Went to pick the missus up last night, very, very foggy.
Come out of town, onto the roundabout to get to the main road, a 8x4 Scania tanker shoots across in front of me. He takes my exit and I start to follow. The visibility is awful but with his tailights I feel confident to follow from a decent distance as its quiet country road.
Up goes the speed, 30mph…35mph… we get to 40mph and I’m starting to feel a little nervous and hang back a little more. The road is basically straight but visibility is zero and seems to be getting worse. His foglights are still within range as I get to 45mph but I give it up as he is flying away from me. I drop back to 30mph as that is as fast as I feel it is possible to go.
I’ve been driving for 13 years and seen some crazy things but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such blind (literally) faith and jaw-dropping stupidity as this. He was 10-15mph over the speed limit, even in good conditions.
Then it hit me, he wasn’t an idiot at all. He must have one of those posh new Scania’s with the X-Ray vision, enabling him to bomb through the dense, freezing fog unhindered and with total safety.
The worst driving I ever saw was when the M6 was shut about 5 years ago after a truck carrying CO2 bottles went through the central reservation at Keele. They whipped us off at 16 and back on at 14. We were driving down some country lanes and it was one long line of trucks, All of a sudden a car comes steaming down the outside of us. It was pitch black and we were going round bends and everything. Maybe he thought it was a dual carriageway. Or maybe he was that stupid, I don’t know.
have you considered that being in a truck, he’s a lot higher than you, and looking down on his beams of light,
you being in your car are having your lights reflected straight back at you… being higher makes vision in fog a lot better.
Lycanthrope:
have you considered that being in a truck, he’s a lot higher than you, and looking down on his beams of light,
you being in your car are having your lights reflected straight back at you… being higher makes vision in fog a lot better.
It doesn’t matter how high you were sitting, visibility was virtually nil.
Lycanthorpe is spot on the money, the amount of car drivers who have the main beam on in fog and doing 5mph and can’t understand why they can’t see is unbelievable!!! A tip for wannabee drivers, look in your mirrors and you will get a real perspective on how foggy it really is as the headlights reflect of the fog! Don’t get me started on car drivers and rear fog lights!!!
Fileep:
Lycanthorpe is spot on the money, the amount of car drivers who have the main beam on in fog and doing 5mph and can’t understand why they can’t see is unbelievable!!! A tip for wannabee drivers, look in your mirrors and you will get a real perspective on how foggy it really is as the headlights reflect of the fog! Don’t get me started on car drivers and rear fog lights!!!
No. He is actually way off. I didn’t have main beam on and it was exceptionally foggy. The fog was blanket and as thick as i have ever encountered anywhere. Even in town with street lights, visibility was next to nothing.
Fact is, in the hour of so I was out I saw nobody driving (car or otherwise) on main beam but equally nobody exceeding 30-35mph except one man in his tanker who seemed oblivious to both the conditions and the speed limit.
Lycanthrope:
because he wasn’t blinding himself with his lights ■■? Being above the beams of lights and looking down on them makes a huge huge difference.
He might as well have been blindfolded. In weather like that a few feet up doesn’t make a blind bit of difference when it the fog is that thick.
Put it this way, his rear fog lights disappeared completely from my view at around 100yds. But its ok as he obviously has some kind of other method of seeing the road, X-ray vision? Night vision goggles perhaps (not sure if they work in fog)? Spidey senses maybe?
Me and a mate were putting in a boat to the Rams Holt arms on the river deben a few years ago in a very thick fog. I stood-up and the fog only came up to waist level. The drinkers in the pub had a bit of a shock watch a bloke magically appear from the water move a cross to them.
Just to confirm, I picked the missus up from the top of town and the fog was just as thick there and it must be at least 80ft above the road I was on previously.
