What should I have done? (almost hit horse and rider with my car)

[Redstorm2807]

Posting for traffic as feeling really shaken up by this incident and honestly not sure what I should have done differently.

Driving yesterday afternoon, come out of a village with a 30 limit onto a country road section which is a 60 limit. Accelerated out of village so probably doing 40 ish when I come round a corner and find a large horse with a rider walking very slowly in the road in front of me. There is a car coming in the other direction so I do an emergency stop and thankfully come to a stop a few metres away. The car behind also has to do emergency stop.

The horse thankfully was not spooked by this and continues walking on but the rider is very angry, shouting and waving his hands at me.

I slowly drive past the horse and continue on my way. I always drive very slowly near horses

I don't speed, I'm one of those people who do 30 until the speed sign in a village (we live fairly rurally so lots of journeys are short stretches of 30 through villages then stretches of 60 between).

Thinking about it I'm not sure there was anything else I could have done differently apart from drive at slowly all the time which obviously isn't a sensible option. I could have been doing 50 or 60 by that point if I had accelerated harder in which case I would have likely killed the horse, rider and possibly myself.

I'm still feeling quite shaken the day after and worried about it happening again - is there something I'm missing or is this just the risk we take when driving??

Absolute rubbish.

I don't get some of those speed limits in windy twisty places like that. If you can't see around a corner then keep it slower than the speed limit IMO. Preferably not 40.

Rubbish, explain what the horse rider did wrong exactly? They are entitled to travel along the road.

The OP didn’t hit anything, but she shouldn’t have had to perform an emergency stop. It must have been a pretty close call, otherwise both the rider and the OP wouldn’t have been so shook up. No harm done this time and hopefully OP will learn from their mistake.

In rural driving it is important to understand that the "national speed limit applies" signs on any non-motorway road never means "it is safe to drive at 60mph here" - it means "the individual driver is responsible for determining the appropriate speed, up to a maximum of 60mph". There are LOTS of national-speed-limit rural roads that it would be criminally insane to drive along at any more than about 30mph because any given bend will probably have a tractor or herd of sheep in the middle of the road as soon as you get around it. The worst examples of such roads tend to be in very low-population areas and see about 4 cars per day, so it's not worth anyone's time to assess the road and put up specific speed limit signs - but same principle applies to any national-speed-limit road that hasn't been specifically assessed for a lower speed limit.

On any road - if approaching any bend in the road or in any other situation where your view of the road ahead is restricted, you should choose your speed on the assumption that there could be an obstruction in the part of the road you can't currently see, so should never take any corner at a speed where you couldn't bring the car to a stop in a safe and controlled manner if there is an obstruction just beyond your sightlines. Generally you should never be driving on any bit of road that you haven't been looking at for at least 3 seconds, so if you can't see around a corner then yes you should definitely take it slow. You can go back up to 60mph on the straight bits where you can see there's nothing ahead.

From the detail in your OP, you were going around that corner too fast and in an unsafe manner. An emergency stop means that you didn't have the time to stop in a more controlled way.

I think you're showing great humility in your replies to this thread OP. The world would be a much nicer place if everyone was as ready to put their hands up and say they got it wrong!

Yes, it is very scary that people like this are allowed on the roads.

how is it just not common sense to go round a blind bend slowly? Not trying to reach the speed limit.🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

Agreed yet people still feel the need to berate her, I suppose none of them have ever made a mistake?

It’s not a target speed!

drive for conditions

cars don’t OWN the road

The OP has owned her mistake and has learned her lesson. No need for you to be nasty.

You honestly don't know what you could have done differently? When you were doing 40 around a blind bend??

Going round a blind corner at 40mph on a rural lane probably wasn't ideal.

Dog walkers, horse riders, cyclists, tractors, to say nothing of horrendous potholes and suicidal deer.

Generally on rural lanes I don't go above 30 unless I am on an empty straight that I can see, and even then deer will jump out. I'm hugely careful but still had a stag jump a hedge and land on the bonnet of my car. Sometimes there is nothing you can do.

For your own safety OP, keep your speed down. Sorry you were a bit shaken.

My daughter has a horse. She keeps him at a yard that is on a single track semi rural road that is also used as a cut through. Unfortunately said road also has a 60 limit, which is ridiculous. I would say there are near misses with horses, riders, cyclists and pedestrians every week. Just because it says 60 doesn't mean you have to go that fast if you can't see what is ahead. As I know the road and the hazards I do about 20.

A friend of hers was riding in a different local location and they were hit by a car. Thankfully they are ok, because a leg injury could mean a horse being put down.

And a horse being spooked could do a lot of damage to the rider, itself and your car. Hope you checked they were ok.

The speed limit is the maximum speed allowed on a road, it is not a target speed and doesn't mean you should drive anywhere near it if unsafe to do so. On a blind bend on a country road you need to slow right down and be prepared to encounter any hazard in the road round the corner.

I failed my first driving test because I didn't slow down to 20 and drop my gears to 2nd on a blind bend NSL road. I think I did it at 27 in 3rd. I thought that was excessively strict at the time, but it has always stuck with me so in the long term maybe it has kept me safe!

I drive a lot in a similar kind of area. I try to think of the sightline of any bend as my stopping distance, which helps me pick the right kind of speed for winding NSL roads with lots of potential hazards. There will always be some asshole behind you bearing down at 60 but you just have to keep reminding yourself it won't be them in the dock if you plough into a peloton of cyclists.

Genuinely question to horse riders..
Why do you choose to ride your horse amongst tons of metal which need more than a few seconds to come to a stop?

Are you sure it was a 60 limit? Literally every country road around here is a 40.

Unfortunately, people just don’t seem able to drive on country roads anymore. There is concentration on getting to the speed limit. These types of roads have a 60 mph limit as that is the national speed limit and there are no factors that would reduce it.

But it is important to drive to road conditions. We have a lot of single track roads here, high side, blind bends. It’s coming to summer so we’re prepared for people from up country towing caravans down these roads because the sat nav told them to. And drivers being unable to reverse. So we have to be extra careful.

You need to drive according to road conditions you need to drive like there is an obstacle round each blind bend or round each blind hill.

Not round here

Don't accelerate round blind corners obviously. It's a limit, not a target.

The worst driving see is on rural roads and the most tail gating - so unsafe

Because you need to get to bridleways. It’s important for the horse to go out for a hack. Why do you choose to get in a car and drive amongst tonnes of metal that can kill you.

There would be no issue if drivers drove correctly according to road conditions

OP, I would ask for this post to be deleted. At this point you have your answer and despite owning your mistakes with great humility this is just turning into a pile on. I don't think the thread should be left up just for people to rip you a new one because they can't be bothered to read your replies. People are reacting to the first post without reading the full thread and it's not fair on you.

To be fair, she did stop in time

On the most simple level you need to go on roads to get to hacking tracks etc. Even turning the horses out in the morning means crossing a road that was not designed for multiple cars, vans or lorries. The problem is that as areas become more built up we all need to share roads and in many cases animals were there first

Driver of a motor vehicle should ALWAYS be able to slow or stop safely in the distance he/she can see. From your description i.e. approaching a corner around which you couldn’t see a large horse, made even larger because it had a rider on board … you were driving too fast. Sounds like the driver behind you was doing the same. Horse rider justifiably upset. Just be thankful there were no cameras recording the situation. Take a breath. Don’t beat yourself up. Reflect on it and learn from it. You made an error of judgement but you’re not a bad person - sharing on here proves that. And your story is a good reminder to the rest of us on here, the majority of whom probably break road safety rules every day - to Drive Safely.