Great Drive Nearly Turned Bad

[mattcambs]

Was on my way home from work the "long way" yesterday via some great country roads.

I was putting the 2 through its paces in the twisties and getting in some great toe-heel braking practice. (pedals are too close in the 2 to use your heel - use side of foot instead)

Anyhow, I'm doing about 50mph (road is NSL) around a fairly tight right hander and about half way round I'm faced with some fool in a Rover 75 coming the other way, completely on my side of the road (I think he had entered the corner too fast and had understeered A LOT!

Anyway, so I poo myself and he just about manages to get out of my way.

One of those live and learn moments. Still love the handling of the 2

[LimeyMk1]

Yikes! Sounds like a bit of a brown trouser moment Matt!

Not much you can do about situations like that other than get as far over as possible and pray.

[monkeymax]

Yup - I've had that, but in the daily beast... one of the problems of driving on a country road (which I also do whenever I drive in) is the blind corners. People do tend to push too hard around those and in my case it was a Rover 200 (bubble shape) which had clearly understeered badly. I've taken to not pushing too hard around such corners now (I once was doing 50 in NSL like you around a tight left-hander, came out of the corner to find a car had broken down just after the corner with traffic coming in the other direction and nowhere to go. Hit the brakes hard and got gently nudged by the person behind resulting in me getting very close to said broken down car by the time I stopped - that was my major brown trouser moment, but accident averted)...

Anyway, with this Rover I was fortunate in that there was some sort of dirt run off to the left off the road; steered the car onto it and had some fun, rally style!

Glad to hear that you got away with it this time though. B-roads and country lanes are fine, but I'd seriously recommend, if you can't see around the corner, take it easy!

(Come to think of it, that's probably why I'm always left behind on club runs... LOL)

[Quigonjay]

i've never experienced it personally but i have experienced the consequences of such driving
was in hospital a few years back after breaking my pelvis mountain biking, nice guy in the bed next to me, late 20's, wasnt really all there at the time due to the amount of morphine he was taking but was still a nice, popular guy with everything to look forward to
he had been out biking with his mates when some idiot middle aged guy took the corner they where going round on the wrong side, 6 of them where hospitalised
the guy next to me died of his injuries
i wont go into more detail but it was a particularly traumatic experience for me, i had to scream for a nurse in the middle of the night while he was dying, he just managed to get out "help" before he went

[mattcambs]

I'm taking a lesson from this: which is exactly what you said MonkeyMax:

B-roads and country lanes are fine, but I'd seriously recommend, if you can't see around the corner, take it easy!

My 2 isn't my daily driver either and so it's always very exciting to get out in it after I've been commuting in the 1.4 Civic!

Cheers, guys Drive carefully

Matt

[blue2]

Happened to me also. Theres a set of lanes I take on the way home from work, you always get someone who takes a bend to quickly and ends up over the white lines. I always tend to stick near the curb on the bends down this road as its happend a few times now and its a blackspot for accidents, my mate wrote his car on this road a few years back. Not worth risking it whatsoever.

[cartledge_uk]

There is also another risk.

One of my friends was driving round the country roads near me at about 40mph (hes a really slow driver) went round a series of blind bends.

BAM, right in the back of a near stationary tractor that had just pulled out from a field.

One written off car and nothing he could have done about it.


Although the twisties are fun, they are also very dangerous. you have to be careful out there.

[mattcambs]

There is also another risk.

One of my friends was driving round the country roads near me at about 40mph (hes a really slow driver) went round a series of blind bends.

BAM, right in the back of a near stationary tractor that had just pulled out from a field.

One written off car and nothing he could have done about it.


Although the twisties are fun, they are also very dangerous. you have to be careful out there.

True words, chap

A while back I was going round a blind bend that goes under a low bridge below a railway line (Great Chesterford, Essex). Admittedly I was going too fast for the situation (although not speeding), but I certainly didn't expect to have to emergency-stop for a car doing a three-point turn in the middle of this narrow bit of road!

[jont]

One of my friends was driving round the country roads near me at about 40mph (hes a really slow driver) went round a series of blind bends.

BAM, right in the back of a near stationary tractor that had just pulled out from a field.

One written off car and nothing he could have done about it.

He could have been driving at a speed appropriate to the (lack of) vision. It's going to sound really patronising, but I'll say it anyway... always drive at a speed where you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear (and reasonably expect to remain clear). If you're on a single track or narrow road, then you need to be able to stop in half that distance. If you're going to pass a junction/field entrance/driveway, then allow for the fact something may appear out of it.

If I'm on a road like that, I'll also be eyeing up possible escapes - such as field entrances, looking at whether the verge is useable etc.

Sometime you really do have to drop down to walking pace if the bends are that blind. Still, it gives you an excuse to boot it up the next straight....

