Stopping on motorway hard shoulder?

No matter what we may feel the rights and wrongs of this case, it remains an awful tragedy. I understand they pulled over to take a call from the hospital, as the reception was poor and she couldn't hear over the sound of the engine, about the baby, who is thankfully doing well. Would any of us have done differently in the same circumstances? God Rest Her.

Seve OB

Deleted User wrote: »

No matter what we may feel the rights and wrongs of this case, it remains an awful tragedy. I understand they pulled over to take a call from the hospital, as the reception was poor and she couldn't hear over the sound of the engine, about the baby, who is thankfully doing well. Would any of us have done differently in the same circumstances? God Rest Her.

honestly, yes. If I was the driver there is no way I would have stopped there.

happened a few years back, kid was puking in the back. I was on motorway in France so took next exit rather than stop.

mloc123

Driving on the n7 yesterday, a focus was pulled it with indicator on. I thought maybe broken down until I saw 3-4 fellas, on route back from electric picnic I assume, sitting on the grass in their camping chairs.

Deub

I read in France, few years ago, that the average life span on the hard shoulder on a motorway is 8 min.
It would never cross my mind to stop there for a phone call. But as the others said I passed my driving test in France and there is a part about it in the theory test.

bmwguy

I really really needed to return a phone call yesterday on the m50, my phone had unpaired itself from the Bluetooth device I have, no way was I making the call while driving and no way was I pulling into the hard shoulder to do it either, I had visions of a truck ploughing into the back of me. I saw a video of it happening before and its a scary sight.

As I said, this phone call needed to be made so I pulled into one of those emergency services only spots reserved for guards in off the road a bit. Again, I knew I shouldn't be there but it was safest option.

Pulling back onto the motorway was a scary experience in itself trying to get from 0-100 or so as soon as possible with traffic coming up behind really needed to floor it.

Next car is definitely an m5, would have been easier 😊

HeidiHeidi

bmwguy wrote: »

I really really needed to return a phone call yesterday on the m50, my phone had unpaired itself from the Bluetooth device I have, no way was I making the call while driving and no way was I pulling into the hard shoulder to do it either, I had visions of a truck ploughing into the back of me. I saw a video of it happening before and its a scary sight.

As I said, this phone call needed to be made so I pulled into one of those emergency services only spots reserved for guards in off the road a bit. Again, I knew I shouldn't be there but it was safest option.

Pulling back onto the motorway was a scary experience in itself trying to get from 0-100 or so as soon as possible with traffic coming up behind really needed to floor it.

Next car is definitely an m5, would have been easier 😊

What call couldn't have waited 2 or 3 minutes till you came to an exit and found an "ordinary" road to pull in on? Exits are not that far apart on the M50.

I too frequently find myself succumbing to this "need to do it NOW" mentality but try to stay conscious of it and avoid it - honestly, will the world end if you don't manage to return the call within 5 minutes?

The ubiquity and immediacy of mobile phones has an awful lot to answer for.....

pudzey101

Traffic corps should giving these people pulled in on hard shoulders in none emergency penalty points , ( think its under reckless or dangerous driving )

Coudnt care less if the pope himself was ringing me , like LIGHTNING said above it only adds 5 mins to the journey and be safe if you take the next exit off or pass one of those special set down areas .

FishOnABike

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

I've never come across a dual carriageway with a 120kmph speed limit. Where did you see it?

I thought the dual carriageways were capped at 100kmph.... like the N7 from Red Cow to Naas

Section of the N25 between Cork and Carrigtwohill.

bmwguy

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

What call couldn't have waited 2 or 3 minutes till you came to an exit and found an "ordinary" road to pull in on? Exits are not that far apart on the M50.

I too frequently find myself succumbing to this "need to do it NOW" mentality but try to stay conscious of it and avoid it - honestly, will the world end if you don't manage to return the call within 5 minutes?

The ubiquity and immediacy of mobile phones has an awful lot to answer for.....

This was a one off, I've never had to do it before and regularly ignore calls on the road even when Bluetooth is working, just not big into talking on phone while driving most of the time, call them back when I reach the destination, usually all good. But this was an exception, I still didn't just pull straight in to hard shoulder I pulled off the road where I wouldn't be hit.

Reminds me to go out and fix the Bluetooth now so it doesn't happen again.

mickdw

I recently got a puncture. Got into hard shoulder safely. Had a quick look a tyre. Decided to drive slowly in hard shoulder 2 miles to exit and changed wheel safely after. Rules probably say I should have got towed but I figured what I did was the best and safest way out overall.

