I deemed it bad enough and more than happy to slow down. I'm guessing some overestimate their driving ability others may think its not manly to take extra care.

 

[foxy52]

People drive to close to the driver in front !!.. that and speeding in bad weather.. the fog today while driving from Mansfield to Kings Lynn made it hard to overtake as u could not judge the oncoming traffics distance even with the fog/driving lights on !!!...3 guys overtook me at about 70 plus !!..mindless morons !!!...I was doing 55 that was fast enough given the weather !!!... foxy52

 

[flowrider]

I see people driving far to close to each other almost daily on the M1 even in wet conditions. How they all think they will stop in an emergency is anyone's guess. If you leave the recommended 2 second gap someone always jumps in it.

 

[S205-FTW]

A woman has died in Oxfordshire this morning with 20 cars involved in crashes reported on the BBC.
Woman dies in A40 pile-ups involving up to 20 cars - BBC News

Dashcam footage of said crash:
Woman dies in 20-car pile-up on A40 as cold weather alert issued

 

[gr1nch]

Its annoying when you leave a safe gap in front only for some tw4t to move in and sit in it. What do you do then, show down again to re-establish the safe gap? You could be doing that endlessly. If they're filtering in to the "slow lane" (which can still be going the max permitted speed) with a view to overtake, then that's no problem at all.

Given the increasing amount of bad driving on the roads, I've started leaving a safe gap when stopped, in case rear-ended to hopefully prevent damage to the car in front.

 

[razzyh]

Dashcam footage of said crash: Woman dies in 20-car pile-up on A40 as cold weather alert issued

What an idiot

 

[developer]

What an idiot

I'd say preoccupied - phone or text, looking at that video.

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

I'd say preoccupied - phone or text, looking at that video.

Was thinking the same, paying no attention to what's going on past his steering wheel whatsoever

 

[190]

Without question the drivers fault. Driving too fast for the conditions and possibly lulled into a sense of false security by the number of 3 letter acronyms fitted to his car. Anti this, anti that and anti the other don't make up for driving beyond ones ability.

 

[Grovsie31]

The amount of morons I saw today driving in quite bad fog over Cannock Chase without any lights on at all, baffled me. I must of flashed 20 idiots.

 

[219]

Dashcam footage of said crash:
Woman dies in 20-car pile-up on A40 as cold weather alert issued

Even worse , having just had that crash , the chumps then get out of their cars and casually walk about the carriageway , with no apparent thought that further traffic may be bearing down on them at speed !

 

[st13phil]

Far too many speed in poor conditions, especially fog, so I think the onus is on the driver, not the council to determine how fast they travel in adverse conditions.
Last night was very cold, so expect frost and ice and drive accordingly. Its not rocket science.

The fact that so many managed to plough into each other in the A40 pile-up yesterday is confirmation that people were driving inappropriately for the conditions, but I do have some sympathy in that assessing the conditions is not always as straightforward as it could be and the council does have a role in that.

In the run-up to Christmas when temperatures were high enough that there was little or no chance of frost or ice, the roads in this area were absolutely plastered in salt (the state of my car is testament to that ), yet on the coldest, dampest, night of the month a major trunk route clearly wasn't treated. While making no excuses, one of those who had managed to avoid the carnage and stop commented that when he walked on that section of road it was difficult to actually stand up, let alone walk. Clearly, based upon a not unreasonable assumption, people were driving on the basis that the road had been gritted. Add in the isolated nature of a modern car - do you still notice the tyre noise diminish when you're driving on ice? - and you have a recipe for disaster.

It's easy to say that if conditions are indeterminate that you should drive assuming them to be in the worst possible state, but many drivers have no perception of what that actually means because they never encounter such conditions. As always when things go nastily wrong there are a whole chain of contributory factors, and it's important that we think about, and take learning from all of them.

 

[st13phil]

Even worse , having just had that crash , the chumps then get out of their cars and casually walk about the carriageway , with no apparent thought that further traffic may be bearing down on them at speed !

People do strange things in circumstances like that. A mixture of shock and disbelief, plus curiosity and the human desire to "help", seems to suspend rational thought.

 

[Charles Morgan]

I agree Phil, rather like the M5 in Somerset icing over and only being gritted when accidents had happened, I think there are questions to be asked. I am used to listening to my cars (old cars are noisy buggers but new sounds supply information of considerable utility - generally breakdowns are about to happen) but the degree to which contemporary vehicles are sound proof worlds of their own does not help drivers. In this case, the fog clearly prevented people from seeing the brake lights until too late - that is their fault for driving too fast in the circumstances.

 

[renault12ts]

I see people driving far to close to each other almost daily on the M1 even in wet conditions. How they all think they will stop in an emergency is anyone's guess. If you leave the recommended 2 second gap someone always jumps in it.

Then leave a 4 second gap unless you want to be a rolling road block.

 

[renault12ts]

Its annoying when you leave a safe gap in front only for some tw4t to move in and sit in it. What do you do then, show down again to re-establish the safe gap? You could be doing that endlessly. If they're filtering in to the "slow lane" (which can still be going the max permitted speed) with a view to overtake, then that's no problem at all.

Given the increasing amount of bad driving on the roads, I've started leaving a safe gap when stopped, in case rear-ended to hopefully prevent damage to the car in front.

Leave a bigger gap.

What do you do near exits...still leave a 2 second gap and get all offended when someone fills it because they want to leave the motorway? No one owns the gap between them and the vehicle ahead...so be astute and leave a bigger gap.