Near miss on M9 - car stopped in overtaking lane

fricatus

I had a very nasty near miss on the M9 in south Kilkenny this morning at J10 northbound (Knocktopher exit). A car was stopped in the outside lane, and a truck had apparently stopped on the hard shoulder to help. The truck had its orange flashing lights on, so I had moved out into the overtaking lane.

It was only barely getting light and there was a lot of rain, so it was only at the last minute really that I saw the car, with a guy standing next to it, waving a flashlight. There was no warning triangle behind the car, and it didn't have its hazards or other lights on.

I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been able to swerve into the left lane, etc., but it begs the question: how the hell can a modern car (I think it was an Insignia) develop a fault to the extent that it can't get over to the hard shoulder, and how can it be left without hazard lights?

The truck didn't help, because while I saw his lights from a long way back, it drew my attention away from the stopped car.

I hope to God everyone else coming behind me was able to avoid it. With the speed that some people do, tearing along that motorway, it was a very dangerous situation.

patrickc

KILKENNY* The M9 Waterford/Dublin Rd is closed northbound between J11 Mullinavat and J10 Knocktopher due to a collision. Gardai are at the scene diverting traffic. Expect delays

obviously an accident after you.

comanche_cor

perhaps the engine seized and wasn't quick enough to get on the clutch- who knows!... bad situation though!!

Short while ago I came across a car stopped and facing the wrong way on the N3/M50 junction - could have also have been a very nasty accident..

comanche_cor

fricatus wrote: »

how can it be left without hazard lights?

That's crazy though!

Big Nasty

He obviously didn't just stop for the laugh!

Presumably he was broken down and with lack of lights or hazards I would guess there was an electrical problem.

Hopefully no one was hurt in the accident after you passed.

experimenter

I travel the M9 Carlow to Waterford everyday...

A few months ago, about 5mins into my journey, from Waterford, I spotted something black in the passing lane, and it was a car facing in the wrong direction!!!! no lights, nothing, I take it the girl was still in shock for spinning the car, I parked on the hard shoulder down from her car and waited a moment, she eventually started the car and got it on to the hard shoulder.. I got out to see if she was ok, and she drove off... She was doing about 80kph in the slow lane for a while after that!!!

Speeds are way too high, and the lack of speed checks don't help... I get passed regularly by the same cars every morning and they are easily doing 150kph+++

But I can't get over the amount of accidents on this stretch of motorway, I have came across at least 4 serious accidents even in good dry conditions, and I know someone died early in the year..

People don't even check their mirrors when go to move to passing lane..

Also there's one stretch where you can see that a car strayed onto the high embankment, and came back down to onto the hard shoulder..pretty scary to see the marks in the grass, considering the angle of the embankment..

I heard on the radio as I was coming to the end of motorway, that the Mullinavat stretch was closed..

RobAMerc

why is everyone banging on about the speed being an issue.
The issue is the car should have been equipped with a warning triangle and the driver a hiz viz - particularly the truck driver, and the both should have known to deploy it immediately once the car stopped.

The rules and regs are too loose here and the motoring public are ignorant as to what to do and there is 0 policing. I promise you in the UK or almost anywhere else on the continent this driver would have immediately had warning triangles out and the cops would have shown up within minutes and if they didn't have those out they would have been in deep do do.

keithclancy

I had my own car completely die with an electrical problem on the Antwerp Ring, had to pull across two lanes into what I thought was the hard shoulder, the Belgians had decided to turn that into a bus lane and move the hard shoulder into the middle of the motorway.

Saying that, having the warning triangle in the boot is handy, just stick it up around 250 meters back from your car to give some advanced warning.

Only things I could think of that would completely stop you dead would be a wheel seizing, or people acting the fool and not leaving you across into the Hard Shoulder safely.

stargazer 68

My sisters car died on the M50 last year - she was in the inside lane, heard a noise and the car started to slow. She moved across to the middle lane to try and get off the road and the car stopped! Put the hazard lights on. The amount of people who beeped and flashed at her was amazing - you would think she had stopped for a ciggie!! :eek:

Eventually 2 cars pulled in and 3 guys ran into the middle of the M50 to push the car off the road. They were off duty police men - and complete and utter gentlemen unlike some of the other feckers!!

experimenter

I agree, every car should have a warning tri-angle, luminousjacket, a few spare headlamp bulbs, and a torch...

