Stopping on the overtaking lane of a motorway.

Akrasia

What would you do if you saw a swan huddled up against the barrier in the middle of a motorway?

A: reduce speed, move into the inside lane, put on your hazards to alert the driver behind you and call the gardai to advise them of the danger

B: Come to a complete stop on the overtaking lane of the motorway for some reason without even using your hazards (to look at the swan or something?)

Yesterday I was coming home from the rugby match in Limerick, I pulled into the overtaking lane to make space for a car that was merging from a slip road when I noticed that there was a car stopped on the overtaking lane in front of me.

It took me a few seconds to realise that he was stopped (or moving very slowly) because your brain doesn't usually expect a car to be stopped on the overtaking lane and there was no obvious reason for why he would be stopped (the swan wasn't visible from where I was because it was to the front of the stopped car.) The car was a few hundred metres in front of me when I switched lanes, but as I was checking my wing mirrors letting the other car merge onto the motorway safely, in the second or two it took to complete that manouver, the distance to the car in front had shrunk rapidly


I didn't have the time to stop my car, so rather than crashing into him, or the driver to my left, I had to swerve to his outside between his car and the barrier and now the swan is dead, and we are all very lucky that nobody got hurt.

MugMugs

Stopping is illegal isn't it? He wasn't on the road just mill on by.... Swans are hardy and can fly.... They're also not worth a potential life.... You should have called the Gardai on him tbh

Hal Decks

Akrasia wrote: »

What would you do if you saw a swan huddled up against the barrier in the middle of a motorway?

A: reduce speed, move into the inside lane, put on your hazards to alert the driver behind you and call the gardai to advise them of the danger

B: Come to a complete stop on the overtaking lane of the motorway for some reason without even using your hazards (to look at the swan or something?

Yesterday I was coming home from the rugby match in Limerick, I pulled into the overtaking lane to make space for a car that was merging from a slip road when I noticed that there was a car stopped on the overtaking lane in front of me.

It took me a few seconds to realise that he was stopped (or moving very slowly) because your brain doesn't usually expect a car to be stopped and there was no obvious reason for why he would be stopped (the swan wasn't visible from where I was because it was to the front of the stopped car.

I didn't have the time to stop my car, so rather than crashing into him, or the driver to my left, I had to swerve to his outside between his car and the barrier and now the swan is dead, and we are all very lucky that nobody got hurt.

The Queen will be upset!

Akrasia

thats why i didn't call the gardai. i don't want to be hanged

Hal Decks

The OP (and every road user) is supposed to be able to stop in time. This occasion, he wasn't.

Old Irish trait, blame someone else for ones own mistake.

CiniO

Akrasia wrote: »

I didn't have the time to stop my car, so rather than crashing into him, or the driver to my left, I had to swerve to his outside between his car and the barrier and now the swan is dead, and we are all very lucky that nobody got hurt.

What do you mean nobody got hurt? Swan did!!!

MugMugs

Akrasia wrote: »

thats why i didn't call the gardai. i don't want to be hanged

Why would be hanged for hitting a swan?

MuppetCheck

If you had a few hundred meters as you said then that is plenty of time to realize what was coming allowing you to slow and merge back into your original spot surely?

doolox

Drive your own car. Nothing good comes from stopping on a motorway or other busy Dual carriageway or street. If you want you could report it to the guards but little reaction can be expected unless a human life is involved. The other person should have pulled in to middle lane and kept going as well doing his job.

If you want you could use the SOS phones to alert the guards but do not use the mobile or you risk prosecution for stopping on a motorway or using the phone while driving.

seanhalpin

Typically arrogant Irish drivers post.

RULES OF THE ROAD

No. 1 - expect the unexpected.



OP you, and many many others pay little heed to this one most important rule of the road.

It is not illegal to stop on a motorway - provided there is good cause or emergency. An animal in the road could be called an emergyncy stop.

My father once taught me that the most important rule of driving was that you should always be safely able to stop in the clear distance you can see ahead.

OP if you couldn't stop in time you must have either :
-1, been going too fast
-2, tailgating
-3, not paying proper attention

Again, the first and last rule of the road: Expect the unexpected. If people heeded this rule, there would be very few accidents indeed. But people are thick unfortunately.

