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Driving to work this morning down the usual unlit country road I settled in behind a slow truck and accepted that it was going to make me a bit late. The one car in front decided to go for an overtake and about half way down the truck he had to brake for oncoming traffic. In a split second he had swerved into the side of the truck and was literally launched over a hedge into a field at about 60 mph.
As the truck carried on oblivious and no other cars were around it quickly dawned on me that I was the only witness. I parked about half a mile away in the only safe place to pull over. Running back I realised that the car's trajectory had meant that it fully cleared the hedge and didn't leave any indication of its whereabouts. At that precise moment the traffic slowed and I waved down a passing ambulance to explain the situation. As I spoke to the driver I turned to the side and realised that we'd stopped directly opposite the crash / launch site.
They had landed about ten yards beyond the hedge and down a ten foot steep slope. Luckily the driver was OK but the passenger was pretty badly beaten up and the Paramedic took over.
The main point I suppose for writing this is that it taught me two lessons:
1. No appointment or job is worth a stupid overtake.
2. If you crash off a country road it wouldn't take a lot for you to lie there dying with traffic driving obliviously past.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, be careful out there.
Well played dude.
Plenty fresh/new gaps in the chicken wire into the woods on Snake Pass every weekend. You never know- could be a fresh one there too from overnight etc.
Glad you stopped and took the initiative 😀
Never fails to amaze me how keen some people are to get to work.
A mate of mine killed himself and an oncoming driver in a similar incident (on his way to work). Such a waste.
Well played dude.
+1
Good work buddy . Sounds like you kept a cool head . I keep meaning to do a first aid course as one day I may need it .
Well done, you've fulfilled your good samaritan act for today 😀
&usual unlit country road
= [url= http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50200916/ ] wearing hi viz?[/url], don't become another victim yourself!Running back
I agree with eskay, every morning i see nutters getting one car in front... absolutely pointless and set off earlier if you are so desperate to get into work...
He was just making progress.......
Glad you stopped, good work OP 🙂
Trust me, you did a good thing keeping your head. There's a lot of professionals trained in these situations who would find it hard not to panic. FWIW, Country roads see far more fatalities than Motorways and there are idiots on both!
Seems to be the season for it.
Well done for getting involved - if things had been worse that could easily have been the difference between the driver living or dying.
I am regularly astounded by people making potentially fatal blind overtakes on country roads just to gain a few mph. 😐
Good work Gunz
Did the truck not stop at all 😯
"COME ON COME ON COME ON!!! I HAVEN'T GOT TIME FOR TH..."
[i]I am regularly astounded by people making potentially fatal blind overtakes on country roads just to gain a few mph.[/i]
Yep. No sympathy for the stupid arsehole driver here.
Good work man , FWIW in the dark I find unlit country lanes far scarier on the bike than taking my chance on wider unlit A roads . ( On the bike that is )
Niksnr im curious by your comment. Which professionals trained for these situations would find it hard not to panic. Im genuinely interested in your observation ?
Well done for stopping youd be amazed how many drive on by
= wearing hi viz?, don't become another victim yourself!
I'll be buying one tonight, it was a bit nerve wracking running into morning traffic in the dark.
Did the truck not stop
I don't think he would have had any idea it happened. It really demonstrated that all that counter-steer stuff you see in the movies and possibly believe you could do yourself is sometimes a load of hooey. It took less than two seconds from when his brakes went on until he was airborne and out of sight.
Had to brake for oncoming traffic, but no other witnesses? Surely he was launched over the hedge right in front of the oncoming traffic...? 😕
Well done though.
The car overtook just as the oncoming car was obscured by a rise in elevation. Doubly dangerous to even attempt it but I can see why the other car wouldn't have seen it happen.
More of a RTI than a RTA then.
Well done for stopping; lucky there was a passing ambulance!
Cool actions 😀
Back a couple of weeks when we had some hard frost in deepest South Hampshire I was out riding the lanes on my roadie and came across a Mother and Daughter who'd gone straight on into and over a hedge on a fairly lame corner on a single lane road up near Medstead.. Sheet ice from the run off from the fields...
They were fine, in heels and party dresses, but fine.. Me I crapped myself as I'd hacked around that corner not 2 mins earlier in interval training mode..
😯
My commute involves a few miles of windy country A road, and I can;t help but think some people must have jobs that are a hell of a lot more exciting than mine if they're that desperate to get there a minute or two quicker.
Drove home yesterday on the MWay in torrential rain and the moves some drivers do are terrifying
Some folk dont seem to realise just how dangerous driving is
Perhaps they should be made to watch videos
Well done OP
Well done Gunz, top work.
A CAT award should be yours, Gunz - good work, fella!
+1 to honeybadgerz comment; whilst glad to be in the car this morning, the number of loons "making progress" or attempting such is depressing. When I ride, I add a couple of miles to stay on muddy lanes and off the more direct arterial routes.
Firestarter, sounds like you're in the same line of work as me. I'm talking about those that have all the training but no real experience and not just those at the bottom of the chain of command. I guess that counts for most industries. Gunz, again, great work.
I was following a car along a busy road. Ahead was a parked car.
The car in front wasn't concentrating and saw the parked car last minute.
she pulled out to avoid it but went straight underneath a fully laden mobile home transporter.
The poor woman had no chance. I held her hand as she breathed her last breath. There was children's toys all over the road and I thou there was a kid in the back. You couldn't see as is was totally crushed.
Apparently she was on her way to pick the kids up from school.
That incident still haunts me now even though it was over 10 years ago. My therapist tries to help but doesn't really work.
