£500 Speedboat Stops Motorway.

[Mollers]

M4 driver stops FOUR lanes of M4 traffic after puncture | Daily Mail Online

Here they come! Towing scrap to the southwest to bother the emergency services, or worse.

[kerny]

Originally Posted by Mollers

M4 driver stops FOUR lanes of M4 traffic after puncture | Daily Mail Online

Here they come! Towing scrap to the southwest to bother the emergency services, or worse.

wtf..... what was he doing in the third lane anyways

Very, Very, Very lucky could have been a disaster.

[ShinyShoe]

so over to the rib.net jury...

Lets ignore that he was in Lane 3 with a trailer - he could have been in Lane 2 of 2 legally if it was a narrower section.

I'm not sure why he was stopped - he could have just driven on with the puncture and manouvred over. But for whatever reason he stopped. Perhaps he wasn't sure if he had a puncture or a failed bearing.

So you find yourself in Lane 2/2 or 3/3 - lets ignore the trailer I think its irrelevant.

Do you (a) wait on the central reservation having dialled 999/112 and hope that the highway wombles +/- police get there to mark your position and close the road before someone crashes into the back of you, or if the traffic is already reasonably slow (as it was) and passing motorists offer to slow and let you over do you go for it?

I ask because I and another van driver closed a motorway for about 30 seconds in a very similar manouvre one evening with a three car shunt in the outside lane. Traffic was stationary following the shunt about 10 cars ahead of us. Traffic was then starting to move past on lanes 1 & 2. Everyone was out and looked uninjured and both me and the van driver looked at each other made a face that said "FFS they will get killed there by someone screaming up the outside at 80MPH." We just both nodded and gave some kind of hand gesture that we knew what we meant and moved across the lanes to block and then technically we never stopped we just crawled very slowly - wound down my window and shouted to them to get the cars on the hard shoulder before they got killed. They jumped in moved over to the shoulder and when clear we moved off.

The video would have looked very similar to then except two vehicles did all the protecting and there was no-one walking about barefoot. There will have been a tail back down the motorway, but there would have been anyway.

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

I'm not sure why he was stopped - he could have just driven on with the puncture and manouvred over. But for whatever reason he stopped. Perhaps he wasn't sure if he had a puncture or a failed bearing.

Actually having re looked at some of the stills, there is no hard shoulder. Its a "smart" motorway. So where he manoeuvred to was a hatched section. If he had driven on 300 yards then he'd have had to be stationary on the "hardshoulder" and the road would have reverted to non-smart operations. **BUT** if its a smart motorway - I thought they were 100% camera monitored so that they could spot a breakdown on the shoulder and flip to non-smart working. So how come in the video the speed restriction is still 60MPH - surely someone should have flipped than to something safer?

[Poly]

Low news day or just clever click bait from the daily mail? when did man gets puncture, minor traffic jam on M4, man fixes puncture become national news?

[spartacus]

Accident waiting to happen.

Let's stick with the fact he was in the outside lane. Absolutely no reason for it. Towing a lightweight trailer like this, then 60mph tops. You get there in the end if you hug the inside lane and join the HGV convoy.

Let's also assume it's a flat tyre or dodgy bearing that the driver feels compelled to stop. There's no reason to stop. Even if I was down to my stub axle I'd haul the trailer to the inside lane or hard shoulder rather than stop on the fast lane.

This could have ended badly. Most experienced drivers that come across something like this would whack on their hazards and slow the traffic down, rather than stop outright, otherwise you're a sitting duck for some idiot that's busy texting or looking for a Bon Jovi CD in the glove compartment.

[willk]

Originally Posted by spartacus

...or looking for a Bon Jovi CD in the glove compartment.

That brings me way back!
..
.
.
.
.
Whatever happened to gloves?

[Poly]

Originally Posted by willk

That brings me way back!

CD's in the defender? Who you trying to kid - copied C90s I could believe!

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by spartacus

Let's stick with the fact he was in the outside lane. Absolutely no reason for it. Towing a lightweight trailer like this, then 60mph tops. You get there in the end if you hug the inside lane and join the HGV convoy.

I don't disagree. Although Smart Speed Limit is 60MPH, so in theory he wasn't holding anyone up. But he was breaking the law.

Let's also assume it's a flat tyre or dodgy bearing that the driver feels compelled to stop. There's no reason to stop. Even if I was down to my stub axle I'd haul the trailer to the inside lane or hard shoulder rather than stop on the fast lane.

Well we don't have the benefit of knowing what happened before the film started. The traffic could have been stationary for other reasons for all we know - although you'd think he'd put his shoes on before going for a look in that case! I'm not sure if I thought I'd lost a wheel at 60MPH I would be so certain of not stopping in the outside lane. I agree its not what I'd want to do, but I'd rather be there than across two lanes with a trailer on its side. So I'd want to drop my speed to SLOW before changing direction too harshly. There is no hard shoulder to head for as such, And not sure slow is any better than stopped!