All can be got for a few €€€ at Aldi/Lidl..

R.O.R

Dovies wrote: »

My sisters car died on the M50 last year - she was in the inside lane, heard a noise and the car started to slow. She moved across to the middle lane to try and get off the road and the car stopped! Put the hazard lights on. The amount of people who beeped and flashed at her was amazing - you would think she had stopped for a ciggie!! :eek:

Eventually 2 cars pulled in and 3 guys ran into the middle of the M50 to push the car off the road. They were off duty police men - and complete and utter gentlemen unlike some of the other feckers!!

fricatus

patrickc wrote: »

KILKENNY* The M9 Waterford/Dublin Rd is closed northbound between J11 Mullinavat and J10 Knocktopher due to a collision. Gardai are at the scene diverting traffic. Expect delays

obviously an accident after you.

Sh1111111ttt...

Hope nobody badly injured/killed...

slimjimmc

R.O.R wrote: »

Some people incorrectly refer to the lane nearest to the central median as the "inside lane".

stargazer 68

slimjimmc wrote: »

Some people incorrectly refer to the lane nearest to the central median as the "inside lane".

Apologies driving police - the lane nearest the meridian then!! :rolleyes:

Big Nasty

Dovies wrote: »

Apologies driving police - the lane nearest the meridian then!! :rolleyes:

I.e. the passing lane!

ShadowHearth

experimenter wrote: »

I agree, every car should have a warning tri-angle, luminousjacket, a few spare headlamp bulbs, and a torch...

All can be got for a few €€€ at Aldi/Lidl..

In Lithuania you won't pass nct if you don't have:

Full up to date med kit
Hazard triangle
Fire extinguisher

In all fairness these 3 items make total sence.

Cantona's Collars

New motorways have been built all over Ireland yet there is no driver training on how to use them,a few token ads on the radio is all I've come across.

A while ago while using the Gorey bypass which is a motorway I spotted headlights facing me in torrential rain,a car had spun out & was facing oncoming traffic,thankfully nobody got hurt and the car was taken off the road.

That stretch of road is crazy,I've seen walkers,cyclists,tractors and even horses using it.Seems that some motorways through rural areas are treated like normal roads by locals who seem unaware of the law & the danger or just don't care.

cml387

Accidents will happen.

What is criminal is the lack of warning lights which can be activated in the event of an accident ahead.

Tallon

Gonna be perfectly honsest, I have no high vis in the boot..

I do have a med kit and a fire extinguisher

Gonna pick up a High-vis and triangle today

patrickc

fricatus wrote: »

Sh1111111ttt...

Hope nobody badly injured/killed...

it said on KCLR no serious injuries

Tallon wrote: »

Gonna be perfectly honsest, I have no high vis in the boot..

I do have a med kit and a fire extinguisher

Gonna pick up a High-vis and triangle today

i have the high vis vest, and the triangle and first aid kits no fire extinguisher though

L1011

Tallon wrote: »

Gonna be perfectly honsest, I have no high vis in the boot..

I do have a med kit and a fire extinguisher

Gonna pick up a High-vis and triangle today

In the boot is no use. Glovebox - you want to be able to have it on BEFORE you get out of the car.

Also will stop you getting fined in France should you happen to find yourself there for some reason!

Tallon

MYOB wrote: »

In the boot is no use. Glovebox - you want to be able to have it on BEFORE you get out of the car.

Also will stop you getting fined in France should you happen to find yourself there for some reason!

I have access to the boot from the car

cruizer101

Dovies wrote: »

My sisters car died on the M50 last year - she was in the inside lane, heard a noise and the car started to slow. She moved across to the middle lane to try and get off the road and the car stopped! Put the hazard lights on. The amount of people who beeped and flashed at her was amazing - you would think she had stopped for a ciggie!! :eek:

Part of them problem here is the abuse of hazard lights. The whole thinking its grand to just throw them on for whatever little reason, so when they are actually being used properly people mistake it for something insignificant.
Kinda like the boy who cried wolf really.

