A close shave...

[Ronan 0]

Right, I was on a B road taking my missus back tonight, the weather here isn't as wet as it is up in plymouth, just a bit drizzly, so the raods were a bit greasy. I had some idiot right up my ass (in what I later found out was a 55 plate Scoob STi) because I wouldn't race him, and he had HID's so I couldn't see sh*t in front of me. Come to a little straight, I'm doing a steady 60, a 4x4 is coming the other way - I think it was a new shape Range Rover and it also had HID's, so my visibility was even more impaired, so it didn't help when he switched his full beams on in front of me (think he was TRYING to help, just made thigns worse) - well, about 20 yards down the road there was a tractor, stopped dead, on my side of the road, with no lights on. As it had been in and out of fields all day (it seemed) the road was covered in mud. Well, as soon as I saw it (apparently my gf only saw it a split second before I hit the brakes too) I hit the brakes, but as it was muiddy all they were doing was locking up as I pumped them, so I had no choice but to swerve round it at about 40-50 on a muddy, wet road. Luckily, I made it past, but the car went a bit sideways, and I sh*t myself.

 

What kind of complete idiot (1) drives right on your bumper, without overtaking you when they have an opportunity, and so impairs your visibility, and (2) parks a f***ing great tractor in the road at night WITH NO LIGHTS ON?!

 

My missus said if there was something coming the other way 5 seconds later we would have crashed but I would have seen the tractor so much earlier if that was the case, still think I'm f***ing lucky though, and I was impressed by my own driving lol

[veeDuB_Rado 0]

Holy crap mate

I feel a little creeped out just imagining that

 

Glad you and ur missus and the car are OK

 

Some tits on the road too

[Walesy 0]

..it's the closest I could find...

[Furkz 0]

Ronan, thats crazy,,,its good news your both ok though

[veeDuB_Rado 0]

corradowales, :lol: ROFL you fool

[crdo16v 0]

Ronan-lets hope the t*at in the Scooby sha* himself too big time!

 

A lucky escape bro', you will probably laugh about it in a few weeks time.

Still a bit of a sobering thought for us all especially with all the crap weather & icy roads still to come.

 

Safe motoring. :thumb right:

[VR6 0]

Ok so I will probably get flamed for this but ....

 

If it was a little B road that has tractors parked on (ok, so you can't have known there was a tractor) and the conditions were bad and you couldn't see too well, was 60mph a good speed to be doing?

 

Just an observation and I'm obviously glad you lived to tell the tale :)

[Walesy 0]

yeah..wasn't gonna say it..but...tis a fair point mate :lol: .

[Ronan 0]

I knwo someone was gonna say this.

 

Fine, whatever you say.

 

I know I was well within my limits driving at the speed I was doing and considering the conditions. As i said the road was greasy, big deal, it's greasy a lot of the time. I have driven this road countless times, know it very well indeed, and have driven it a lot quicker in worse conditions so I know my limits.

 

I wasn't racing, I wasn't pushing my luck, and I wasn't driving too fast for the conditions.

[chaz g60 0]

well you made it passed unharmed, the scooby was lucky as you swerved out to avoid it he didn't plow in to it.

[veeDuB_Rado 0]

agree with you Ronan, I drive alot and sometimes at night, round where I live there are several looong straight roads with no bumps atall, and at night there are no people. I got pulled over for doing 40 at like 1am, there was nobody else on the road, just me. And i was just driving along not attempting to speed, but they let me off....

 

Meh, everybody pushes there luck mate, you just learn from mistakes.

2 weeks ago I really REALLY misjudged and overtaking on the wasy back from hereford and i was about 30cm from having a 100mphh head on colliosion with a volvo estate cos there was a big slow lorry. Like i said, you learn.

[Walesy 0]

agreed...the more you drive, the more scrapes you get into, the more you learn...it's one of those things you need to learn for yourself.

 

Im sure next time Ronans driving down that raod in the dark, whilst its raining and the ground is slipperey he wont go 60mph around bends just incase theres some kind of obsticle in the way. :D :twisted:

[Musicman 0]

Um, much as I agree entirely with you about people driving too close behind (especially with blinding lights up front) and the lack of wisdom of parking a tractor in the road, I understand VR6's comments.

