A90 Slip Road Accident

Has anyone seen this video? There are two things I like about it, first of all that Roadhawk captured the accident perfectly and second of all how absolutely crazy the driver is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK9-Ikcu0sY

This is a major dual carriageway into Edinburgh. A pretty major crash, but I think it highlights something else, this is the slip road from further back:-

and then waaaay back

Why on earth is there no double lines or no entry signs! Ok what the driver did you would get a feeling you were going wrong at some point, but equally, I think the slip road is very poorly sign posted.

I think the driver chose to go north, so went right, then assumed that to continue going north you had to be in the right lane at all times and missed the arrows on the slip road. I can see how that could easily be done, particularly as the driver was a young, inexperienced, female driver who had just passed her test. Particularly when the current driving test is (or was) woefully inadequate in terms of motorway and fast road/slip road driving.

Be careful out there!

Pistonheads thread here with more info:- http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=983365&mid=235968&i=0&nmt=Idiot+in+a+corsa+caught+on+roadhawk%21&mid=235968

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Reply 1

Doyle&TheFourFathers

there should be no entry signs for the right hand lane on your second picture. it is not clear that it is the slip road exit

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 2

py0alb

I'm totally confused as to what happened. I can't see which bits of your pictures were in the video.

ok, with it now. duh.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

gbduo

Original post by py0alb

I'm totally confused as to what happened. I can't see which bits of your pictures were in the video.

None of them were, the pictures are of the slip road leading up to the A90.

As you can see from the pictures, there are no warning signs, even with the A90 in sight on the first two that the right hand lane is the off slip only, apart from two very worn and small arrows on the tarmac.

It is still pretty poor driving by all accounts, but I personally feel there are mitigating circumstances due to the road layout and the lack of signage.

still, i bet the Corsa's drivers insurance company are not happy:-

1x damaged HGV
1x Written off HGV
Full load of written off HGV stewn across the A90
1x written off Corsa
A huge clean up operation

This is probably going to cost in excess of £600k to sort out!

Reply 4

Entangled

Original post by gbduo

I can see how that could easily be done, particularly as the driver was a young, inexperienced, female driver who had just passed her test. Particularly when the current driving test is (or was) woefully inadequate in terms of motorway and fast road/slip road driving.

aftermath

Whilst I agree that the final bit of the slip road could be signed better with some no entry signs, the driver of the Corsa had plenty of opportunities to not go wrong and in fact must have worked quite hard to take the route she did.

Although it is true that she had to take the right hand lane to go north, that lane then becomes the left hand lane so in order to get into the right lane she specifically changed lanes. Why? The left lane should always be the default lane unless otherwise indicated. There is no such indication in this situation.

She also passed two more sets of arrows in the road before getting to the final set, showing that the right hand lane was for oncoming traffic. So she evidently wasn't reading the road, literally. :confused:

I can't see that it is anything other than bad driving. Sorry......... :frown:

Reply 7

Emma-Ashley

Having just watched the aftermath of the accident, she owes her life to the lorry driver. The damage to her car is severe but not as bad as it would have been if it had been a head-on. If he hadn't swerved, she would have been killed (IMO) - she is lucky.

Reply 8

NeoNerd

It's a bit of both, to be honest. The A90 is a disgrace for large sections - it's in terrible condition and is badly signed.

However, the driver obviously made a series of serious errors, and was lucky not to be killed.

Reply 9

fruit_n_veg

I just followed her route on Google maps, ideally there should be no entry signs at the end where it meets the Wellington Road slip joins the A90 but there was already plenty of indications not to drive that direction. As gbduo said poor driver training probably didn't help here.

Reply 10

Iorek

Amazing the Corsa stood up rather well to the crash.

Reply 11

Lord Jon

Wow. I have never seen a crash of that magnitude. I think the road should have been sorted out properly. However the driver should have been a wee bit more (I don't know how to say it actually sorry)

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 12

Landie_Man

You see the Lorrys washer bottle explode

Reply 13

Jmzie-Coupe

I agree that road has piss poor sign posting (non existent) the highways authority should be ashamed. Corsa drivers though *shakes head*

Reply 14

gbduo

Original post by Iorek

Amazing the Corsa stood up rather well to the crash.

I thought that! The Corsa C was not renowned for its strength, but it just had a head on collision with a truck at 56mph when the Corsa was doing say 40mph, so say 90mph impact speed and the Corsa bounces off.

However, I think much was down to the excellent driving skill and reactions of the lorry that hit her, if the truck driver had hit her square on things would have been very different, his fast reactions probably saved her life by giving her a glancing blow.

It is undeniable that this is poor driving and more training would have helped, but equally, one does have to question the incessant use of signs everywhere nowadays for the most minor things and then you have a major road with no signage. Its crazy.

Ah, modern Britain!

Graham

Reply 15

Landie_Man

I hope your wearing a high viz to type that Graham ;-)

Reply 16

gbduo

Haha, **** off!

:biggrin:

Reply 17

Iorek

Original post by gbduo

The signboard madness is mostly an England thing....... once you're out you'll notice that even in Wales there's lesser signboards. Not been to Scotland in awhile to notice if there's as many yet or not.

Reply 18

gbduo

Original post by Iorek

When I went to Scotland I was met with this:

Damn fine road that was! Good signage, haha!

Reply 19

warrenpenalver

yes the signage wasnt at best, but at the very minimum it was careless driving on her part if not dangerous IMO.

There were still lots of clues things wernt right like the streetlamp pattern (ie looking ahead and anticipation) which should have raised alarm bells, long white lines dividing the two flows of traffic and of course coming round the slip road she should have realised straight away rather than almost making it onto the main road.