Another fatal crash this morning.Is it people ignoring the warning signs?,are the automatic congestion signs faulty?,is it car drivers pushing into lane 1 from lane 2 leaving trucks with no braking distance?
What is the problem with this junction?
Now it looks like the Highways Agency have almost certainly dropped the M1 widening J10 to J13,the money saved can be used to build a flyover onto the A14 and put a stop to the queue to leave the M6.
extrucker:
Another fatal crash this morning.Is it people ignoring the warning signs?
A little of that although not so much ignoring them as seeing them and thinking sod that I’m not queuing, I’ll try to get in a gap further up. On a well known driving forum a while back there was a car driver advising people that they should nip up lane 2 when it was queuing as they could usually find a gap in lane 1 in front of a truck. 
extrucker:
,are the automatic congestion signs faulty?,
Don’t think so, they seem to be on when there is a queue and off when there isn’t so I assume that means they are working.
extrucker:
is it car drivers pushing into lane 1 from lane 2 leaving trucks with no braking distance?
Without a doubt. When there is a queue there and I am heading for M1 south I usually get over into the outside lane as soon as the painted line between lane 1 and 2 changes, it makes it a bit safer to go past the queue. You can guarantee another vehicle will brake, or come to a stop in lane 2, when the queue stretches back into lane 1. About 95% chance it will be a car or van, 5% chance it will be another truck. I’ve never seen a coach do it.
To be quite honest with you the junction wants blowing up and doing again.
It’s an old design and can’t cope with the traffic flow,■■■■■■■■■ charging down and attempting to push in and diving into miniscule gaps don’t help.
A vast majority of drivers today are just thick as ■■■■ and have no thought at all for the possible outcome of there stupid brainless actions.
Glad I work nights and stay out of it , although you do still get the odd thick as ■■■■ driver now and again beeping the horn at everyone because there own ■■■■■■ of selfish driving hasn’t worked out.
My mate was telling me a driver in a car was gesticulating for him to pull over because of an altercation. Altercation being a slip road going down into one lane and traffic filters from right . No room at all for overtaking but the car apparently had a go anyway and ended up in the kerb. Then blamed it on my mate rather then the actions of his own stupid driving.
Tell yer , screw em …
Someone from the highways agency should be prosecuted for gross neglect for not getting that junction sorted when it was proposed some time ago. I think they would be doing it around now the last time it was up for a yay or a nay. Now they are actually going to do something about it as many people are dying but not start it till 2011!!! How many more will die before then??
How many people would be alive today if they had gone ahead when it was last proposed? Anyone with half a brain could see it was the most needed bit of road works in the whole country.
What gets me is there is loads of room on the left of the m6 to put an extra lane or two in mles before the squeeze point junction. It wold be a temporary solution and you would still have people q ing for the a14 but at least they wouldn’t be sat on the m6 carriageway taking their life in their hands!
That junction needed the cash so much more than the millions spent,
for example, on the new A2 to M25 flyover. This flyover is crawling most of the time, it would have ONLY been a benefit if there were no tolls at the tunnel.
I hope they actually DO this M6/A14 upgrade.
I can’t see how it is the Highways Agency’s fault that people crash into each other.As Coffeeholic has said,the congestion signs are working.The only people to blame are the bad and dangerous drivers,which i would bet are 99% driving cars or vans.
Whilst i agree this junction needs sorting out and the millions spent a few years ago has not solved the problem,it is bad driving that causes collisions.
I will dig out the link, but in the Kettering Evening telegraph it has been announced that there is to be ANOTHER consultation on the junction!
I know 3 people who have been killed or seriously injured in that area.
Multi-million plan to improve A14’s M1 junction
« Previous « PreviousNext » Next »View GalleryA multi-millions pound plan to redesign an accident blackspot at a motorway junction in Northamptonshire will be announced next spring.
The Highways Agency has proposed five options to re-route the Catthorpe interchange between Junction 19 of the M1, the M6 and the A14, which are under public consultation until September.
The project will cost between £185m and £325m.
It will include improvements to roads in the surrounding villages of Swinford, Shawell, Catthorpe and Lilbourne.