Tallon

cruizer101 wrote: »

Part of them problem here is the abuse of hazard lights. The whole thinking its grand to just throw them on for whatever little reason, so when they are actually being used properly people mistake it for something insignificant.
Kinda like the boy who cried wolf really.

You kidding?

Never once have I not slowed down because I seen hazards and thought 'Why has he got his on?'

How do people abuse hazards? Even a half arsed parked car with hazzards on, I would drive by slowly... Never know what idiots going to swing open a door

L1011

Tallon wrote: »

I have access to the boot from the car

Effort of that compared to having it available in seconds.

Tallon

MYOB wrote: »

Effort of that compared to having it available in seconds.

As apposed to the 30 seconds it would take to turn around and take it from the boot?

L1011

Tallon wrote: »

As apposed to the 30 seconds it would take to turn around and take it from the boot?

Next time I see you, I'm making you do that while I time you.

GreeBo

Tallon wrote: »

As apposed to the 30 seconds it would take to turn around and take it from the boot?

Well the guy doing 150kp/h behind you in the same lane will get much closer to you in 30s than he will in 3 sec...
I'd be grabbing it from the glovebox and hopping out/putting it on.
Farting around climbing into the back seat when you could be about to get rear-ended at speed doesnt seem terribly smart...

Absurdum

fricatus wrote: »

I had a very nasty near miss on the M9 in south Kilkenny this morning at J10 northbound (Knocktopher exit). A car was stopped in the outside lane, and a truck had apparently stopped on the hard shoulder to help. The truck had its orange flashing lights on, so I had moved out into the overtaking lane.

It was only barely getting light and there was a lot of rain, so it was only at the last minute really that I saw the car, with a guy standing next to it, waving a flashlight. There was no warning triangle behind the car, and it didn't have its hazards or other lights on.

I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been able to swerve into the left lane, etc., but it begs the question: how the hell can a modern car (I think it was an Insignia) develop a fault to the extent that it can't get over to the hard shoulder, and how can it be left without hazard lights?

The truck didn't help, because while I saw his lights from a long way back, it drew my attention away from the stopped car.

I hope to God everyone else coming behind me was able to avoid it. With the speed that some people do, tearing along that motorway, it was a very dangerous situation.

I'm not trying to be in the high-horse brigade here but I hope you rang the Gardai immediately afterwards!

Gone Drinking

ShadowHearth wrote: »

In all fairness these 3 items make total sence.

They do, your spelling doesn't! :pac:

fricatus

Absurdum wrote: »

I'm not trying to be in the high-horse brigade here but I hope you rang the Gardai immediately afterwards!

No. Both the car driver and the truck driver were at the scene, so I think it's fair to assume that either one of them called 999 fairly smartly.

I have often called Traffic Watch in the past when I've seen cars apparently abandoned on the motorway hard shoulder, on the basis that someone else might not have reported the issue.

Panda Moanium

Without making any judgement on the situation described in this thread, never underestimate people's ability to do incredibly stupid things.

A couple of months ago I had just joined the M4 at the Maynooth junction heading westwards in heavy traffic. A few cars ahead in the overtaking lane was a car (think it was a Citroen Xsara if I recall correctly) with a roof box. Suddenly the top half of the box detached itself, flew through the air over a couple of cars behind, and comes to rest in the middle section separating the eastbound and westbound carriageways.

Bad enough, but then what does DumDum driving the Xsara decide to do? Retrieve his piece of roofbox of course! How? By braking hard and coming to a complete stop in the overtaking lane. Luckily traffic was moving slowly to start with, and cars were braking anyway when they saw the flying roofbox, so at least the immediate cars behind him were able to stop. Don't know if anything happened further back. As I went past on the inside lane he was opening his door to get out to retrieve his precious piece of plastic. I blasted him out of it, don't know if it made him change his mind...

Our man in Havana

Traffic watch

So I'll just type it up on my invisible typewriter.

