If your car broke down on the motorway...

elperello

McGaggs wrote: »

What are these people driving in the hard shoulder for?

Unfortunately they do.
In bad conditions I've seen it.
Also I've seen older and I presume nervous drivers but that's an assumption on my part because it's hard to tell at 120kph.

antodeco

Aren't there some places on the M50 were the central median is just a single wall meaning nowhere to stand?

CJhaughey

McGaggs wrote: »

What are these people driving in the hard shoulder for?

They may just veer a little out of their lane due to poor situational awareness, distraction, coughing or sneezing.
Literally anything can cause a person to move into the hard shoulder enough to run into a parked car, that's why its so dangerous to remain in the vehicle.

elperello

A motorway is less a road and more of an organism.
All the various parts are depending on each other and a small problem can rapidly escalate into disaster.

In Ireland we are a bit behind the curve in motorway management and we need to catch up.

In the UK they have had more years to work on it and while they don't always get it right they at least have the systems, equipment and training needed to manage motorways.

For instance they make good use of overhead gantry warnings to let you know there is an accident/incident ahead.

The J Stands for Jay

CJhaughey wrote: »

They may just veer a little out of their lane due to poor situational awareness, distraction, coughing or sneezing.
Literally anything can cause a person to move into the hard shoulder enough to run into a parked car, that's why its so dangerous to remain in the vehicle.

I suppose that makes sense. Every time I hear reports of these incidents, I just assume they're driving around in the hard shoulder.

Next question: those people that park on the hard shoulder as soon as they pass the toll plaza. What are they all doing?

punisher5112

Some people don't take good advice and believe they are grand and right in doing the wrong thing.

Look kkv that's great it worked out for you but seriously a motorway is no place to be sleeping on the side of.

I've had to change a wheel before and I got off at the side at an entry to the motorway and into a motorway service bay for workers and the sound, shocks and vibrations from the speed of the other vehicles is something else.

People fall asleep, drift out of lanes, crash while changing lanes, get blow outs which I did but was able to keep it controlled and so much more can go wrong at speed.

I was over taking a Daewoo a few years back on the M7 and she had a front blow out and the car spunnout of control smashing straight into the crash barrier absolutely destroyed the front and ended up with no lights at all.

I was able to stop luckily and as it was pitch black and now a car in the overtaking lane with no lights I reversed back the motorway a bit of a distance and was pumping the brake pedal, hazards on and flicking on/off the fog light to get vehicles approaching to slow to a stop.

I got the driver to then drive the wreck to the hard shoulder.

Put it this way I was watching the traffic coming and reading their speed and had the car in gear ready to floor it to get out of there if they weren't stopping.

Muahahaha

This incident is further proof that the learner driver system should include a module on motorways. Plus we need ad campaigns on what do to in this situation. It was totally unavoidable if the victim had of known the last place to be was sitting inside the car for 17 minutes. While I feel sympathy for the truck driver he does have responsibility here, as drivers we are all legally obliged to drive in a manner that we can come to a complete stop for any hazard up ahead. Others cars managed to avoid her for 17 minutes but the trucker didn't despite him having a much better view of the road from up on high in a trucks cab.

endacl wrote: »

I was in a situation several year ago on the m50 in heavy traffic. All sorts of dashboard lights came on and the car lost power. Would rev ok, but didn’t get as far as the wheels. I was in the overtaking lane at the time, heading north just after Dundrum. I flicked the indicator on, intending to move left towards the shoulder, and as I gradually slowed, the reaction of drivers behind was to undertake at speed, to avoid slowing. It was a truck driver who copped what was going on and let me firstly into the middle lane, and then shadowed me into the driving lane. Without that particular truck driver (a Stobart). I’d have been in exactly the same position. Stuck in lane 3 with nowhere to go.

I've been in a similar situation at rush hour coming from the city on N7 going over the M50. I was in lane 2 and a car in lane 3 suddenly indicated and beared quickly into my lane whilst slowing down fast. I slammed the brakes and came to a complete stop less than a foot from its back bumper. Then she put her hazards on, the car behind me also came close to going into the back of me and then he put on his hazards.

