M5 closed after major accident

[jon0844]

I don't remember all the details but regardless of that, isn't it still a good idea to check mirrors just in case?

Yes, of course the driver should have looked (and not just using the mirror as there's the blind spot to consider!).

I am not sure why you suddenly dismiss everything else. The driver in lane 2 was every bit at fault too, perhaps more so, as it put the car driver in lane 3 in danger by potentially hitting a vehicle that shouldn't have been there.

Putting yourself in the blind spot is stupid as you should drive defensively, and at this moment in time, you're now solely reliant on them not making a mistake. This is why I used to hate overtaking lorries that were left hand drive, as I felt vulnerable, so often floored it to pass quickly - while also checking that I could possibly move out one more lane in an emergency.

I prefer to drive with anticipation of everything someone could possibly do that would affect me and my passengers. Clearly there are limits to what you can do to predict the unexpected, like a blow out from a lorry you've just started to overtake, or hitting a wall of smoke, or debris around a corner etc, but it's good advice nonetheless.

 

[Zoe]

I am not sure why you suddenly dismiss everything else.

I'm not, we spent a lot of the journey in lane 3 and we were passing quite a few cars, if the driver didn't realize that we hadn't fully overtaken a car in lane 2 before changing lanes then there's not much the car in lane 2 could do about that.
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Always a303 without fail for me, trying to work out getting to Manchester airport on Saturday with as little motoway usage as possible.

Depends how much time you want to take, you can get to Birmingham by using only the A38 a lot of the way but it will take quite some time.

 

[jon0844]

I'm not, we spent a lot of the journey in lane 3 and we were passing quite a few cars, if the driver didn't realize that we hadn't fully overtaken a car in lane 2 before changing lanes then there's not much the car in lane 2 could do about that.

I'm confused now. Were you the car in lane 3 that pulled back in and nearly got hit by someone coming up in lane 2?

How do you begin to pull in before fully overtaking a car? How could you forget what you were doing at that exact moment?

 

[richw]

I've got all day Saturday, flight is 7am Sunday morning, staying in a travelodge near the airport Saturday night, I've been looking st possibly going up the a road that runs parallel to the the m5 shrewsbury London of area, up to Chester I think it was. I don't mind small amouts of motorway an hour or so at a time, but 6 hours straight motorway is incredibly boring!

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[Zoe]

How do you begin to pull in before fully overtaking a car? How could you forget what you were doing at that exact moment?

If you have been sitting in lane 3 for a long time then you are not going to be thinking about overtaking as much as you would if you moved out to lane 3 to overtake and back to lane 2 once you have overtaken.

 

[jon0844]

I've got all day Saturday, flight is 7am Sunday morning, staying in a travelodge near the airport Saturday night, I've been looking st possibly going up the a road that runs parallel to the the m5 shrewsbury London of area, up to Chester I think it was. I don't mind small amouts of motorway an hour or so at a time, but 6 hours straight motorway is incredibly boring!

This is why I love driving on the autobahns in Germany so much! You can drive fast, getting the concentration levels up (as well as saving time!) then slow down to let people overtake slower vehicles, speed up again - and generally keep your brain working.

Far nicer than sitting at 50mph in lane 2 with cruise control on, as it seems rather too many people prefer to do here, so as to not encounter any surprises (besides being flashed, hooted, having people cut them up etc).

 

[Zoe]

I've got all day Saturday, flight is 7am Sunday morning, staying in a travelodge near the airport Saturday night, I've been looking st possibly going up the a road that runs parallel to the the m5 shrewsbury London of area, up to Chester I think it was. I don't mind small amouts of motorway an hour or so at a time, but 6 hours straight motorway is incredibly boring!

You can take the B3181 from Exeter to near Tiverton Parkway station and from there the A38 all the way to Birmingham. This of course was the main road for the route before the M5 was built. It will involve driving through Taunton, Bridgwater and Bristol though.

 

[Oswyntail]

... How could you forget what you were doing at that exact moment?

