A few nights ago I was driving up the M1. A nice clear evening and I was following an empty flatbed wagon and drag. The road surface was damp and greasy and so I wasn’t going to get too close to anything.
Overhead the gantry signals were showing a closure of lanes 2 & 3 but the traffic was very light and I didn’t anticipate any form of holdup. As we neared the closure, the warning signs were out, 800 yards, 600 yards, and so forth, leading up to a neat line of tightly spaced cones tapering across the affected lanes.
This particular location is also the site of pre-existing roadworks subject to a 50 mph limit, and on entering this area, the truck in front reduces speed accordingly.
Traffic was so light that the only other vehicle in sight was a car approaching from behind in lane 3. At the speed it was travelling, which was a ■■■■ fair lick, the driver had plenty of time to ease off and drop between our two trucks without causing any problems.
Did he? Did he heck!
I’m looking at the space between my vehicle and the vehicle in front, and I’m thinking that if he is hoping to lose 30-40 mph in that length of space, on a greasy surface, then the results will be entertaining. It was one of those situations where the outcome was pre-destined, but the story had yet to unfold. A situation where, out should come the sandwiches and flask. Sit back and enjoy. Something akin to watching a film with multiple endings, when you’re not sure which version you’ve got.
Mr Knobhead, having passed my vehicle, then makes a determined effort in his hot-hatch to overtake the vehicle in front, hampered only by the ever-decreasing width offered by the coning.
He got past the trailer, he got past the drive axle, just! And then the cones bit back. Suddenly something like 15 to 20 cones get struck, knocked, trampled, and disgorged. Disgorged, because they where going under the car and emerging from the side, from the rear, and exploding into the air like a Roman Candle on Bonfire night. And as more went under the car, so it began to lift, from the offside, until suddenly it was launched from my view across the front of the rigid, only to partially re-appear moments later, to the left of the rigid, but at a somewhat skewed angle, which, in turn, veered it back in front of the rigid. My next sighting of this car was of it chugging its way onto the hard shoulder.
Entertainment value. PRICELESS. 
Disclaimer: No trucks were hurt in the making of this episode. 
