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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 10, 2019 9:01:56 GMT
....I escaped her indoors yesterday for a day's walking in the Peak District with a friend. What an absolutely glorious day it was, out on the edges and clear views for miles. On our return, I dropped him off in Sheffield, and as we approached his house on the main road, there was a teenage girl stood on the grass verge ostensibly waiting to cross, and visible for quite some distance. There was no-one behind me, so I didn't even consider stopping to let her cross, and as we approached, she was looking straight at me. Then, when we were almost on top of her, she stepped out straight in front of me.  I hammered the brakes, and came to a stop about an inch away from hitting her (and at that point she seemed to have woken up and had started retreating). The road is a 40 limit, but I was doing barely 30, anticipating the traffic lights some way ahead. If I'd been at the limit, she would have been hit pretty hard. Shook both my friend and I up quite a bit. "She was looking straight at you" he said. It's certainly the closest I've come to hitting a pedestrian - I have absolutely no idea what she was doing (given that she was patently untouched, it didn't seem appropriate to get out and ask). |
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Post by Humph on Dec 10, 2019 9:09:15 GMT
Yuk, not to be too morbid, but when you hear of the statistics on road deaths and injuries, it makes you realise that you can never drop your guard. Most of them must be avoidable but it only takes a moment of brain fade on the part of one individual to create a nasty situation like that. If you hadn't been so alert...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 9:13:43 GMT
Wireless earpods?
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Post by Humph on Dec 10, 2019 9:15:41 GMT
Or, to take a darker view, attempted suicide, or attempted insurance scam...
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Dec 10, 2019 10:16:53 GMT
The fact she had plenty of time to cross before the car got near her and she looked directly at you.... I'm thinking like Humph on this.
Think I'd have stopped to check she was okay.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 11:01:55 GMT
Drugs, maybe. I'd have stopped to check too, like Rob.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 10, 2019 11:09:10 GMT
..lost a post there - so here goes again.
The look she gave when she regained the kerb made both of us believe it was brain-fade. Looking straight at us, but also straight through us. My colleague reckoned she was possibly "distracted" by a lad that had crossed the road some time before an a little way in front of us.
Neither of us is slow to get involved if need be, in fact we've had a few interesting incidents on outr walks, but I am wary of approaching lone females, let alone young ones nowadays (how things have changed - and that isn't a tongue in cheek comment).
I suppose you need to be there to gain the impression we did, but it scared the sh1t out of me.
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Post by Humph on Dec 10, 2019 11:12:28 GMT
Prob'ly flat spotted your tyres too.
😋
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 16:39:14 GMT
Anti-Brown Stain brakes should have prevented that.
I've never had a person walk out in front of me, a dog did a few years ago though. When the emergency brake assist kicked in with the extra brake force the driver behind me needed his Anti-Brown Stain brakes while I was peeling my eyeballs off the windscreen.
Pretty scary stuff with a person I imagine.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Dec 10, 2019 18:04:30 GMT
My car with forward collisions avoidance (not the improved pedestrian version) sometimes beeps to warn me I am about to collide with the car in front. And yet I'm braking normally and plenty of space - I probably have it set to warn too soon. I assume if I don't hit the brakes it will do it for me.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 10, 2019 18:25:04 GMT
......... I assume if I don't hit the brakes it will do it for me. ....I'd give it a try if I were you.....  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 19:04:56 GMT
The system in my Volvo is M-i-L back seat driver alert. Couple of times cars have sailed onto a roundabout in front of me, driver usually has a mobile phone glued to their ear, and the ABS kicks in.
On a separate note if anyone ever wanted to make a comedy driving program just setup a camera on a roundabout anywhere in Germany. You'll film a whole series in 30 minutes of rush hour driving.
They really don't have a clue. It doesn't help there being two sets of rules depending on whether or not there are signs on the approach who has right of way. The driving varies from the gung-ho if I don't look there's nothing there and it can't be my fault to coming to stop in Hamburg because there might be a car coming from Munich. Seriously, if you ever have some time to kill while in Germany go and stand next to a roundabout for a few minutes. Highly entertaining.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 11, 2019 9:10:56 GMT
Seriously, if you ever have some time to kill while in Germany go and stand next to a roundabout for a few minutes. Highly entertaining. ...actually, the incident I described was the second brake-test of the day. The first one, on the way out in the morning, was slightly less abrupt, but given another two seconds could have been even more disastrous. As I enter Sheffield, I have to turn right at a large roundabout with a rather "individual" geographic layout. Right turn is from the outside lane only (as you might expect), but the roundabout has two lanes all the way round, and on every entry and exit, and I need to be in the left-hand lane on exit. In order to do this, you need to drift left on the roundabout after the first exit (only) slip and be in the LH lane before the following entry (only) slip, exiting at the next exit in the LH lane. The orientation is such that the view of this entry slip moves rapidly from the windscreen to the side window. By the nature of the movement, one needs to watch both the n/s mirror, to check that no-one has decided to turn right from the LH lane where you entered (which, despite clear road markings, they do!), and also check the entry slip to make sure no-one thinks you're going round the inside lane of the roundabout and thus jumps out in front of you; so you are "busy". All this is in a 40 limit. Duly started the manoeuvre; drifted left; the three cars looking to enter slowed down/stopped;.......and then, when I was far enough round the roundabout for the entry slip to be only in peripheral vision, I sensed something. An ambulance, with blues but not twos, coming up the outside lane of the entry at a rate of knots (it's the end of a long dual-carriageway there, and the 40 restriction starts just short of the roundabout. I suspect he was doing at least 70). I managed to hit the brakes sharply, and let him out; another second and it would have been emergency braking, and another and it would have been an inevitable collision. TBH, I don't think I could have done much better - the ambulance was taking an awful lot of risk, because I was going round the roundabout at 40, with no sign that I'd seen it, and without hard braking their would have been a collision. Turning on the siren would have been a help. Hey ho - the similar ambulance on the way back was somewhat easier to spot, it being dark by then, and the blues showing up somewhat more distinctly. |
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Post by Humph on Dec 11, 2019 9:27:23 GMT
My mother was an ambulance driver in Sheffield during WW2. Which had its moments in that location. She was a nurse as well, but drove ambulances as a second job.
My father ( a Scotsman ) was a director of a department store during the day, but a special constable at night. The way they met was that she nearly ran him over in her ambulance when he was on points duty.
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Post by tyrednexited on Dec 11, 2019 9:36:06 GMT
...she wasn't on duty on Monday, was she...?
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