Yet another tragedy on the roads

[SilverSaloon]

Never attempt to place a warning triangle on a motorway

wish the people i passed the other month had read that....

after breaking down on the hard shoulder they had assembled their flat-pack triangle in lane 1 :fail

 

[Meldrew2]

wish the people i passed the other month had read that....

after breaking down on the hard shoulder they had assembled their flat-pack triangle in lane 1 :fail

Ready for passing traffic to disassemble it into a very flat triangle…

.

 

[st13phil]

A few years back, Yorkshire Constabulary had a display at a motorcycle show I attended. On their stand was a collection of photographs of the carnage that resulted from broken down vehicles on motorway hard shoulders being hit by other vehicles (generally trucks, driven by drowsy drivers).

One series of photos was of a BMW R100RT that had been hit by a Volvo F12 truck. The wreckage of the bike was impossible to identify as having actually been a motorcycle, and the largest single piece was about the size of a medium saucepan.

Having seen that, I vowed to never stay with or work on a broken down vehicle on a motorway hard shoulder.

 

[Dieselman]

A few years back, Yorkshire Constabulary had a display at a motorcycle show I attended. On their stand was a collection of photographs of the carnage that resulted from broken down vehicles on motorway hard shoulders being hit by other vehicles (generally trucks, driven by drowsy drivers).

One series of photos was of a BMW R100RT that had been hit by a Volvo F12 truck. The wreckage of the bike was impossible to identify as having actually been a motorcycle, and the largest single piece was about the size of a medium saucepan.

Having seen that, I vowed to never stay with or work on a broken down vehicle on a motorway hard shoulder.

Some years ago a friend had an interesting experience of braking down on a motorcycle in the contraflow on the M6. The front wheel bearing had collapsed, so the bike was unridable, so he pulled it to the side of the hard shoulder, as close to the wall as he could and waited.
When the Police arrived they asked him to attempt to ride it through the roadworks section with them following as escort.
After a short distance he realised this was impossible so topped. The police acted as as safety protection while the breakdown lorry arrived.

When the lorry arrived the driver tilted the back and skilfully rode the bike straight up onto it...just as a dozy driver who somehow hadn't seen the police car with flashing lights until too late, attempted to cut out of the hard shoulder right into the path of an artic.
The car was pushed sideways into the Police car, which then went into the back of the breakdown lorry ramming it forwards, throwing the bike off the back into the motorway.

I don't think he got the wheel bearing fixed...

 

[Charles Morgan]

People just don't look. I almost became a squishy feature of the M40 central reservation today when a middle aged artificial blonde with an out of control cake habit pulled out in her 1 series convertible into the overtaking lane for no obvious reason and without looking. I was an inch or so from her rear bumper.

That's the closest shave I have had, very shook up by it.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

... a middle aged artificial blonde with an out of control cake habit ...

priceless

 

[Dryce]

walk to an emergency telephone on your side of the carriageway (follow the arrows on the posts at the back of the hard shoulder) – the telephone is free of charge and connects directly to the Highways Agency or the police. Use these in preference to a mobile phone (see Rule 283). Always face the traffic when you speak on the phone

I thought this advice to be rather odd.

They'd rather somebody take longer to summon help / possibly split a group.

If they mean use the emergency phone instead of a mobile when one is close then that does make sense because then the authorities are immediately alerted as well as there being no ambiguity in location.

But that's not the way it reads to me (as posted above).

 

[ChrisA]

It says ".....in preference"

 

[Dryce]

It says ".....in preference"

But only after telling you to walk to an emergency phone ....

 

[poormansporsche]

middle aged artificial blonde with an out of control cake habit

Salad dodgers is the technical term !

 

[kinaero]

This is probably one of the reasons why tyre manufacturers invented run flat tyres!

So that drivers would not have to stop on the hard shoulder!!

Very surprised that no one even mention it

 

[Charles Morgan]

Salad dodgers is the technical term !

Certainly no chance from what I saw that someone would cover her in oil and have her on the side.

 

[Spin_bowler]

This is probably one of the reasons why tyre manufacturers invented run flat tyres!

So that drivers would not have to stop on the hard shoulder!!

Very surprised that no one even mention it

Apart from RWDPetrol in post #9

 

[Dieselman]

Tragically , a driver stopped on the hard shoulder to change a wheel and was struck and killed by a passing vehicle .

BBC News - Man dies after car and van crash on M74 in Lanarkshire

While these incidents happen quite regularly , it strikes me that there is a simple and obvious solution which , although it would cost , would go a long way to avoiding many of these incidents .

Why not , every mile or so along the motorway , widen the hard shoulder into the grass verge and create a refuge with a length of Armco in front of it , where people could pull in to change wheels etc in relative safety ? Even without the Armco , widening the hard shoulder into a sort of lay-by further from the carriageway would much reduce the chances of being hit . Adding a rumble strip along the edge of the carriageway in the vicinity of the refuge would further warn dozy drivers if they were straying out of lane .

Given this incident was on the M74, before spending money on creating safe pull in's, they should upgrade it to proper motorway specification. It is currently at dual carriageway specification with some very dangerous exits.

I am incredibly surprised that it was allowed motorway status.