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Near miss

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:04 pm
by waremark
Well, for all my advanced driving supposed skills I came very close to a bad accident last Tuesday - completely unrelated to weather conditions. It was a clear road. I have no particular questions but am sharing just to remind you all how vulnerable we all are on the road and to be careful out there!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.85547 ... 312!8i6656

I was on a rural NSL SCW with two way traffic, slightly below the speed limit. There was a school entrance ahead on the left, a car towards waiting to turn into the entrance, and two other cars waiting behind it. As I approached a fourth vehicle towards, a white van, pulled out from behind the three waiting and was heading straight for me. I applied maximum braking (ABS operating) and he also stopped. I was not able to stop before him and dived to the left, though not quite onto the verge - but very luckily there was just room for three vehicles abreast. So we were stopped three cars abreast, just beyond the entrance. After a moment the white van moved off, so I did also without having spoken.

My first thought was that the white van was overtaking, crazily and dangerously. It really would have been crazy, not only because I was coming towards but more obviously because of a total conflict with the car turning right. Subsequently, I suspect that he had failed to observe the stopped traffic in front of him until too late, and had then pulled out to avoid going into the back of it.

I remember shockingly little of the detail. For example, I cannot remember how far I was following behind the car in front, and most specifically, I don't know whether I was slow to react. I had a dash cam in the car but regrettably it wasn't attached to the windscreen (I have mixed feelings about whether or not to run a dashcam most of the time).

It is no coincidence that there is an approved road improvement scheme to create a central refuge for vehicles turning right into that school entrance!

Re: Near miss

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:47 pm
by akirk
It does show that whatever we do, someone else may do something very stupid - and you can not account for everything they do!
well done for stopping though

Alasdair

Re: Near miss

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:22 pm
by GTR1400MAN
Scary stuff!

It wouldn't surprise me that he saw queuing traffic (not queuing traffic for the entrance) and decided to nip up the outside and into the driveway. I see this a lot if there are queues. To quite some distance at times. If you look at the StreetView he would have had, your car could have been in the shadows of the trees, or due to the incline, masked by a bright sky in the background.

Using the opposing lane early in queuing traffic is fraught with danger. Dangers that many riders do not think about when filtering. Perhaps he thought he was on his Harley? ;)

Re: Near miss

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:23 pm
by ratty
Good to hear that you are OK and that there were no injuries or damage.

It's interesting to hear that you remember little about the detail of what happened. Regularly after crashes drivers claim to remember exactly that they were travelling at legal speeds, with safe distances, and that they had used the mirror just before etc etc. I suspect that your experience is the reality and that their's is often wishful (and defensive) thinking! The reality is that things happen very fast and when we aren't expecting them.

Has this incident changed your thinking about how you might use a dash cam in the future?

I use that entrance every month or so and I know there have been problems there and that changes to the junction are coming.

Good to hear that you are OK.

Re: Near miss

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:47 pm
by GTR1400MAN
GTR1400MAN wrote:... decided to nip up the outside and into the driveway. I see this a lot if there are queues. To quite some distance at times.

Here's just one example of many on YouTube.


Re: Near miss

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:56 am
by Gareth
It's a weird title, isn't it?

Re: Near miss

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:24 am
by Horse
Do you think it should have been something like "A miss - but very close"?

If you think about traveling along a normal two lane 60 limit road, so closing speed potentially of 120 to oncoming traffic which is just a few feet away, we accept that as normal rather than a series of near misses.

Re: Near miss

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:59 am
by sussex2
Horse wrote:Do you think it should have been something like "A miss - but very close"?

If you think about traveling along a normal two lane 60 limit road, so closing speed potentially of 120 to oncoming traffic which is just a few feet away, we accept that as normal rather than a series of near misses.


I've always thought along similar lines.

Re: Near miss

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:25 am
by IcedKiwi
Or was Gareth referring to the youtube clip? Which side of the road are you supposed to overtake traffic on?

Re: Near miss

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:00 am
by Horse
IcedKiwi wrote:Or was Gareth referring to the youtube clip? Which side of the road are you supposed to overtake traffic on?


Possibly.