Seve OB

bmwguy wrote: »

This was a one off, I've never had to do it before and regularly ignore calls on the road even when Bluetooth is working, just not big into talking on phone while driving most of the time, call them back when I reach the destination, usually all good. But this was an exception, I still didn't just pull straight in to hard shoulder I pulled off the road where I wouldn't be hit.

Reminds me to go out and fix the Bluetooth now so it doesn't happen again.

so what was the emergency? i think it most likely wasn't as important as the call that girl took down in Tipp

bmwguy

Seve OB wrote: »

so what was the emergency? i think it most likely wasn't as important as the call that girl took down in Tipp

Don't worry what it was, but it was an emergency and as I said, I didn't stop on hard shoulder like the case you mentioned. Or take the call driving. I stopped where the cops pull in, nice and safe.

Hotblack Desiato

CiniO wrote: »

On other roads, they pass normal traffic, overtake cyclists and pedestrians, and all seem to work fine. I can't think why would it be different on motorway.

Microsleep.

Motorways are very monotonous to drive on for long distances for hours on end. Some of these guys are exceeding their hours and not getting proper sleep too.

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

I agree with the poster who commented that we get our full drivers licence without having driven on the motorway - which has a different set of rules than a normal road.

I've my full licence 9 years and I genuinely didn't know until recently that it's illegal to pull in on the hard shoulder of a motorway.

It has different rules yes but they're all in the same book and you're supposed to have a thorough knowledge of it before you apply for your learner permit. There are (or should be) motorway questions in the theory test too.

Wossack

really wish I had a dash cam.. M50 northbound, just after carrickmines exit (I think), car getting jump started by another in the hard shoulder.. so front car of the pair, was facing against traffic.. I shit you not. The mind boggles

Pinch Flat

Wossack wrote: »

really wish I had a dash cam.. M50 northbound, just after carrickmines exit (I think), car getting jump started by another in the hard shoulder.. so front car of the pair, was facing against traffic.. I shit you not. The mind boggles

Saw what I thought was a car tailgating another going northbound just approaching the Tallaght exit a few weeks back. Turns out the car behind was being towed by the car in front. Wonder if it was the same lads?

Sam Kade

Ericdravancrow wrote: »

Saw some couple having a picnic on the embankment of the motorway between Shannon and Ennis a few weeks ago... :-/

Yeah seen that a few times then there are the ones that want to stretch their legs, you'd swear that motorways in Ireland went on for miles.

Voodoomelon

Blazer wrote: »

Those people are a menace. Especially when joining a motorway at 50kph.
I now have zero patience for those people and blow the ****e of out of them until they get the message and speed up.

I have to say I messed up re joining the motorway last year by the airport after I got a bogus tyre pressure loss warning.

I put the boot down and started building big speed but I foolishly indicated almost straight away, which freaked out a truck driver a couple of hundred metres back and it looked like he swerved into the middle lane without looking.

I had no intention of pulling out until I was doing 120km/h +, but my indication was dangerous as he anticipated the usual pull-out at 20km/h numpty. Lesson learnt.

Seve OB

Voodoomelon wrote: »

I have to say I messed up re joining the motorway last year by the airport after I got a bogus tyre pressure loss warning.

I put the boot down and started building big speed but I foolishly indicated almost straight away, which freaked out a truck driver a couple of hundred metres back and it looked like he swerved into the middle lane without looking.

I had no intention of pulling out until I was doing 120km/h +, but my indication was dangerous as he anticipated the usual pull-out at 20km/h numpty. Lesson learnt.

Disagree. I don't think you messed up at all. Just cause you indicated it doesn't mean you are turning immediately. In fact you should indicate as you did in advance of the turn to give fair warn to the guys behind.

If they misinterpret tour actions and do something stupid then it's their fault and not yours. Sure half of drivers don't even bother their arse indicating at all.

Jesus.

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Also people who stop to have a natter on the phone, picnic (this is quite common), have a call of nature or have a nap have no idea of the danger they're putting themselves in.

Wait a minute Pinch Flat. Are you telling me you've seen people having a picnic on a motorway hard shoulder!

Hang sandiches and a bottle o' tae on d way to d match???

Sam Kade

Jesus. wrote: »

Wait a minute Pinch Flat. Are you telling me you've seen people having a picnic on a motorway hard shoulder!

Hang sandiches and a bottle o' tae on d way to d match???

They'd go up the embankment, not for safety I bet rather a place to sit/ lie down.

Jesus.