I don't know, personally, but it happens so often that it must be quite easy! In particular, there are goons who have obviously had it drilled into them that they mustn't be "lane hogs" that they "swerve" between lanes - personally I think of it as cutting up, but they will no doubt see it differently. How often do I see it - I stay in the middle lane as I have assessed that I am continuing to overtake traffic in the left hand lane, when impatient cowboy swoops from right hand lane across my bows into the left hand lane (no doubt muttering "lane hog" at me) then almost at once swings out to overtake the vehicle I was already overtaking.
There is much too much aggression on the roads! And that, IMHO, is a sign of driver nerves.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There does also seem to be an increasing tendency for people who are being overtaken to increase their speed a little bit - presumably they don't like the idea of being overtaken...

 

[Zoe]

There does also seem to be an increasing tendency for people who are being overtaken to increase their speed a little bit - presumably they don't like the idea of being overtaken...

Indeed, as I said above, on the same jouney we almost missed the junction for the services due to the car in lane 2 deciding to match our speed when we were overtaking it.

 

[richw]

You can take the B3181 from Exeter to near Tiverton Parkway station and from there the A38 all the way to Birmingham. This of course was the main road for the route before the M5 was built. It will involve driving through Taunton, Bridgwater and Bristol though.

I've got to call into Taunton anyway, I'm flying to visit my grandparents, and my brother needs some stuff taking out to her, He lives at Taunton TA1 2RY

 

[jon0844]

Indeed, as I said above, on the same jouney we almost missed the junction for the services due to the car in lane 2 deciding to match our speed when we were overtaking it.

Can I suggest you stop with this story, as somewhere along the line you changed from being nearly hit by a car from lane 3, to being the car in lane 3 unable to get back into lane 2! Perhaps go back to talking about cars that drive themselves, where this could never have happened!!

 

[Zoe]

Can I suggest you stop with this story, as somewhere along the line you changed from being nearly hit by a car from lane 3, to being the car in lane 3 unable to get back into lane 2!

It is not a story, it was a long journey and these were two of three different incidents on the same journey. The car was in lane 3 for both of them that I referred to.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Can I suggest you stop with this story, as somewhere along the line you changed from being nearly hit by a car from lane 3, to being the car in lane 3 unable to get back into lane 2!

Perhaps go back to talking about cars that drive themselves, where this could never have happened!!

Am I the only one thoroughly confused with these 'incidents'?


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[Zoe]

Am I the only one thoroughly confused with these 'incidents'?

It's quite simple: One involved going from lane 3 to lane 2 and having to swerve at the last minute to avoid a collision and the other involved having the path out of lane 3 to the services blocked by a car in lane 2.

 

[jon0844]

So it was your car that went from lane 3 to 2 and had to swerve; so that would mean you (or your driver) was the one that needed to check the mirror! Even if you did have right of way.

Crashing even when you've got right of way isn't generally a good idea.

 

[Zoe]

So it was your car that went from lane 3 to 2 and had to swerve; so that would mean you (or your driver) was the one that needed to check the mirror! Even if you did have right of way.

Not my car personally but I was in it and the driver forgot to check their mirrors. The point here is that from time to time people will make mistakes like this and short of banning everyone that makes a mistake from driving which is never going to be popular, what else can you do/

 

[GB]

It's quite simple: One involved going from lane 3 to lane 2 and having to swerve at the last minute to avoid a collision and the other involved having the path out of lane 3 to the services blocked by a car in lane 2.

A driver should't be leaving it so late to reach their exit, especially if they are in the outside lane!

 

[Zoe]

A driver should't be leaving it so late to reach their exit, especially if they are in the outside lane!

I called the exit one mile before, we had been in lane 3 for some time and were overtaking a vehicle. That vehicle though decided to speed up so the driver of the car I was in couldn't finish overtaking it. In the end the only way to leave the motorway was to slow down. I think 1 mile is reasonable warning for a junction as that's all the signs give you.

 

[jon0844]

I am sorry, please feel free to report this post if you wish, but your story keeps changing and doesn't make a lot of sense.

Now I re-read the original post and it could be read that you were the car in lane 3, so I apologise for misreading (but it was easy to do) but you then say:

I don't remember all the details but regardless of that, isn't it still a good idea to check mirrors just in case? It may be that the driver didn't realize that they hadn't fully overtaken the vehicle in lane 2, we did spend a fair bit of the journey sitting in lane 3.

