Last night at around 10pm, I was driving on the M25 heading for the Sky News studios to do their paper review. There was very little traffic and I was in the fast lane (natch) on a section with no lighting just past Clacket Lane Services. Listening to Stephen Nolan on 5 Live my mind was turning to what I would say on Sky about the financial crisis when suddenly, I was jolted from my comfort zone.There in front of me, right in the middle of the fast lane was a large red gas canister. What the F***! were the first three words to go through my mind as I hurtled closer to it. It was too late to 'undertake' it in the middle lane in case I hit another car (although it turned out there wasn't one there) so I had to head right, and risk hitting the crash barrier. Luckily I managed to avoid the cannister and continued with my journey, slightly shaken but with my car intact. But there's no doubt that if it had been twelve inches to the right, I and or my car would have been done for, one way or another. Or at least my car would have been. And if I had not been fully concentrating on the road and hadn't seen it I would have certainly hit it.
I then rang 999 and told the Police, who said they were already aware and on their way. Of course, then I thought to myself, should I have stopped and braved the traffic and removed it myself? But by that time I was a mile down the road.
It makes you think though. By what quirk of fate did that canister fall off a lorry into a position which just allowed me to avoid hitting it? I think I used up a life last night.
51 comments:
I think most drivers have had near death experiences at some time. I certainly have. I'm always amazed there aren't more accidents on the road than there are. It really reminds you that life is short, that any time you get is luck, and that death is the one constant companion of all men.
I am glad you missed it!
And according to official advice you did the right thing by not attempting to remove it yourself -- even though, as you say, it wasn't practical as you would have been miles down the road before you stopped anyway. (I am not quite sure why they are so very anti doing it yourself -- it would be impossible to sit and do nothing while anticipating an awful accident. I suspect that stats are skewed by drunks being more likely to make dangerous attempts.)
By the way, did you notice things slowing down dramatically when you thought you might crash? All the adrenaline flooding the system ...
It's funny how nearly having a crash upsets us. You didn't crash. You were alert and made a good decision and saved yourself. Your heart rate went up and adrenaline flooded your system which went into save mode and you were saved by your own built in self preservation mechanism. So relax.
If you think about it you are just as close to an even bigger disaster every time you drive down a busy single carriageway road with traffic in the other lane also doing 60 (ish). You are just not surprised every time a car hurtles by you in the opposite direction with only a slightly bigger gap than 12 inches..
To be open it drives Mrs Lola mad at how relaxed I am after not having an accident. I should point out that it doesn't happen often, but her heart is still racing but I already back to listening to R4 within seconds.
Which of course at he moment is far more disturbing than any motoring near miss. We are now in an actual major car crash, caused by the bloke driving the van that dropped the gas cylinder. He completely failed to spot that it had fallen off the back of his lorry. He did not realise that not tying it down securely was a hazzard. He had no clue that gas under pressure is dangerous and that letting a cylinder of it fall onto the road was going to be dangerous.
Gordon Brown - the wayward gas cylinder in the economic road.
That'll teach you not to drive in Lane 3 when there's two other perfectly good lanes you could have used.
Glad you're unscathed though.
Glad Your still with us Iain.
Well, I am pleased you didn't hit it, Iain.
No-one else has said this, but perhaps it had been put there by some with malevolent intent. It seems perfectly placed - in the middle of the 'fast lane'.
Seems like you were driving a bit better than than some extreme right wingers ;-)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE49A0RW20081011
Glad you're still with us Iain!
Janey,
For Iain to remove it himself would have potentially been even more dangerous, since being stood in the middle of an unlit carriageway in the dark of night trying to lug a heavy canister around would have made him a) very slow and b) invisible to other drivers travelling at 70mph until it was too late(unless he was sporting a hi-viz jacket last night).
Glad you're OK, and Lola - great analogy.
You did the right thing in not stopping Iain, you could certainly have been in/caused an accident. Leave it to the professionals.
You're blessed, Ian. It's not your time. There are too many things we need to do here first. Enjoy your weekend. I too am glad you're ok.
If you had picked the bottle up you could have reclaimed £7 for the empty!!!
A RED gas canister? Maybe someone on the left has it in for you. It didn't say "Vote New Labour" on it by any chance?
If you had hit it, would that have meant you had 'bottled out'? Sorry!
Anyway, it appears that GB is, indeed, influencing G7, as they are now talking about 'taking decisive action and using all available tools!
Yup - you'd have been a muppet to shift it. I think you'd have probably been alright to bash it as they're good for most things, although your car wouldn't have been happy.
