MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Driving over the Drumochter Pass heading south on the A9 the other night I witnessed possibly the dumbest overtaking imaginable.
It had been snowing. There was snow between the car tracks and between us and the oncoming lane which was also rutted. There were two articulated lorries between me and a clear road ahead. We had just passed the two miles to go to the dual carriageway sign. I was prepared to cruise to there a bit more than a lorries length behind until the dual carriageway. There were perhaps a dozen cars behind me I expected were doing the same thing.
Suddenly in my wing mirror I saw someone in a Skoda Yeti or Roomster trying to overtake. From where I was driving I struggled to see a gap between the two lorries. Yet the guy went for it. If that wasn't bad enough a truck was approaching in the opposite direction. It repeatedly flashed it lights, masses of lights, the types above the cab. He must have had to brake, the truck in front of me also had to brake and somehow the idiot in the Skoda got back off the oncoming lane and into the non existent space.
Full credit to the truck drivers who kept their cool and their lorries on the road.
You see the aftermath of these crashes on the news and question how they happen.
WTF was the Skoda driver thinking?
He probably got home a few milliseconds quicker, lucky bugger that he even got home by the sounds of it.
It was probably one of the driving gods on the speeding thread 'making progress'.
Sorry about that really needed a poo and was in a hurry to get home...
And apparently average speed cameras are the answer....
Bloody idiot drivers will still be idiots.
The A9 is the worst road I've driven for stupid overtakes as people can't wait for the overtaking sections, proper scary road regardless of what vehicle I've been driving ( slow/fast) as some tool is always trying to overtake you.
The speed limit is just an arbitrary number I know how to drive to the conditions it's people who drive slower than me that are dangerous and cause all the problems?
Was he breaking the speed limit?
Probably the same sort who had to cut me up badly at the end of the over taking lanes on a96 last weekend- because i was driving a campervan.
Every time they would leave it late and batter up the chevrons / otherside of road before hauling in and braking - back to 50 no less - where id been doing 60 previously.
braindead morons are gonna kill someone
He probably got home a few milliseconds quicker, lucky bugger that he even got home by the sounds of it.
He was still stuck between the trucks when we overtook them when we reached the clearer dual carriageway. I wasn't aware of their headlights further on down the road.
Was he breaking the speed limit?
I'd imagine the truck's speeds would have been limited to 50 something, plenty fast enough for the conditions. The dash temp was about -3C, cold enough to freeze the road and the ruts. Nothing short of suicidal.
[quote=mcmoonter ]Driving over the Drumochter Pass heading south on the A9 the other night I witnessed possibly the dumbest overtaking imaginable.
Unlikely. I reckon mine beats that - came round a corner in the Scottish highlands to be faced with somebody overtaking coming the other way. Slammed on the anchors but clearly wasn't going to stop in time so pulled 2 wheels up onto the grass verge and somehow we managed 3 cars abreast on the road. That was over 20 years ago and I still remember it vividly (and how much I was shaking afterwards). I was 21 and had a car full of teenagers and it wouldn't have been my fault if we'd all died!
Though I'm sure that wasn't the dumbest ever either - the drivers of cars involved in that didn't live to tell the tale. Some people are just rather daft when overtaking.
It was probably one of the driving gods on the speeding thread 'making progress'.I laughed at that ridiculous comment also.
Try being in the jump seat of a 50-seater coach on the A9 as the driver decides he wants to get home for his dinner a bit quicker than the traffic in front 😯
If you are at Drumochter in the snow and you see the "2 miles to dual carriageway" signs you sit and wait. The A9 is now part of my work commute. Not really a fan of it to be honest.
Riding my bike, 90deg bend up ahead, overtaken by a muppet, she was still overtaking as we went around the bend.
Mary Langley of Mary Langley School of Motoring, I'm talking to you...
Up and down the A9 quite often, and unfortunately what you describe is not uncommon on that road. Crazy b#%;@6ds.
