Ok we've all heard the broadcasts
"... and traffic is tailing back on the opposite carriageway caused by motorists slowing to look at the accident"
This is always said with an insufferable air of superiority, as if the 'gob on a stick' reading it out would himself / herself drive at unreduced speed past the scene, eyes firmly glued on the road ahead. There is also some implied criticism of ghoulishness for wanting to look at an accident, which, of course, they would never do.
Yeah! Right!
1) Somebody will always slow. It makes sense to ease off the loud pedal a bit and open the gap in front of you. Maintaining a steady 75 - 80 here is a recipe for disaster. It is called matching speed to road conditions
2) It is a natural reaction. Driving, particularly on M-ways is a pretty mind -numbing experience. The brain NEEDS new sensations if it is to function at its best, fight off tiredness. It is totally ludicrous to expect anybody to drive past a major shunt without taking a peek
Rob P
And then there's the local radio stations that flick on the RDS so that you can listen to two minutes of oh-so-daring and mildly suggestive chatter between the presenter and the traffic girlie.
AAAAAGH!
|
It is totally ludicrous to expect anybody to drive past a major shunt without taking a peek
Sounds like you won't get what you expect; I NEVER look, partly because I REALLY don't want to but mostly because I need to keep looking for the driver in front who is about to swerve/stop/point/clap etc...
In a similar way I when stopped at a queue at a roundabout I don't even look at what's coming around it at all until the car in front has actually gone (not just started to move).
|
|
Dipstick - I wonder if Shortwing Rob has ever considered that the crash on the opposite carriageway was caused by people slowing down to rubber-neck at something....?!
|
|
|
|
I'm with you on this one Rob
I'd love one of these 'traffic announcers' to explain how to avoid running into the back of a braking car without braking yourself, but I wonder if they'd understand the question
|
Borasport20 - as there's two 'Robs' here, could you specify? I'm confused!!
Anyway, I remember about six years ago I was on the M62 on my way to a training course. Traffic was heavy but moving and I was in the middle lane. Up ahead on the hard shoulder was a police Range Rover with it's lights on. In front of that was a Corsa with it's front end missing. "Wouldn't have liked to have been in that" mused I as my gaze returned to the road in front of me. And the back end of a Toyota Camry. All I can say is that someone up there must have been looking after me that day, because I managed to slam on the brakes (thank God for ABS), swerve into the inside lane without hitting anything and stop behind the car that was now in front of me with about three feet to spare.
Since then I **NEVER** rubber-neck at accidents. It may be human nature to do so, but I did it once and survived by the skin of my teeth.
|
Rubber necking. 100 per cent agree with the original poster.
As long as you're looking ahead darting your eyes left to have a quick look is imposible to avoid. Rubber neck implies looking behind you which I suspect *very* few people do.
Agreea bout the tone the traffic people use. Loooking at a crash! Gee, what next reporting it to the world using high power transmitting equipment!!!
I'm The Amphibian Formerly Known as Toad!!
|
Terry - did you read my post above? I *did* dart my eyes to the left for just a second or two, but during that time travelled roughly one hundred and eighty feet BLIND. Hence the bowel-evacuating moments that followed. How can you be saying that it's safe to take your eyes off the road in front on a busy motorway, when everybody else is gawping as well? You might as well smash the front of your car in with a lumphammer and have done with it, because that's what'll happen if you carry on driving like that!
I feel that you need to quit the "it'll never happen to me" attitude because believe me, it will.
|
|
Had a 3/4 hour crawl on the M4 on Friday afternoon due to an overturned minibus blocking two lanes. As usual some members of the rescue services stood near the crash either side of the one open lane, arms folded, looking at cars going by. This always seems to happen. I often wonder if a) they are trying to discourage rubber necking or b) encouraging cars to slow as they pass the accident for safety reasons.
|
|
|
Terry - did you read my post above? I *did* dart my eyes to the left for just a second or two,
Two seconds is a long old while! Dart means quick in my language!
Where did you hear about HJ's site RobTB? There's a lot of new people here.
How can you be saying that it's safe to take your eyes off the road in front on a busy motorway, when everybody else is gawping as well?
If it's safe to blink it's safe to flick your eyes around. A look at the speedo, a look inthe mirrors takes longer.
You're a shower! You're an absolute shower!
|
Dart means quick inmy language! Where did you hear about HJ's site RobTB? There's a lot of new people here. You're a shower! You're an absolute shower!
Quick?! Quick?! You've obviously never driven one! Sadly, old fruit, Dart means crappy British built single-decker bus in my language. Fair enough - thinking about things, you are correct. You can be distracted by simply looking in the mirror, or tuning the radio, or telling the kids off in the back. Doesn't really matter how you're distracted really,it can still be fatal. I was merely trying to point out that you don't need any *external* distractions - you have quite enough to deal with already.
And, oddly enough, I heard of HJ's website on HJ's page in the Tory, sorry Telegraph. And I'm not new - I'm slightly sullied.
And I presume you mean shaarr.
|
I was merely trying to point out that you don't need any *external* distractions - you have quite enough to deal with already.
Hmmm. 54 per cent of women admitjumping red lights because of distraction from children.
And I presume you mean shaarr.
Yes, Shaarr! Glad someone recognises it!
You're a shower! You're an absolute shower!
|
I saw that article too - worrying wasn't it? Believe me, the women you see on the school run at my daughter's school (see the 'Selfish (and dangerous) parking' thread) are SCARY. Oh what fun we had when it was icy - you could have played The Blue Danube over the resulting mayhem and it would have been absolutely in time! I don't wish to cast nasturtiums, but every single non-male driver who came along the same bit of road made not one bit of allowance for the fact it was cold enough to freeze the whatsits of a brass doodah and braked in exactly the normal manner. Quite fun to watch really, as I'd walked that morning!
And, Terry, if someone's called Terry Thomas and says "You're a shower! An absolute shower!", how else is it to be pronounced, except 'shaarr'? Have you got the gap in between your front teeth and everything? Do you have a titfer (or was that George Cole?)>
|
I don't wish to cast nasturtiums, but every single non-male driver who came along the same bit of road made not one bit of allowance for the fact it was cold enough to freeze the whatsits of a brass doodah and braked in exactly the normal manner. Quite fun to watch really, as I'd walked that morning!
It's the maintainance. Spoke to a girl in town the other night. Dad bought her a Celica. I hope you check the oil and water I said. [1] Never. Says she. The thing's a year old!
Have you got the gap in between your front teeth and everything?
No, but i did come from humble beginings... and stayed there!
[1] ...and this is why I never pull.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rob,
Brings back memories of being sworn at by a traffic policeman on the A74 at Lockerbie.
I was not rubbernecking, but I guess he had been up all night after the 747 came down - seeing bits of Boeing all over the place did concentrate the mind!
Matt35.
Not intended to be flippant at the loss of life.
|
|
|
