If you're stopped in the hard sholder, GET OUT OF YOUR CAR!

Tallon

http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/local/caravan-couple-s-lucky-escape-in-a27-accident-1-4396797

Published on Monday 22 October 2012 15:52

A COUPLE had a lucky escape when a lorry crashed into their broken down caravan which was parked on the hard shoulder

The accident happened on the busy eastbound A27, between Emsworth and Chichester, at 12.45pm today.

The couple were out of the car towing the caravan and were standing behind the barrier when the collision occurred. The caravan toppled over into the middle of the road. Firefighters were called as there were gas canisters in the caravan but they were found to be safe. No one was injured but the accident led to long delays until the vehicles were

AND

http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/news/wetherby/a1-hard-shoulder-crash-driver-gets-three-year-ban-1-4984092

A lorry driver whose dangerous driving demolished a car which had broken down on the hard shoulder of the A1 near Wetherby has been banned from the roads for three years.

Martin Griffiths, aged 25, of Newark, Lincolnshire, was also sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for one year after being found guilty of dangerous driving at York Crown Court on September 24.

Griffiths’ HGV wandered off the carriageway on the A1 at Kirk Deighton, on September 19 last year before colliding with a Mazda 323.

The driver of the Mazda, who was looking for some tools in the boot of his car, had to hurdle the crash barrier to avoid being hit by the oncoming HGV which completely wrote his vehicle off.

Mr Griffiths’ mobile phone records when matched with his tachograph showed that he had been using his handset for texting and browsing the internet prior to the collision.

Traffic Constable Rob Roberts, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “Fortunately for the Mazda driver he saw the HGV coming just in time to get himself out of harm’s way.

“Thankfully he was unhurt in the incident which could have been far, far worse.”

The court ordered Mr Griffiths to retake his driving test when he has completed his ban. He is also required to carry out 300 hours’ unpaid work and pay £450 towards the prosecution costs.

Posted by

corktina

essential advice. I'd put the car up on the grass if I could too....

NIMAN

Its one of the rules of the road anyway, so if you are any sort of driver you'd not do it.

But then there are that many awful drivers in this country, probably worth reminding them.

dudara

Can't emphasise this enough - my car was rear-ended while pulled in on the hard shoulder during a break down.

Viper_JB

I always see these threads and think, yes that's a very important piece of information to get out there, I also cannot help but think that anyone reading this on here probably knows this already. See it all the time with people stopping in a very dangerous area so their kids can have a pee break, I know if a child needs to go they need to go, but anywhere is better then the side of a motorway, it's about as safe as a drunk person peeing off the side of a cliff.

Terrontress

Also, put your steering wheel to the left lock.

I heard that in the UK the average time spent in the hard shoulder before being hit is 16 minutes.

Tallon

I was coming down the Chapalizord bypass one day and normal heavy 5o'clock traffic, there was a car broken down in lane 1 (Of 2) so cars were going around him on the left (bus lane) and the right (Lane 2)

When I got to the car, I see the guy has it jacked up at the front, and he is lying under it with one leg either side of the back wheel doing something with a spanner

I was watching him for a while because we were moving so slow, all the time thinking that if someone seen the car in front move out of the lane and decided to speed up and crashed into the back of this car, the chap would, Literally, be cut in half

It was absolute madness! Couldn't believe it!

positron

There was this 10 km (my guess) tail back on M1 inbound this morning, and as you would expect a number of cars broke down (overheating perhaps, or ran out of fuel?) and there was one woman who had parked the car on the hard shoulder, and she had climbed over the steel railings and was standing among two meter tall bushes - I don't know if there was any other reason other than safety concerns for her to do this - and motorcycle garda spotted her and pulled over the see what the problem is. Although there is no chance of anyone crashing into her as the entire M1 was doing 20 mph this morning.

rocky

Tallon wrote: »

Doesn't look like a hard shoulder there... the caravan was probably stopped in lane 1

Tallon

positron wrote: »

There was this 10 km (my guess) tail back on M1 inbound this morning, and as you would expect a number of cars broke down (overheating perhaps, or ran out of fuel?) and there was one woman who had parked the car on the hard shoulder, and she had climbed over the steel railings and was standing among two meter tall bushes - I don't know if there was any other reason other than safety concerns for her to do this - and motorcycle garda spotted her and pulled over the see what the problem is. Although there is no chance of anyone crashing into her as the entire M1 was doing 20 mph this morning.

Terrible attitude to have!

Saying there was no chance of anything happening is crazy!!!