An announcement is expected early next year on the preferred option for re-building the junction after a period of public consultation, which was delayed from spring 2006.
A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: "The draft orders exhibition planned for 2006 was delayed due to a Government cost review.
“As part of the review lower cost options were identified for the scheme.”
The full article contains 147 words and appears in Northants Evening Telegraph newspaper.
Coffeeholic:
extrucker:
Another fatal crash this morning.Is it people ignoring the warning signs?A little of that although not so much ignoring them as seeing them and thinking sod that I’m not queuing, I’ll try to get in a gap further up. On a well known driving forum a while back there was a car driver advising people that they should nip up lane 2 when it was queuing as they could usually find a gap in lane 1 in front of a truck.
extrucker:
,are the automatic congestion signs faulty?,Don’t think so, they seem to be on when there is a queue and off when there isn’t so I assume that means they are working.
extrucker:
is it car drivers pushing into lane 1 from lane 2 leaving trucks with no braking distance?Without a doubt. When there is a queue there and I am heading for M1 south I usually get over into the outside lane as soon as the painted line between lane 1 and 2 changes, it makes it a bit safer to go past the queue. You can guarantee another vehicle will brake, or come to a stop in lane 2, when the queue stretches back into lane 1. About 95% chance it will be a car or van, 5% chance it will be another truck. I’ve never seen a coach do it.
i nearly had one on the M4 tonight lane one was queuing to come off i was in the middle lane at about 35 to 40 a car indicated to pull out of the queue so i let her out she excelerated away so did i, only for her to stop dead in the middle lane 6 car lenghts further down!!! now i am fully loaded at 44 tonne and i am standing on the breaks stopping about 6 inches from her back bumper !! and she had a kid in a car seat in the back!!! 
i just dont know what she was thinking about !!!
So , what hairbrained idea will they suggest next?
i always watch my mirrors in these situations because you can usually spot these idiots trying to nip in, their speed starts to vary as they are choosing a gap and they start verring as they are watching the queue not the road.
extrucker:
I can’t see how it is the Highways Agency’s fault that people crash into each other.As Coffeeholic has said,the congestion signs are working.The only people to blame are the bad and dangerous drivers,which i would bet are 99% driving cars or vans.
Whilst i agree this junction needs sorting out and the millions spent a few years ago has not solved the problem,it is bad driving that causes collisions.
That’s true but that junction has been identified as a crap design for many years and prone to major congestion and road deaths why has nothing been done about it? Like I say if the redevelopment was given the green light when it was first proposed, the work maybe would have started by now and that chap mightn’t have died yesterday as all would be tootling along coolio under the evil eye of specs.
The Government are supposed to protect the public from themselves. If a stretch of road is causing people to drive dangerously and others to deal with these idiots something should be done pronto. Maybe it’s the roads minister who should be in the dock and not the highways agency as the minister obviously just won’t release the money!
Ranting about this because I can’t get to sleep… 
my advice as i told the BBC last month
from J1 a 50 speed limit and anything going down M1 should be in
Lanes 2 & 3 from that point
as Coffee says if theirs a que in lane one drive down lane 3
Big Spread in the local Rag this week. they have printed the 3 options, Blue,Brown, and Red, i could post the page if someone could tell me if its legal to do so. 11 Deaths in 5 years they must get it right this time.
extrucker:
I can’t see how it is the Highways Agency’s fault that people crash into each other.As Coffeeholic has said,the congestion signs are working.The only people to blame are the bad and dangerous drivers,which i would bet are 99% driving cars or vans.
Whilst i agree this junction needs sorting out and the millions spent a few years ago has not solved the problem,it is bad driving that causes collisions.
This post about sums up many others on these and other forums, forget the Catthorpe for a moment,
I have just read a post about a driver who hit another truck because he was blinded by the sun yet other profesional drivers are defending his actions,
“oh well every one drives at 50 on that road,”
“oh well you are so perfect,”
“oh well it wont happen to me.”
The fact was a driver was driving up a hill, was blinded by the sun, yet still kept barreling in & managed to hit a truck doing 25 mph. Can no-one read the road anymore?
cbrd.co.uk/badjunctions/1-6-14.shtml
Here is a link about the Catthorpe interchange, Lots of other junctions mentioned too.