You're now talking about the driver of the car you're in, so were you unable to speak to them before/during/after? You're not sure that the driver didn't realise s/he hadn't fully overtaken the vehicle in lane 2 - but now the motorist in lane 2 kept speeding up to stop you being able to pull over, for almost a mile when you were trying to get off?

Sounds more like a road rage incident now. What had happened before? Were you in lane 3 and holding others up, when lanes were actually available to your left, making someone decide to undertake?

 

[Zoe]

I am sorry, please feel free to report this post if you wish, but your story keeps changing and doesn't make a lot of sense.

Now I re-read the original post and it could be read that you were the car in lane 3, so I apologise for misreading (but it was easy to do) but you then say:



You're now talking about the driver of the car you're in, so were you unable to speak to them before/during/after? You're not sure that the driver didn't realise s/he hadn't fully overtaken the vehicle in lane 2 - but now the motorist in lane 2 kept speeding up to stop you being able to pull over, for almost a mile when you were trying to get off?

Sounds more like a road rage incident now. What had happened before? Were you in lane 3 and holding others up, when lanes were actually available to your left, making someone decide to undertake?

No, there were two separate incidents that I refer to and the car I was in was in lane 3 both times. The near miss incident was not the same one as the incident where the car in lane 2 was speeding up. We did spend a lot of time in lane 3 on this journey, I actually told that driver that we shouldn't be in lane 3 all the time as the highway code says you should stay in lane 1 unless overtaking but they ignored me and just said the rule didn't apply on motorways.

 

[90019]

If you have been sitting in lane 3 for a long time then you are not going to be thinking about overtaking as much as you would if you moved out to lane 3 to overtake and back to lane 2 once you have overtaken.

If it's taking so long to overtake or you're you're getting to the point that you forget you're overtaking someone, you shouldn't be in lane 3, and frankly you shouldn't be on the motorway in the first place.

and the other involved having the path out of lane 3 to the services blocked by a car in lane 2.

What on earth were you doing in lane 3 approaching an exit? That's just plain bad driving.
From both incidents you've described, it's the driver in your car that has been at fault and is the one causing the problems.

 

[Zoe]

What on earth were you doing in lane 3 approaching an exit? That's just plain bad driving.
From both incidents you've described, it's the driver in your car that has been at fault and is the one causing the problems.

See my post above for the response from the driver when I said that they should stay in lane 1 unless overtaking. They didn't know the exit though until I called it one mile away.

 

[90019]

See my post above for the response from the driver when I said that they should stay in lane 1 unless overtaking.

In other words, it was the fault of the driver of the car you were in.
When the other driver accelerated, you should have let him, and moved back across once he was in front of you again, especially on the approach to a junction.

 

[Zoe]

If it's taking so long to overtake or you're you're getting to the point that you forget you're overtaking someone, you shouldn't be in lane 3, and frankly you shouldn't be on the motorway in the first place.

What I'm saying is that if you just sit in lane 3 for miles then you are not going to be actively thinking about the fact you are overtaking as much as you would do if you did things by the book regardless of how long it takes to overtake.

 

[90019]

What I'm saying is that if you just sit in lane 3 for miles then you are not going to be actively thinking about the fact you are overtaking as much as you would do if you did things by the book regardless of how long it takes to overtake.

If you sit in lane 3 for miles when there's empty lanes beside you, you shouldn't be allowed on the motorway.
If you allow yourself to stop thinking about what you're doing, you shouldn't be driving at all.

 

[Zoe]

In other words, it was the fault of the driver of the car you were in.

What good reason though was there for the car we were overtaking to suddenly speed up when it was getting overtaken?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Isn't driving for miles in lane 3 actually misusing it?


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[Zoe]

If you allow yourself to stop thinking about what you're doing, you shouldn't be driving at all.

I expect there are a lot of drivers that end up in zombie mode on a long motorway journey though, not actively thinking about what they are doing. As I say, if you are in lane 3 for miles at a constant speed then you are not likely to be concentrating as much as if you were making regular lane changes.
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Isn't driving for miles in lane 3 actually misusing it?

Yes and I did tell the driver the rules but they ignored it saying that they didn't apply to motorways.

 

[Hydro]

Yes and I did tell the driver the rules but they ignored it saying that they didn't apply to motorways.

I think that really nails the competence of that particular driver.