There's something special about that road, never seen so many rash drivers on one road.
Mary Langley taught me to drive! 😯
Saw her out today teaching - she looks about 85 now.
I know, she was old when I learnt 17 years ago.
I followed a French car home from work tonight, who did the worst two overtakes I have ever seen (A82 south from FW) - for each overtake he went round [b]two[/b] blind bends on the wrong side he was so slow. I got my colleague who was a mile or so ahead of me to stop him and gave him 'advice' on why we do not drive like that here. 'But that is how I drive in the French Alps'. Well you're not in France now Sebastian, if you drive like that on these roads you'll kill someone. I rarely get angry about driving stuff, but **** me, this was something else.
You guys need to chill, not condoning it but go to eastern europe russia or nepal/india and see if you think the a9's bad.
There's something special about that road, never seen so many rash drivers on one road.
Agreed. We had a minibus, clearly up against a speed limiter go for it at the end of a dual carriageway section of the A9. Ended up with the arctic ahead standing on brakes and minibus coming to a screeching halt on wrong side of road/ partly on hatching.
The A9 is bad for this kind of driving as is the A82. Once on the A82 driving along Loch Lomond I was overtaken approaching a blind bend by a car which was also in process of being overtaken by another car. Three abreast going into a bend all in same direction!! Luckily there was no carnage on that occasion.
The worst overtake I ever saw was also on the A9. Going North, heavy Friday night traffic in both directions, good visibility. On a long, straight, single carrigeway section a massive motorhome (yank, winnebago type thing) just pulled into the middle of the road, straddled the white line and kept going. It only happend at about 35-40mph but ended with everyone bar the motorhome headed for the verges. I've never figured out what the hell the driver was thinking.
Came home from the Cairngorms last Sunday night. Pouring rain, unlit road. Man there was some crazy driving along there. I was doing 60 and prob by my own admission a bit too fast for the road conditions, trouble was each time i dropped below this i got tailgated. Just kept pulling over and letting people pass. Saw overtakes that made me cringe.
Seen some terrifying overtaking on the A9 and the A82. I am not sure suicidal is the right word though since other people's lives are at stake too!
I used to drive the A9 weekly, now a bit less regular but still frequent.
The driving licence is toilet paper with the current level of road policing. I don't give a toss about the eijeets terminating themselves, it is the innocents they take with them.
Spike on steering wheel required etc.
Having typed that, I have carried out manoeuvres I'm not proud of, especially driving about in a rush for work in the tourist season (bloody annoying).
I'm pro average speed cameras. And even car tracking. It's transport, not a sport.
Worst overtake I have heard of was the guy who hit my mum head on flipping her car and killing himself.
Doubt it would've been as catastrophic if he'd been going slow and in his own lane not making progress.
Driving like a prick is part of the ego that can't help itself. And it requires zero talent and no skill to do it, hence why it's so popular.
Speeding can't be that bad. The UK has just about the safest roads in the world despite almost everyone breaking the 30mph limit in towns and the 70mph motorway limit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
Driving like a prick is a problem not speed itself.
Came home from the Cairngorms last Sunday night.
You didn't happen to be involved with the winter ML training, Andy?
The A9 is bonkers. I generally feel much safer on the A82. There's only a few decent spots on the A82 for overtaking and they're well known/pretty obvious, with overtaking not really being an option on the other sections, so the overtakes tend to be more planned and rarely need to be at break neck speeds.
Whereas on the A9, heroes just see a gap and go for it. It's so much wider and straighter than the A82, people just put the foot down. Some of the stuff on the A9 sends shivers down my spine.
