Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop! This type of scenario has become a common problem and im now extra vigilant and make sure im not too close to the vehicle infront, which i see all the time, especaially with a convoy of hgvs, its a disaster waiting to happen.
In reality leaving a safe enough gap just invites a car to fill the space which happens most of the time.
As a result, sometimes i actually drive in the second lane of a smart motorway especially at night.
Our motorways have become more dangerous because of this
How many near misses have you had?
What sort of things have you seen on smart motorways?
Never had a near miss on a smart motorway probably because I have hardly driven on them. I will say one thing though from what I have heard smart motorways are not the best but the main problem is the way people drive. Improve driving standards and the majority of accidents would not happen.
Driving too close is a very common dangerous practice and the sad thing is a lot don’t even realise they are too close. Sad but true.
I do believe I was rebutted on here once-upon-a-time for suggesting that a “safe thing to do” was approach brows of hills, and other motorway stretches where the next 200 yards of road isn’t in clear view - were approached in LANE 2 “just in case”…
I still do that.
I still maintain that it is better to be ‘mad and survive every day’, than be “sane and killed as the next statistic” every damned day instead.
This means that for example, I’ll be approaching say, Clacket Lane J5-J6 M25 using the lane one hard shoulder as normal…
…BUT when driving on the M1 J13-J12 stretch - I’ll be using and staying in lane TWO, especially with that extra spur road to the A5 that has been built and all.
The difference between the two is that one is a permanent hard shoulder lane 1, and the other is a “smart motorway” where a flick of a switch can cause two vehicles to impact each other seconds later, as I don’t believe they manage it very well at all!
You break down whilst the gantry signs say “Hard Shoulder only for Emergency Use”, and you’re parked up, with hazards flashing, hopefully with you and yours out of the vehicle, and over the other side of the crash barrier…
Seconds later, the gantry signs get switched to “Use Hard Shoulder” and the very next artic that comes around the corner now using lane 1 instead of staying in lane 2 - whacks your broken down car so hard that it ends up in the trees…
Sometimes it is better to NOT do as you’re told all the time as a “reflex”.
I’d rather be busted out of another job for “being off-route” or “disobeying written instructions on how to behave on the roads” than lose my licence and/or get to harm myself and others.
Near Sheffield on M1. I was doing 53 in inside lane. Truck in front of me a decent distance away. He indicates right and because of the road curving I couldnt see why. Next thing there is a Luton van half on half off Lane1 broken down. All I had time to do was a swift movement to the right and I just squeezed past him without going into lane 2 much. It happened so fast I didnt have a chance to ■■■ myself lol…Nothing on overheads, until the next one which said Obstruction reported.
If I hadn’t reacted in time would have been carnage. They are so dangerous.
Again the issue is not the smart motorway PROVODING THE ORGINAL PLANS WERE STUCK TO.
The original stretch of M42 smart motorway through Birmingham is what they were all supposed to be like, with ample refuges at much closer distances to what are now being built.
But cost cutting has seen the designs changed and here we are…
I still think the biggest problem is education in the sense that people don’t know how to use them and more importantly never seem to think “what if” and leave themselves with no way out if anything starts to go wrong.
Playing devils advocate I was going up the A43 yesterday and there was a broken down van in the live lane just around a bend. Travelling speed is the same as a smart motorway… less signage… less space… no hard shoulder… what’s the difference between a smart motorway and mile upon mile of two-lane dual carriageway A road?
In addition people seem to be forgetting the sheer amount of vehicles that were ploughed into while on the hard shoulder including a friend of mine who got killed as a recovery driver whilst collecting a car from a hard shoulder.
Smart motorways need smarter management and smarter driving.
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop! This type of scenario has become a common problem and im now extra vigilant and make sure im not too close to the vehicle infront, which i see all the time, especaially with a convoy of hgvs, its a disaster waiting to happen.
In reality leaving a safe enough gap just invites a car to fill the space which happens most of the time.
