Debris On The Motorway - A Worked Example
Discussion
Travelling at the posted speed limit (no, I really was) in the outside lane on the A1M in the new interchange at Ferrybridge. Moderate traffic, all moving quickly.
Car in front of me hits something and knocks it into the central reservation where it hits the armco and bounces back into my lane. It looks like a plastic container of some description. I don't have time to do a mirror check but I know that there are cars behind me in both my lane and the lane to my left.
I quickly take a decision to hit the object, on the basis that it doesn't look that heavy (it bounced quite gaily off the front wing of the car in front) and that risking damage to my car is better than risking a collision with another car.
Bang!
No immediately obvious damage, but a flappy noise a few miles up the road led to me pulling over and inspecting the damage, which appears to be limited to the destruction of the offside wheel arch liner, the remnants of which are flapping around. Under 50MPH the flapping stops, so I return to base.
Right course of action? Lessons to be learned? (apart from "be uber-vigilant for crap blowing around on the motorway when there are very strong crosswinds", that is)
Car in front of me hits something and knocks it into the central reservation where it hits the armco and bounces back into my lane. It looks like a plastic container of some description. I don't have time to do a mirror check but I know that there are cars behind me in both my lane and the lane to my left.
I quickly take a decision to hit the object, on the basis that it doesn't look that heavy (it bounced quite gaily off the front wing of the car in front) and that risking damage to my car is better than risking a collision with another car.
Bang!
No immediately obvious damage, but a flappy noise a few miles up the road led to me pulling over and inspecting the damage, which appears to be limited to the destruction of the offside wheel arch liner, the remnants of which are flapping around. Under 50MPH the flapping stops, so I return to base.
Right course of action? Lessons to be learned? (apart from "be uber-vigilant for crap blowing around on the motorway when there are very strong crosswinds", that is)
CommanderJameson said:
Lessons to be learned?
Defensive driving would have ensured you have a space beside you on at least one side, giving you the option to swerve into it if necessary. Judgement call whether that would have been justified in this case (even if the option had been available) and I suspect that under the circumstances I'd probably have done the same as you.
Thanks for the analysis. I'd thought I'd done the right thing, but wasn't sure. After events like this it's always handy to get better drivers than oneself (and in my case, there's plenty of those around) to provide a barometer of whether I really 
ed it up or not.
GV8S: excellent point about the defensive driving. Will be looking out for that on the m-way in future.
Don: It's a company vehicle, so other than the ball-ache of sorting out the repairs, no harm done.
ed it up or not. GV8S: excellent point about the defensive driving. Will be looking out for that on the m-way in future.
Don: It's a company vehicle, so other than the ball-ache of sorting out the repairs, no harm done.
CommanderJameson said:
Thanks for the analysis. I'd thought I'd done the right thing, but wasn't sure. After events like this it's always handy to get better drivers than oneself (and in my case, there's plenty of those around) to provide a barometer of whether I really ed it up or not.
GV8S: excellent point about the defensive driving. Will be looking out for that on the m-way in future.
Don: It's a company vehicle, so other than the ball-ache of sorting out the repairs, no harm done.
ed it up or not. GV8S: excellent point about the defensive driving. Will be looking out for that on the m-way in future.
Don: It's a company vehicle, so other than the ball-ache of sorting out the repairs, no harm done.
Many people swerve/panic brake to 'try' and avoid the inevitable collision. Animals are the obvious. The only one I do desperately try to avoid are deer! Any thing smaller is doomed if I can't shed enough speed in the space it chooses to give me! Rabbit sized are just doomed full stop!
I would have stopped shortly after the collision to have a quick check round the car. If you had run-over the object, tyres & brake/fuel lines are the worst thing to damage. You may not even be aware to start with until you come to stop!
Yes, you did the right thing. Good luck & take care
Paul.B
I had a similar narrow squeak a year or two back travelling up the M1 at a rate of knots in lane 2, and about to pass an HGV in lane 1. Just as I was about to go past him the RH corner section of his front bumper moulding dropped off. I moved over to the RH side of lane 2 and sneaked past it without making contact, but the guy behind me was unsighted and by the time he arrived the object had bounced into the middle of lane 2 and he hit it.
Luck of the draw, eh?
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Luck of the draw, eh?
Best wishes all,
Dave.
after getting over the fact that someone had scatched the back wing of my prize porsche C4S I was entering the slip road on to the A27/M275 Havant in Hampshire I could see in the distance one of those earth moving lorries so I held back until it was on the main road allowing me to pass quickly and safely, What I did'nt take in to account was with it speeding up it was dislodging what I thought was mud from around its wheels. I heard the impact on the front bumper but thinking it was mud no problem It was only when washing it a few days later that there were two areas where the paint had been completely removed.(there were stones in that mud)
Got the car back today all the paint work done fantastic job back on the motorway guess what stone hits the windscreen little chip. Maybe I'll keep the car for looking at and buy a bike.
Got the car back today all the paint work done fantastic job back on the motorway guess what stone hits the windscreen little chip. Maybe I'll keep the car for looking at and buy a bike.
I'll chip-in with my (near miss) story here.
Fortunately, the 2-lane motorway was fairly quiet, dry and it was daylight. I was merrily proceeding in lane 2 (I said it was quiet, not empty
) when I saw a pedestrian in the hard shoulder running towards me, waving their arms quite animatedly. I eased off on the gas a bit, and was naturally distracted by their actions. Looking forward again, there were loads of scratch marks in the road ahead, followed by a bicycle! 
I had enough time to adjust my speed and safely move into the other lane, and then noticed a car a bit further up the road stopped in the hard shoulder with an empty cycle rack on the back.
Lessons for the future, well, I think that my long-distance forward observations skills are better now, and I've learnt to be suspicious when seeing cars stopped in the h/s up ahead: why have then had to stop Have they dropped oil? Hit anything? Lost anything?
I also thought myself lucky that I wasn't following too closely behind, or travelling in the inevitable rush-hour traffic which might have meant that I didn't have an escape route. I really wouldn't want to be forced to drive over a cycle at any speed.
Fortunately, the 2-lane motorway was fairly quiet, dry and it was daylight. I was merrily proceeding in lane 2 (I said it was quiet, not empty
) when I saw a pedestrian in the hard shoulder running towards me, waving their arms quite animatedly. I eased off on the gas a bit, and was naturally distracted by their actions. Looking forward again, there were loads of scratch marks in the road ahead, followed by a bicycle! I had enough time to adjust my speed and safely move into the other lane, and then noticed a car a bit further up the road stopped in the hard shoulder with an empty cycle rack on the back.
Lessons for the future, well, I think that my long-distance forward observations skills are better now, and I've learnt to be suspicious when seeing cars stopped in the h/s up ahead: why have then had to stop Have they dropped oil? Hit anything? Lost anything?
I also thought myself lucky that I wasn't following too closely behind, or travelling in the inevitable rush-hour traffic which might have meant that I didn't have an escape route. I really wouldn't want to be forced to drive over a cycle at any speed.
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