Stuck on the motorway due to accident ahead, children out of the car ahead - dangerous or AIBU?

[kattekitt]

Currently at a stand still on the motorway due to accident ahead. Both sides of motorway appear closed as in no rolling normal traffic.

Fair few fire engines & police cars whizzing down the hard shoulder and up the other side of the motorway

A few cars around have their children out, DH thinks Aibu by being concerned for their safety.

For example one girl about 9/10 yrs old out of the car, parents or people she's traveling with remain in the car - she's been dancing in lane 2 then sitting on the central reservation.

I'm probably being ott but I just don't think it's safe.

Others are now picking flowers off the embankment (right next to the hard shoulder)

As I type other side starts moving.

Can’t run air con continuously as would run out of fuel

Does the aircon really use that much fuel? I have mine on continuously because it's very hot where I live. We've done 6 hour road trips with it on and never ran out of fuel. I always make sure the tank is topped up though

When I used to hitch everywhere I once got a lift that I remember to this day. As you get in you sort of glance quickly at the driver's face, this face looked very odd. As we drove along he told me it had happened because he went through a windscreen. But in his case, it was from the outside. He'd been fixing his car on the hard shoulder. Was just shutting the bonnet when a lorry rammed into his parked car from the back, and he was shot through the screen. The driver had fallen asleep.

So no, I don't ever hang about on the hard shoulder. If there's a car problem and you have to wait for help, get up on the verge as far as possible. Take the kids away too.

People generally are really bad at assessing risk.
So sitting in a hot car with the windows down in today's temperature may be unpleasant, but not dangerous.
Running about a motorway where emergency vehicles or bikers could appear, is dangerous.

And the fact that police came down and told people to get back into their vehicles, also tells you that the police agreed it was potentially dangerous.

Open the car doors to allow airflow, rather than getting out.

It's not the hard shoulder, the motorway is closed yabu.

I just said to DH that perhaps we should keep some old white sheets in the car so that if we were in the car in that situation that we could over the outside of the car in white sheets so that it hopefully would make it cooler inside or at least put across the Windows

Years ago when DC were small we had these blind thingys stuck on inside of Windows that reflected the sun, don't see them as much nowadays - wonder if you can still buy them for children and babies (and animals)

Our car has blackened Windows but not sure how much difference they make in keeping it cool though

I guess the other thing to think about when going on journey is the opposite of warm coats etc in winter if snow is expected but to take plenty of drinks and snacks if too hot

Really hope everyone is ok this weekend and gets to their destination ok

If only there was a way that the emergency services could warn people their coming, if only they could be fitted with sirens and flashing lights

*theyre

Emergency vehicles have more to think about than the dangers people are stupidly putting themselves in on the road. Why should they be the ones to worry? Yes they need to be aware but dangers people can stop themselves?? Not fair

subtitles you can get windscreen reflectors in Halfords (obviously not when actually driving!) And I think you can get some for side windows too.

Extremely stupid and dangerous but not your problem to be concerned about. If other people want to let their children get killed that's up to them.

No she didn’t she have red hair @birdsfromthetrees she had brown hair, I suppose that makes it even worse as not an isolated incident.

Whilst sat in lane 3, we were all told to merge to lane 3 due to the incident to start with. There was a car from further back that needed to be jump started - they used the hard shoulder and once started got up a decent amount of speed. I’m amazed we didn’t see anybody injured - I’m very thankful nobody was.

We ended up being turned round and sent onto the other carriage way. We abandoned our planned journey due to the time we were stuck.

I remained in the vehicle the whole time and was ok, we had air con on and also at times switched it all off and opened all the windows. I can understand people being next to their cars with children in sight but I would be concerned about motorbikes weaving through.

It was a shit situation but it could have been far worse. I hope anyone traveling this weekend does so safely and arrives where they need to be.

Air con uses a decent amount of fuel especially if you were planning on getting off at the next junction and have an empty tank. This winter I was stuck at night on a closed motorway for three hours. Was low on fuel so had to turn off motor. It got very cold despite my coat. I can see how it could get very hot!

Last time I was stuck for hours on the M25 there were a few Very Important people who considered they were More Important than everyone else so could use the hard shoulder to jump the queue.

I can't believe so many posters think it's fine to get out on a motorway.
It's illegal to walk anywhere on a motorway unless it's an emergency. A hot car is uncomfortable but not an emergency.