Nearly in a serious car accident - hand hold please

[Usedandhurt]

Im literally shaking. Just had a driver nearly kill me and my dc on the motorway. He/she must have not checked before they pulled onto the motorway from a slip road, I literally had to slam on the breaks to avoid crashing into them and thankfully the driver behind me and the one behind them etc etc were able to stop also. My dc would have been very badly hurt - it was a huge bus and I can only imagine the driver got distracted.

Im a nervous driver at the best of times and Im literally sick with nerves.

Recently a car pulled out to over take another car when they weren’t supposed to - they crossed over double, solid lines into my lane to do so. They almost had a head on collision with me, luckily I was able to slam my breaks on and move into the lane next to me because they just kept on driving. They swore at me. But they were not allowed to overtake where they did. I couldn’t get my head around a) the stupid action and b) how they could be angry at me when they were performing and illegal move. They were a few feet from potentially killing me.

Some drivers are utterly insane.

My thought exactly. It isn't always possible to move over. Sometimes traffic joining the motorway 'assumes' that you will, even when you can't, and just keeps coming. It is the responsibility of traffic joining the motorway to do so safely.

Take a deep breath OP, there some idiots on the motorway and on here!

Controversial opinion, but I think people not using the overtaking lanes correctly on motorways are what cause accidents like this (although obviously there was no accident here- just a near miss).
If people used the motorway as it was intended, there shouldn’t have been cars sat to the OP’s right hand side, blocking her exit. They should be pulling right to over take, and then pulling back left again. There shouldn’t be too cars next to each other for any prolonged period of time. Also there should be enough room left in front of each vehicle in order for people to move over to overtake slower moving vehicles joining. The issue is, people bimble along, too close to each other, not really overtaking and block all safety routes out by boxing each other in.

Of course the bus was at fault. How was it not?

Which is better for oncoming traffic, that OP slows down in a controlled way, or that she has to do a sudden emergency stop?

Blimey. Some of the comments. The OP would’ve changed lane if she could.

I’m sure that was really scary.

Way to miss the point of Skye’s post. OP wouldn’t have had to do either if the bus driver had behaved correctly.

www.theaa.com/driving-advice/fear-of-motorway-driving

Says right here how dangerous it is to join a motorway at a slow speed. The OP should have reduced her speed slightly to let the bus in. Yes she had priority but she wasn't driving courteously and if the cars behind her had hit her for doing an emergency stop, she would have been at fault for the accident.

No wonder the roads are so crazy these days!

If you’re on the motorway already, you have priority over those joining, and that is that! Well within your rights not to move over to let someone on - as the joinee, it’s your responsibility (and yours only) to join safely!

Presumably the bus is used to barging its way in and having people move out of the way for it. Not ok.

Whilst it is an horrific situation and I'm sorry you had to go through it, you know you can tap the brake and slow down so it merges in front of you right?

The OP has explained the bus driver drove onto the motorway at speed and there was no gap in the traffic for her to pull over. He was in the wrong as the one joining and should have waited until it was safe to do so. Let's show her a bit of sympathy.
The truth is though, there are so many aggressive drivers out there who don't seem to care one bit about others and frequently they are driving big vehicles.
OP, you did what you needed to and it turned out OK, try to forget it.

@Usedandhurt You have my sympathy.
There are a couple of long and elaborate slip roads that I use onto motorways that give very little visibility either way. One in particular has a split slip road with one very long and one incredibly short route to join the existing motorway.
For those wondering about police involvement, about fifteen years ago, on the M25, two brand new trucks were being delivered - they were identical and had trade plates on them - and they realised too late that they were about to miss their exit. They must have been in radio or phone contact because after the lead truck ran a Fiesta off the road and into the barrier, they both pulled back into the middle lane to take a different exit.
I went to my local police station to report the matter, described the Fiesta and quoted the two, consecutive trade plates. The desk sergeant looked quizzically and told me that "between junction 28 and 27" was insufficient detail - if I couldn't supply the exact police district, there was nothing Essex Police could do.