In saying that, my pet hate on the A82 is the drivers who drive at 30mph round all the corners/slower sections, then when you get to a long open straight and it's safe to overtake, they put their foot down! Or the ones that jam the brakes on every time a nice view opens up 🙂
Yes, it's all someone else's fault that you were speeding past the camera van..... 🙄
( 😀 )
Someone told me that the A9 was built to be a dual carriageway - makes sense when you look at the layout i.e. lots of gentle curves
The A9 is a **** magnet, that's a fact. What always strikes me as weird is that I've only ever seen police on the dual carriageway sections, apparently pulling speeders... Without setting off a speeder rant, that's hardly the most dangerous thing that happens on that road, it seems a weird priority.
peterfile - MemberIn saying that, my pet hate on the A82 is the drivers who drive at 30mph round all the corners/slower sections, then when you get to a long open straight and it's safe to overtake, they put their foot down!
On any given road with dual and single sections, there will be people whose purpose in life is to drive slowly on the singles, then as soon as it duals, try to overtake the car in front, with a speed difference of .1mph, finally completing their maneouvre on the chevrons as it returns to single. These people I could happilly murder.
Yes, it's all someone else's fault that you were speeding past the camera van.....
I'm far more patient on the A82 these days. Quite a hefty police presence between Bridge of Orchy and Altnafeadh for the last while. Was surprised to see your lot out last weekend, a fairly quiet and miserable Saturday morning in January, they had the gun out on the straight leading up to altnafeadh.
Someone told me that the A9 was built to be a dual carriageway - makes sense when you look at the layout i.e. lots of gentle curves
My dad who was involved in road design at the time says the A9 design with long sweeping gentle curves was in his opinion flawed design philosophy. Fine for dual carriageways but bad for single carriageways as it reduces safe overtaking chances. He would have gone for as many long straights as feasible.
The other big mistake was making the Killiecrankie section dual which involved huge costs due to the steep slope rather than using the cash for more DC sections that could have been built for buttons on the flat moors further north.
I've only had to drive on the A9...hmmm, 4 times. Thankfully. Some of the craziest driving I've seen. And I reckon some of what I thought was crazy was pretty normal judging from the earlier posts on this thread.
I drove down to Edinburgh just before xmas (first time in many months) and within 50 miles I had to brake and wait for a guy in an Astra hatch vxr type thing get back into his lane as he was heading straight for me. I was going under the speed limit in my noddy mobile and wondered what might have happened if I was going faster.
On the way home (after dark) I had just passed the House of Bruar behind a lorry with a trail of traffic behind me. I was heading up the straight just north of the H.O.Bruar junction when a car decided to overtake a few cars behind me and try and pass the lorry in front of me as a car was coming towards us. It looked like it was curtains for him and I had backed off in a slightly tense state,waiting for the impact up ahead when another guy that was racing him (or fed up being stuck in the traffic) was also in overtaking mode,on the other side of the road and now confused what to do as I had backed off the power. He would have thought about pulling in ahead of me or maybe had idea's about taking all of us but my drop in speed and the gap that I had in front of me and the lorry confused him. Before all the shennanigans I had left a big gap between the lorry to let folk get past me ( slow vehicle I was driving so I had no intentions of trying to pass the lorry) yet those nuggets still messed up. The lights and horn,getting pissed off with me, while he was heading towards another vehicle was a shock having done nothing wrong.
It seems that whether you go the correct speed,speed,overtake or not overtake.. you're always at risk whether it's your own fault or not.
The scariest one was driving south in nice distanced traffic, all making progress just south of Dalwhinne when I spotted a car in my mirror coming towards me and flying past each car with no intentions of slowing down. Once he approached the back of my car (probably going about 80-90mph) he started passing me on a sweeping left hander that we could all clearly see the car approaching from the south. It was three abreast and it was so close that I backed off, probably groaned like one would with a mild punch to the stomach and half curled up over the handbrake/passenger seat as I waited for him to hit the car at the same time as he was passing me.
