Death wish overtaking on the A9

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.

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 two 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.

http://www.marylangleyschoolofmotoring.co.uk/index.html

Look out for these cars then !!

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 – Member

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!

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.