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.

As OPs mentioned they're a nervous driver I expect they stay in the left hand lane regardless, so I doubt would move over to anticipate joining traffic.

You poor thing OP. Regardless of fault and what else you could have done that would give anyone a massive fright.
Hope you've had a hot sweet tea, given the kids a cuddle and can relax for the rest of the night.

Bloody hell some of these replies!!

You don’t just pull out of a slip road!
The person driving on the main road (OP) has priority!

This is how accidents happen because they come speeding down the slip road and pull straight out, expecting everyone else to try and change their driving around them.

There was no room to move over to the other lane and the bus didn’t give OP time to signal and wait for a gap.

Posters telling OP to slow down before the bus came off - SHE SLAMMED ON HER BREAKS!!
She was slowing down, they just decided to pull out in front of her instead of going behind her.

But a driver that is too nervous to adapt to situations and move over if they need to is also dangerous. They may prefer to be in left lane but absolutely should be capable of changing lanes if required by the situation they are in.

I absolutely agree, but so many nervous drivers do this with a view that they believe it keeps themselves safer when it actually creates more risks than safely moving lanes in decent time.

These replies are typical mumsnet, fucking bullies. This site needs shutting down.

To all the people saying slow, dies it occur to you that a vehicle on a slip may be aiming to come out BEHIND a vehicle on the motorway, in which case slowing is even more dangerous and throws the driver on the slip off?

I tow a lot. My max speed is 50. I know a car doing 70 is going to overtake me before I pull out so I aim behind them.

More than once I've had to slow myself as a car on the M'way has braked - but not enough for me to get out safely in front.
I then risk people on the slip going into the back of me because they expect me to be accelerating, not decelerating.

Sounds awful. It’s pretty clear that if middle lane isn’t clear then you cannot move over. Yes you need to get up to speed but if the car to your right doesn’t move over you don’t join anyway. You slow or you stop if you have to, you don’t join regardless

"always"?

expecting others to slam on their brakes or jump onto another lane? How does that work exactly?

How do you expect the OP to have changed lanes if, as she says, there was traffic in the next lane? Should she have just pulled over and expected them to anticipate and slow down for her?

I'd rather they spend their hatred on their keyboard, I dread having to see them in action on the motorway!

Some of these replies are truly scary - no wonder there are accidents on motorways if people really believe that the cars on the motorway have to move over for traffic coming onto it (or indeed to adjust their speed).

Next time these posters are moving from the slip road onto a dual carriageway or motorway they should remember Highway Code 259 -

259
Joining 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.

If she had used her mirrors and seen the bus before it was next to her she would have had time to react safely in whatever way was best at the time.

Maybe let yourself have a wee cry, you might feel better letting your shock flow - it could help you process things.

She didn’t have time to change lanes because the bus was speeding and just pulled out.

If she had just pulled out into the second lane like the bus did, she would have caused a huge accident because there wasn’t any gap to do so safely.

I don't think you did anything wrong, OP. If there is space, then it makes sense to let them in but obviously you had nowhere to move to and he was coming at speed. The onus was on him to slow down and merge when appropriate.

@NerrSnerr she did react safely. She braked and avoided a collision. The bus driver did not give her an option to do anything else.

@AsWrittenBy

I often go into delayed shock. Especially if I am doing something like driving when the incident happens and I don't have time to stop and think about what happened because I need to focus on what I'm doing. It is afterwards, when I am at home with a cup of tea when the shaking and tears start.

Do you have a dash cam to show the poor driving? Otherwise it’s sadly your word against theirs. Although they should have cameras on a bus.
Hope that you feel calmer now and can reflect in case it happens again. As I say to my kids, half of driving is foreseeing other drivers sometimes unpredictable
moves. Not fun.

Yes truly scary. The OP is completely blameless in this, but so many people clueless about the Highway Code trying to say she is somehow at fault. Shocking. Please go and retake your driving tests people!

Of course you had time to see the bus and take actions, even if he was driving at 70 you can see them. You indicate and move over. A huge bus shouldn't have to slow down, joining a motorway from stationary is incredibly dangerous. I use motorways daily and have never had this problem. Either slow down or move over, it's that simple.
If you didn't see him or as you say, have time to react, your weren't paying enough attention.

I would just say when driving I act like everyone else is an idiot and likely to do stupid things, which works pretty well
With junctions I move over just after the junction going off the motorway so I'm never at risk with the joining traffic

OP, I just want to say that the exact same thing happened to me (car not bus) when I was 7 months pregnant and it was horrible. I am really enjoying the amount of people on here who would definitely have seen someone unexpectedly speeding up their inside at 80mph on a very short slip road. In my case I had to swerve into the middle lane to avoid him smashing into me but my fault and yours. Obvs.

If you can’t move over, you speed up or slow down, whichever is appropriate. You should be ready to do this when approaching the point where other vehicles are joining. That’s not to say you are completely to blame, but you do have to think ahead to accommodate those joining. You could have made room in advance.

You seem to be able to post very well on here very soon after it’s happened, in lots of detail, despite all the shaking and being violently ill. If you’re child is as upset as you say, your time will be better spent with them than on here.

Noy your fault OP. Mumsnet can be a very supportive place but every now and again, there is a thread where all the online bullies are out in force and they pick an innocent OP to turn on, like a pack of a rabid wolves.