That's a bit of a jangler though -not needed at all. Have a good 'un buddy.
I was the car travelling behind you. I was amazed how quick you swerved around the canister. I said to my wife and three children, Look at the driver how expertly he drove around that gas canister! My youngest said. Why is the gas canister there Daddy? Did that driver throw it out of his car? I told him that it may have fallen from someone's caravan and they will not realise until they arrive at their campsite and wanting to have a cup of tea before going to bed find themselves without gas! OR it fell from the back of a lorry. My eldest, who was looking out of the rear window, said 'Dad the police have just arrived. Oh dear! they have crashed into the gas canister"
But they are getting out, they appear to be okay, at least they have high visibility jackets on and people can see them'
Alls well that ends well!
I gave up driving 20 years ago - for very much this sort of reason.
I am only 45 but I saw the extreme risks that driving brings with it. I think people become immunised to it through familiarity but you got a wake up call Iain and a warning.
I very occassionally go in taxis and am not phobic about cars or a global warmist but just avoid cars where I can.
I know you are a country boy from farming stock, so am I. In the space of a week I went from tractor driving and living in a remote village in Yorkshire to working in City trading room and living in the centre of London. and loved every minute of it.
The answer Iain - especially for you and your partner who work so much in London is just to live in London. Somewhere like Pimlico would be right in the centre of where you need to be and you could walk, taxi, train, fly or Tube everywhere you really need to be. I lived in Pimlico when it was just me and the wife with no kids just like the old village where I lived in Yorkshire. To me shopping in Chelsea & Westminster was like taking a trip to the next door village. I never thought of it as city living. Didn't need to drive.
Glad you survived.
Glad you're ok. Nolan is useless, thats why you've been concentrating rather than listening:)
What were you doing in the "fast lane" (pretty sure it's more correctly called the over-taking lane) when, as you admit, there was no one in the middle lane ?
See, if you have a BMW the canister would have moved itself out of respect, but an Audi meh...
So why were you NOT aware of what traffic was to your left?????
Maybe Stephen Nolan could give you tickets to Nolan Live (which you could pass onto me), to make up for the experience his... 'uniqueness' caused you?
Iain, I was driving up the A1 last week when a Fiat Punto flew over the central reservation (upside down) missing my car by a metre or so. Had I been driving a little slower I would have had a radically altered TT (and head).
Still, the Punto driver was fine...
Well done on living to tell the tale. Go for a cameo in the next Bond-movie.
I loathe that section of the M25. Come to think of it the whole of the M25 is dreadful. Probably the only time to drive on it is 3:00 AM.
I've encountered lorry tyres, brooms, ladders, hanks of rope, dustbin lids - the list of building materials and tools is endless. What is it with these guys?
And the answer to your question is no, do not stop, that's a damn dangerous position to get into.
A gas cannister? Puh! I was once confronted with a dining table in the outside lane - it had come off somebody's roof rack!
Iain, can you please tell Dave that veering to the right might save him too.
Thank God it ended well. You never know what's round the corner in life............
For me the scariest part of this story is that you were listening to Stephen Nolan - he's the only radio presenter that I simply can't bear to listen to, he's just awful.
Heh - the CAPTCHA for this post is "fuclafyk" - it sounds like a word heard in Iceland this week....
...another thought. Perhaps a toilet roll holder screwed to the dashboard would be useful optional extra for modern motoring.
It's about time you veered to the right.
wow.. amazing story iain.
fate is a strange thing alright.
just look at what happened to that Austrian politician Jorge Halder recently.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3705734,00.html
car crash. and very much dead now.
when near-misses like yours have happened to me, i say to myself that maybe a guardian angel or an long lost relative is looking after me.
( it helps with the post-near miss shock, and how to deal with it psychologically..)
"psj said...
By the way, did you notice things slowing down dramatically when you thought you might crash? All the adrenaline flooding the system ...
October 11, 2008 10:53 AM"
darn good question - certainly sounds like it from his blogpost. what happened to him must have happened in a split second - and yet he's writing about it as if it happened in slow motion.
i guess our brains are hard wired to do that sort of thing - move to "slow motion" mode when we're threatened with certain death.
and that aspect of human psychology is incredibly fascinating.
its as if you have a second brain monitoring for life threatening situations - which kicks in and overrules your normal brain - and sets up the "slow mode" stuff...
its mind boggling stuff when you think about it.
by the way , "slow mode" really does exist - as anyone who has been in a serious car crash and has survived can attest. which includes myself (thankfully nobody was injured was it as a close one - car was a write off though )
Yeah, definitely not a good idea to try remove it yourself. People get pretty casual with the speeds involved, but motorway speeds mean cars travelling at 30 to 50 metres each second. At the upper end of that speed limit, that means a car a quarter of a kilometre distant is going to hit you in 5 seconds. Hard to avoid.