DoubleBogey

Akrasia wrote: »

What would you do if you saw a swan huddled up against the barrier in the middle of a motorway?

A: reduce speed, move into the inside lane, put on your hazards to alert the driver behind you and call the gardai to advise them of the danger

B: Come to a complete stop on the overtaking lane of the motorway for some reason without even using your hazards (to look at the swan or something?)

Yesterday I was coming home from the rugby match in Limerick, I pulled into the overtaking lane to make space for a car that was merging from a slip road when I noticed that there was a car stopped on the overtaking lane in front of me.

It took me a few seconds to realise that he was stopped (or moving very slowly) because your brain doesn't usually expect a car to be stopped on the overtaking lane and there was no obvious reason for why he would be stopped (the swan wasn't visible from where I was because it was to the front of the stopped car.) The car was a few hundred metres in front of me when I switched lanes, but as I was checking my wing mirrors letting the other car merge onto the motorway safely, in the second or two it took to complete that manouver, the distance to the car in front had shrunk rapidly


I didn't have the time to stop my car, so rather than crashing into him, or the driver to my left, I had to swerve to his outside between his car and the barrier and now the swan is dead, and we are all very lucky that nobody got hurt.

What would you do if you saw a car stopped in the overtaking lane of a motorway?

Tallon

Swerving was the worst thing to do.

He was stupid for stopping, but you should have been paying more attention

Either he was stopped, or was slowing down as you say, either way, surely there would have been brake lights?

Kenny Logins

seanhalpin wrote: »

Typically arrogant Irish drivers post.

RULES OF THE ROAD

No. 1 - expect the unexpected.



OP you, and many many others pay little heed to this one most important rule of the road.

It is not illegal to stop on a motorway - provided there is good cause or emergency. An animal in the road could be called an emergyncy stop.

My father once taught me that the most important rule of driving was that you should always be safely able to stop in the clear distance you can see ahead.

OP if you couldn't stop in time you must have either :
-1, been going too fast
-2, tailgating
-3, not paying proper attention

Again, the first and last rule of the road: Expect the unexpected. If people heeded this rule, there would be very few accidents indeed. But people are thick unfortunately.

I thought it was limited to breakdowns and when signaled by a Garda?

Akrasia

A moving car looks the same as a stopped car, the only way to tell the car is stopped is by how quickly you start to catch up with it.

At the time I was approaching the car, there was a car merging to my left, I moved over to make space and was preparing to move back to the inside lane when I realised that the car was stopped. At this time, there was a car on my left and a car stopped in front of me.

I wasn't tailgating, I was making a normal manouver, The road ahead was clear when i moved into the overtaking lane, everything looked normal. I had to check my mirrors to complete the manouver safely and return back to the inside lane and when I realised that the car was stopped in front, it was too late to stop my car.

Where To

Kenny Logins wrote: »

I thought it was limited to breakdowns and when signaled by a Garda?

I Hope I'm never lying in front of the road dead in front of you

seanhalpin is right, you never know when you're gonna need to drop anchor, you could be cruisBANG!. . . .just like that.

Hitting a swan could do some serious damage too, not just to the swan.

Any time I move into the overtaking lane I adjust my speed fairly sharp to the traffic in front of me. It's straightforward to do. If the road "was clear" and then suddenly there was a stopped car in front of you, you need to pay some serious attention to your observation skills in future.

Kenny Logins

Where To wrote: »

I Hope I'm never lying in front of the road dead in front of you

seanhalpin is right, you never know when you're gonna need to drop anchor, you could be cruisBANG!. . . .just like that.

Hitting a swan could do some serious damage too, not just to the swan.

I'l drive around you, isn't that easier and safer than stopping dead?

Where To

Kenny Logins wrote: »

I'l drive around you, isn't that easier and safer than stopping dead?

You wouldn't stop and give me the kiss of life?

Tallon

Akrasia wrote: »

A moving car looks the same as a stopped car, the only way to tell the car is stopped is by how quickly you start to catch up with it.

Are you winding us up are do you really believe that?