The main problem with slip roads and motorways is that so many people already on the motorway simply do not leave anywhere NEAR the appropriate amount of space betweeen them and the car in front. You know those chevrons you get now and again so you can check your gap between you and the car in front? The gap you SHOULD leave is huge, isn't it? In reality most motorway drivers have poor practice and don't leave enough of a gap generally, all the time they're on the motorway they drive with the same gap they would on a 30mph road. But if they DID leave the gap they're supposed to, then there would be plenty of room for people on the slip road to do as the highway code says and adjust their speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane.

There is nothing more scary when you're on a slip road trying to join a motorway, maybe in the dark or rain where visibility is poor, and have EVERY driver already on the motorway speeding past you with barely a gap between them, and with the slip road slowly getting narrower. It's just poor driving of the people on the motorway.

Can I just also say, it's BRAKE, people, not BREAK! So many people who can't use the correct spelling.

We had someone in front of us slam their brakes on, on the motorway. It caused an accident and a few injuries

I can appreciate it’s scary OP, but you and your children are safe. We were had a close escape in a taxi from the airport recently, try not to dwell on it.

Unfortunately whether it's motorways or duel carriageways you do get people who just expect you to move out of the way to let them join on.

It's a selfish and dangerous attitude to have especially as they can't possibly have the same view of the lanes that a driver already on the motor/duel carriageway has, they have no idea if a car is stonking up behind you in lanes 2/3/4 and there's no room for you to move over.

i am sure they know that but they are 100% not obligated to! I drive on the motorway a lot and many people do not slow down to let me on. Most do though thankfully. You learn to judge if you should merge in in front or behind and you adjust your speed as the joiner accordingly. I have on some occasions had to slow down to 30mph when joining as no one was willing to make a safe gap. I would never dream of just careering through and hoping for the best.

@CurlyhairedAssassin i agree.
But as dc2 rightly pointed out when he was taking driving lessons - when you leave enough space, people use it as sign they can slot right there!

@Drfosters not obliged but better to brake than have a bus go into you. Logical!

And whatever happened to breaking distance nowadays.
There's always someone ready to nick your breaking distance space you've left between you and the car in front
Is it still a thing?

That's not what I said, at all. Perhaps re-read my post.

For full transparency, I should say I'm in Ireland; however, the way in which one safely drives on a motorway, or approaches it, is the same regardless (just governed by different policies / sets of rules).

Car threads need diagrams because noone is understanding your explanation how this happened. It is not that they don't believe you, they just don't understand.

A bus needs to gather speed to join moving motorway traffic and being a large vehicle it is difficult for them to make evasive manoeuvres last minute. If the bus was joining at speed it should have been able to successfully merge without anyone needing to make a violent evasive manoeuvre.

I have never seen a motorway slip road where there are no signs, or no visibility for the drivers already on the motorway to warn them there is a slip road ahead.

Although the onus is on the vehicle joining to make sure they have space, drivers on the motorway should be able to anticipate any issues especially if they see a huge bus is going to join the motorway and should slow down slightly to expand the gap to allow them to join. It might not be the highway code per se, but it is good practice and common sense and any advance driving course will tell you that.

You should adjust your speed accordingly or move over.

@fedupandstuck

This was my comment. I'm not being pedantic by saying that's not the same as 'slowing down'.

The slip roads are designed to enable a flow of traffic onto a motorway in full sight of those on the motorway.
It isn't that you slow down - it's that in the same way you adjust to any other traffic / conditions, you take cognisance of a vehicle on a slip road entering the traffic.

(I've noted that a speeding bus is certainly not ok either).

The OP said that the police told her she was not at fault.

She did ....

”nearly” in a crash? Hand hold worthy? Enough of an issue to make a thread about it? you applied the brakes on your car. Not a huge deal.

tbh from what you’ve written about being a “nervous driver” I get the impression that this was more to do with your nerves than it was to do with the merging vehicle. You should have moved over or adjusted your speed. This sounds like your issue tbh.