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John Roberts Business Park. Here's the view from the first moment the other driver would have seen it:
goo.gl/maps/4JB09
(the junction is the one with the white arch-topped sign) and here it is from the other direction.
goo.gl/maps/DVsZE
And if we go with both driver accounts: my wife checked the road was empty, pulled out, was hit before she'd gone very far at all. The other driver came round the corner at 60-ish, saw my wife pulling out, braked but couldn't stop in time.
I see nothing inconsistent with the following scenario, which is consistent with both accounts, and doesn't require the speeding car to be visible. My wife waits for a suitable gap in traffic, looks left (nothing), right (large enough gap or no traffic, handbrake release begun), left again as clutch starts to pull (still nothing), starts to move out across the carriageway and turn right, gets to far carriageway, changes to second gear (so pause in acceleration), is hit in rear about five seconds after beginning to move. The business park exit is concrete and slightly uphill, so you can't simply floor it without skidding. Assuming an average speed of 6mph and taking 2.5 seconds to position on the carriageway, she would have travelled perhaps 22 feet along the road and be doing 12mph at the 5 second mark.
The other driver is doing a little over 60mph as he suggested. He comes round the corner, just after my wife has checked left as she began to move. Being inexperienced in hazard perception, he spots my wife when she has moved halfway across the other carriageway rather than a touch before, and being inexperienced in braking hard, he initially doesn't fully depress the brake pedal, both of which mean that he doesn't slow down anywhere near the quoted vehicle stopping distances, but let's say 10fpsps at first then the typical real-life figure of 15fpsps. So his speed and total distance over those five seconds could be:
- 62mph, 91fps, 91 feet total
- 55mph, 81fps, 172 feet total
- 45mph, 66fps, 238 feet total
- 35mph, 51fps, 289 feet total
- 25mph, 36fps, 323 feet total
So he's now practically at the same point that my wife is, doing 13mph faster than her. She could have accelerated a little faster, or a little sooner, or any of these factors could be changed slightly, and there would still be a collision, despite the road being clear when she pulled on to it.
Incidentally, if said driver had come around the corner at the speed limit (40mph) and continued without braking, after the 10 seconds it could take to accelerate to 40mph in this car/scenario, my wife would be 240 feet down the road, and he would be 280 feet down the road from the junction (i.e. having bumped her). So even doing the speed limit, he would have needed to reduce his speed a little to avoid a collision with a car legitimately pulling out onto an apparently empty road. Or indeed a stationary bus, and this is a main local bus route with one every ten minutes.
This road needs some speed warning before the corner.
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