Seve OB wrote: »

the other day I was in the inside lane as I approached the red cow slip lane with cars merging onto my lane. there was a bit of traffic, not loads and the outside lane was totally empty. I indicate and start to move into the middle lane, but the guy over my right shoulder refuses to move out to the outside lane as I move out and instead thinks he should be holding firm in the middle lane and just beeps and wave at me as if to tell me I should have stayed where I was, despite the merging traffic in front of me and him being well back.

To be honest he was under no obligation to give way. Not being smart but you should have either sped up or slowed down and got in front of him or behind him. That and anticipated the merge up ahead.

Knine

Jesus. wrote: »

To be honest he was under no obligation to give way. Not being smart but you should have either sped up or slowed down and got in front of him or behind him. That and anticipated the merge up ahead.

If the guy in the middle lane was not over taking then he should not have been hogging the middle lane. So many do not understand the concept of keep left

BailMeOut

If you break down on a motorway who do you call? Is there some motorway number we should all have programmed in our phones?

dudara

My car broke down on the N7 southbound about 8 years ago. I managed to coax it over to the hard shoulder and was getting my stuff together, making calls to the tow company, when a Nissan Micra drove straight into the back of me. I was fine thankfully, minor whiplash, but both cars were written off. It was an 80 year old man who was scared of driving in the regular lanes with the trucks.

I learned a very valuable lesson that day about exiting the car ASAP. I will never ever make that mistake again. And I literally shudder now anytime I pass someone pulled in on the hard shoulder. It's the scariest place to be.

Jesus.

Knine wrote: »

If the guy in the middle lane was not over taking then he should not have been hogging the middle lane. So many do not understand the concept of keep left

I presume he was overtaking

sheep?

I've done it just the once, at about 3am, on my way home from a gig. It was the N11, just before Kilmacanogue.

Some eejit had decided to pull out from the 1st lane in front of me as I was overtaking, which is bad enough. But I was also wearing a new pair of trousers with really shallow pockets, and my phone (unbeknownst to myself) had slipped out onto the seat. The hard braking was enough to shoot the phone into my footwell, so I pulled over to the hard shoulder to fish it out.

As if this Fraiser-esque set of circumstances wasn't enough, I wasn't there 3 seconds before a guarda car pulled in in front of me. He got out, asked, I explained (very, very badly), and sent me off with a good luck.

The phone now sits in the door pocket now for every journey!

Jesus.

bmwguy wrote: »

I really really needed to return a phone call yesterday on the m50, my phone had unpaired itself from the Bluetooth device I have, no way was I making the call while driving and no way was I pulling into the hard shoulder to do it either, I had visions of a truck ploughing into the back of me. I saw a video of it happening before and its a scary sight. As I said, this phone call needed to be made so I pulled into one of those emergency services only spots reserved for guards in off the road a bit. Again, I knew I shouldn't be there but it was safest option. Pulling back onto the motorway was a scary experience in itself trying to get from 0-100 or so as soon as possible with traffic coming up behind really needed to floor it. Next car is definitely an m5, would have been easier 😊

That was in no way the safest thing to do. You should've just made the blooming call. Its hardly equivalent to a death wish. Either that or just not make the call a'tall.

Tombo2001

There;s a simple answer to this.

Make it a penalty point offence to pull over on the hard shoulder. No excuses.

Its an extremely dangerous thing to do. If you park on the hard shoulder, on average you will be hit within about two hours.

There seems to be a complete lack of awareness. There are never any ads about it.

People seem to think that the safe thing to do when your phone rings is to pull over on to the hard shoulder and take the call.

Seve OB

Jesus. wrote: »

To be honest he was under no obligation to give way. Not being smart but you should have either sped up or slowed down and got in front of him or behind him. That and anticipated the merge up ahead.

I guess you are technically correct but he should have awareness of what is going on in front of him and react accordingly. He was clearly just hogging the middle lane with no intention of going anywhere else.

He was more or less matching my speed, but certainly not going faster than me. In my recollection I may have even undertaken him and there was nothing behind me so he could have pulled in behind me before we even got there.

Knine wrote: »

If the guy in the middle lane was not over taking then he should not have been hogging the middle lane. So many do not understand the concept of keep left

exactly

TheChizler

Seve OB wrote: »

Jesus. wrote: »

To be honest he was under no obligation to give way. Not being smart but you should have either sped up or slowed down and got in front of him or behind him. That and anticipated the merge up ahead.

I guess you are technically correct but he should have awareness of what is going on in front of him and react accordingly. He was clearly just hogging the middle lane with no intention of going anywhere else.

He was more or less matching my speed, but certainly not going faster than me. In my recollection I may have even undertaken him and there was nothing behind me so he could have pulled in behind me before we even got there.

