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.

This post wins the thread, OP.

Even going for a couple of one-off refresher lessons with an approved driving instructor in which you revisit the scene of the near-miss at least once will address any skills-fade since you passed your test, help you process the near-miss, and make you confident that you know how to handle or even foresee and prevent a similar incident in future.

I want to reinforce that you did the right thing. You braked hard to avoid another driver who was about to collide with you because they didn't obey Rule 259 and in doing so protected yourself and your children. Because of your swift actions, no one was injured and you can even reuse the car without having to take it to the bodyshop first.

There's a few other people on this thread who could do with some refresher lessons too, for very different reasons from you.

It’s what a lot of people do, and it can be very helpful. However someone joining the motorway can’t just assume that everyone will get out of their way. It is ultimately their responsibility to make sure it is safe to join the motorway, and if they don’t then they will be held 100% liable for any collision.

You're not supposed to stop on a motorway sliproad you should carry on on the hard shoulder until you can join due to the speed limit. Don't know what you do if there isn't a hard shoulder.

So what do you mean by adjust their speed?
Slow down if necessary?

Neither have I. I think I've been nice to OP and given practical advice and personal experience if you took the trouble to look it up.

As for: "Legally, they are very different things", what comfort is that to your weeping loved ones if you're cold and dead, because you didn't think: "Whether it's my right of way or priority, I'm not going to get out of the way of that lorry."

Agree - although as this is MN, if someone had come on here saying they’d been driving a bus, pulled onto a motorway at speed, and pushed into the inside lane rather than adjusting their speed downwards which resulted a driver having to quickly brake they’d have their arse handed to them and the OP would instead have had the sympathy they absolutely deserve.

Do you have a source for that?

It’s what a lot of people do, and it can be very helpful. However someone joining the motorway can’t just assume that everyone will get out of their way. It is ultimately their responsibility to make sure it is safe to join the motorway, and if they don’t then they will be held 100% liable for any collision.

I agree. But in practice, drivers working together is the best option. If you can help a vehicle merge, by moving right or adjusting speed safely to create a gap, that’s what people do. And it’s what driving schools advise to do during motorway lessons.

tbh the posters being tossers probably don't drive - too busy sitting in their basements getting their kicks from being arses to women on the internet.
OP you were in the right. The bus driver was wrong. I'm glad you were able to stop and all the drivers behind you were paying attention. It's horrible when something like this happens.

Just a police driver at an open day thing. Someone asked what they should do if there were no gaps. This was his answer.

Not everyone does that - anyone who’s been driving for any length of time knows that it’s not up to the drivers on the motorway to accommodate your merging. If they choose to then fine, but as the merging driver it’s incumbent upon you to drive to the Highway Code.

The only reference I can find about stopping on a motorway slip road is when you are joining very slow or [almost] stationary traffic. I'm guessing the presumption is that at other times the traffic on the motorway is also following the HC and leaving appropriate gaps to allow traffic to merge.

Overall though the best advice is to drive defensively at all times.

In whose universe is this? The hard shoulder is for emergencies with your own vehicle and to allow access for emergency service vehicles and should never be used as you describe.
I am genuinely finding some comments on hear frightening.

You don't use the hard shoulder! You have to stop if there's no gaps

Hard shoulder only if
Emergency
Police or highways tell you to do so
Directed to do so by flashing red lights or emergency sign

I can believe that moving right when it is safe to do so is an act of kindness to motorway joiners and at the same time be able to read the Highway Code Rule 259 that assigns the responsibility for joining safely to the motorway joiner.

It's the driving equivalent of inviting the person behind me in the checkout queue who has a loaf of bread and a litre of milk to go in front of me and my full trolley: it's kind and costs me very little whilst benefiting them a lot, but I don't have to do it and they are deffo in the wrong if they shove in front of me.

That is against highway code rule 259: Rule 259Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should

• give priority to traffic already on the motorway
• check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane
• not cross solid white lines that separate lanes or use the hard shoulder
• stay on the slip road if it continues as an extra lane on the motorway
• remain in the left-hand lane long enough to adjust to the speed of traffic before considering overtaking.

It's also very dangerous, given how many people die on the hard shoulder every year.

The etiquette is for you to move over into the other lane. You should preempt slip roads coming up. I would argue that you nearly caused the accident

Aren't hard shoulders rare on some motorways where the idiot government has instead made them a live lane where people ignore overhead information things (which can often be out of date but not always).

If you have to stop on a slip road, you stop. Just look at when you have to rejoin a motorway after a services. I've had to occasionally had to go from standing still if it's busy and others can't let me in.

Motorways would be better if everyone stayed in the left hand lane unless overtaking as well. Then it would be easier to let merging traffic in cos you'd have a lane to pull into.

Don't get me started on idiots not knowing how to indicate on roundabouts. They don't seem to treat them like junctions for no reason I can see.

Sorry OP. Not a situation you want to be in. Glad you’re OK.

That’s very true!

I was struggling to work out why posters were being so nasty to OP and trying to defend the bus that was speeding and pulled out without checking, almost causing a pile up.

But as you say.
It doesn’t really matter who is in the wrong or right because some posters just come on MN to have a go at the OP.

OP was right, they have right of way.

Motorways in the UK have a 70mph speed limit and we all know people go much faster. I'd expect people joining them to work themselves up to at least 50mph on the slip and be competent before joining them but people can do whatever they like because there isn't a minimum speed limit. I think 50mph is reasonable and anything less is hazardous to people on the carriageway or unfortunate enough to be stuck behind you.

at other times the traffic on the motorway is also following the HC and leaving appropriate gaps to allow traffic to merge.

Ah, so you're one of those drivers who thinks that my safety gap that I have left between me and the vehicle in front is for you to pull into. Newflash: it isn't, it's to give me a chance to brake if the vehicle in front does an emergency stop. It boils my piss when people pull into the safety gap I left for my and my passengers' safety.

Please tell me the number of the rule in the HC that says that I have to leave gaps for joining traffic to merge into on motorways.

Please for the safety of everyone else on the road, stop driving until you have retaken your test.

Police officer in "not knowing the law" shocker.