I just wondered if anybody knew where I could get this miracle device that enables the driver to barrell through the fog on the limiter?
do tanker drivers do time-critical deliveries ,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
I was out in he fog in the truck last week and it was a case of slow down as visibility was virtually nill 50 ft if you were lucky the guy was a Pratt plain and simple
Ady time critical wOt a load of horse ■■■ (I’m being polite) yes get the hammer down as long as it’s safe todo so its your licence not the companies you don’t get any meddles for killing your self or others
ady1:
do tanker drivers do time-critical deliveries ,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
Wow…I got nothing else except that. It was a milk tanker so I guess that qualifies for your ‘get the hammer down no matter what’ category?
ady1:
do tanker drivers do time-critical deliveries ,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
LOL. Are you for real? Anyone with an attitude like that should be banned from driving, permanently.
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I’ll tell you all a little story about driving in fog…
Many years ago when my g/f lived in Glasgow I was returning home one Sunday night in the winter and it was really thick fog on the 74. I remember it well - I’d just come past the VOSA check point up in the hills doing about 50 and pulled out to overtake a truck who was going slightly slower than me. The road is unlit in this area by the way. Out of “nowhere” a wrecked car appeared in front of me, sideways, right in the middle of lane 2, then another one appeared, right in the middle of lane 3. I had about 1 second of thinking time to react and couldn’t even think to brake, only swerve. I somehow managed to swerve to the right and went through the gap between the wrecked cars with literally inches to spare on either side .
By the time it had dawned on me what had just happened and then walked back to the scene after pulling onto the hard shoulder, the police had arrived in convoy and were dealing with it. The occupants of 1 of the cars were already on the h/s but the occupants of the other in lane 2 were still in it (a family of 4) and were badly injured. They all made a full recovery but it doesn’t bear thinking about what the end result would’ve been if I’d slammed into the side of it at 50, for them or me .
The lesson here is don’t get complacent thinking it won’t happen to you. I went over and over it many many times in my head; what could possibly go wrong? Traffic is very light, it’s all travelling in the same direction, the opposing traffic separated by a barrier, nothing to worry about… just set a reasonable speed and go with the flow. Would it ever enter your mind that suddenly appearing out of fog would be 2 vehicles stranded in the middle of the your carriageway? I reckon the honest answer from the vast majority of drivers would be a resounding “no”. Always expect the unexpected and don’t drive faster than the time/distance it will take you to think and react should the unexpected happen.
ady1:
do tanker drivers do time-critical deliveries ,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
ady1:
do tanker drivers do time-critical deliveries ,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
Yeah like if it means killing somebody in the process. No load however critical is worth a life and if the weather is so bad if its late its late. I do Supermarket drops where the fines are heavy but I’ll be dammed if somebody is going to push me to drive in speeds where its not safe to do so. Some guys that were passing me in all the bad snow we had recently…let them get on with it. They will get no extra thanks for having it there on time but will end up losing their job if they have a major ##up!
mattcollin:
Yeah like if it means killing somebody in the process. No load however critical is worth a life and if the weather is so bad if its late its late. I do Supermarket drops where the fines are heavy but I’ll be dammed if somebody is going to push me to drive in speeds where its not safe to do so. Some guys that were passing me in all the bad snow we had recently…let them get on with it. They will get no extra thanks for having it there on time but will end up losing their job if they have a major ##up!
No shame in slowing down. And like Rob K said, another few feet either side and it would be a different story. One where other peoples lives are ruined and your own too.
Don’t understand the obsession of driving to the limiter all the time. It’s the same people who think slowing down once in a while is a sign of weakness that complain about low wages and ■■■■■ hours. Low wages and ■■■■■ hours are in part cos there is always someone who IS prepared to break the rules to get to the drop on time .
,its a possibility he was on one,in that case,fog or no fog you just have to get the hammer down.it may seem crazy to you but i can assure you if its time-critical youve just got to be there,whatever
It was a milk tanker so I guess that qualifies for your ‘get the hammer down no matter what’ category?
