Nearly killed by some idiot going to wrong way up a motorway.....

Surveyor11

So I'm on the m9 coming to Waterford this evening and some retard is coming against the traffic i.e driving up the wrong side of the motorway. Closest I've come to being killed on a car and shook me up no end. Because he had his beams on, he blinded all coming against him - I didn't see the cars that had stopped in front of me until the last moment, breaked hard , swerved to avoid and barely managed to control it - luckily I had slowed down a while back and was on the reserve so trying to nurse her home! Thank christ for my bridgestones worth every penny. Unbelievable the f*ckwits out there, nearly caused a major accident

dgt

Surveyor11 wrote: »

So I'm on the m9 coming to Waterford this evening and some retard is coming against the traffic i.e driving up the wrong side of the motorway. Closest I've come to being killed on a car and shook me up no end. Because he had his beams on, he blinded all coming against him - I didn't see the cars that had stopped in front of me until the last moment, breaker hard and swerved to avoid. Thank christ for my bridgestones worth every penny. Unbelievable the f*ckwits out there, nearly caused a major accident

Lucky escape OP. Its stories like this that have me thinking this at the back of my mind

And theres a thread looking to abolish speed limits on motorways??? :mad::mad::mad:

Matt Simis

Did you call the cops? Thats pretty mental.

stevek93

Matt Simis wrote: »

Did you call the cops? Thats pretty mental.

+1 Know someone who was killed by the very same indecent, OP was very lucky!

DarkJager

There's simply no excuse for anybody to continue driving along once they realise they are on the wrong side of a motorway. That person should be banned from the road for life as they're clearly much too thick and dangerous to drive a car.

Surveyor11

Matt Simis wrote: »

Did you call the cops? Thats pretty mental.

Yeah straight on to 999 but mobile signal went, rang Kilkenny gardai on speaker phone a few miles down, they had no report from 999 centre so just as well

frozenfrozen

There wasn't just one, there were bloody hundreds out!

fonecrusher1

What a fcukin idiot. Someone must have got his car reg.

Stheno

Matt Simis wrote: »

Did you call the cops? Thats pretty mental.

Happened to me a good few years ago on the M7 around Newbridge, I remember it as I was moving house at the time.

Driving along in the left lane, then this lunatic bombed past at seriously high speed in the right hand lane going south on the northbound section. Cue serious swerving onto the hard shoulder to avoid them (even back then the M7 was a busy road around there)

Rang the cops (I was a passenger at the time) and they intercepted in Portlaoise, I wasn't the first to ring, they knew about it by the time I'd called.

DarkJager wrote: »

There's simply no excuse for anybody to continue driving along once they realise they are on the wrong side of a motorway. That person should be banned from the road for life as they're clearly much too thick and dangerous to drive a car.

There was some Irish traffic show last year, which actually showed an incident of this happening.

Turned out it was an elderly man who was very confused about where he was going (think he was lost) and it was unintentional.

In my case, and that of the OP it sounds a different case though.

Joe prim

Donegal reg with a doctor on call sticker by any chance?

brandnewaward

my fiancee passed a car on motorway by birdhill on way to limerick and the car was ON the crash barrier , yes right on top of it, stay vigilant peeps , im a learner but ive seen crazy **** so far.

WeirdKen

DarkJager wrote: »

There's simply no excuse for anybody to continue driving along once they realise they are on the wrong side of a motorway. That person should be banned from the road for life as they're clearly much too thick and dangerous to drive a car.

They will probably get three points for it...
That'll learn 'em...

Stheno

WeirdKen wrote: »

They will probably get three points for it...
That'll learn 'em...

I think unless in the case of the confused old man I was talking about, the gardai throw the book at drivers doing this.

Dangerous driving at the minimum.

That can incur a jail sentence/ban.

Atlantic Dawn

Probably an old or pi$$ed chap who will get away with it

Always number 1

Glad you had a lucky escape Surveyor11. A few years ago, my husband was driving back from Cork one evening and encountered almost collided with a car going the wrong way up the motorway and he was very shaken by it. Raise your cup of milky tea or glass of brandy to the man upstairs

I wont be popular for saying this but Stheno, you cannot say its ok for a "confused old man" to go the wrong way on a motorway but anyone else doing it should get done for "dangerous driving at the minimum" if old men (or indeed women) are getting confused driving on any road (never mind the motorway) then maybe its time they stopped driving.

CiniO

Something like that?

Reamer Fanny

I bet it was an aul wan they are lethal weapons on the roads

Sam Kade

Surveyor11 wrote: »

So I'm on the m9 coming to Waterford this evening and some retard is coming against the traffic i.e driving up the wrong side of the motorway. Closest I've come to being killed on a car and shook me up no end. Because he had his beams on, he blinded all coming against him - I didn't see the cars that had stopped in front of me until the last moment, breaked hard , swerved to avoid and barely managed to control it - luckily I had slowed down a while back and was on the reserve so trying to nurse her home! Thank christ for my bridgestones worth every penny. Unbelievable the f*ckwits out there, nearly caused a major accident

There are some very stupid drivers out there. By the way op it's brake

Kristopherus

CiniO wrote: »

Something like that?

