Huge accident on M5

Neither would I, foot off gas until the car comes down to a safer speed suitable to the conditions, keeping a close eye on the road lines so as not to drift across lanes.
Stupid to do anything else IMO
 
I wouldn't brake, too many people do and it just makes things worse.

i don't see how you can say that, ''an emulsion of fog'' like driving blind, you wouldn't know where you are going or how long it was going to last. i'd put money on you hitting the brake pedal out of fear, because that is what you would be feeling.
 
I wouldn't brake, too many people do and it just makes things worse.

We aren't robots and untill they make cars self drive things like this will always happen, some like you say, dont brake, some say brake, thats a recipe for disaster..

if cars could talk with each other, they wouldnt crash, as they'd know what the next car was doing..

they have the technology, jet liners use it, to stop them crashing in heavy fog..

like ive said, you could have the biggest stopping distance in the world but that wont stop someone side swiping you.. Which did happen here..

the fog caused people to react and because we arent robots, people react in different ways and i say, that is no fault of theirs..

some people have said, drive to the conditions, if its foggy slow down, the condition was, the road was fine, so 60 to 70 would have been fine, an eye witness said the fog descended from above, so obviously then you drive to the conditions and slow down but people obviously slow at different rates and if you are blind to the cars in front of you, you're going to hit them..

It seems very wrong to put blame on someone who is blind for tripping on a curb, imo.
 
Neither would I, foot off gas until the car comes down to a safer speed suitable to the conditions, keeping a close eye on the road lines so as not to drift across lanes.
Stupid to do anything else IMO

Exactly what I would do.


i don't see how you can say that, ''an emulsion of fog'' like driving blind, you wouldn't know where you are going or how long it was going to last. i'd put money on you hitting the brake pedal out of fear, because that is what you would be feeling.

Have driven in fog and rain that has meant not seeing beyond the bonnet for stretches of road on American highways. Luckily, on all occasions people just eased off, hoped for the best and drifted through it. Slamming on the brakes is a dull idea.
 
I can't understand anyone who would be happy driving at significant speed in dense fog. What's wrong with you?

Fog + night + almost entirely erased multi-lane markings and no cats eyes for a stretch with 4 lanes.

Oh that ****ed me off.

Somewhere around London IIRC.
 
What is it with cats eyes. I swear they use to be on most roads, now they are really scarce. They make such a huge difference in tricky conditions. Have I got fuzzy memory or is it some sort of cost cutting exercise.
 
If 50 people said it happened, they were there, would you ignore them?

So you just slam on when you hit smoke/fog?

No you slow down, someone has caused an accident, even in smoke/fog you can get on to junctions easily, in fact smoke is easier to driver through than fog.

One thing I was taught on my pass plus is read as far as you can, checking mirrors, your speed if you are not gaining on the car in front stay in the left hand lane and never brake on the motorway unless it was certain you could hit someone or crash, the cars we drive are not f1 cars that stop on a dime, people cant judge a car slowing at 70mph until its to late.
 
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the fog caused people to react and because we arent robots, people react in different ways and i say, that is no fault of theirs..

Whose fault is it then? Of course it is the fault of the driver if they react to a hazard in the wrong way. What you mean to say is that people make mistakes - which we all do - not that there was no fault on the part of any of the drivers because its quite obvious there was.

some people have said, drive to the conditions, if its foggy slow down, the condition was, the road was fine, so 60 to 70 would have been fine, an eye witness said the fog descended from above, so obviously then you drive to the conditions and slow down but people obviously slow at different rates and if you are blind to the cars in front of you, you're going to hit them..

Firstly eyewitness reports from big incidents are notoriously unreliable. People piece together what they did see and subconciously fill in the blanks. Eyewitness testimony is therefore always treated with caution.

Secondly if this is just one of those things that happens in fog then why do we not have such a pileup every time its foggy?

I suspect what happened here is that one person made a fairly major error and caused an accident. The situation then esclated from there as more and more people collided with the wreckage.
 
BBC reports they are investigating the fireworks display and looking at every detail regarding it's organisation.

Great, play the blame game on an organised event rather than the drivers themselves who actually caused the crash.

I love this country :D
 
What I dont understand is even if they prove or show that smoke or fog had occurred on the M5 how does this suddenly cause a 52 vehicle pile up.

It can only prove that someone could not drive in adverse conditions and panicked or made a rash judgement.
 
What I dont understand is even if they prove or show that smoke or fog had occurred on the M5 how does this suddenly cause a 52 vehicle pile up.

It can only prove that someone could not drive in adverse conditions and panicked or made a rash judgement.

Absolutely agree with you. It is not a good thing when visibility is severely reduced but we dont normally get a 52 vehicle pileup each time it happens. I regularly drive on the A35 and between Bridport and Dorchester of an evening because of how close it is to the coast there is often thick fog and very poor visibility. There are not normally pileups.

SOMEBODY either made a mistake or was not driving with due care and attention, otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
 
Of all the speculation so far I think the one about a car joining the Motorway without giving away seems the most likely - this coupled with the poor visibility from the fireworks = not a great combination. There seemed to be quite a lot of police focus in two cars parked almost half a mile further up the road.
 
anyone see the motoGP today, easy how 1 person can cause the rest to crash through no fault of the others..

obviously i agree someone could have caused the huge crash
 
anyone see the motoGP today, easy how 1 person can cause the rest to crash through no fault of the others..

obviously i agree someone could have caused the huge crash

:confused: not sure if serious.
Racing vs road driving which has rules that mean you follow at a distance you cans stop if something happens in front.
 
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