Never before

Sat Sep 06, 2014 5:14 pm

I`ve just come home after touring Wales again (800 miles this time) and on the M62 east bound, just after j22 on top of the moors I saw what seemed to be smoke/spray @100 meteres ahead of me.
Now what had actually taken place I could not see, but a major incident had occured and I was three cars behind the hot spot .
Debris was all around and a small black car had just come to a halt on the hard shoulder (backwards but slowly) and the man ....opened the door and walked out apparently un-hurt.
The people in the cars in front had stopped to help and my wife was already speaking to the police as I picked my way through the"site"
I had to go forward , and crawling along in the only lane sort of free from debris, I passed the engine and gear box from the car in the outside lane just feet away from me , steaming and smoking..................
This all happened in such a small space of time and at 60-70mph in the rain.
I`ve been driving 38 years + but that scared me, alot!

Point is....Within in a few minutes , the boys and girls in blue were flying to the scene and (all three services) and its not an easy place to get to.

So when you may be having a go at this country, dont forget that we have the BEST in the world ready to help us

Thanks, Mart
(still shaking)

Sat Sep 06, 2014 5:33 pm

Sh*t a block!

Sat Sep 06, 2014 5:38 pm

What sort of car was it, modern or old? Any idea on the cause of accident? I travelled on the M62 for about a year and it has one of the worst accident records in the UK. People seem to drive like dicks on it.

Glad to hear no one was seriously hurt and you're absolutely right. Plenty have a go about the country and the police, but when in trouble they are the first to turn to them for help.

Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:36 pm

It's a scary place to be when that happens! Hope everyone was ok?

I once had a similar incident up on J28 M1, 2 lorries collided behind me, I slowed to leave the motorway (unaware at this point) as the inside lane queued to exit, next thing I know I look right and one of the lorries is rolling across the three lanes (4 lanes at J28) and collides with a 3rd lorry right next to me doing circa 50mph, I realise the driver of lorry 1 is out cold or dead at the wheel (turned out knocked out after impact one), the second impact causes lorry one to come back across and hit the car in front of me and is then essentially a "runaway vehicle" going up the exit slip road! As it starts to slow down (grinds against armco barrier) some hero goes running after it and leaps in to kill the engine... I pull up in the meantime and get out, look behind me to see carnage of lorry parts all over the motorway... At this point you think "how the f is someone not dead"...

Needless to say motorway was shut and statements taken, one driver was eventually prosecuted for it as the police wrote to me on several occasions.

Worst thing I have ever experienced in my life tbh

Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:24 pm

Gert_8 wrote:What sort of car was it, modern or old? Any idea on the cause of accident? I travelled on the M62 for about a year and it has one of the worst accident records in the UK. People seem to drive like dicks on it.

Glad to hear no one was seriously hurt and you're absolutely right. Plenty have a go about the country and the police, but when in trouble they are the first to turn to them for help.

Thanks we are fine and I think the people are too.
As to what car it was, well.... it was a small car and black.....and a water cooled block.....(the steam)....possibly a Punto ???

The M62 is the Hells Gorge in reverse!!!! far too much traffic.

Far too many people jump in their cars and think they are safe because they are told so.
You still have to drive the bloody things or have people forgot ?...or ... just want the responsibilty to be on someone else??????
The M62 is the highest motorway in England at 1221 ft and is very rarely blocked by snow and ice and this is by design.
I live in a town called Morley between J27 and J28 of the M62 and each day , major accidents occur at rush hour.
This is not the enviroment but complacency showing its ugly head yet again

Mart.

Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:36 pm

In 1946 my dad took a job at English Electric in Liverpool.He moved his young family from Bradford and they commuted back to Yorkshire on a regular basis.I blame my lack of hair on being taken,at 6 weeks old,in a car with no heater from home in Liverpool to grandparents in Bradford for Christmas in 1950!

If anyone had suggested to my mum in 1950,that 50 years later the Pennines could be crossed by a 7 lane highway,she would have laughed in their face.

OK,the M62 has it's problems,but it is a superb bit of British engineering that is well fit for purpose.

Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:43 pm

I'd say the M62 is no worse than any other motorway, it's probably on a par with the M25. However, because it crosses the Pennines, the weather may catch some people out. It was the motorway (you've all seen the little farm in the centre) that caused the government to create the compulsory purchase order.

Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:19 pm

Gert_8 wrote:I'd say the M62 is no worse than any other motorway, it's probably on a par with the M25. However, because it crosses the Pennines, the weather may catch some people out. It was the motorway (you've all seen the little farm in the centre) that caused the government to create the compulsory purchase order.

That house is still being and always has been used , it`s just the lie of the land that makes it not possible to put six lanes together just like the M6 near the lake district.
The motorway is very,very rarely closed due to weather but due to people who simply can not drive !

Mart.

Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:40 pm

That's my point, the weather changes and the drivers don't adapt to it.

So, you think it was too difficult for the engineers to build a straight bit of road together and right through the old farm house?

Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:21 pm

Gert_8 wrote:That's my point, the weather changes and the drivers don't adapt to it.

So, you think it was too difficult for the engineers to build a straight bit of road together and right through the old farm house?

Yeh, If you see it from the top and see how deep down the other carridge way is , that would have been an enormous amount of earth to shift to make it flat
Mart.

Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:43 pm

That's why going straight through the farm made sense, but the coont wouldn't sell up, hence the introduction of the compulsory purchase order. There would have been no need to shift the earth, not that I think that would have posed any significant problem. Cost wise, it cost more to build the motorway the way it currently is too

Wed Sep 10, 2014 2:13 pm

Make sme laugh everytime I go past the house. back then he refused a huge amount on principle ihe didn't want the road there and it was an additional £6million to go around like it is now.

I have to agree there are always accidents there espcially where 4 lanes become 3 at the top of the hill coming east, people just seem to think its a race track!

Wed Sep 10, 2014 2:20 pm

That farmer is a dumb arse! He should have taken the money and run.

Not only did he cause the tax payer more money to go around his small holding, but he's having to live with the toxic fumes from the motorway every day of his remaining life - probably cut short too! Hope he likes the view.