Safe Speed Forums

Went for a drive in the countryside a couple of days ago and had an
exciting few seconds.

Was driving through a village at 25-30 as appropriate and was caught by
a tailgater. Slowed down a bit but he took no notice so I continued as
there was nowhere to let him past.

At the end of the village there is a roundabout that almost all cars go
straight ahead at so I turned right onto a B road through a wood. Just
my luck, he turned right as well. I accelerated to a reasonable, safe,
speed and started to leave him behind so, I thought, problem probably
solved.

Got to the next sweeping right hand corner and noticed cars coming the
other way (in fact 3 of them). Got a few more yards and the next thing
I see is a red sports car coming toward me at a great rate of knots on
my side of the road; just to make sure I knew what was happening he had
his right indicator on. He was alongside the middle car of the three. I
slammed on the brakes and edged even more to the left. At that point it
looked as though there was just enough width for 3 cars across the road
although the chances were that either the wing mirrors would get smashed
or the sides all scraped. Luckily my slowing down gave him just enough
time to get in front of the second car (the one he was passing) and get
nearly half of his car across the white line which gave me enough space
to get by safely. I think he only had about one and a half car lengths
to squeeze into.

Safely past I then started accelerating again. Glanced in my rear view
mirror and was somewhat startled to see the tailgater only a couple of
yards behind me. He looked somewhat frightened as well. It seems he
was, for whatever reason, unable to stop as fast as I could. Anyway I
got back up to speed and he slowly faded into the distance.

Incident over I thought. But not quite. Got to the next village and
slowed down to 30 and a bit below again. Next thing I know is that the
tailgater is back again on my rear bumper. Fortunately he very shortly
turned off up a side road.

The incident itself was over in only a couple of seconds. It was all
over so quickly I didn't see approaching car's the indicator flash at
all.

It could easily have been a 5 car pile up - two in a head on collision,
tailgater, and the two cars that had just been passed. Likely to have
been fatalities as well.

I can't think of how I could drive differently that could possibly avoid
potential crashes like this. I was driving within the distance I could
see to be clear; If a bike or parked car had been there I could have
stopped in time. I certainly don't drive assuming a car may be heading
toward me on my side of the road. I've no idea how the tailgater got
so close to me; I've got big red brake lights.

Bob

What was on your left or right off-road? The (very occasional) time I've been faced with a non-insignificant chance of a head-on, I've always checked for an escape lane. I've used it once too a few years ago - across the bows of oncoming traffic into a field entrance, coming to land a car length or two short of the style!

Yes, where possible almost anything is better than a head on. (Possibly except trees, ditches and cliff drop-offs.)

I'm quite sure that years ago I flicked left into an empty layby to avoid an oncoming incident with no drama at all, but neither Claire nor I can remember the proper details. Horror into something forgettable with one little flick of the steering.

_________________
Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

To the left and right it was a wooded area with substantial trees and rough ground just off the edge of the road. No fields or gates at all. No chance of going to the right because of the cars. Going further to the left there was a good chance I would have lost control of the car. If the oncoming car had not been able to pull across to his left a bit then I would have had no choice but to pull further left and avoid the head-on.

Edited to add:

This was on the B481 just south of Nettlebed.

Lat: 51:34:23N (51.573) Lon: 0:59:03W (-0.9841)

Web Address:
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51. ... 000&icon=x


Bob