I don't know if you will read the comments at the end - but if you do: this is related to road accidents. I feel that the signs for the national speed limit on single lane carriageways should be replaced by signs actually stating the limit - 60mph. I think most accidents on single lane carriageways at night are caused by slow drivers assuming the limit is 50, and then other drivers recklessly/impatiently trying to pass them.
Glad you're OK, Iain. You took the right decision not to attempt to recover the cylinder yourself - I've worked on the motorways and know how hostile an environment it can be. If you'd tried to recover it without experience you might not have been around to blog it for us.
Ioo 'Rapture' - best dance song ever. Dude.
Vorderman's gonna kill me - IIO whoops!
If anyone's awake, I'm good for Labour history for 30 mins.
Quis custodis ipsos custodis? Will Self is suggessting stuff on how crime should occur - gggrreeaaat I policen the police as both hobby & job) . Tosser. I proper restrain my language upon your website; Canvas is either young or proper mad - stalker!!
12 inches Iain? Had no idea you were a size queen! Can I suggest you check out Lexington Steele, he's one big black mofo and is more than a mouthful.
We will get you next time, Dale
Sounds like a real trouser filler (which is also what I call those long tyre tracks one sees on motorways - "skidmark" sounds so coarse ;-) )
I nearly had a prang a couple of years ago, on a country road in the Isle of Wight when a pheasant darted across the road out of a pheasant farm.
Luckily I'd always resolved not to swerve in that situation, and the bird bought it with a sickening crunch under the car.
But what, I asked myself, would have happened if that had been a deer leaping out on a motorway? A hundredweight of venison smashing through the windscreen at 80 MPH? There are quite a few signs on the M3 and M4 warning of deer.
On the subject of road kill, I hit a stag while on Hols in Scotland some years back. We were doing about 50 on the way back to Gairloch after a day out. Wife two kids and me. Bloody thing bounded out of the forest on the left. First thing I saw was its eye looking at me over the bonnett and a damn great set of antlers. Huge bang. I stopped the car to survey the damage. Hmm, dented n/s front wing and bent bumper. What was I driving? LR Defender 110. And boy was I glad I was. Next day tied bumper and wing to telegraph pole and pulled it further clear of the wheel by reversing in low range. Bit of bashing with a big hammer and some screwdriver work and off we went. Oh, and not even the headlight was broken.
So, one vote for 4x4's. When you hit a deer they save your life.
Lola - you weren't with Rachel Clough when you did it by any chance? They can easy kill ya - phewweeeee.
Jesse from Eastenders has just been voted off Strictly and they're playing 'think I better leave right now' - bit harsh!!
PS - obviously ludicrously drunk in previous posts - mae culpa, mae maxima etc.
On a completely OT move - Sevvy Ballesteros is very poorly - what a dude, an absolute dude. His record on opening golf (the most frustrating activity life can offer) to kids in Espania can not be undervalued. A true sporting hero.
Everyone knows the Lord smiles on you, Iain.
yeah, slow mode is totally real. It's like watching a movie frame by frame by frame. Been there twice on bikes.
If you aint seen it you aint been close....
3 things - cheers, how very 80's of stuff, Jonny Redwood's site not working - he's a scholarly & industrious chap innt ee?
Hello Aricanmum!
Word verification ; icexxfx - bit rude what? (OK - it turns out it's an L - it's because i'm Yorkshire that makes me brief against the best gig the party ever had, so 296 print if tharr's got any?)
Glad you're alright! Must have been rather a shock.
However... what were you doing in the outside lane on an empty road? And why weren't you aware of what other drivers (in this case, none) were on the road?
You're right though. What the hell was it doing there in the first place? Presumably the police will easily be able to trace where it came from.
the fast lane????
Do you really know so little about driving?
You should NOT spend your entire journey in the right-hand lane, especially at quiet times, you should move left whenever possible, and only move right when you need to overtake.
Your driving is clearly poor.
There's nothing wrong with going very fast in lane 1 or 2 and late at night it's easy to go round the M25 at 100mph in lane 1 with the occasional diversion to the right.
You are also less likely to get noticed by the police as the idiot who spent 25 miles at 100mph in the right-hand lane, regardless of the other traffic around.
Man oh Man! Scarey stuff, Consider yourself cyberhugged
(((((((((( Iain Dale)))))))))
Hug hug
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