Safe Speed Forums

Someone nearly killed me on the way to work today and I'm still shaking like a leaf.
Was passing a junction on the M54 in L2 on the bike when a Mondeo estate arrived within inches of my left knee forcing me across to within inches of the gravel in the central reservation. The driver had rocketed down the sliproad and was so intent on getting into L2 he just didn't see me. And I'm ashamed to say I lost it
The mondeo driver made a gesture that appeared to say "well I was indicating" - this made things worse. We came off at the next junction and the mondeo pulled over. I pulled up behind and let rip, he trying to say he'd was saying sorry, me saying sorry doesn't cut it when I'm in a big long box. Typical car driver, in his own little box, can't see f-all outside of his own little world, blah blah he got the lot.
I need some anger management therapy Worse still, I'm starting my IAM tomorrow evening with a lecture in Shrewsbury.

Naw - that was the safety valve blowing the steam off. The therapy was your post here..

Thanks mate. I still feel a bit of a prat though..what if Mondeo Man decides to contact the police, claiming he'd been road raged by some mad biker? Unlikely perhaps, it was his lack of observation that caused the problem in the first place - and he did give as good as he got

I'm sorry to hear about your incident - and I fully appreciate that it was the other guys fault. BUT:

The lesson for you here is to suspend overtaking in the area of motorway slip roads. Loads of folk get it wrong and if you're not overtaking they can get it as wrong as they like without taking you out.

When there's a joining sliproad, I like to move out in good time and slow down to ensure I'm not overtaking. Once traffic has settled down into lanes again overtaking resumes. It's easy, painless and it's guaranteed to work.

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

Paul, I hear what you're saying but I'm sure I wasn't actually overtaking anything at the time. The mondeo was on the slip road ramp when I first saw it and I believe I actually passed it. I was keeping pace with the vehicles ahead I was sure I'd actually gone past it at the point where it would have joined the main carriageway- I'll admit I didn't look for him over my left shoulder. Without this information I can only assume he must have clogged it as he joined the M54, sweeping across from the slip road focussing on the 4x4 ahead of me intending to move into L2 behind it. But in so doing he arrived at a position right beside me, he wasn't actually ahead of me at any time. I was wearing a dayglo hi-viz vest to try and combat this very possibilty, but he still didn't see me.

He came from behind? Really? That's just weird! Most of these incidents involve the other guy's offside rear three quarters blind spot. Did he sneak up on you in your blind spot? (I'm trying to picture this...)

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

Sounds like you are lucky to be alive...

No idea what you can do differently - it is very similar to when the HGV changes lane without spotting somebody in the "gap" they are moving into. The motorist in that gap has only two options: hoot the horn and flash the lights, or hit the brakes hard. Or more realistically do both at the same time, while hoping that the 20 or so drivers behind are also paying attention.

No - I have thought of something - change the bike into white model with some dayglow trimmings and some blue lights. Your later "discussion" with the driver involved would probably prompt a change in behaviour! Not that I am suggesting that you impersonate a Police officer, but if we had less of these stupid cameras that do nothing to stop this type of incident, and more of the flesh and blood BIB then less people would drive this way.

I have to say i know how you feel and SMIDSY just doesn’t cut it with me.

I would have to say that having a few words even if cross words with this driver may well help improve his driving in the future but keeping it civil and polite will imho get the message over just as well and doesn’t have the chance to land you in the wrong.

Mind you saying all that I have just yesterday been angered into taking action.

Coming into work I was following an other bike heading the same direction past Waterloo international (that odd junction with the derelict building in the middle) heading in the direction of Waterloo station proper when I witnessed a most atrocious pick of driving.

The road at the traffic lights is 3 lanes wide with a left turn opening into two lanes going over the bridge a right turn one lane wide and two lanes that snake to the left straight ahead.

The bike was going straight over in lane 2 as was I, he was in the middle of the lane following the traffic with me following a safe distance behind when a armored van indicating to turn right just pushed from the lane turning right into the left lane ( L2 for driver going right over) parallel to the bike collecting it on the way and forcing the rider into L1 for the life of me I don’t know how he stayed on his bike as it was a good thump that left him leaning on the van to stay upright that all the time was moving into the lane physically pushing the bike out of the way whilst still indicating to turn right.

