To (try) to be clear.
The video shows some different incidents.
Fatalities in 3 different incidents, in 3 different places on 3 different days, all in Gironde.
1 Like
With a driving ban for lorries for Easter they must have happened when they could legally drive or have exemptions for special cargo when driving is permitted.
I was parked up from Thursday night until Tuesday morning in a ban in Italy, but made good of my time to get a cable car up a snowy mountain, have a swim at the leisure centre in Aosta.
Then,cycle into town and have lunch with the local mayor. Did you give his daughter a good seeing too afterwards? 
1 Like
Looks like
Accident Sat when a tree feel on the A62 at Brannes.
Accident Sun when a truck crossed the central reserve Bx ring rd.
The female victim mentioned in the video? Looks like a 30 year old pedestrian on the rocade at 02hrs00 the night of Sat/Sun.
I certainly gave her a portion as the late Jethro used to say.
Thanks for posting that information.
A quick over sight suggests that the Euro 40t, 5 axle, single drive artic configuration is a predictable zb to stop without it jacknifing even limited to 56 mph max.
Add knackered drivers maxing out their Euro 15 hour shifts cutting reaction times.
Together with the French tendency of being able to create massive pile ups on deserted roads in low traffic densities.
No doubt followed by the usual go to solution of even lower speed limits.
This chap has got to be a real trucker, readers. No armchair trucker could come up with this nonsense.
1 Like
With some German Autobahn motorway networks having no speed limit for cars, they had more fatalities when there was a truck ban for holidays and religious festivals depending on what part of Germany the trip was in, they trialled trucks being allowed to run on ban days to reduce road deaths.
I’ll be driving down to Spain next week via the rocade de Bordeaux.I find the 90 kph limit on this road to be observed by and large.Obviously in any big city by pass with many junctions there is a higher risk than normal.In general i much prefer to drive in France than the UK.Life seems to be much calmer.In the UK a lot of people act like maniacs.Maybe the French are nervous when they see a rhd car with UK plate.I’ll probably go via the Somport tunnel for a change and save some tolls.
When it comes to motorway pile ups,particularly on bank holidays,i don’t think us Brits can claim the moral high ground.
1 Like
I used Heusca a lot when loading cakes there then over the border to Pau and Bordeaux, it makes a pleasant change to the Bordeaux to Irun shenanigans.
The scenery is really nice too, it reminds me of Switzerland and Austria in the Spanish mountains.
To be fair driving a car at unlimited autobahn speeds among traffic is often effectively like using the two lane sections of the A1 at 90 mph + but with trucks and a few others all being parked stationary in the live lanes, with the speed differential.Been there done that still do always enjoyed it, really sharpens up the observation and planning and reaction skills.
Ironically there was a time when French, Belgian and Italian motorways were even quicker than Germany. Less traffic more lanes and less bends and effectively non enforcement of any limit.
It’s anyone’s guess how they can get into so much bother and create that much damage at such low modern speeds.
[
Nah, I can’t be arsed.
4 Likes
The French motorway surface is much quieter than the noisy UK network, they use science for noise reduction to reduce resonance and how vehicle tyres hit air pockets in the road surface to make it quieter to reduce driver fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel to arrive refreshed.
Most of the continental motorway network is superior to here in terms of design and construction with smooth flat surfaces and better visibility with less off sighted curves etc.
But with the downside of less camber meaning bad drainage in wet weather and aquaplaning risk and insufficient lane provision and resulting bad lane management with continuous lane increases followed by lane reductions.
Then like here they spend a fortune on increased overtaking lane provision then they reduce the speed limits reducing overtaking.
Bison Fute signage is placed in peak flow high congestion time periods to advise tourists and French drivers to seek an alternative route from the paid toll motorway network to reduce the stress and strain by avoiding the traffic congestion equilibrium theory, that’s where drivers avoid a pinch point or jam only to create another jam to avoid the one they were avoiding in the first place.
The French have several inherited properties passed down from one generation to the other to have several properties dotted all over the country, a chalet in the mountains for skiing to a vllla in the south of France, the government encourage plenty of rest breaks and take the scenic route instead.
They don’t like a car full of the family members doing one hits of long stretches of continuous driving with no rest breaks to avoid fatigue at the wheel.
The advantage of one hits is to save paying out a hotel for the night.
Note the sapeurs pompier vehicles, the crew are both fully trained paramedics and fire fighters in a dual role to attend road traffic RTC’s and fires.
There was talk of dual use vehicles and crews in the UK especially in rural areas with narrow country lanes to access farms and properties in these areas or role out the scheme nationally.
When I had a RTC on the French motorway, to what I thought were firemen as they wore the big boots and had shiny metal helmets were in fact the ambulance staff as well,who treated me on scene and in the back of the fire engine/ ambulance with
medical equipment, drug supplies and off course the stretcher.
In France it’s obligatory and mandatory to do the national service when leaving school, they can either join the air force, army or navy or be a firefighter/paramedic.
If I summise correctly, the quieter it is, the less likely you are to fall asleep at the wheel? I won’t feel bad next time I find the last space in the services with a Frigo…
1 Like
I don’t mind being parked by a fridge in the UK as the running motor drowns out the traffic noise.