You wont have to endure that kind of madness around the back roads of Mayo anyway, Cinio, I hope:).

Stheno

Always number 1 wrote: »

I wont be popular for saying this but Stheno, you cannot say its ok for a "confused old man" to go the wrong way on a motorway but anyone else doing it should get done for "dangerous driving at the minimum" if old men (or indeed women) are getting confused driving on any road (never mind the motorway) then maybe its time they stopped driving.

Sorry I should have been clearer, iirc that elderly man had his licence taken off him as he was too ill/infirm to drive, but it wasn't deliberate it was due to a medical condition and his driving licence hadn't been revoked.

Does that make more sense?

CiniO wrote: »

Something like that?

Nope in my case it was in the outside lane of the car that the dashcam is in at a far higher speed.

CiniO

Kristopherus wrote: »

You wont have to endure that kind of madness around the back roads of Mayo anyway, Cinio, I hope:).

No motorways in Mayo luckily.
I'm far away from this madness

DarkJager

Stheno wrote: »

I think unless in the case of the confused old man I was talking about, the gardai throw the book at drivers doing this.

Dangerous driving at the minimum.

That can incur a jail sentence/ban.

Even in the case of elderly confused drivers doing this, they should also be removed from the road for the safety of everyone. I'd rather have mr or mrs pensioner taking the bus for the rest of their days than them taking a life through their dangerous driving.

Stheno

DarkJager wrote: »

Even in the case of elderly confused drivers doing this, they should also be removed from the road for the safety of everyone. I'd rather have mr or mrs pensioner taking the bus for the rest of their days than them taking a life through their dangerous driving.

You missed my last post where I said I believed his licence was revoked due to ill health

Victor

And this folks, is why you need to stay in the left lane.

Stheno

Victor wrote: »

And this folks, is why you need to stay in the left lane.

I remember we were overtaking in the right land when we came across the lunatic at the time.

Serious brown pants moment.

MikeD22

Not the first time this has happened on that stretch of m9.
Happened to me a couple of years ago while i was driving at 120kph, for luck i was in the left lane. Squad car flew up the opposite side of the motorway a few seconds later. Got a fright to say the least.

Another thread on here wants to get rid of limits on the motorways and you have this going on?? Someone is going to be killed by people like this if nothing is done. But knowing this country not a thing will be done...someone will have to die before the media or government will pay attention to it.

Voodoomelon

Ban for life, without question. The kind of person who does this has no cop on, no common sense, is completely unaware of their surroundings and should be given a punch in the face to boot.

opinion guy

When you see muppetry like this the idea of self driving cars becomes more and more appealing

Stheno

opinion guy wrote: »

When you see muppetry like this the idea of self driving cars becomes more and more appealing

Much as I love driving at 6:45 on a Monday morning I'd happily climb into something a la Minority report

fonecrusher1

MikeD22 wrote: »

Another thread on here wants to get rid of limits on the motorways and you have this going on?? Someone is going to be killed by people like this if nothing is done. But knowing this country not a thing will be done...someone will have to die before the media or government will pay attention to it.

Not sure if I understand the logic here. So if you hit one of these idiots at 120kph you'll be ok but at 120kph plus your screwed?

Surveyor11

Sam Kade wrote: »

There are some very stupid drivers out there. By the way op it's brake [/Quote

Break or brake I don't care much - rapid stop suffice to say

NewApproach

This happened me on the M18 outside Shannon a few months back. Like OP I was pretty shook and rang straight through to the local Guards to report it. I looked online on the local news the following day ad there was something on it, seemingly they fond the guy, he was an old man who just got a bit confused, and was let off! I was fuming when I found out, he should have been disqualified. :mad:

Stheno

MikeD22 wrote: »

Another thread on here wants to get rid of limits on the motorways and you have this going on?? Someone is going to be killed by people like this if nothing is done. But knowing this country not a thing will be done...someone will have to die before the media or government will pay attention to it.

I didn't bother getting into the argument on said thread, too many times I've taken holiday homes in remote parts of Donegal or Sligo or Mayo or Clare, and come across drivers in the middle of the road because "shure there's a pothole and I'd have seen ya".

Yeah? Why the **** did you frighten the life out of me with your sudden maneouvers then? Why did I swerve thinking you were going to bash into me? Eh?

Far less likely on motorways, they at least have hard shoulders, unlike the n/r roads here, some of which are downright dangerous.

Chuck Stone

Why don't they put something like this on the motorway exits to stop the droolers?

Victor wrote: »

And this folks, is why you need to stay in the left lane.

Another reason why I like to find a car doing a 'goldilocks' speed and drive behind it at a safe distance.

Bigcheeze

CiniO wrote: »

Something like that?

The cops don't seem to be doing anything to try to attract drivers attention.

No sirens?

Shane732

Whoops! Sorry!!

Wetbench4

We should invest in a safety system for our motorways. All you need is 3 or 4 light curtains every 200 or 300m. Car breaks the light curtians sequence in the wrong order, then alarms, lights, sirens, whichever, should alert the driver that he is in driving the wrong way. The technology is there a long time and its surely not that expensive.

