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Not sure if there was a historic thread on this from the time of the incident, but not nice reading end to end. The 4 seconds of time to react isn’t much and I would suggest night time motorway runs could make you be less alert than when there are cars around all the time to keep an eye on.
If the dash cam was in the centre of his windscreen, the driver would have had less than 4 seconds to react as the camera would view the Audi first. Even if that wasn’t the case, he would’ve only had 96metres in which to react, brake and avoid. You could assume a bare minimum of 1-2 seconds reaction time in good light before even a brake pedal is pressed, by which point you’ve travelled 50m.
In my humble opinion the driver should not have been charged or found guilty.
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stuwozere1:
If the dash cam was in the centre of his windscreen, the driver would have had less than 4 seconds to react as the camera would view the Audi first. Even if that wasn’t the case, he would’ve only had 96metres in which to react, brake and avoid. You could assume a bare minimum of 1-2 seconds reaction time in good light before even a brake pedal is pressed, by which point you’ve travelled 50m.In my humble opinion the driver should not have been charged or found guilty.
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4 seconds.
Tried driving down a motorway for 4 seconds with your eyes shut? Not recommended. It is a long time.
Well if I had a puncture on a smart motorway I certainly wouldn’t stop in a live lane
I hate these smart motorways so much, I came up the M5 the other day where it meets the M42, and and it curves round, no hard shoulder, if you break down there, it’s a disgrace that these things exist
What nationality is the sentencing judge? either he has a pretty poor grasp of English or the newspaper transcription has been done by ■■■■ poor voice recognition software.
Sad case.
So many variables that could have at least maybe avoided their deaths.
Had they been stood further up the carriageway waaaay behind the vehicle maybe they’d have avoided being hit, again insert all variables as to possibility there.
As a driver, me personally with a flat I’d have tried too drive on, hazards on an keep moving till next slip, and if possible on phone to plod to get support pronto!!
Sadly verges to get the car off the carriageway seem to be non existing so keep crawling would have been my way esp if I’d a car full, ■■■■ the car end of the day.
Sadly if its gonna break down then your done for which is where I feel smart roads really are dangerous, especially at night, so pile out an prays all you can do if helps not around [emoji20]
Years ago me an me brothers rescued an old couple out of Dartford tunnel in heavy Friday traffic…
Poor sods clutch slave went, heading up to basildon to see family…
Poor old chap couldn’t climb up to the emergency phone, and didn’t have a mobile.
No one stopped to help, just kept flying by, his wife was in tears with fear, well after watching no one stop, we did.
We blocked the lane with our car, while the rest of us jumped out, watched backs an tried to release the box, brute force an some mechanical nouse finally done it, got it into neutral, hooked a rope to it an dragged it out, popped the old bloke in our car an I piloted his.
Funnily enough it were two foreign artics who came together an blocked the lane we’d left open so we could hook up safe an so we dragged him to the highways perch.
His wife climbed out in floods of tears, petrified bless her, but gave us all huge hugs, an just couldn’t have been more greatful, he tried to offload £100!! into us but got told to spend it on his better halfs bar tab as she’d told him she didn’t wanna go through the tunnel but he insisted it’d be quicker…[emoji38]
Joke was Highways simply said yeah we’d seen it but no nearby unit, understandable but they’d not even put a flash up on the gantrys to warn others or drop the speed an move over ffs, an that was told to us by the officer who did then turn up to sort recovery for em.
Sadly a lot of people simply aren’t
remotely aware of anything to do with the highway, vehicles, mechanicals, or the dangers of the environment they are in, it’s just a car, on a road they drive on which is where this whole smart thing to me at least is soo dangerous, better all round education/awareness needed for all users of the blacktop, and a serious think about emergency provisions as this is a common problem.
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These legal counsel make much of the number of seconds an obstruction is visible. I have been following the 737 MAX MCAS crashes quite closely since the second crash in Africa. There has been much made of how the crews reacted and what they should and should not have done. What has been revealed is the ‘startle factor’ when something unexpected happens, even in life threatening situations, does not always result in the expected actions. As an example, the authorities tried to crucify Chesley Sullenberger - the Pilot of the Miracle on the Hudson Flight - because during subsequent simulations some pilots, who knew exactly what was going to happen, managed to land the aircraft by turning immediately; the authorities claimed that Sullenberger could have done the same. When finally, due account was taken of the time required to process the event and to act, every single simulation crashed. The most important action Sullenberger took was that within 2.5 seconds he switched on the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit - an action not detailed in the manual as immediately necessary - without this decision the aircraft would have been uncontrollable and crashed.
There was another similar Motorway crash with video on this forum a few months ago, the point made by stuwozere1 about dash cam position is very relevant.
Maybe coincidence. But am Sure that’s the area where there doing works.
And signs something along the lines of emergency area retro reftit taking place.
Ie there brining back the hardshoulder?
Whoever signed off smart motorways should be in court.
Utter, utter madness.
Essentially, if you break down anywhere but right next to the refuge area, you are screwed.
I’ve always told my wife, if she breaks down, even with hard shoulder, stand as far away as possible, BEHIND the car. If a lorry rear ends it, that whole lot is going forward and if you are stood in front, even up a bank you are at risk.
I often see people leaning against the boot of the car or against the bonnet on a hard shoulder. If something hits your car, you are dead.
109LWB:
Whoever signed off smart motorways should be in court.
Utter, utter madness.Essentially, if you break down anywhere but right next to the refuge area, you are screwed.
I’ve always told my wife, if she breaks down, even with hard shoulder, stand as far away as possible, BEHIND the car. If a lorry rear ends it, that whole lot is going forward and if you are stood in front, even up a bank you are at risk.
I often see people leaning against the boot of the car or against the bonnet on a hard shoulder. If something hits your car, you are dead.
70 years (or so) ago:
We’re going to build roads where vehicles can travel at high speeds. We better dedicate one lane for emergency stops
Today:
We’re going to spend billions over a decade to remove those emergency lanes
…
I used to be a fan of Smart motorways but I’ve changed my mind. You can argue that today cars are more reliable and less prone to breakdowns (I wouldn’t know as I only drive old clunkers) but you will always have things like flat tyres (well tehre are run flat tyres but no one bothers) and medical emergencies forcing people to stop or travel at very low speeds until they can leave the M-way.
Then there’s roadside and barrier maintenance which if you drive at night you will see they now need to close 1 or 2 NS lanes to perform any work/maintenance causing more congestion where if there is a HS they only close off the HS itself, no HS means no chance for ES to get to the scene so a heli must be dispatched which means closing the entire M-way section both ways pretty much the day/night is over for anyone caught inside
Then you have weak technology warning of a queue where there is none but then failing to warn of one when it is there (after a nasty bend - very nice…)
IMO the best solution would be the managed M-ways where the HS can be used if unoccupied but it must be monitored constantly on the cameras for broken down vehicles - it would still be risky but not as much because at night the HS would be closed for traffic which is when an accident involving a stationary vehicle is more likely to happen I would think