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.

The OP did anticipate this, which is why she was able to brake and avoid a collision.

Ideally though you'd brake in time for it not to be a near miss. Hard to say without being there (maybe he pulled across very close) but generally coach drivers are pretty decent drivers, especially compared to the general public. You can't really afford to make regular cock ups as you usually have passengers onboard who will complain/report.

I frequently drive volumetric mixers like the one below which can be slightly heavier than an artic but much shorter (absolute chunks that don't slow down very fast at all!) and I literally can't remember the last time I had to anchor up when approaching a slip road.

But ultimately I wasn't there to see it so who really knows.

This.

Slip roads don't come out of nowhere. There's no excuse for not realising there is a slip road ahead, anticipating that traffic may be joining the motorway from it, and acting accordingly (i.e. moving over into the middle lane, or starting to reduce your speed so that you don't need to slam on your brakes).

People on here are appalling, OP. I've often been in a situation when I couldn't move over to allow traffic joining from the slip road without endangering vehicles in the middle lane. In that situation, the onus is on the vehicle attempting to join the motorway to wait. The bus driver was in the wrong, not you. I hope you're feeling better soon. What a horrible shock.

@Doris86 she slammed on the brakes! If she'd have noticed the bus earlier she could have gradually reduced her speed and not had to resort to sharply braking on the motorway.

The bus shouldn’t be pausing before moving into the lane. They have to get up to speed matching the speed on the motorway. If I know a slip road is coming up I will move into the centre lane in anticipation of vehicles wanting to join. I then move back once they have, adjusting my speed as necessary.

While it is clear that those joining a motorway from a slip road must give way, I have been driving long enough to know there are too many numbnuts out there who will try to push in regardless.

Safest thing to do in this instance is to move over if you can or let off the accelerator in advance to let them in.

With harsh braking, you're relying on the person behind you to be on the ball too.

Glad you're okay OP.

Unithorn

And yes I know all of that, how exceedingly dull you and your semantics are, nothing in my posts suggests anything of the sort- I've only been driving for over 20 years though including thousands of journeys on the motorway, what do I know.

It's not semantic, is it? You don't "merge" onto a motorway and expect the car already there to teleport out of your way. You have stated what you think should happen at a slip road, which is what does more than "suggest" your thoughts on the matter.

The fact that you had a sweary rant suggests that you probably realise that you're in error, to me.

I've been riding motorbikes and driving cars a bit longer, so we have similar experience. Interestingly, I've never "merged" into a carriageway in front of another vehicle, because I'm not tired of life.

LadyOfTheWagon · Yesterday 22:50

The number of car drivers who pull back in in front of wagons, then slow down never ceases to amaze me. I'd rather spend a mile or more doing 56 in the left hand lane than try to fight my way in at the last inch for a slip road.

I think the "best" one I saw was on a roundabout, with a gigantic earth mover coming onto it from my right. Some knob came flying round, blaring the horn, before smashing into it. The earth mover wasn't able to stop for some distance.

If I'd have been matey, I'd have slowed down an waited.

Sorry (obvs not) to spoil your gotcha moment but I drive on busy motorways regularly , have done for 33 years. I didn’t need to google the HC (although I quoted it for the many posters who seem quite oblivious to it) because we were all taught it as standard. The drivers merging onto the motorway are the ones responsible for their manoeuvre which also includes anticipating - the people on the motorway have priority. The OP had priority, the bus driver’s driving was sub par and verging on dangerous, the OP was not at fault.

I drive on busy motorways almost daily and whilst you will get selfish drivers everywhere you rarely get someone as dangerous as that bus driver. There was no one for OP to anticipate what the other driver did, there was simply no room for him to safely enter her lane so he decided to force it.

The HWC aside, driving a large vehicle, most likely full of children, given it was school run time, onto a busy motorway when there was no safe way to do this is the definition of dangerous driving.

OP was competent and aware enough to avoid it. Why is she being criticised for driving well?. Some people really shouldn’t be on the road. Or on mumsnet for that matter.

OP was competent and aware enough to avoid it. Why is she being criticised for driving well?

I've come to the conclusion that it's because some posters think that they are entitled to force their way onto a carriageway, evidenced by a number of posts essentially saying that the HC is irrelevant and that cars on the main carriageway should give way.

The OP is being criticised because the majority of people notice a bus accelerating on a slip road and in anticipation of it joining the carriageway gradually reduce their speed to allow sufficient room, which there would have been else the OP slamming on her brakes would have been pointless also. The driver merging does need to ensure that there’s sufficient time and space to join the motorway but that doesn’t negate all responsibility of the drivers already on it. For the bus driver to even attempt the manoeuvre there must have been a large space to begin with that the OP has begun to encroached into. Like I said earlier there were three vehicles involved, the OP, the bus driver and the driver behind the OP and we have one person’s account. I’d be interested to hear the other drivers opinions on this near miss. As ultimately nothing happened, in that there was no collision and at best the offence would be driving without consideration for other road users, the police, if they are really going to speak with the company, might explain what happened to someone in their traffic office but no more than words of advice.