This could have ended badly. Most experienced drivers that come across something like this would whack on their hazards and slow the traffic down, rather than stop outright, otherwise you're a sitting duck for some idiot that's busy texting or looking for a Bon Jovi CD in the glove compartment.

Great in concept, but you need to have enough vision of the problem to do that perhaps 400 yards back, straddling lane 2 & 3 and stop anyone passing you. You don't know that far back if the vehicle is movable. I'd bet the van driver said to the bloke with no shoes - "are you wanting over onto the hard sholder?" "Yip" "go for it I'll hold the cars back"

He probably didn't then bank on shoeless man going round the van and stopping traffic by hand. THAT WAS SUICIDAL....

Have to say I was rather impressed that bikini girl drove the car. In my experience very few woman will tow and even for that short a distance would be like "GTF - get back in the car and do it yourself"

[Sonar]

Originally Posted by kerny

wtf..... what was he doing in the third lane anyways

Very, Very, Very lucky could have been a disaster.

I saw a rib Yesterday in the third lane as well on the M1 southbound so nothing new there...

[bedajim]

M5 Friday morning sporty Volvo full of family towing a Halfords Biscuit tin trailer + top extension box came past me in the third lane, I was of course travelling at 69.9 mph.
An educated guess would put him close to 95mph +

[willk]

Originally Posted by Poly

CD's in the defender? Who you trying to kid - copied C90s I could believe!

More likely a CD than a glove box!

However, I fear that you missed the thrust of my comment, so far as there was one

BTW, the Defender is being retired this week. I'm away to the Dark Side after 18 years......

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by willk

BTW, the Defender is being retired this week. I'm away to the Dark Side after 18 years......

Niva Cossack or Dacia Duster? It's always a tough one.

[willk]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

In my limited experience very few woman will tow and even for that short a distance would be like "GTF - get back in the car and do it yourself"

You need a bigger sample

My office admin is 5' nothing and a real glamour puss. She spent Saturday hauling 52 acres of silage behind a Massey 7600 over public roads. My mind also springs to the woman doing the same job at RBB. A HGV driver once came into the office and complained that he wouldn't be able to reverse his artic into the back yard because it was "impossible". She went out and did it while he was still moaning to someone - she is an ex-Army transport driver. Oh, and then there's a school friend of mine who drove artics for years. She was a real hunny too, which kinda capped it. I watched a couple of hugely overweight ladies who were well past the first flush of youth reversing and launching a RIB on a tricky slip recently - experts both.

And of course, we all know the lads who can't reverse a trailer.

Janet H will be along shortly to talk to you about towing "vans" as she quaintly calls them. I would formulate a draft apology to have ready, IIWY

[willk]

Originally Posted by Mollers

Niva Cossack or Dacia Duster? It's always a tough one.

I'm afraid that my choice was limited to new vehicles rated to tow 3500kg. I could have "done a Duster rightly", otherwise...

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by willk

You need a bigger sample

These NI girls are the biz!

Maybe a regional 'Ladies backing up' for cash calendar series is in order?

Mine's old Cornish farming stock, she's ok going ahead, astern can result in me getting a verbal backhander.

Are you looking for a cheap odd job fella about the office?

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by willk

I'm afraid that my choice was limited to new vehicles rated to tow 3500kg. I could have "done a Duster rightly", otherwise...

Jim rocked up this w/end, in an oddly coloured Ford Rangger. Quite a piece of kit and will pull the max.

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by Mollers

Jim rocked up this w/end, in an oddly coloured Ford Rangger. Quite a piece of kit and will pull the max.

So I was at yours
Bit of a lost weekend

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by bedajim

So I was at yours
Bit of a lost weekend

Yep, we have video evidence.

'Just the one Calimero'.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by willk

You need a bigger sample

My office admin is 5' nothing and a real glamour puss. She spent Saturday hauling 52 acres of silage behind a Massey 7600 over public roads. My mind also springs to the woman doing the same job at RBB. A HGV driver once came into the office and complained that he wouldn't be able to reverse his artic into the back yard because it was "impossible". She went out and did it while he was still moaning to someone - she is an ex-Army transport driver. Oh, and then there's a school friend of mine who drove artics for years. She was a real hunny too, which kinda capped it. I watched a couple of hugely overweight ladies who were well past the first flush of youth reversing and launching a RIB on a tricky slip recently - experts both.

And of course, we all know the lads who can't reverse a trailer.

Janet H will be along shortly to talk to you about towing "vans" as she quaintly calls them. I would formulate a draft apology to have ready, IIWY

Mrs PD has been known to plough an acre or two with a Fergie T20 & 2 furrow plough.

Back to the original query. The traffic had just about come to a standstill anyway, the overhead gantries were showing 50 at one point, I thought he showed a bit of nous by getting off the road & onto the hard shoulder, fair play to him.