Quote:
Originally Posted by Puffster
Driving down M4 near between Cardiff & Bridgend last night around 22:00, really chucking down with rain, really attrocious conditions. Nothing behind and only one car in front about 100m when all of a sudden he loses it and slams into the central reservation several times. I haul anchors and pull over to the hard shoulder just past the hapless soul in the middle. Traffic still not aware of hazard, thundering by so safer to stay in car and ring emergency. Just got through when someone didn't see the obstruction in the o/side lane until the last minute, clips it and loses control straight for the back of me! Operator got a load of swearwords, whilst I dropped the phone, looked ahead and braced for impact
It never came and I looked up to see the car pass the front of mine and stop on the hard-shoulder. Phew! Phew! Phew! Must've been very close though.
By this time traffic had slowed enough to run over with another chap who'd pulled over and rescue the shaken driver, who was fortunately uninjured and surounded in airbags. The passenger in the other car had banged her head but fortunately a doctor stopped and came to help.
Certainly makes you think when something like that happens. The car that had the original crash simply aquaplaned, lost control and there was probably nothing he could do about it. It certainly looked like the back end stepped out and just threw him at the barrier. I very much doubt that would have happened if his car was AWD and is one of the reasons I've had AWD cars for the last 25 years
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It's obviously scary for the person who has just crashed, but almost every time I've seen someone who's crashed or broken down on the motorway, they've not had any hazard lights on. I can understand why they'd no have headlights on if they don't know how to do this once the engine has stalled, but no hazard lights is crazy.
RE: aquaplaning - although it's unfair to make judgement, I tend to agree with everyone else. Most problems are due to people doing too fast - simple as that.