I was on a motorbike and wedged between these two cars, all three of us couldnt move. So I got off, spoke to the lady in front, she was 70+ and in a serious panic. I asked the lad in the car behind to give us a hand pushing the broken down car across lane 1 and onto the hard shoulder. I was already in hi vis so it was easy enough to stop the slow moving traffic in lane one, just stuck my hand up and edged across. I asked the first car to put their hazards on and wait a minute. Three of us pushed the broken down car onto the hard shoulder, I hopped back on the motorbike and drove onto the hard shoulder in front of her car. She was in some state. Got her out of the car and behind the barrier. Then I'd to go back into her car as she didnt know her breakdown assist details so got them from the glove compartment. Waited about 30 minutes with her, the poor dear had just lost her husband two weeks previous and this incident had her in a panic.

Reading todays story Im glad I did what I did even if it was a bit risky. I've no doubt she would have sat in the car till rear ended, she had no compousure and was having a break down of her own.

ckeng

antodeco wrote: »

Aren't there some places on the M50 were the central median is just a single wall meaning nowhere to stand?

Yep, around the Lucan Juntion is one of them. She was also looking at about 600 vehicles an hour at the time (Traffic ) - so say something going by every 5 or 6 seconds. I think that's actually pretty tight to get out of the car and sprint across three or four lanes in the dark and wet, especially if you're sitting there trying to judge if this is the gap where you should chance it or if maybe the next one would be better. A touch of paralysis by analysis maybe. The percentage move is probably still to go for it, but I'm not entirely sure it would be the obvious choice in those circumstances.

DoctorStrange

I picked up a couple of fleece lined hi vis jackets. XXL one for the kids, put them under it like a tent.

They were only around 25E each in one of those army surplus places.

Keep them in a bag in the boot with some woolly hats. Haven't had to use them yet thankfully.

Wouldn't fancy trying to get 2 kids across from Lane 3 though.

I broke down on a motorway last Summer.

First thing i did? I phoned the guards alerting them to my predicament. I broke down on the over-taking lane.

They advised me to try and get the car into the hard shoulder- they had no-one to attend.

I eventually got the car onto the hard shoulder. All my own work. With passengers. Piece of sh1te support from Gardai - sorry piss off. It could have been so much worse - it wasn't in this case. But seriously this wasn't treated as an actual emergency event. Pizz off guards!

elperello

Deleted User wrote: »

I broke down on a motorway last Summer.

First thing i did? I phoned the guards alerting them to my predicament. I broke down on the over-taking lane.

They advised me to try and get the car into the hard shoulder- they had no-one to attend.

I eventually got the car onto the hard shoulder. All my own work. With passengers. Piece of sh1te support from Gardai - sorry piss off. It could have been so much worse - it wasn't in this case. But seriously this wasn't treated as an actual emergency event. Pizz off guards!

That's bad.
Just the sort of thing I was saying in previous post.
We need to up our game in motorway management.

Going back a few years now , but something similar happened to me on a busy national route , nothing like the M50 but scary none the less. I was 18-19 at the time so not long with a license and driving my dads car which was a second hand Sunny we'd only had a few months.

I'd a pal with me in the passenger seat and the car just came to a complete stop with an electrical smell. This was just before mobiles became common so we had to put the hazards on and go to the nearest house and call the Gardai and my pal went up the road a bit to gesture to cars to slow, was during the day.

What happened? My pal stretched his legs and hit an immobilizer switch that was in the passenger side footwell that previous owner had neglected to tell the garage about and as a result us, One of those 'what are the chances' things. But I remember being completely terrified some one would crash into it and be hurt or worse.

Just a memory reading about this tragedy brought back to me.

elperello

elperello wrote: »

That's bad.
Just the sort of thing I was saying in previous post.
We need to up our game in motorway management.

It totally freaked me out. But I was prepared to do what it took. But the attitude of the guards took me more aback in some respects, than the experience itself of being stranded on the over-taking lane. It's freaky out there on a motorway when you're static and indisposed.

DaveyDave

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It totally freaked me out. But I was prepared to do what it took. But the attitude of the guards took me more aback in some respects, than the experience itself of being stranded on the over-taking lane. It's freaky out there on a motorway when you're static and indisposed.

They're understaffed and probably had cars out on other jobs. They can't drop everything because your car broke down on the motorway. It's unfortunate but that's just the way it is.

elperello

DaveyDave wrote: »

They're understaffed and probably had cars out on other jobs. They can't drop everything because your car broke down on the motorway. It's unfortunate but that's just the way it is.

