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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Stranded motorists

57 replies

IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:05

Lots of sad face stories on the news this morning about people stuck on the M62 last night in serious snow.

Serious snow which was FORECAST and which there was an amber warning for. Do not travel. Serious disruption expected. Why do so many people think that warnings don't apply to them? Very little sympathy for anyone who got stuck after at least 3 days of warnings.

OP posts:
HerLadySheep · 10/03/2023 08:08

Some people have no choice, doctors, nurses, teachers, supermarket employees..... there are plenty of people who cannot work remotely and they need to get home from work somehow

HermioneWeasley · 10/03/2023 08:08

How do you think people who are essential workers get to work - the people who drive lorries who deliver food to supermarkets, people who work in Hospitals, people who work for utility companies? Not everyone can work from home or just drop their responsibilities. I’m thankful that despite the warnings, they took the risk and went to work, at great personal inconvenience and some risk.

tabulahrasa · 10/03/2023 08:12

I don’t get to stay home from work if it actually snows, nevermind just because there’s a warning it might...

Original poster
IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:12

Agree that some people have no choice. Two of the people mentioned on the news bulletin had been travelling back to Leeds after watching a football match or a concert. That is a choice.

It was the same when the Beast from the East hit us in central Scotland a few years ago, lots of people ignored the warnings and rather than changing their travel times or cancelling a trip just went anyway and got stuck. Things like visiting friends, supermarket trips.

OP posts:
smellyflowers · 10/03/2023 08:12

They might not have seen the warnings

OhYouBadBadKitten · 10/03/2023 08:13

If people who do have a choice stay at home, it means less chance of being stuck for those who don't.

Findyourneutralspace · 10/03/2023 08:14

This happened to my ex husband a few years ago. He’s a police officer. Are you suggesting all the police should have stayed home that night?

RampantIvy · 10/03/2023 08:14

smellyflowers · 10/03/2023 08:12

They might not have seen the warnings

I very much doubt that. It was broadcast on every type of media.

Coffeellama · 10/03/2023 08:14

Not everybody has a choice, some are stuck due to work of family commitments and can’t afford hotels/extra emergency childcare. Lacking understanding and empathy for other people doesn’t make you better you no.

PsychoHotSauce · 10/03/2023 08:15

smellyflowers · 10/03/2023 08:12

They might not have seen the warnings

Thats on them. I don't have sympathy for lazy people who cba to keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening in even the slightly wider world than their own bubble.

Original poster
IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:15

OhYouBadBadKitten · 10/03/2023 08:13

If people who do have a choice stay at home, it means less chance of being stuck for those who don't.

Exactly. I do not believe that every person stuck on the motorway was an essential worker with no other option.

OP posts:
OhYouBadBadKitten · 10/03/2023 08:15

Of course some people needed to go out. But are you telling us that every single person out on that motorway was an essential worker?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 10/03/2023 08:15

x-post. Sorry!

Coffeellama · 10/03/2023 08:17

IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:15

Exactly. I do not believe that every person stuck on the motorway was an essential worker with no other option.

Show quote history

Do you think some people were driving over the highest point of the m62 in snow in the middle of the night just for fun? Of course there will be a few idiots but the majority of people travel at night in bad weather because they have to.

Original poster
IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:19

"Kim, who went to a concert in Manchester with her sister-in-law, a niece and a friend, said they had considered not travelling last night, but had assumed their car - a 4x4 - would cope in the conditions."

Had to be rescued by Mountain Rescue.

OP posts:
drpet49 · 10/03/2023 08:19

I agree OP, always people who don’t know who to drive to the conditions.

BarbaraofSeville · 10/03/2023 08:21

OhYouBadBadKitten · 10/03/2023 08:13

If people who do have a choice stay at home, it means less chance of being stuck for those who don't.

This. The snow has been really bad over the Pennines in northern England. I think some of the A roads that crossed the Pennines in North Derbyshire/South Yorkshire were closed by yesterday afternoon and we've had a lot of snow since then.

Now there are more road closures and it also looks like a section of the M62 around Huddersfield is closed. Every time this happens we have people stuck on the M62 overnight and you can't tell me that all of them were essential workers.

Original poster
IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:21

it's not "driving to the conditions" though is it. It's seeing the amber warning, realising it covers the area you are going to be travelling through and making other arrangements. Selling your concert tickets/football tickets. Booking a premier inn to travel back the following day. Not just assuming it'll be OK.

OP posts:
Livelovebehappy · 10/03/2023 08:23

To be fair, weather forecasts have not always been proved to be accurate in the past. I can think of numerous times we have been warned of heavy snow, to then have a light dusting of the stuff.

BarbaraofSeville · 10/03/2023 08:24

IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:19

"Kim, who went to a concert in Manchester with her sister-in-law, a niece and a friend, said they had considered not travelling last night, but had assumed their car - a 4x4 - would cope in the conditions."

Had to be rescued by Mountain Rescue.

What people like that need to realise is that while they may not get stuck, they will still get stuck behind all queues of other people getting stuck in their normal cars and lorries, that can't cope with the conditions.

Madamecastafiore · 10/03/2023 08:26

There were lots stuck on M62 from a football match and seeing Chris Rock in concert. Stop with the boo hoo emergency workers, of course there are some people who have to travel but a huge proportion don't have to and are causing undue pressure on the already stretched emergency services.

JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon · 10/03/2023 08:28

It'll be all the same people who come on warning threads saying "it's only a bit of snow, stop being hysterical" or "it's health and safety gone mad".

There were a couple on the amber warning thread, and low and behold this morning there are many reports of stranded vehicles on the roads in the area referred to.

On a Facebook post warning people not to go walking in the Peak District unless properly equipped for winter conditions and capable of navigating by compass bearing only there were people moaning that it is health and safety gone mad and other countries don't make such a fuss and why are the schools closing 🙄

Original poster
IkBenDeMol · 10/03/2023 08:29

Like this guy?

"Simon Peach, the PA news agency's chief football writer, has been stuck on the road for more than seven hours after covering Manchester United's Europa League match at Old Trafford in Manchester last night.
He said: 'I've moved about 25 miles over the course of the night, and the first 15 miles or so were clear, so I've been at a standstill for a really long time."

or

"Video journalist Richard McCarthy was in Manchester to cover the same match. He had just arrived home after 7am having been stuck on the motorway for more than seven hours."

You are not telling me that journalists didn't have the money/sense to book a hotel. Well, clearly they didn't have the sense.

OP posts:
Fizbosshoes · 10/03/2023 08:35

A few years ago (might have been beast from the east) the train company was advising not to travel unless essential. Some people I know posted on social media that they were "braving the elements"(or words to that effect) .....to go to the theatre. 🙄

SerendipityJane · 10/03/2023 08:36

RampantIvy · 10/03/2023 08:14

I very much doubt that. It was broadcast on every type of media.

Show quote history

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths some people go to to avoid "news". Or indeed knowledge in general.

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