 

The definition of 'safe speed for the conditions' that I've always operated by is that should I need to, I can stop if there were an unavoidable obstacle in the road ahead of me. If the tractor had been stopped across the entire road instead of just to one side (perhaps with a trailer, or if it had already been involved in a collision with another vehicle) from your description of events, I understand you would have gone straight into it.

 

I've lived in rural mid-Wales and I know what habits you can get into when the roads are almost always empty, but you have to bear in mind that something unexpected may be just round the next bend.

 

Just my 2p. :? Glad you came out unscathed :wink:

[Ronan 0]

Well for the record I wasnt doing 60 round a bend.

 

Whatever, I was obviously driving like a dick.

 

Where's the eye rolling smiley when you need it?

[VR6 0]

No need to get so defensive dude.

 

It's a forum and people have differing opinions, views and experiences to voice and express.

[chaz g60 0]

:roll: there you go dude

[bcstudent 0]

Driving within your limits is one thing. Driving within everybody else's is another.

[Walesy 0]

i didn't know dick got past the swear filter....cool.

[billinjah 0]

we all should drive with enough speed to stop if there is an obstacle, but in real life that means all country roads should be taken at about 10mph. its not realistic you obviosly were driving at the correct speed as you didnt crash its wasnt you fault as the arsing tractor should have had lights or hazards on its as simple as that!

[Jim 2]

Some people just don't have a clue. I had a genuinely shocking moment whilst out driving the other night.. me and my passenger were just left speechless for about 5 minutes afterwards.

 

Came round a roundabout to head up the A45 and it merges from three lanes into two. I was behind someone who wasn't exactly hoofing it because the weather was a bit grim.. just before the lanes started to merge some complete asswipe in a big Rover (painted in that awful teale green that only rovers get painted in) went past me (the lanes starting to merge at this point) and tried to squeeze past the guy in front too - the lanes were practically merged at this point and i've genuinely NO idea how they didnt collide and just take each other off the road. The guy in front swerved a little to the left out of sheer shock but he could have reached out of his window and touched the other car, they came that close.

 

The Rover sped off at about 80MPH and I just drove along at the speed limit with my jaw hanging down - beyond belief.

[Ronan 0]

we all should drive with enough speed to stop if there is an obstacle, but in real life that means all country roads should be taken at about 10mph. its not realistic you obviosly were driving at the correct speed as you didnt crash its wasnt you fault as the arsing tractor should have had lights or hazards on its as simple as that!

 

Thank you.

[saysomestuff 0]

This kind of situation always has two sides - you didnt crash so technically you were driving at a safe enough speed although it's likely a slower speed and the lack of said idiots would have lessened the pant-wetting effect :lol:.

 

I bet ur gladd you have rado and not a rover!

 

I had a blazing row with a friend once when I crashed into the back of a van on my motorbike. Some fool, unbeknownst to me had pulled out in front of the van forcing it to brake fiercely and i smashed into the back of it. As much as I blamed the guy who pulled out on the van, my mate would always say it was my fault as I clearly wasn't a safe enough distance behind the van and i was like:

 

"but if the tool hadn't pulled out....."

 

and he was like;

"if you'd been a safe distance...."

 

annoyingly, his arguement is infallible, if i'd been riding to the conditions I wouldn't have crashed - simple as.

[.Rich. 0]

i HATE people who drive too close to the car in front.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Tractor - IIRC, any vehicle that is 'parked' on her majesty's highways unattended must be road legal..... i.e. lights, reflectors and number plates. I think tractors have some kind of dispensation as far as road tax is concerned, but I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to just leave it on the road with no reflectors. What if it had a plough attachment on the back? You'd be dead if you hit that at 60 (or what ever) mph.

 

Scoob - Hmmm. I hate people like that. Not much you can do unfortunately but sounds like he was a school bully that liked to pick on the 1st years.

 

Tom - Cough, says you doing 120mph on small IOM roads...in the wet :-) We'll not have any double standards on here please matey ;-)

[Taggart 0]

Tom - Cough, says you doing 120mph on small IOM roads...in the wet :-) We'll not have any double standards on here please matey ;-)

 

Hehe, I bet you wouldn't catch him doing it on one of our (many) foggy days up on the mountain though, which is pretty much the same visibility as Ronin seemed to have.