I have regularly seen a car MILES up the road and thought it was stopped, only to get to it and see it was stopped...

Chuck Stone

Where To wrote: »

you could be cruisBANG!. . . .just like that.

Jaysus you give me fierce fright there WT. :pac:

Bruthal

seanhalpin wrote: »

Typically arrogant Irish drivers post.

RULES OF THE ROAD

No. 1 - expect the unexpected.



OP you, and many many others pay little heed to this one most important rule of the road.

It is not illegal to stop on a motorway - provided there is good cause or emergency. An animal in the road could be called an emergyncy stop.

My father once taught me that the most important rule of driving was that you should always be safely able to stop in the clear distance you can see ahead.

OP if you couldn't stop in time you must have either :
-1, been going too fast
-2, tailgating
-3, not paying proper attention

Again, the first and last rule of the road: Expect the unexpected. If people heeded this rule, there would be very few accidents indeed. But people are thick unfortunately.

One of the bad traits in driving is believing you can never make any mistake that others have made.

deandean

You would want to be a frickin' idiot to intentionally stop in the fast lane. In busy traffic your life expectancy (and/or life exp. of other road users) could be measured in seconds.

And the frickin' idiot who stopped would need to be a frickin' idiot x2 to approach an injured / cornered swan. Best he is gonna do, is move the bird into the surviving traffic lane to be run over by the poor guy who's just swerved to avoid the car stopped in the fast lane....:mad:

seanhalpin

Akrasia wrote: »

A moving car looks the same as a stopped car, the only way to tell the car is stopped is by how quickly you start to catch up with it.

At the time I was approaching the car, there was a car merging to my left, I moved over to make space and was preparing to move back to the inside lane when I realised that the car was stopped. At this time, there was a car on my left and a car stopped in front of me.

I wasn't tailgating, I was making a normal manouver, The road ahead was clear when i moved into the overtaking lane, everything looked normal. I had to check my mirrors to complete the manouver safely and return back to the inside lane and when I realised that the car was stopped in front, it was too late to stop my car.

I'm sorry. Look if you could not tell the difference between a sationary and moving car then you simply were not paying proper attention to the road.
Anyway, if you rearended them, you are in the wrong. Simple as. Any time a rearending happens, 99% of the time the person at the back is in the wrong.

And 100% of the time when a moving vehicle hits a stationary vehicle, the driver of the moving vehicle is in the wrong.

Look dude, just face it. You were in the wrong, man. Build a bridge and get over it like.


I really find it disturbing the way you think "moving sharply" and "getting up to speed" is good driving practice. Movements on the raod should be well planned, carefully executed and 100% attention focused on the road. Fact is that most people are complacent and blaise and frequently dismissive of how dangerous driving a car realy is.

All it takes is half a second of lapsed concentration or negligence and you are dead. But people don't listen.

Akrasia

seanhalpin wrote: »

I'm sorry. Look if you could not tell the difference between a sationary and moving car then you simply were not paying proper attention to the road.
Anyway, if you rearended them, you are in the wrong. Simple as. Any time a rearending happens, 99% of the time the person at the back is in the wrong.

And 100% of the time when a moving vehicle hits a stationary vehicle, the driver of the moving vehicle is in the wrong.

Look dude, just face it. You were in the wrong, man. Build a bridge and get over it like.


I really find it disturbing the way you think "moving sharply" and "getting up to speed" is good driving practice. Movements on the raod should be well planned, carefully executed and 100% attention focused on the road. Fact is that most people are complacent and blaise and frequently dismissive of how dangerous driving a car realy is.

Why did you put "moving sharply" and "getting up to speed" in quotation marks?

Where did I say either of those things?

All it takes is half a second of lapsed concentration or negligence and you are dead. But people don't listen.

Yeah, I know

At motorway speeds, a car travels 33 metres a second. Generally people are advised to leave a 2 second gap between cars so that's 66 metres.
There was a car merging onto the motorway which is a hazard that requires attention, I pulled out of the left lane to allow him to merge safely. In order to switch lanes, I checked that the road ahead was clear, there was no car within 100 to 200 metres and I didn't notice that the car was stationary in the overtaking lane

I checked my left wing mirror, my right wing mirror, and my rear view mirror to make sure the overtaking lane was clear. My attention was then divided between the car that was joining the motorway and the road ahead.