Knine wrote: »

If the guy in the middle lane was not over taking then he should not have been hogging the middle lane. So many do not understand the concept of keep left

exactly

Maybe he couldn't get out of the overtaking lane since you might have overtaken him on the left? I've been in a similar situation a few times, you overtake someone, so does someone else, they overtake you on the left and pull alongside before you get a chance to safely move left and you're stuck on the right like an eejit.

Seve OB

TheChizler wrote: »

Maybe he couldn't get out of the overtaking lane since you might have overtaken him on the left? I've been in a similar situation a few times, you overtake someone, so does someone else, they overtake you on the left and pull alongside before you get a chance to safely move left and you're stuck on the right like an eejit.

look this guy was pure and simply hogging the middle lane. when I overtake someone I pull as far left as I can and I don't move out until I need to. when we were coming up to merging traffic, it essentiually forced me to move right to allow them to merge safely and he should have done the same. as I already said, the outside lane was completely clear, he just didn't want to move out of the middle

Seve OB

Jesus. wrote: »

To be honest he was under no obligation to give way. Not being smart but you should have either sped up or slowed down and got in front of him or behind him. That and anticipated the merge up ahead.

do you know actually now that I think of that logic, what you are also saying is that I was under no obligation to give way to the cars wanting to merge onto the motorway, so I should have held firm in the inside lane at my own pace and let them decide to speed up or slow down to mergein front or behind me :rolleyes:

PaddyWilliams

Seve OB wrote: »

do you know actually now that I think of that logic, what you are also saying is that I was under no obligation to give way to the cars wanting to merge onto the motorway, so I should have held firm in the inside lane at my own pace and let them decide to speed up or slow down to mergein front or behind me :rolleyes:

I thought merging traffic was meant to give way to traffic already on the motorway, or am I wrong?

Seth Brundle

Seve OB wrote: »

do you know actually now that I think of that logic, what you are also saying is that I was under no obligation to give way to the cars wanting to merge onto the motorway, so I should have held firm in the inside lane at my own pace and let them decide to speed up or slow down to mergein front or behind me :rolleyes:

A car travelling on the carriageway has priority over another vehicle that is merging.
If the merging vehicle cannot find a suitable slot to get onto the carriageway before the hatched markings, technically they must stop until a safe slot is available.
However, in Ireland people presume that because they're merging they have priority over all others and everyone else must move out of their way!

Seve OB

PaddyWilliams wrote: »

I thought merging traffic was meant to give way to traffic already on the motorway, or am I wrong?

yes you are right, but traffic already on the motorway needs to be aware of what is happening on the road ahead of them

Seth Brundle

Tombo2001 wrote: »

There;s a simple answer to this.

Make it a penalty point offence to pull over on the hard shoulder. No excuses.

Making something a penalty point offence is pointless (excuse the pun) if there aren't enough gardai to monitor it. Sure, look at all those gabbing away on their phones.

Anyhow, points can be earned for driving in the HD on a motorway and for parking get in it (how can you park in the HS without driving in it?)

Jesus.

Seve OB wrote: »

do you know actually now that I think of that logic, what you are also saying is that I was under no obligation to give way to the cars wanting to merge onto the motorway, so I should have held firm in the inside lane at my own pace and let them decide to speed up or slow down to mergein front or behind me :rolleyes:

Not a'tall Steve O (although technically that's what they're supposed to do!). You were right to move over and if I was the guy in lane two who saw you trying to get in, I would've eased up or sped up to allow you in.
I just think perhaps you shouldn't have gotten yourself in that situation in the first place

Seve OB

kbannon wrote: »

Making something a penalty point offence is pointless (excuse the pun) if there aren't enough gardai to monitor it. Sure, look at all those gabbing away on their phones.

Anyhow, points can be earned for driving in the HD on a motorway and for parking get in it (how can you park in the HS without driving in it?)

by breaking down :eek:

readytosnap

Car99 wrote: »

Is it legal to stop on an Irish motorway hard shoulder for anything other than a breakdown?

I lived and travelled all over Europe and UK over the years and nowhere have I seen people stopping on a motorway hard should for any reason except a breakdown because
A. Its illegal and
B. Its a bloody dangerous place to be.

Yet in ireland people stop for anything from taking a pee to answering the phone or just to stretch the legs!

In the uk if you break down even no matter what the weather , you park your car with hazards on and get out and climb up the embankment for your own safety and to avoid prosecution.

People need educating on the dangers

What is the law in Ireland regarding stopping on a motorway?