Absurdum

fricatus wrote: »

No. Both the car driver and the truck driver were at the scene, so I think it's fair to assume that either one of them called 999 fairly smartly.

I have often called Traffic Watch in the past when I've seen cars apparently abandoned on the motorway hard shoulder, on the basis that someone else might not have reported the issue.

I wouldn't assume anything, I would have rang 999 tbh

griffin100

Heading out of Dublin on the M7 recently in heavy traffic when all of a sudden traffic comes to rapid halt - passat broke down in outside lane.......... With the two occupants still sitting in it....... Talk about a death wish.

It always amazes me how many people are happy to sit in their car whilst it's broken down on the hard shoulder.

Our man in Havana

griffin100 wrote: »

Heading out of Dublin on the M7 recently in heavy traffic when all of a sudden traffic comes to rapid halt - passat broke down in outside lane.......... With the two occupants still sitting in it....... Talk about a death wish.

It always amazes me how many people are happy to sit in their car whilst it's broken down on the hard shoulder.

Poor/non existent driver education is the blame.

Stinicker

I only once ever "broke down" on the motorway and that was when I blewout a rear tyre on the M8 and I immediately was on the brakes down from 130km/h and into the hard shoulder before I was on the rim. I drove the car off the hard shoulder and in onto the wide grass margin. I ordered my passengers out of the car and behind the fence. I then erected my warning triangle at least 200 metres back and then tried to change the wheel, the jack sank into the earth as I was off the hard shoulder so instead of messing around I called out my breakdown service which is part of my insurance.

In my car I carry two yellow high ves vests that I got free at the ploughing a few years ago, a first aid kit with all the important things in it. I also have a basic toolkit and a few spare bulbs and fuses, I have two of those rain macks you buy at football matches, I also have a 12v tyre pump and I throw a fire extinguisher in there if driving long journeys on the Motorway to Dublin as I don't drive motorway day to day being in Kerry. I am fairly well equipped and much better than alot of others I think.

Having driven on the Autobahn in Germany and been brough up with this safety conscious way of thinking drilled into me by father since I started driving at 19. I would like to think I am as careful as I can be and treat the roads with the respect they deserve.

However I would be in the minority and some people take to the road with reckless abandon and our Motorway system really exposes the amount of imbeciles on our roads. I quite like driving especially on the Motorway and I immediately start to notice the difference in driver behavior and how cars are maintained when I cross the border to NI or like in Germany when I drive abroad. People take to the roads here with the same attitude as some slack jawed yokel down in alabama.

Rich11

comanche_cor wrote: »

That's crazy though!

Altinator, lol i cant spell, went in my car, 5 mins away from house tried to drive home on battery but no, had nothing, all lights went, no hazards, turned key nothing happened

fricatus

Rich11 wrote: »

Altinator, lol i cant spell, went in my car, 5 mins away from house tried to drive home on battery but no, had nothing, all lights went, no hazards, turned key nothing happened

I doubt it was the alternator on this car though, because with an alternator failure, the battery starts to drain quickly and there's a series of things that shut down (I remember my radio went first), but you'd have time to coast over to the hard shoulder, and if you had enough battery left, you could put on the hazards (I doubt they'd be a big drain - you might get half an hour out of what power is left).

What could cause a car to just die completely though?

weeder

few of the bikes ive had the engine stops once the battery is removed or a failing alternator will drain the battery quickly if using lights or anything like that. then its like you might aswell have no battery. so unless his battery terminal came loose or somthing small i dunno, but its very unlikely the car would stop dead, even if it locked up he couldve coasted with the clutch.

jester77

Might be a little off topic, but if you do end up in the unfortunate position of breaking down on the motorway, would it not be suicidal to start walking back 200 meters to place the warning triangle, especially if it is dark and wet. How do people do this? Over here there are usually only concrete walls between oncoming traffic, so you may not even have a margin for walking safely on.

paddyland

Is there any argument in this country for the introduction of on board dash camera equipment, and footage from same being admissable in court to either forcibly educate some of these people, or at least get them off the road for good?