As a result, sometimes i actually drive in the second lane of a smart motorway especially at night.
Our motorways have become more dangerous because of this
How many near misses have you had?
What sort of things have you seen on smart motorways?
You need to take a good look at your driving and certainly your focus on the road if you’ve had that many near misses your heading for disaster
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop!
That suggests you’re at fault, either not paying attention to what is going on in front of you or driving too close up the arse of the vehicle in front.
Near Sheffield on M1. I was doing 53 in inside lane. Truck in front of me a decent distance away. He indicates right and because of the road curving I couldnt see why. .
Usually when I see a vehicle doing that, changing lane for no apparent reason especially a lorry, I’m anticipating I may also need to because they’ve seen something I can’t yet.
Few weeks ago on the m6. Broken down wagon in lane one. I seen it well before so got out in lane 3 as the wagon in front of me anchored on to a standstill to give him somewhere to
Too many people don’t look anywhere near far enough as to what is going on. You should be looking at least 30 secs up the road or as far as you can actually see the road ahead. Again as much as it pains me to say it I Agree with Conor, it’s by watching what other vehicles are doing and questioning why they are appearing to change lanes for no apparent reason, that alerts you to a problem in advance.
Again as said earlier there is no difference between a smart motorway and a NSL dual carriageway as they both don’t have hard shoulders and both can have traffic travelling at 70mph plus.
Again it does sound like some people are not paying enough attention to the road in front of them, especially 4 near misses in a year suggests something is wrong with the way you are driving or not paying attention to what is happening around you.
People who break down often do nothing to warn the oncoming traffic, having a torch or emergency baton and being several hundred yards up the road warning the traffic would be the sensible thing as long as your stood in a safe place like behind the Armco if the vehicle is in a dangerous position along with informing the emergency services/highways agency.
toonsy:
Playing devils advocate I was going up the A43 yesterday and there was a broken down van in the live lane just around a bend. Travelling speed is the same as a smart motorway… less signage… less space… no hard shoulder… what’s the difference between a smart motorway and mile upon mile of two-lane dual carriageway A road?
Had similar a couple of years ago on the A34, just rounded a a slight bend, van half in lane 1 and verge broke down. No warning by the driver, no other traffic about other than a good distance behind me, so my chosen action was to change lanes to avoid it, but the AEBS had other ideas and anchored up big style before I could even change lanes.
If I had broken down round a bend I’d be trying to warn oncoming traffic the best I could while being on the phone to the emergency services/highways agency.
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop!
That suggests you’re at fault, either not paying attention to what is going on in front of you or driving too close up the arse of the vehicle in front.
that’s utter Tosh, in the blink of an eye a lorry in front of me swerved into lane two around Sheffield, leaving me smoking my tyres to slow down and avoid a stranded vehicle ,And i had a safe distance ,it was close it was very close…
Winseer:
I do believe I was rebutted on here once-upon-a-time for suggesting that a “safe thing to do” was approach brows of hills, and other motorway stretches where the next 200 yards of road isn’t in clear view - were approached in LANE 2 “just in case”…
I still do that.
I still maintain that it is better to be ‘mad and survive every day’, than be “sane and killed as the next statistic” every damned day instead.
This means that for example, I’ll be approaching say, Clacket Lane J5-J6 M25 using the lane one hard shoulder as normal…
…BUT when driving on the M1 J13-J12 stretch - I’ll be using and staying in lane TWO, especially with that extra spur road to the A5 that has been built and all.
The difference between the two is that one is a permanent hard shoulder lane 1, and the other is a “smart motorway” where a flick of a switch can cause two vehicles to impact each other seconds later, as I don’t believe they manage it very well at all!
You break down whilst the gantry signs say “Hard Shoulder only for Emergency Use”, and you’re parked up, with hazards flashing, hopefully with you and yours out of the vehicle, and over the other side of the crash barrier…
Seconds later, the gantry signs get switched to “Use Hard Shoulder” and the very next artic that comes around the corner now using lane 1 instead of staying in lane 2 - whacks your broken down car so hard that it ends up in the trees…
Sometimes it is better to NOT do as you’re told all the time as a “reflex”.
