We had a close call yesterday on the M74...
We had just set off from Carlisle yesterday at the height of the Force 10 gale, on our way up to Edinburgh for some pre-match boozing (sadly without a trip to the match however!!).
Just north of Gretna, a 3 foot x 3 foot piece of lorry roof (ie fibreglass) came sailing through the air out of nowhere like a frisbee and bounced off the windscreen of the Galaxy.
What a shock that was!! Having swerved across the motorway onto the hardshoulder, it fortunately turned out that the fibreglass sheet first made contact with the radiator grille, rather than the windscreen, hence the radiator grille took most of the force of the impact, rather than the windscreen and myself and 5 passengers!!
I am now short of a radiator grille, but the radiator and bonnet are somehow intact - the radiator having a few bent fins and the bonnet apparently unmarked. The undies came out of it fairly unscathed as well!!!
No doubt I will get a painfull suprise when I enquire as to the cost of a new grille in the morning!!
I must be cursed however, as I've seen four serious traffic accidents in just over 200 miles of driving this weeekend:
1) Saturday: 3.5T lorry overturned on M74 southbound
2) Saturday: BMW aquaplaned and hit central reserve on M74 before spinning into middle of carriageway
3) Saturday: (the worst one) Honda Accord on M80 near Falkirk had aquaplaned at high speed, missed an overbridge, gone up the embankment, rolled several times, hit trees and returned to the carriageway. The driver was being worked on by Paramedics having been removed from what was left of his car with the aid of the Jaws of Life. How he/she survived is incredible.
4) Sunday: Mercedes lost it and flew off M74 and landed in a field. I saw that one happen and almost ended up as part of the subsequent accident which unfolded in front of me involving cars trying to avoid the Merc.
I think I need to stay off the road at weekends - it's safer during the week!!!
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yep they all come out at weekends,
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Are rwd cars more likely to aquaplane regardless of the technology designed to keep them on the road, I saw a 3 series neatly impaled on a crash barrier in extraordinary conditions today.
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LD,
There was also another nasty one nearthe M80 as well where a Merc went right through a crash barrier on a bridge and landed on its roof on the A-road underneath.
Driver survived although took a while to cut him out.
Must admit, made me wonder how strong crash barriers are and do they have a weak point if hit at a certain angle? Suppose it must depend on the type of barrier.
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Just north of Gretna, a 3 foot x 3 foot piece of lorry roof (ie fibreglass) came sailing through the air out of nowhere like a frisbee and bounced off the windscreen of the Galaxy.
Glad to hear you are safe! That sounds like a close call, and it must have been pretty frightening when it happened.
I'm sure you were mostly thank Allah for your survival ... but I'm appalled that a lorry would have a detachable chunk of fibreglass like that. I know they have air deflector thingies, but something is badly awry if they are capable of being detached!
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Glad you saw that one, not me. But considering the air pressures exerted by a force 10 on a square metre moving at 60(?)mph I am not really surprised. A bit like trying to keep sails attached to a ship.
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Glad you saw that one, not me. But considering the air pressures exerted by a force 10 on a square metre moving at 60(?)mph I am not really surprised. A bit like trying to keep sails attached to a ship.
I see your point, but a force ten gale is only a windspeed of 48 -55 knots, or 55-63mph. Strong stuff, but only as much again as the vehicle's own speed.
Considering the cost of these vehicles, and the cost-saving purpose of the deflector screens, it shouldn't be rocket science or inordinately expensive to make one of these gadgets capable of surviving these conditions.
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The accidents you mention on the M74 don't surprise me. When we drive up it, usually on a Friday evening and often in wet weather, the speed that the German repmobiles drive at is quite unbelievable. Leaves them no room for error or the unexpected.
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Glad to hear you're ok - albeit shaken not stirred.
I was a passenger in a car once when a large pallet came 'unattached' from a truck ahead of us. It bounced on the road, and up about 10 ft, passing over the car (or rather the car passing uder it!). Pretty horrifying, really!
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