Near misses are always very scary at the time and sometimes for a long time afterwards. However I always say that you learn from them and rarely react the same, they will make you a better driver as next time you see a bus in the slip road you will definitely anticipate their next move better. You'll be a better driver for this, I promise.

No not at all. Surely it's obvious that slowly easing off the gas 10 seconds earlier because you've bothered to look what's on the slip road is safer than slamming on brakes?

The bus driver shouldn't have forced their way on but if you can avoid it, it's best not to slam your brakes on.

Of course it's best not to slam your brakes on - but occasionally, when another driver drives dangerously you have to do that. Likewise, the cars behind her should have left enough stopping distance to deal with this sort of thing.

The bus driver was 100% at fault here, and it was only the OP's evasive actions that prevented an accident. He's obviously from the same crappy school of driving that so many MNetters appear to have attended.

She noticed the bus, and decided the safest option was not to slow down and cause a ripple effect behind her, or move into lane 2 where there was no room. Instead she carried on, thinking the bus would do the correct thing that 99% of drivers do, and find and safely filter into a gap. When it barged out, by already being aware of it she was able to brake and avoid a collision.

The OP drove 100% correctly, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to retake their test.

@AmandasFleckerl Just because the bus driver was attempting the manoeuvre does not mean there was sufficient space. Could have been an error of judgment, or not paying enough attention and not see the OPs car.

I drove several hundred miles on motorways yesterday (as I often do), traffic free-flowing (mostly) and sometimes heavy. I didn’t observe a single stationary car on a slip road waiting to join, I did notice cars on the inside lane slowing slightly or speeding up slightly to allow sufficient room for vehicles from slip roads to join.

The only really awful driving I saw was at the M61/M60 Interchange - 4 lanes of traffic - 2 on the left heading towards Leeds free flowing at around 60mph, and 2 lanes stationary (I was in one of these lanes) on the right heading towards Liverpool. The car in front of me, just before the actual split started to indicate that they wanted to move into the free flowing traffic. They made a quick manoeuvre (from stationary) causing several cars to slam on their brakes to avoid a collision - it was a close call.

It reminded me why I would never want to be stationary on a slip road waiting to join free flowing traffic.

@Doris86 it clearly wasn't the safest option though, that's the bloody point. Slamming on your brakes on the motorway isn't safer than the other options.

I'd love to see if moving to the middle lane was an option (if she had spotted the bus earlier and indicated) as Mumsnet is full of people who are scared to change lanes on the motorway so wonder if that is a factor.

All the more reason for the OP to have anticipated that the bus might not stop. A good driver never assumes that another driver will necessarily follow the HC and will drive accordingly.

How do you know it wasn’t the safest option? Braking earlier might have caused more issues, and closed up gaps behind her that other cars on the slip road were about to pull into and caused a massive pile up. It’s easy for you to say that now with the benefit of hindsight, knowing that the bus was going to barge out. The OP assessed the situation at the time, made her decisions, and was successful in averting a collision despite the terrible driving of the bus driver.

Yes you do have to assume other drivers are idiots and will do something really silly However if you completely followed that logic then you’d be stopping at every green traffic light in case another driver went through a red.

You need to get the balance right between your driving, and being wary of other drivers. The OP got that right in this case by being sufficiently aware the bus was there and braking to avoid a collision.

I'm with @AmytheDancingBrick It sounds a lot like OP was beetling up the inside lane at her speed (52mph? 58mph? 65mph? 70mph?) and the bus was (correctly) using the slip lane to try to match the speed of the inside lane as closely as possible.

Yes, it's possible that she ended up in blind spot & bus ended up in a sideswipe manoeuvre oblivious of her existence. It's also possible that the bus was paralleling her for 100m or more, unable to accelerate above 60mph due to its legal speed restriction.

At which point the onus would be on OP to jolly well get on with it & accelerate to 70 to open up the space behind for the bus to move into, or to gently ease off the accelerator to allow a safe space to open up in front of her for the bus - which had been alongside her or close enough to alongside for what was probably nearly 200m of sliproad at this point.

Sometimes, being an anxious driver means a lack of positive decision making in a scenario where the end game is pretty flipping obvious. Relying on being the 'right of way car' and not matching your speed to the sliproad speed by adjusting +/- a few mph is not appropriate in this situation.

I very much doubt the bus appeared from nowhere. It certainly seems the OP was relying on it stopping rather than making it clear whether she wanted it to go into the space IN FRONT of her, or accelerating promptly out of the blind spot to create a space BEHIND HER for it.

I feel for you being in shock OP, it's a very real set of physical symptoms, and I hope you can reflect on how to keep you & your family safer once you've got over it. As others have suggested, some advanced driving lessons would really help, as you can do a lot to improve your anticipation in situations like this. 💐

It was safer than carrying on and having a collision with a bus at no fault her own! Why are people such shit drivers?? DONT move into a lane when there is no room for you and expect other people to move and possibly cause an accident.

stop blaming the OP for someone else’s mistake- I’ve driven for 50 years and wouldn’t have done anything differently than she did, SHE WAS IN HER LANE AND HE FORCED HIS WAY INTO IT. She took evasive action and stopped an accident. It’s not her job to drive the bus safely for him - ffs wise up people- I despair at some of the driving skills displayed in these posts- 🤦‍♀️