Motorway speeds mean that a stationary object that is 200 metres ahead of you will be 100 metres ahead of you in 3 seconds. The stopping distance at 120kph is almost 100 metres and the reaction time from when you notice the hazard and actually press the brake pedal is almost 1 second, if a car is 200 metres ahead of you he is almost 7 seconds ahead of your car (well beyond the 2 second rule) but if you are distracted by something else (eg, a car merging onto the motorway) then you may not see the danger for a couple of seconds and by then, it's too late to stop safely before the hazard.

This is why it is so ridiculously dangerous for a car to stop on the overtaking lane of the motorway for any reason (this is a 2 lane motorway by the way)

Matt Simis

MugMugs wrote: »

Why would be hanged for hitting a swan?

In the UK (and by extension the British Empire and Ireland 100years ago) the Queen once owned all swans, now just the "mute swan":
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=22570

You needed a Royal permit to kill or eat one. Doing so now in the UK also gets you jail time under the Wildlife Conservation Act. They do tend to take animal issues quite seriously there.

Afaik its illegal in Ireland to kill a swan too.

Bruthal

Matt Simis wrote: »

In the UK (and by extension the British Empire and Ireland 100years ago) the Queen once owned all swans, now just the "mute swan":
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=22570

You needed a Royal permit to kill or eat one. Doing so now in the UK also gets you jail time under the Wildlife Conservation Act. They do tend to take animal issues quite seriously there.

I doubt they would need a permit if they hit one on a motorway.

Matt Simis

robbie7730 wrote: »

I doubt they would need a permit if they hit one on a motorway.

Nope, but it could still be considered a crime:
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1464078_jet-ski-dad-from-wythenshawe-admits-killing-queens-swans-in-sale-water-park

Edward Johnstone, 34, was towing his children on an inflatable raft when the line between them whipped across the water and hit the birds.
The swans were seen flapping about and unable to lift their heads.
They died shortly after the incident at Sale Water Park.
Johnstone told Trafford magistrates he did not intend to kill the creatures but admitted he was reckless while riding the powerful water bike.

He was charged with criminal damage because the swans are the property of the Queen.
Johnstone, of Tuffley Road, Newall Green, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty and was given to a four-week community order with a night-time curfew. He was also ordered to pay £85 court costs.
--
Chairman of the bench Barry McKenzie said it was an exceptional case and told Johnstone: “Two living creatures were killed. When swans are killed it’s not easy to replace them and there’s a loss to public amenity.”

This $hit is serious!

Bruthal

seanhalpin wrote: »

All it takes is half a second of lapsed concentration or negligence and you are dead. But people don't listen.

Are you immune from lapses in concentration?

randy hickey

If you are misfortunate enough to come to a stop in the Fast Overtaking lane through no fault of your own, your vehicle is now a hazard to other road users.
The very least that could be expected of you would be to switch on your flippin Hazard lights.The Save The Swans car didn't do this.

randy hickey

Also, I don't see the difference between this Darwin Award Winner stopping in the overtaking lane and the idiot who parked an artic in a driving lane for a bloody photo shoot.:mad:

Atlantic Dawn

Someone risked their life and that of other road users to save a bloody swan, it's not as if it was a unicorn :rolleyes:

slimjimmc

doolox wrote: »

Drive your own car. Nothing good comes from stopping on a motorway or other busy Dual carriageway or street. If you want you could report it to the guards but little reaction can be expected unless a human life is involved. The other person should have pulled in to middle lane and kept going as well doing his job.

If you want you could use the SOS phones to alert the guards but do not use the mobile or you risk prosecution for stopping on a motorway or using the phone while driving.

It is not an offence to use a mobile while driving to call the emergency services on their prescribed number i.e. 112 or 999.

uberalles

Would a swan hit trigger the airbags?
I would imagine it would. So crashing into it isn't really an option.

That leaves trying to stop in time or swerving / changing lanes to avoid it if possible.