I’d rather be busted out of another job for “being off-route” or “disobeying written instructions on how to behave on the roads” than lose my licence and/or get to harm myself and others.
Driving appropriately and paying enough attention to what is going on around is more than enough, there is no need to be changing lanes for no reason, unless traffic is changing lanes in front of you then it’s usually for a reason.
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop!
That suggests you’re at fault, either not paying attention to what is going on in front of you or driving too close up the arse of the vehicle in front.
that’s utter Tosh, in the blink of an eye a lorry in front of me swerved into lane two around Sheffield, leaving me smoking my tyres to slow down and avoid a stranded vehicle ,And i had a safe distance ,it was close it was very close…
Then it sounds like you were far too close to the vehicle in front. You should be able to stop in the distance you can see. Simple as that.
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop!
That suggests you’re at fault, either not paying attention to what is going on in front of you or driving too close up the arse of the vehicle in front.
Im paying attention alright! One broken down car just past a left hand corner on m6, i could only see the vehicle as coming out of corner and swerved outta the way… other one was a broken down volvo unit on the m62 poor visability due to torrential rain causing lots of spray could only just see the vehicle, very close call! The Other two incidents were hgvs infront of me which emergency braked causing me to brake, but i anticipated something was wrong due to severity of braking and moved into 2nd lane.
There have been two recent inquests/trials into smart motorway fatalities. Both involved people of foreign origin, driving vehicles they had borrowed from family members that subsequently broke down.
In both cases, the first reaction of the person driving the car was to phone the car’s owner and ask what to do!
I had all my driving lessons a very long time ago, and something we were taught was to use the roadside phone asap as it went straight through to the police control room and they would send a vehicle to protect you (no mobiles or sat navs in those days, you had to be a grown-up).
So far as I know, that’s still the situation. But people don’t seem to know about it. Even when they call the police (using their mobiles) they don’t have a clue where they are, whereas if you call on the roadside phone the control room know exactly were you are.
A few years back I was driving down the M42 on a dark and stormy night when the car in front lost a nearside tyre…it actually flew off the rim. The car went spinning off in the general direction of where the hard shoulder would have been. I got Mrs GasGas to dial 999 and call in our exact location (reading out the roadside markers) to the police.
A few minutes later she got a call back, a big thank you from the police…they had closed the motorway behind us and averted a disaster.
So, if I saw a vehicle stopped on a smart motorway (not in a refuge), I’d call it in. Seriously, the police will thank you for it. They are meant to monitor the entire road all the time, but that’s a pretty impossible task.
AnotherDriver:
Over the past year ive had 4 serious near misses on the smart motorways. ALL of the them have been vehicles broken down in the left hand lane of a four lane smart motorway with NO warning signs from the overhead signs.
Most of them have been last second swerve out of the way jobs or brake hard and hope that the vehicles behind see the danger and come to a complete stop!
That suggests you’re at fault, either not paying attention to what is going on in front of you or driving too close up the arse of the vehicle in front.
that’s utter Tosh, in the blink of an eye a lorry in front of me swerved into lane two around Sheffield, leaving me smoking my tyres to slow down and avoid a stranded vehicle ,And i had a safe distance ,it was close it was very close…
Then it sounds like you were far too close to the vehicle in front. You should be able to stop in the distance you can see. Simple as that.
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as i said i had a safe distance and i did manage to stop, Maybe the truck in front of me was right up the cars jacksey before taking evasive action Maybe the car driver had a medical emergency who knows ,only a fool breaks the two second rule
And as I said drivers who are too close think they are ok. Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule. The 2 second rule is a minimum distance for an alert car driver and not for a truck especially a loaded one.
Unfortunately many drivers think that if the stick to the 2 second rule they are driving at a safe distance when usually they are not.
Some drivers, in fact quite a lot need educated about safe driving.
