What was I supposed to do? Motorway

[MineIsBetterThanYours]

Really reflecting about an accident I was involved in years and years ago.

Driving on the motorway, 3rd lane, busy. I messed up and didn’t stop in time when the car in front of me came to a stop. The accident itself was nothing. There was hardly a scratch on either car, no one was hurt etc… BUT my airbags went on and I wasn’t able to start the car again.

The traffic all around me started again including the car in front of me. So here I was in my car, 3 rd lane, cars arriving fast at the back of me despite the warning lights etc…

What was i supposed to do to go back to safety?

You might want to ask MN to move this so that you get more responses. You've posted in Chicken Keepers.

I thought this was going to be escaped chickens on the motorway or something.

The accident can't have been nothing if your airbags went off. Nothing you could do in that situation except phone the police and wait for help.

I will do. It was supposed to be in chat!!!

@abovedecknotbelow there was seriously very little going on, not even a broken light. The garage guess was that I had touched exactly where the sensor is because the only thing they had to change was the bumper and it was only for safety reason (aka there as nothing visibly wrong about it!)

Police at the time was not involved. This was classed as a ‘minor incident’. The motorway people (whatever their name is…) came and stopped the traffic to move the car on the side of the road until the recovery vehicle arrived.

I was lucky because someone working for the motorway randomly came past me, took me in their car and back to the other side of the road.

If they hadn’t, I am wondering what I was supposed to do. I mean standing in the car was dangerous. Standing outside the car in between the 2 sides of the motorway was dangerous. I could NOT cross the road (too many cars arriving fast!)….

Thank you @MNHQ

No advice it must have been terrifying, but glad you are ok

I guess you could have called the Police and advised that you were blocking the 3rd lane of a motorway, even if the police themselves didn't come out, they could contact the relevant people to get you moved. This is assuming that we are talking mobile phone era and not before!

This happened to me once - car drove into the back of me in the fast lane. This was M25 rush hour so it didn't take long for the other lanes to slow down to the point where I could drive slowly to the hard shoulder. The other car was very bashed in. I'd already called the police from the fast lane and told the other driver that once we were on the hard shoulder- at which point he drove off! The police drove past looking for two cars stopped in lane 3 and took ages to come back for just me on the hard shoulder.

We broke down in the 3rd lane and had to pull across to the central reservation, so car was out of the way but we were still stuck in the middle (me and two kids). We moved behind the car so nothing hit the car into us, but someone had already called it in by the time we did and there were signs on the motorway saying there was a broken down car. The highway traffic people came and stopped the motorway for us to cross and pushed the car to the other side. It wasn't nice standing in the middle of the motorway but I didn't actually feel particularly unsafe, it seemed unlikely anyone would hit us.

I would stay in the car with the seatbelt on. Wheels facing straight forward and rung the police.

Theres adverts running about this very thing at the minute- the advice is that if you can’t pull over to stay in your car with your seatbelt and hazards on and ring 999.

If you couldn't get your car to the shoulder, then sitting there with your hazards flashing and calling emergency services was the only option. Unless you yourself could get safely out of the car and onto the shoulder, sitting there was the safest option for you.

To answer your question, i honestly don't know but clearly it's been a distressing memory and i wonder what will help you to leave it in the past where it belongs?

On another vein, can i say how much i enjoyed reading that this was first posted under Chicken Keepers? 🐔

How absolutely awful for you OP.

You say this accident happened years & years ago, so did you even have a mobile phone at the time, or was it before mobiles? You must have felt helpless if it was in the era of no mobiles...

As she's asking about crossing the road, I can see the connection...

So if you cant get to the left.
You sit in your seat face straight forward with hazards on.
Ring the police.

The point of sitting straight forwards is if you are hit in the back- less chance of injury.

Obviously with seat belt on

You must have been unlucky and hit the sensor and that’s what made the bags go off.

they can be replaced quite easily by a competent garage

That sounds very similar to what happened to me. It’s awful isn’t it?

I had a mobile phone with me but tbh I was simply in shock and couldn’t think. I never realised how strong the airbags were! I got a burn from the seatbelt pressing on my jumper!

I was in an accident, the person driving didn’t slow down in time and hit the car in front.
The car in front didn’t have any visible damage, the car I was travelling in was definitely a write off though.
Luckily a police officer passed us and helped us get to safety and move the car, if he hadn’t of turned up I don’t know what we would have done as we were all quite young!

Hazards on. Call 999.

One thing I realised too was that I had no idea of where I was - long journey on a road I didn’t know well so my location would have been something like ‘somewhere along the M1 after A but before B, the two places being a good hour drive apart….

Im not sure what I would have said to 999 to explain….

You could now look on Google maps for the nearest junction or look to see if there are any little signs with the identification numbers and that will tell them where you are. Definitely 999 if you're on the carriageway.

Sorry OP but this really made me smile .