There is so much emphasis on cars safety, what about the roads?

wandatowell

I come across this 3 time all on the Waterford/Cork road between Midleton and Carrigtwohill.


Crazy stuff

djimi

I would be fully in favour of manditory jail time for anyone who is caught driving the wrong way down a motorway. Its totally inexcusable and any sort of collision is likely to lead to serious injury or death. Its quite simply one "mistake"* that you quite simply cannot afford to make.

*I do not believe for a second that anyone can make an innocent mistake of driving the wrong way down a motorway; you would need to have some serious mental deficiency to not realise what you are doing.

wildefalcon

djimi wrote: »

I would be fully in favour of manditory jail time for anyone who is caught driving the wrong way down a motorway. Its totally inexcusable and any sort of collision is likely to lead to serious injury or death. Its quite simply one "mistake"* that you quite simply cannot afford to make.

*I do not believe for a second that anyone can make an innocent mistake of driving the wrong way down a motorway; you would need to have some serious mental deficiency to not realise what you are doing.

I've seen people reverse and turn the car on the roundabout at a junction, just to get on the EXIT slip of a motorway, as the car wouldn't make it around the bend (on account of the road only being designed for cars coming off the motorway). Some people work very hard at getting killed.

On the otherhand some of the junctions are quite badly designed.

rebel.ranter

wandatowell wrote: »

I come across this 3 time all on the Waterford/Cork road between Midleton and Carrigtwohill.

Crazy stuff

Yep, I've seen it happen on this stretch of road too. I think the exits/entrances on the roundabout at the Cobh exit are not idiot proof enough.

coolisin

That this still happens, is truely scary, the amount of times id witnessed the oul farmer from down the country going the wrong way around a roundabout, but doing approx 120kph is scary to think some idiot could be going the wrong way.

Saying that the most scary and dangerous stunt ive ever seen pulled on a motorway was in america. A U turn to go back to an exit in a thunderstorm using the driving lanes.

Aint it just a single point offence to be done doing this?

Savman

Happened me before on the M6 I think it was, coming out of Athlone in the early hours. I noticed a truck driver flashing like mad, lucky he did too cos I had to jam on the brakes and come to a full stop in the right lane about ten feet from the oncoming moron. An old dear, no doubt, no idea of what was going on.

At that hour of the night it's impossible to judge oncoming headlights and they can appear as an optical illusion to the naked eye.

I've been a left lane cruiser ever since tbh.

smokie72

Reminds me of this incident where a young woman died on the m6. You had a lucky escape OP. http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/motoring/woman-died-after-drunk-drove-wrong-way-on-m6-3070116.html

nacimroc

This happened to me a few years ago on dual carraigway in Athlone. Old woman came around corner as I was passing a lorry going wrong direction. Just about made it without crashing (although very slightly tipped lorry trailer swerving in) As far as I remember she got a 1 year ban. So 12 months later she was free to drive the wrong way again and try kill more people. Madness.

Amazed at how many times this has happened to people on here

I really wish proper punishments would be used for bad drivers. Recently someone I know got driven into when stopped in traffic, both cars written off, people had to be cut out of one of the cars etc. I seemed to be the only person who thought that the person who drove into a queue of traffic without braking should face any legal action.

Back properly on-topic, around 2.40pm I saw a car going the wrong way around the roundabout at junction 16 on the M1. They stopped when a bus came towards them, no idea where they were planning to go. It was a young woman driving rather than the 100 year old man I was expecting to see peering over the steering wheel.

CiniO

Bigcheeze wrote: »

The cops don't seem to be doing anything to try to attract drivers attention.

No sirens?

Where do you see any cops in there?

Bigcheeze

CiniO wrote: »

Where do you see any cops in there?

An ok heard what sounded like a 2 way radio and assumed it was cops.

Guys in the car should have been on the horn then attempting to prevent a serious accident instead of trying to win youtube video of the year for capturing a motorway pileup.

Kenny Logins

smokie72 wrote: »

Reminds me of this incident where a young woman died on the m6. You had a lucky escape OP. http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/motoring/woman-died-after-drunk-drove-wrong-way-on-m6-3070116.html

..and here in Cork.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0214/cork.html

CiniO

Bigcheeze wrote: »

An ok heard what sounded like a 2 way radio and assumed it was cops.

Guys in the car should have been on the horn then attempting to prevent a serious accident instead of trying to win youtube video of the year for capturing a motorway pileup.

Heh I didn't even realise that when watching initially.
Lads are using CB-radio. That's in Poland and CBs are extreamally popular there as every single truck driver have them, so over last few years plenty of car drivers got them as well to chat with others on the road and exchange info about cops checkpoints, speedcameras, traffic jams, detours, etc...
IMHO very handy thing.

Guys have aired info of this guy going the wrong way through CB, so at least all the truckers were aware.
I doubt being on the horn would change much. I suppose that guy already heard horns and flashed from oncoming drivers and still no reaction.
Madness.

RandomAccess

Kenny Logins wrote: »

..and here in Cork.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0214/cork.html

I didn't agree with the verdict of accidental death, it makes it sound like there was nobody to blame. If the roles were reversed the criticism would have been severe.