thats the ones....nice fetching red/maroon uniform to match! that went straight to the op shop when i started on nights!
As you are aware i am a breakdown recovery technician - I feel for the recovery lads that had to wok on that scene - I have been to fatal accidents and they are not nice but that one was off the scale for horror. A big well done to all the emergency responce staff a very difficult heartbreaking job My heart also goes out to the families and friends of the victims
i do between 40-60k Miles a year and are in horror at what has happened. my heart goes out to all the families of the victims and emergency staff who have been connected with this carnage,....
I remember driving past a solitary truck fire on the hard shoulder on the opp carriageway of the m4 a while back. I could feel the heat through the door of the bus! Must have been terrible for those poor sods. Piling into fog the way people do is madness. People feel too safe in their cars, they think they're invulnerable but they're actually detached. I thought that raising the limit was a good idea but people can't be trusted...
i think our vehicles are too cosy now , people forget and have no feeeling of the speed they are doing ,if your a driver who's been brought up driving modern cars and no accidents , you become too confident and take risks you would'nt take if you were aware of the possible outcome . Not you Steve , but drivers in general .
you could be right poptop we is always around a34/m4 area. feel free to flip the bird! im only out fri/sat night though. modern vehicles can give you a false sense of security....yeah itll be alright ive got abs or airbags or good acceleration or whatever...i dont need to worry/pay as much attention/think about anyone else.
I've driven in fog on motorways when a great deal of people just whack on into it hoping for the best. Hurried lives eh? Just awful.
Problem is do you speed up and tailgate the person in front or slow down and risk being klondiked by the nutter behind you?!
As drivers we all get complacent sometimes. I drive to and from work and sometimes I realise I can't remember the last mile or two. If you ply the motorways the same must happen. There were a fair few lorries in the crash weren't there. Fully laden lorries just don't stop in the damp and the consequencies are so much worse than being hit by a car. I'm not suggesting that lorries caused the crash, but crash in front of one and you're screwed. BTW my dad designed the electronics for many lorry anti-lock brakes. The fun part was driving around on frozen lakes in Sweden in a jag full of computers firing chalk at the ground.
i was very close to a potential bad un the other sunday morning , a car bounced off the arco and hit a wagons diesel tank at high speed , the wagons around including me , slowed and closed the acccident down without causing chaos , that said it was'nt foggy , but even then cars and vans tried to squeeze past the wreckage , fuel everywhere , three petrol tankers next to the crash and the fools tried to sueeze past a 6 foot gap between the crashed truck and arco . We were amazed by thier lack of care or patience
I remember a few years back when we had some major snow fall across most of the country just before Xmas. I had to pop down to St Albans to both get our motor serviced at the garage we brought it from and see some mates and family. I had only got 20 mins up the road and the snow had almost turned everything white. No gritters had been out and trudging along the A11 on to the A505 was a nightmare. I was in a Merc 4x4 so felt reasonably safe but that night i witnessed what i can only describe as kamakazi lunacy. Cars and vans whizzing past at 80mph on icy snow filled roads, zooming up on your bumper taking no care whatsoever. How the hell i didn't see a major pile up or got caught in one is beyond me. That journey takes me 2 hours on a good day. That night it took me 7 hours after getting stuck in a massive jam going up a major hill. Felt sickened by the scenes of that crash and my heart goes out to everyone that was caught up in it
Them super singles do make a mess when they go , a few years back i pulled out approaching a slip road to allow a truck on , the car in front never did , he cruised alongside the artic level with his trailer wheels holding the lorry on the slip road , at that precise moment one of the lorrys tyres ( a super single ) blew , nearly crapped meself but the car driver nearly died , it was immense -- what a mess , 33 years on the road and its the only one i ever saw and heard go , i did feel sorry for the car driver - parppp !!!..
But whilst most lorry drivers are good ones let's don't forget some are right idiots. We have a road that goes through our town sort of a mini bypass and it's only 30 mph people drive it at 60 and give you the v' s when overtaking you. Last week I pulled out on the road cos my lights turned green and a gert massive lorry jumped the lights and nearly t boned me and left me standing. Gets down the road and goes over the next set of reds 3rd set had to stop as there were cars stopped, he nearly takes them all out smoke coming out of the rear of his tyres.
