Posted by Well, today I got crashed into from behind and witnessed a suicidal exit from lane three of the motorway. Firstly the crash. I was approaching a roundabout in “rush hour” (I really dislike this term and feel it should be called crawling hour) and was crashed into, albeit fairly gently. I was glad that I had my towbar attached because it stopped any damage to the bumper, and the impact was light enough that it didn’t damage the mounting or attachment points, yes I checked.
The young lady who had crashed into me was extremely apologetic, saying something had fallen out of her bag and distracted her. I should say here that I’m not one to try and jump on the insurance bandwagon with whiplash claims, in-fact I hate those that do in situations like this. There was no need to even report it, neither of us was hurt and the only damage was a very tiny scuff on the number plate of the other car.
So, on to what actually caused this, and here I’m a lot less happy. There are a couple of reasons for this; firstly no matter what had fallen, she should have been concentrating on her driving and secondly, her bag should have been in a secure position in the first place. My guess was that she was a fairly inexperienced driver and hopefully this will be the wake up call she needs to keep her distance and concentrate 100 percent on her driving in the future.
I despair that many people are just unable to keep their thoughts on what they’re doing. I always wonder if they are as careless when using knives to chop food? Do you think they just chop away while looking around and chatting, or do you think that they actually watch what they are doing? My guess is that they watch and concentrate. So why not watch and concentrate while driving your car?
Well, the issue is that you need to concentrate for much longer and actually much harder when driving. There is a lot more going on than at home when you’re preparing dinner, and if you make a mistake in a car, you might well kill or injure yourself or someone else. Preparing dinner you might just cut yourself or at worst, lose a finger.
The solution, take driving seriously and give it your full attention. If you have a short attention span, then either don’t drive or at least, take regular breaks. Explain to those in the car with you that you need to concentrate, particularly children. Make sure that any bags or other items are stowed properly so that they or their contents can’t become dislodged. Personal experience here: Not long after I passed my test, I once put a map book on my dashboard in the days before GPS. The book slid across the dashboard at the first corner and fell off, getting wedged between the steering wheel and the gauges. I was unable to return the steering wheel to the neutral position and had I been going anything other than dead slow, I’d have crashed. Big lesson learned!
Now back to the suicidal motorway exit manoeuvre. A youngish looking chap in a sporty looking Mercedes was pushing along in lane three, and as everyone with a brain who wished to leave at the exit we were approaching moved left in preparation, he decided to blast on and overtake some more vehicles. Then at the last minute and having already passed the first exit marker, he dived across all three lanes and barged his way onto the sliproad causing other drivers including lorries to brake.
I not only despise the idiots that do this but utterly fail to understand just how tiny your brain needs to be to think it’s either ok or even a good idea. The time difference between getting into lane one for the last few hundred metres or making a desperate dash across three lanes is probably no more than 30 seconds or at a stretch one whole minute. What is anyone going to do with that amount of “saved” time? Maybe get to the scene of the crash a minute earlier, or possibly even to their own funeral a few years earlier.