That's true.
So knowing that we just don't have the resources to run the motorways to an acceptable standard we need to be extra vigilant.

DaveyDave

DaveyDave wrote: »

They're understaffed and probably had cars out on other jobs. They can't drop everything because your car broke down on the motorway. It's unfortunate but that's just the way it is.

Have you actually read the OP link? In any way at all?

Because if you have, maybe that' exactly what they should be doing now.


https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/suspended-sentence-for-truck-driver-who-caused-motorists-death-in-m50-accident-898455.html

CJhaughey

The management of motorways and removal of broken down vehicles should be the operators responsibility in this case the m50 toll should have towage available at any point in time and there should be SOS phones along the route.
It shouldn’t be up to the Gardaí to attend breakdowns.

CJhaughey

CJhaughey wrote: »

The management of motorways and removal of broken down vehicles should be the operators responsibility in this case the m50 toll should have towage available at any point in time and there should be SOS phones along the route.
It shouldn’t be up to the Gardaí to attend breakdowns.

Until it goes all legal and then they're all over it like a rash and spouting their view around what should have been done blah blah blah- it's all very well after the event. We can all do the armchair diagnostics at that stage.

elperello

The safe removal of a vehicle disabled in the overtaking lane of a busy motorway is one heck of a complicated dangerous operation.
Can't be achieved by a tow truck driver on his own.
The traffic has to be managed by trained personnel.
The Gardai are all we have at the moment and as has been said they they are understaffed.

tomoliver

in 100 years time there'll be no such thing as collisions

Cerco

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

One recommendation that should have come out of it is the need to have a Hi Viz vest in every car when travelling on a motorway, not saying it would have saved her if she exitted the vehicle but it would have made her much more visible if she had to. I know they are mandatory in France.

I have one in the boot...😮 .not much use there in this kind of situation. Will move to under driver seat tomorrow. Thanks.AD.

Cerco

Cerco wrote: »

I have one in the boot...😮 .not much use there in this kind of situation. Will move to under driver seat tomorrow. Thanks.AD.

I had two in my glove compartment. I had four passengers in my car at the time of breakdown. It's absolutely great that you've been made more aware of what you need in such a situation. but don't count on this being made an "emergency situation"- because likelihood is it won't.
So good luck with dealing with the situation yourself.

V8 Interceptor

TheChizler wrote: »

Miss the bit where they said the car had lost power?

Yep. Apologies. Just re-read it.

V8 Interceptor

Heroditas wrote: »

It was 5am. I'm often on the M50 at that time. There's some traffic on it but it's certainly possible to run across to the hard shoulder. It's in the record that she was there for quite a while.

Only thing I can think of is she was wheelchair bound or she was very old and scared.

V8 Interceptor

tomoliver wrote: »

in 100 years time there'll be no such thing as collisions

That's very helpful Tom

deandean

What surprised me about this sad story is that the car survived for 17 minutes on a motorway lane, in heavy rain, before another vehicle hit it!
If you ever find yourself in that situation, dial 999 immediately and tell the Gardai.

deandean

deandean wrote: »

What surprised me about this sad story is that the car survived for 17 minutes on a motorway lane, in heavy rain, before another vehicle hit it!
If you ever find yourself in that situation, dial 999 immediately and tell the Gardai.

Who will do absolutely fck all in my experience

Hellrazer

antodeco wrote: »

Aren't there some places on the M50 were the central median is just a single wall meaning nowhere to stand?

Where this happened there is just a single wall--There is no central median.

I don't think the woman had either enough gaps in traffic to run across 3 lanes or decided not to head for the middle wall.It doesn't say which lane she broke down in though.
She may have been physically unable to run across any of the lanes.

Either way it was unlucky to break down at that time--had it been later the traffic would have been heavier and slower.

She had 17 minutes--had she called the garda immediately they would have been there probably within 5 minutes or else the m50 services would have made it as they are based less than 1km from where it happened.

Hellrazer

Hellrazer wrote: »

She had 17 minutes--had she called the garda immediately they would have been there probably within 5 minutes or else the m50 services would have made it as they are based less than 1km from where it happened.

Good luck with your "5 minutes"

Charles Babbage

If the person was disabled and had difficulty leaving the vehicle, the Fire Brigade might have been an option.