People just do what they want on the roads here, they still think they are driving tractors around a field.
On another point, If you don't know the rules/law you shouldn't be driving on the road.

Sam Kade

Tombo2001 wrote: »

There;s a simple answer to this.

Make it a penalty point offence to pull over on the hard shoulder. No excuses.

Its an extremely dangerous thing to do. If you park on the hard shoulder, on average you will be hit within about two hours.

There seems to be a complete lack of awareness. There are never any ads about it.

People seem to think that the safe thing to do when your phone rings is to pull over on to the hard shoulder and take the call.

Unless your car breaks down, then you have no other choice.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

I've never come across a dual carriageway with a 120kmph speed limit. Where did you see it?

I thought the dual carriageways were capped at 100kmph.... like the N7 from Red Cow to Naas

N1 north of the M1.

Car99

Seve OB wrote: »

no danger at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-XaD2UKpmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JiOETTsHWI

Wow the guy in the truck needed a change of pants after that I'd say.

jester77

I can't believe there are people that would intentionally pull up a hard shoulder :eek:

Was reading that in the UK they advise you not to put the emergency triangle out on the hard shoulder, while here in Germany you are told that you have to place it 150m back from the broken down car on the hard shoulder.

kirving

kbannon wrote: »

Seve OB wrote: »

do you know actually now that I think of that logic, what you are also saying is that I was under no obligation to give way to the cars wanting to merge onto the motorway, so I should have held firm in the inside lane at my own pace and let them decide to speed up or slow down to mergein front or behind me :rolleyes:

A car travelling on the carriageway has priority over another vehicle that is merging.
If the merging vehicle cannot find a suitable slot to get onto the carriageway before the hatched markings, technically they must stop until a safe slot is available.
However, in Ireland people presume that because they're merging they have priority over all others and everyone else must move out of their way!

It's far easier for a car already on the motorway to allow a car to join safely, by moving right, or accelerating or braking to make room.

It's very difficult for the car joining to do this, especially if it's lower powered. I always do my level best to allow a car to join rather than sit at my set cruise control speed and not give way because I have no legal obligation to. I'd rather do that than have a car come to a stop on the on-ramp as I've seen numerous times on the at J12 M50 Southbound on ram.

gizmo555

Car99 wrote: »

Wow the guy in the truck needed a change of pants after that I'd say.

I nearly needed a change just watching it :eek:

Seth Brundle

Kevin Irving wrote: »

It's far easier for a car already on the motorway to allow a car to join safely, by moving right, or accelerating or braking to make room.

It's very difficult for the car joining to do this, especially if it's lower powered. I always do my level best to allow a car to join rather than sit at my set cruise control speed and not give way because I have no legal obligation to. I'd rather do that than have a car come to a stop on the on-ramp as I've seen numerous times on the at J12 M50 Southbound on ram.

Yes but hat comes down to courtesy and not the law.
However, many drivers believe that it's their right to pull into the mainline from a slip road. That's just incompetence.

CiniO

kbannon wrote: »

Yes but hat comes down to courtesy and not the law.
However, many drivers believe that it's their right to pull into the mainline from a slip road. That's just incompetence.

Well, once joining the motorway and already on the slip road, you don't really have a choice anymore. You have to join it.
If traffic is very heavy and it's hard to find a empty slot to move from slip lane to driving lane, you can either force your way through or stop on slip lane.
Both dangerous and illegal, but I would choose the first one as safer.

The Rape of Lucretia

Deub wrote: »

I read in France, few years ago, that the average life span on the hard shoulder on a motorway is 8 min.

Because a parked car is likely to be hit on average after 8 minutes ?
So really, any car that breaks down on the motorway that has to park on the HS is a write off - since it will be multiples of that to get a service vehicle to hit, it is virtually guaranteed to be hit to an extent that would kill and thus destroyed ?

Going Forward

It seems that drivers are drawn like moths to a flame when something is stopped on the hard shoulder.

They don't normally weave all over the road and onto the hard shoulder from what I can see.

Yet when something is parked there bingo!

How is it they do it right at the wong time and also manage to hit something that's just stopped there?

Are all these accidents really as they are reported or are the ones that are hit really driving out under/attempting to rejoin moving traffic half the time?

I just can't fathom how trucks can hit something on a part of the road you normally don't see them driving on to begin with.

Going Forward

Deub wrote: »

I read in France, few years ago, that the average life span on the hard shoulder on a motorway is 8 min.

Wonder why?

Surely the spot the car is stopped in is not being encroached upon every 8 minutes or so if nothing is parked there?