The driver of the van came to a stop at the next traffic lights only 30m away from the point of impact and safely buttoned up in his van completely ignored me and the rider of the bike he hit when we tried to get his attention. I have to say it left me as mad as he was completely oblivious to the fact he just tried really hard to kill a biker or worse just ignoring bikes on the road as he is safe in his armored van.

Even reporting it to a police officer was unless as they just dint want to know as no one had been hurt. And even though I phoned the company the van was driving for to report the bad driving I just don’t think anything will come of it.

As a very none violent person it was shocking to me that I was left with the feeling I should have dragged him from the van and throttled him. Even though I never would act like that having him make me think like that is even worse to me than just about anything else.

This is all symptomatic of whats wrong on our roads today and why the speed camera lobby are so wide of the mark.

I'm currently driving about 3500 miles a month so certainly seeing the world and the standard of driving in places is appalling. I've almost been wiped out a number of times mainly whilst overtaking and seen plenty of near misses.

So many drivers seem to display a total lack of spacial awareness and I wonder if they even know where the blind spot is let alone that you need to check it.

All the above incidents have occured below the 70mph limit.

No excuses but a question to the floor.....does rigidly sticking to the limit actually reduce your general road awareness, you attention to other road users and generally induce a zombie like state?

Gald you're OK Rigpig. I can understand your anger but at least he did apologise so might not make the mistake again. Better than no apology - huh?

Yes, basically from behind and across, the movement I actually saw was him appearing to my left and moving across towards me, we must have been moving at more or less the same speed at that point. He must have been in my left blindspot for the period of time as he accelerated down the sliplane and across L1. Had I glanced over my left shoulder I'd have probably seen him.
I cannot for the life of me understand how or why he didn't see me, although come to think of it he was wearing shades, wonder if that contributed . Perhaps I was hidden behind his pillar, difficult to believe I'd be completely covered at that sort of distance though. As I said before, I can only assume his focus was on the 4x4 ahead of me and perhaps the vehicle (a silver Vectra I think) coming up behind me. Dunno.
I'm still a bit embarrassed that I lost my temper and confronted him, this was a 'me' I thought I'd left behind sometime ago . I'd even had a couple of miles to cool down, but the adrenalin must still have been pumping, it certainly was when I arrived at work. If I was a smoker I think I'd have lit one up there and then!

Glad you are OK ,Riggers.




Wearing dark shades? May have restricted his vision - could even have caused a tunnel vision effect here. Difficult to say without seeing lay-out.

Looks like he was intent on getting speed up on slip road and getting into overtaking lane immediately. And was not observing properly... Poor OAP Non-existent COAST

Hope he learns anyway. Perhaps as Paul suggests you may be a bit more wary - but difficult to see how you could have anticipated such a numpty on reading through...



Natural reaction. You were in shock. He will realise this too - and he was probably in some shock as well. But your loss of temper - relief mechanism at surviving what could have been a nasty. I would just relax in hot tub tonight and just unwind with Chopin or Mozart or a good film. (What I do after a bad day at work...course I practise me choir singing in the shower and bath too )


Remember to note he apologised in insurance report though.

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Thanks a lot for the kind words guys.
I'm almost loathe to post this next bit - it seems like too much of a coincidence to have actually happened today on practiaclly the same bit of road.
My wife leaves for work about an hour before I do, and uses the same bit of M54. Arriving at the junction where we usually exit (one down from my little contre-temps) she noticed activity on the opposite carriageway just after the entry slip road, and on approaching guess what she saw?
Unbelieveably there had been an incident involving at least one, possibly two cars and a motorcycle. The biker was being treated in the central resrevation Needless to say, I omitted to tell her of my little experience after hearing this.

I spent 6 months driving with 9 points of my licence (tailgated by video car on 3 lane bit of A50, gatso in non-existant M6 roadworks, plod with laser gun parked behind bridge pillar on M62) so had to stick religously to the limit to keep my licence and my job.

The answer to your question is a big resounding yes. I need to find time to do IAM as I feel the experience has permanantly reduced my driving ability, even though I no-longer have 9 points active on my licence.