One of those really close moments where there's no time for horns,lights and gestures. It's when it gets this close,with a shocked speechless moment after,that you realize how bad it was.
citylink driver here, up the A9 regularly, it is rare that i dont have to do an emergency brake due to some fanny overtaking where it is not appropriate.
cant understand it.
citylink driver here
you're brave admitting that on here 😉
Van driver here, up the A9 regularly, it is rare that I don't have a Citylink coach either up my erse and flashing me or trying to overtake me regardless of the fact that I'm driving at the speed limit.
The Scottish Government have an aspiration to dual Perth-Inverness by 2025...I've been working in the tender for the first lot for the last month! Glengarry to Kincraig, with other contracts to be awarded this year.
With regard to the original post : i see this all the time (almost daily basis) on the A75 as some folk obviously do not know the road in question and overtake in the worst possible places, i guess it is due to folk trying to make the ferries at Cairnryan or otherwise, i've taken to not yielding my position on the road as a number of times in the past few months i have had to slam on the brakes and take to the verge to allow someone to either take my position on the road or to avoid a car coming towards me whilst flashing it's lights as it overtakes in the oncoming lane. I always drive with an HD camera recording out of my windscreen and a gps data system so from now on i'm sticking to my lane at my chosen speed, i say **** them - they can drive off the road from now on.
Horrible road, seen some crazy overtaking and terrible aftermaths of crashes, worst was a head on, citreon sitting there with the engine block where the people in the front seats would have been, completely flattened from there forward. A friend was the first on scene at another head on and it has affected him really badly.
Always end up arriving at Inverness/Perth a few cars behind the idiot overtakers too. Definitely needs speed cameras all along it and I think white crosses to mark the fatality locations, like they do in Australia, that is pretty sobering, especially when there is a little cross representing a child.
Someone told me that the A9 was built to be a dual carriageway - makes sense when you look at the layout i.e. lots of gentle curves
I don't think that is true really, where would there not be a gentle curve on it, it doesn't follow tight turn terrain, it's a trunk road. it is a lot straighter than it used to be though before it was upgraded.
citylink driver here, up the A9 regularly, it is rare that i dont have to do an emergency brake due to some fanny overtaking where it is not appropriate.
cant understand it.
What are citylink coaches limited to, if anything? One of the maddest overtakes I've seen on the A9 was a citylink coach, I'd guess it was doing close to 90. Tried to get my passenger to film it but they were asleep and didn't catch it in time.
And apparently average speed cameras are the answer....
Bloody idiot drivers will still be idiots.
Do you even logic?
I used to go up the A9 20 or so years ago in the winter and there was no speed cameras and relatively little traffic. You could easily cruise at 70-80 mph.
Now there is more traffic, speed cameras, some sections have been altered. Its a much more frustrating road to drive and the average speed has dropped considerably.
You can see why people now get frustrated, but still no excuse for being an idiot.
I'm far more patient on the A82 these days. Quite a hefty police presence between Bridge of Orchy and Altnafeadh for the last while. Was surprised to see your lot out last weekend, a fairly quiet and miserable Saturday morning in January, they had the gun out on the straight leading up to altnafeadh.
There's a Trunk Roads Policing Group based in Lochaber now, so there should be more on the main road.
Do you really believe that will make a difference? There are now so few Police actually out patrolling and bringing the random element to enforcement that the public can speed and break motoring laws with impunity. Those who get caught by a speed camera deserve the fine for their own incompetence but a careful and observant driver stands a good chance of getting away with almost anything, though woe betide them if they do cause an accident because the Police will analyse it forensically.
Who knows? Everyone gripes that there aren't enough actual police patrolling the roads, then when they put 5 new ones (to be increased to 10) in an area purely to deal with roads policing, you're still whinging.
There has always been a random element to getting caught, and unless you have the entire road network being observed by police officers at all times, there always will be.
EDIT Unless I misread you, and you're saying there's now so few that there's not even a random element anymore?
I had this over the tops with a woman who lived in Holmfirth. I know this as I followed her home then reported her.
