Posted by I’ve just heard of yet another crash on the M5 near to where I live, and I thought I’d write a few articles specifically about motorways, and motorway driving.
So, here is the first one, based on today’s incident.
There was a collision on the M5, nothing unusual there, although sadly it should be very unusual. Lane one needed to be closed to allow the emergency services to deal with it, so at least it wasn’t a particularly serious crash or the whole road, or at least one side of it would have been closed.
Congestion soon started to build up in both directions but of course, there’s absolutely no need for this to happen on the Northbound carriageway when the crash is on the Southbound side. I still find it astonishing that peoples thoughts and eyes are so easily distracted from what they are doing. It’s no wonder that there are so many secondary crashes on motorways. (A secondary crash is one that is the result of the first incident, usually because drivers are distracted).
I have to say that sometimes I notice queueing traffic on the opposite carriageway, but rarely notice the reason. In other words, my focus is on my side. You can easily spot those that have eyes wandering all over the place. They’re the ones who panic brake when they see a police car on the opposite side, either parked or moving.
To be honest, to have a crash on the motorway in the UK is really quite something in itself, unless caused by something truly out of your control, like an oil spill on a wet road at night. Almost every single crash is the result of someone either not paying attention to their own driving, not paying attention to other peoples driving, or driving beyond their abilities. Cars simply don’t just make up their own minds to take you to the scene of a crash. You have to either drive them there or sit and do nothing having lost control. Either way, it’s your fault.
Just recently, there was a story in the local news about a crash that happened because a car aquaplaned. Now, I understand that you can be taken by surprise by standing water on a motorway in the UK. They are normally very well-drained. I don’t, however, have much sympathy for a driver who, as one of probably 10 to 50 thousand who used the road that day but was the only one to lose control and crash. There had to be a reason beyond the standing water. Were the tyres on his car lacking tread or incorrectly inflated? Was he speeding, and in this sense, I mean travelling to fast for the conditions? Was he just not paying attention to the road ahead? Was he talking to a passenger? I doubt that we’ll find out, but what I do know is that he blamed everyone but himself for the crash. “The particular section of motorway is a known blackspot” – shouldn’t this have meant that he’d have been more cautious? “The Highways Agency is responsible”- Were they driving your car?
My point is this. If you are the driver, it’s your responsibility to drive within your ability and to make sure that the vehicle you’re driving is in a suitable condition. Daily or weekly checks of a vehicle that you own, and certainly pre-driving checks of a vehicle that you don’t. I check hire cars meticulously given that anyone of any ability could have been driving it prior to me. Many years ago myself and a friend had to service a hire car partway through a 3000-mile road trip in the US. The car we’d hired wasn’t that great admittedly but it ran better after the service. Incidentally, I have to say that rural America has some fabulously deserted major roads compared to the UK.