Not that it helps but it was not your fault and you did all you could which was nothing. My heart goes out to you for all the good it does
A truck driver I know [s]killed [/s] was in an accident where a motorbike rider dies. They [ Rider]took a corner too fast came on to the wrong side of the road and went head first into an articulated truck at 60 mph ..little left of them or he bike.
I have seen what it does to people but it was not your fault
Well done Gunz. Plenty of other people would have just carried on, possibly just called it in. Good to hear that there are people out there who ain't afraid to take the initiative and go looking after the wellbeing of others.
Thumbs up! 😀
Fatality round here yesterday on motorway hard shoulder (as probably every day somewhere on the road network). Horrible....- please get out and up the embankment if you break down. Carry clothing in the car that allows you to do this in the worst winter weather.
In France it's compulsory to carry hi-viz in the car. Always struck me as a jolly good idea, especially for instances like the op posted.
What is amazing is that the average person drives a car without any significant training or possessing any significant skills to do so. It's the equivalent of trying to hit a 40foot double on your mtb having never even got your wheels off the floor before....
The list of things the crashed driver did wrong is no doubt long, and painfully obvious with hindsight, and yet we continue to focus blindly on "speed" as the root cause.
In this case "overtaking" was not the cause, the cause was misjudgement and a lack of skill by the driver, the fact it happened during an overtake is irrelevant. People seem to get angry when they see "dangerous" overtaking, but really, poor driving is poor driving, no matter what event is actually ocuring at the time.
Had a tyre blow out on the A38 some years ago. Car hit the barrier & turned over. I'll never forget hearing my two children (age 2 & 3) screaming "Daddy" as it slid along. the noise was horrendous. I can recall crawling into the back, on the roof lining, & trying to release them from their child seats. Frightening. You never think it will happen to you. I learnt a lot about folk that day, complete & utter kindness from total strangers. Chokes me up to think about it.
Well done Op for stopping. Good man.
Good work on stopping and getting help. It's far better when people do that then carry on giving us vague locations.
Stationary objects dont crash so speed is always a factor, the only question is how much of a factor.
a Mother and Daughter who'd gone straight on into and over a hedge on a fairly lame corner on a single lane road up near Medstead.. Sheet ice from the run off from the fields...
I've did that a couple of winters back.
A dry day, cold but no ice on the roads. It started to snow heavily. I was driving along a back road taking it very cautiously in the fresh snow.
Approached a corner, slowed to ~10mph, turned the wheel and just continued to go straight on. Very slow speed slide, but nothing I did seemed to slow it or alter its path, so I just had to sit there and wait till the car came to rest in the ditch. 😳
Got out and fell on my arse because hidden under the snow the road was glassy sheet ice due to frozen run off from the field.
Another car came along and despite waving a warning, and the obvious sight of my car in the ditch, they also slid and ended up in the field next to me 😀
Lesson learned.
One thing I think the French got right was the Hi-Viz jacket for every person in the car. After having them in the car for visiting my mother in France I have had several occasions where I was glad they were still there.
The most recent was a lad who had come off a motorbike on spilt diesel, he had been knocked out and was quite agitated/stumbling around on the road, had he not had a Hi-Viz top on I doubt I would have seen him in time.
First thing I did was put mine on before getting out of the car to help him as I thought I might be the next casualty!
Anyway well done Gunz 🙂
Would people really continue on if they saw an accident ?
Did you report the lorry driver to the Police? He was involved in an accident and failed to stop. He should been checking his mirrors.
If I have a crash in my car and Im down a ditch, emergency services will automatically be called 🙂
[i]Stationary objects dont crash so speed is always a factor, the only question is how much of a factor.[/i]
Thanks for those pearls of wisdom junky! 😐
Only one hi-viz is obligatory in France, it's one per occupant in Italy.
Would people really continue on if they saw an accident ?
Some yes, even a hundred or so cyclists. I did a sportive, a rider in the lead group ran out of road on a bend, hit a rock wall and somersaulted into a field where he lay motionless. Not one of the group stopped. I'd dropped off the back for a rolling pee, saw the guy fly over the wall, so pulled over to help. He came back to life with no serious injuries so I left him on the side of the road waving his front wheel hoping for a lift.
Niksnr i see 🙂 its just we have a number of trained professionals work with us at certain incidents and sometimes its astounding the way they react. I was curious if you had witnessed it as a passer and if its as obvious to those not in that line of work as it is to those on scene but seems as tho youve seen it first hand too
Would people really continue on if they saw an accident ?
Yes sadly:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-can-people-behave-like-this
hi-vis in car makes sense, regardless of nation of registration of the car. and I was surprised to see so many (even in UK) donning a hi viz when awaiting the RAC, where hi-viz is not a legal requirement.
in some countries, failing to assist an injured citizen is illegal (germany afaik is one), and if you're a doctor/nurse/medically trained professional you're obliged by law to assist and provide first aid. sod legal liabilities and all that "oh I might get sued" nonsense. law trumps insurance companies and lawyers.
friend's son took a daring move on a motorbike. they found his body and bike 3 days later, in a ditch literally round the corner from home. and taht was probably only because a dog walking neighbour decided to go the other way for a change. and there must be one very guilty probably local neighbour that was party to that overtake that's had to live with that FTS on their mind for several years.
Btw my comment is in now way meant to slag anyone more the system and its training methods re training to role rather than training for trainings sake
Blimey, that was a stroke of luck!...I waved down a passing ambulance...
edit: can one of the mods please change the subject to [i]"just witnessed a bell-end get his comeuppance!"[/i] 😉