Overtaking cars madly into blind twisting dips - she side-scythed me almost putting me into a ditch at c60. Did the same again ahead just avoiding another head on. I imagine shes dead now if she commutes on that road that way daily.
Sorry hijack. Somafunk - what hd camera you got ? Roadhawk ? How is it ?
It's not peculiar to the A9. Some of the idiots you come across on the A65 west of Skipton are unbelievable. Desperate to get past even though there are only a handful of possible overtaking spots. The packs of moronic motorbikers in the summer don't help either.
It was probably one of the driving gods on the speeding thread 'making progress'.
Hey, it's not their fault they've got a "heavy right foot".
I'm interested in a camera too. New thread time, I think.
A9 didn't even make the long list for Cameron's central government funded vital road upgrades. As a bagger l use it a fair bit and it is terrifying,and l used to commute around London,brum,manchester.
Martinhutch but the A65 is crackers the avg speed is about 35mph because there are so many incompetent people on it who live in cities and have never driven round a bend. There are very few bends on that road that you even need to break for. There is plenty of over taking opportunities too even round bends if you just look ahead rather than 3 metres in front.
So idiots do 35mph, people get annoyed and end up making stupid over taking passes.
On a quiet morning that road is great fun and you never really need to dip below 60.
A9 is awful for folk driving at 40, then as soon as they get to the dual section, up to 80 they go. Idiots.
the A65 is crackers the avg speed is about 35mph because there are so many incompetent people on it who live in cities and have never driven round a bend.
I think the city thing is probably inaccurate and unfair, but I used to drive across it a fair bit and there did seem to be more very carefully driven Rovers and Hondas than you'd expect.
I wonder how much rebuilding the A9 to a decent standard will cost, and how much tax revenue the distilleries along it contribute each year.
£3Bn for Perth to Inverness, though the accident rate for Inverness north seems (to me) to be higher.
The distilleries are trying to reduce road use
A9. shudder. Been on that road hundreds of times - in the thousands possibly - since early 80s - even in the days of dual carriageway. Really don't like it sometimes, every other week / month there's a big incident, sadly the combined speeds usually means it's not going to end well.
I have happened upon at least two nastys in the last 10/15 years, probably both happened only 5 to 10 minutes ahead of me if that. One was - not a co-incidence -- in the stretch mcmoonter mentions - a bad one, cars everywhere, up on the banking - I walked up to see what was up from tailback, hurriedly walked back, felt quite ill 🙁
Turned round and headed back - mean time alerting a mate who was maybe 20 minutes behind in sam tailback - to Edinburgh via Spean Bridge, still better than waiting for hours. And that was then, the road gets closed for longer possibly.
Snow adds that extra frisson of course 🙁
A9 didn't even make the long list for Cameron's central government funded vital road upgrades.
Possibly because roads are the responsibility of the Scottish Govt. It's up to the SNP where the transport budget gets spent.
Question for the legal folks on here:
Given the well documented accident rate and issues with the A9, if say a family member of mine was killed in a collision, how likely would I be able to bring a case against Police Scotland, the Highways Agency and/or Highlands Council for negligence or something similar?
[quote=obelix ]Question for the legal folks on here:
Given the well documented accident rate and issues with the A9, if say a family member of mine was killed in a collision, how likely would I be able to bring a case against Police Scotland, the Highways Agency and/or Highlands Council for negligence or something similar?
Not at all likely. The road is a piece of tarmac. It's drivers that cause accidents (unless it's a mechanical malfunction). Blame would be apportioned to the driver of one (or more) of the vehicles involved. That's not to say that better road design won't reduce accident rates if it's to help bad drivers drive better.
Also dislike the A9. It's just a mad bit of road, reminds me of driving in Saudi Arabia.
The last near miss I saw was on a long uphill sweeping bend near Kingussie. Old ford fiesta 1.0l overtaking four cars and a artic. They went round the whole bend parallel with the artic with traffic coming the other way. Terrifying stuff, if a bus or truck had come they were dead.