[azamr2]

for a while i lived in southern ireland with me parents, mostly made up of country lanes and such.. well one evening i got bored and headed out for a drive.. loving the quiet lanes that no one seems to use... coming around a long sweeping bend at around 50-60mph, so not that fast and as the bend gets tighter some half asleep farmer pulls out on me in his tractor.. evasive manuevers where needed! only to be greeted by 3 cows standing the other side of the tractor, he must have been moving them to a different field.. how i missed them all i will never know! but that was a serious brown trouser moment!

[James Junior]

There is also another risk.

One of my friends was driving round the country roads near me at about 40mph (hes a really slow driver) went round a series of blind bends.

BAM, right in the back of a near stationary tractor that had just pulled out from a field.

One written off car and nothing he could have done about it.


Although the twisties are fun, they are also very dangerous. you have to be careful out there.

True words, chap

A while back I was going round a blind bend that goes under a low bridge below a railway line (Great Chesterford, Essex). Admittedly I was going too fast for the situation (although not speeding), but I certainly didn't expect to have to emergency-stop for a car doing a three-point turn in the middle of this narrow bit of road!

Ha this happened to me the other morning on my way to work - rounded a bend and was presented with some old lady doing a tewnty three point turn in the middle of the road (think Austin Powers).

I managed to stop but ended up quite close to her and the worst part was I don;t even think she knew I was there! She finally got facing the right way and just pootled off at 20mph while I retrieved my heart from my mouth!

It made it quite clear that I need to bleed my braking system sooner rather than later! Well that and watch out for random old persons antics.

[matt_mr2t]

Just because the speed limit is 60mph on all these country lanes doesnt mean you should be doing 60 on all of them.

You could be Lewis Hamilton in the worlds best handling car but if your punting along and some one else gets it wrong it's going to be an epic accident.

*This is no reflection on Matts original post*

I hear too often people say "I can do this and that speed through the twisties. I really dont think they realise quite how dangerous it is to do that on public roads. In fact, some times it's just plain stupid and reckless.
Speed is one thing, speeding round bends like your a race car driver is another.

Remember peeps - be safe!

[mrfil13]

Glad your ok, its annoying when things like that happen in the two as you risk getting the back end out if cornering and having to suddenly break.

Im always cautious of big blind corners, too many times i have been going around one to end up coming across someone doing a stupidly slow speed and having to slow down quickly.

[matt_mr2t]

Was in my dads car going home recently, dark on a semi country lane. Not very bendy. There's bushes to our left and a field to the right.

Long sweeping left bend. He comes along, 30mph (30 limit) then out of no where an Audi A3 comes towards him at at least 60mph on his side of the road. Dad had to brake hard to avoid a head on.

Tell you what, I would have loved to have grabbed this xxxx by the throat and beaten the life out of him tbh.

[Alex B]

I had a bit of a challenging moment going from Totnes to the Avonwick in Devon, was going along at a fair pace, came around a corner to find a car broken down and another one oncoming.

I ended up threading the car through a 10metre gap behind the oncoming car. My friend bricked himself which was quite funny but all in all not an ideal place to break down! It is a fairly straight piece of road in most places with occasional corners, so many people would have been doing the limit there.

The driver should have gotten out of the vehicle to either warn traffic or place down a warning triangle. Yet if I had hit either car, it would have been my fault.

You have to keep your whits about you on the roads!

Regarding the situation in the opening post, I personally make full use of a road, if I have full visibility, pretty bad practice to end up on the wrong side of the road in a blind corner situation. If you don't know the road you're driving on and drive too fast, that's what happens.

[Monaco]

One of my friends was driving round the country roads near me at about 40mph (hes a really slow driver) went round a series of blind bends.

BAM, right in the back of a near stationary tractor that had just pulled out from a field.

One written off car and nothing he could have done about it.

He could have been driving at a speed appropriate to the (lack of) vision. It's going to sound really patronising, but I'll say it anyway... always drive at a speed where you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear (and reasonably expect to remain clear). If you're on a single track or narrow road, then you need to be able to stop in half that distance. If you're going to pass a junction/field entrance/driveway, then allow for the fact something may appear out of it.

If I'm on a road like that, I'll also be eyeing up possible escapes - such as field entrances, looking at whether the verge is useable etc.

Sometime you really do have to drop down to walking pace if the bends are that blind. Still, it gives you an excuse to boot it up the next straight....

Aye,

My folks live on a farm on the South Coast of Devon and the last 3 miles to get their place is all single lane country roads with passing places dotted along them. Technically they're 60 limits, but its not safe to do anything more than 20 on them.

When I was younger and a lot more reckless/idiotic I did the whole 'rally driver' thing along them. It was luck that I never ended up in a serious accident, as if there's a car coming the other way, you either come to a full stop in time, or you hit it; there's no chance of squeezing past.

Nowdays, I care about the tubby too much to wreck it on some country road and pootle along at 15mph.