If I read this right, he is crossing lane 1 to overtake and doesnt see you in front of him?
Sounds like he overestimated his forward speed, and was checking his mirror for anyone coming from behind, and therefore did'nt see that he had overshot the space he thought he was entering behind you.

I often enter the motorway off a slip road at a speed which matches what I estimate to be the speed of lane 1.
I then match my speed once behind the vehicle in front, and spend a few seconds weighing up who is passing, what is going on in front in lanes 1 and 2 (and 3 when appropriate) before contemplating any manouvre.
Occasionally, a car joining behind me is so keen, as to surge past me in lane 2, only to find the vehicle in front or one ahead, is pulling out to pass too. Slip roads often cause a disturbance in the flow of traffic, and it pays to be aware before accelerating away from traffic.
Does this seem familiar to anyone?

In defence of the shades, I wear dichroic shades, which LOOK extremely dark from the outside, and have a "mirror" look, all blue.
From the inside, they are surprisingly light, yellow, and polarised.
Yellow improves contrast in shadows, and polarising reduces glare. They are light enough to wear safely in rain, if the water is causing a lot of reflection off the surface, but from the outside, it looks daft. They also wrap around giving good vision, without the frame blocking any view.
You were in a position to judge, but if anyone sees me with them on in the wet, dont laugh, ask to try them on!!

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Hi Riggers...

Glad you are OK and co-incidences happen. Hear it all the time of Travel News on Beeb.

Read it as Ernest does.







Sounds very familiar to me..but then we will be using same slip roads



Ah - but Ernest - like me you are choosy about what shades you choose to wear.

There's shades and there's er shades - man!

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We've had long discussions about this this evening... A few thoughts emerged.

* All slip road traffic is a hazard that must be monitored.
* It's hard to imagine that this chap wasn't actually in front of you at some point - people accelerate on slip roads.
* A left shoulder life-saver is justified and necessary if there's any doubt about the presence or behaviour of slip road traffic. Even an apparently deserted slip might be worth checking for police cars!
* It's certainly unusual that someone will 'attack' by changing lanes into you while they are in your blind spot. Maybe his A pillar played a part. Maybe his right shoulder checks played a part. Maybe his shades played a part - some frames are like blinkers and restrict side vision. Maybe he's a serial bad observer who makes these sort of errors all the time.
* Given space ahead, I wouldn't be shy about using the throttle to clear the danger zone where traffic may merge badly from a slip road.
* All in all, it was a pretty unusual incident that no normal driver/rider in your position would expect or anticipate.

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

It sounds like a complete lack of calm driving. When a person joins up in a new road, they should get into their stride for a bit before overtaking and all that. But no way – we now live in a selfish “Me First, Top Gear” culture, and everybody drives like they are in a race!

Perhaps it’s better that you cut him down to size now, rather than waiting for an accident to happen sometime later on up the road. In fact, your moment of road rage is a small version of my permanent crusade against all the tailgaters, speeders, insurance fiddlers, tax evaders, bums and boneheads that pollute our road space.

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its always a little annoying when you pull into a space on a busy Mway, usually without the gap you'd like around you and someone on your bumper doing the same.
pause to open a gap, check mirrors to pull out and find the guy behind you has already charged into lane two and is now overlapping.

its one of the fre occasions where good parctice puts you at a disadvantage.

Paul, thanks for taking time to consider this, it's very useful to hear what someone else has to say and receive tips on how to avoid any repetition.
My hunch is that I was unfortunate enough to encounter a 'lane lunger' joining the motorway - I'll wager he's done this sort of thing over and over again, only never encountered a bike at the position he did on this occaision before.
During my rant at him I made this very point...i.e. "If you'd been concentrating more on joining the motorway properly, rather than looking for the shortest, quickest route into the 'fast' (said with dripping sarcasm) lane", you'd have been able to take in the full scene and would have seen me . Perhaps over the next couple of days he may well take a little more care, but as time passes with no repeat incidents, I'm pretty positive he'll be lane lunging again with the best of them.
To conclude, I took the bike again today, and on passing the sliproads took so many glances over my left and right shoulders I thought my head was going to spin off I'll probably end up over compensating for a short while yet.