I dont like to be a contrarian but I do more than 400 miles every week on the A9 and I have to say I dont find it that bad. In 6 years I can only think of one instance of potentially seriously dangerous overtaking, ironically by a blood transfusion lorry. A95 on the other hand 😯
irc - Member
A9 didn't even make the long list for Cameron's central government funded vital road upgrades.
Possibly because roads are the responsibility of the Scottish Govt. It's up to the SNP where the transport budget gets spent.POSTED 1 HOUR AGO
Nope,375 billion plan to improve NATIONAL transport infrastructure up to and beyond 2030 All funded by Westminster above and beyond any devolved spending. Still,at least the train from brum to London will be a bit faster as well,all for 100 to 166 times the cost of dualling the A9.
Today was no different. Mad Mondeo lady tried (aborted) double overtake - as we passed the 2 miles to dual carriageway signs in the snow south of Ballinluig.
hora - Member
@tomd why didnt they brake/pull back in?!!Teenage boy worried as to how itd look?
Because they'd passed the row of cars and missed the chance to pull in before starting on the truck. I guess they just decided they were overtaking the lot, neglecting their car was sh1t and the straight quite short!
I fired someone from our Inverness office before Xmas as she lost her driving license on the a9 after nearly killing a couple coming south bound... It was her 5th time police had stopped her on the road in 6 months. Police called me as she was in a company car, sent me the footage from the camera car following her after she was prosecuted.
She had 100 excuses but none should be valid.
Duckman
Nope,375 billion plan to improve NATIONAL transport infrastructure up to and beyond 2030 All funded by Westminster above and beyond any devolved spending. Still,at least the train from brum to London will be a bit faster as well,all for 100 to 166 times the cost of dualling the A9.
Any link for that claim? I can't see anything that says this £375 Billion is extra cash over and above existing budgets for Scotland or the UK. In parliamentary debate on the subject Danny Alexander said
The Welsh Government’s capital budget is allocated to them through the Barnett formula, so they have complete freedom to determine how they use the money.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-12-04b.917.0
So unless you know different I would suggest it will be the same for Scotland. Roads cash and decisions are devolved.
I [i]think[/i] the way it should work is that Scotland and Wales would be allocated a sum based on the Barnett Formula within which their local governments would work. However, there have been a few large infrastructure projects that were not handled in this way. HS1 (£6Bn), Crossrail (£15Bn) and the London Olympics (£9Bn) are three that come to mind.
Not Crossrail. Scotland got 500 million under Barnett for Crossrail.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/scotland-given-500m-sop-for-crossrail-6616253.html
My apologies. £500 Million for £16Bn though? Hmmm......roughly 1/3rd of what it should have been on a per capita basis.
I did a few trips up and down the A9 last September and saw some eye opening driving. The whole dual/single thing doesn't work (In NZ it's the norm and causes exactly the same issues). The dawdlers speed up and the heros try and get past everything in one hit. There was some pretty epic singleminded, selfish driving as well. The volume of traffic was quite high to what I remember which probably doesn;t help.
At least they [i]finally[/i] addressed that crap short bit of dual just before Pitlochry southbound. Everyone who didn't know it went for the overtake and then had to slam on the brakes when the road ran out. 🙄
I've always assumed the A9 was supposed to by fully dualled, there are some fairly obvious bits where there is enough room for 4 lanes, but there are only 2, with wide/flat verge instead of Tarmac.
At least they finally addressed that crap short bit of dual just before Pitlochry southbound. Everyone who didn't know it went for the overtake and then had to slam on the brakes when the road ran out.
Yeah i've always wondered if that was the shortest section of dual carriageway in the country?!
I'll generally overtake slower traffic on A roads, but on the A9 it's often pointless. There is more to plannng overtaking than just getting past the vehicle in front. If you are doing it just to join another queue doing 55 a hundred yards down the road then what's the point?