The Highways Agency has proposed five options to re-route the Catthorpe interchange between Junction 19 of the M1, the M6 and the A14, which are under public consultation until September.
The project will cost between £185m and £325m.
Does anyone know how much a flyover would cost from the M6 to A14 
Even if it could only take vehicles less then 3.5 tonnes then would that help
i have a bit of thing for this junction as i use it everyday at least once maybe sometimes 5 times.not the a14 queue luckily as i’m normally headed to the m1 south.i have seen some of the wrecked trucks pulled from there and have towed some of them myself.
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 6:26 pm Post subject:
I can’t see how it is the Highways Agency’s fault that people crash into each other.As Coffeeholic has said,the congestion signs are working.The only people to blame are the bad and dangerous drivers,which i would bet are 99% driving cars or vans.
Whilst i agree this junction needs sorting out and the millions spent a few years ago has not solved the problem,it is bad driving that causes collisions
the reason it’sthe highways agencies fault is because they have already consulted on the costs of re-building this junction and decided it too costly and put some nice white lines in there instead.(which made no difference whatsover-just got rid of the hard shoulder)if it had gone ahead it would have been completed by now.so accidents that occur there now are caused by cost-cutting on the ha’s behalf.all this is contained in a previous post on this subject.
a strange thing about this junction is that most accidents occur in daylight and excellent visibility.
and there’s been 2 bad accidents this week…21 killed in 8 years and goodness knows how many injured.
i’ve witnessed cars and vans and artics cutting in front of other truck drivers,most dangerously…however,i’ve also witnessed trucks on the limiter running down the middle lane and others on the limiter in the fast lane from junction 1…all the time there is a stationary queue in lane 1,with cars just itching to pull into lane 2 and try the cut-in at the slip road itself…i would think that these are normally the victim’s.but,the last one i towed was a polish lad who rode into the back of stationary low loader at 56mph on cruise control…he survived as ‘seriously injured’.with very serious leg injuries.
what may slow everyone down is putting cross’s on the grass verge to point out the deaths that have occurred there,that would make people think about their actions.21 cross’s on the grass verge would stand out-if not then maybe one of the ‘21 people killed and 300 odd people injured at this junction in the past 8 years’ signs that they use for motorbike riders on country lanes.situated before junction 1.
Here, Here.
Jsut a thought, they could slap a concrete/metal barrier down seperating lane 1 from lanes 2 and 3 about 3 miles from the junction all the way in, that would stop peeps cutting in at the last minute. Wouldn’t stop chaps on the limiter flying in to the back of the Q in lane 1 but may stop some of the deaths.
paul@midway:
A vast majority of drivers today are just thick as [zb] and have no thought at all for the possible outcome of there stupid brainless actions.
To be honest i don’t think it’s solely that. Most just seem concerned about nobody other than themselves, they are fully aware what they are doing but really do not care how much it incoveniences others or causes a dangerous situation.
Personally when i have to head that way (A14) unless i’ll be through before about 6.30 i use the A50, M1 and get on that way.
They are building sliproads leading from the M57 to/from the M62 in one direction. Fair enough, it gets chocka there at busy times and the improvement will be welcome. i can’t help thinking that money would have been slightly better spent on doing something about the catthorpe problem though.
Silver_Surfer:
Jsut a thought, they could slap a concrete/metal barrier down seperating lane 1 from lanes 2 and 3 about 3 miles from the junction all the way in, that would stop peeps cutting in at the last minute.
Yeh they could but then no matter how much warning you give, someone will still run into the start of the barrier at quiet times.
As for liability, I’m not sure but I think there are regulations for things like junction layouts and I doubt that it would have been approved and built if it did not meet them. 
Yes the government should protect people but what happened to personal responsibility? I would suspect that many on this forum would rant about the “nanny state”. 
The HA seems to recognise the problem as it seems to be continuously considering spending more money to try and solve the issue, but should we as tax payers have to pay millions just because people cannot drive to the layout and conditions of the road