A beautiful evening in Edenham

Last evening was a beautiful evening.  

On a driving session with a client, we had been doing some focussed training on reverse Bay Park and Left Reverse and so we went for a drive to break things up a little.  We found ourselves near Edenham, and the low sun stretching out on all the fields catching some trees that looked like they had been there a while, really was a sight. 

We were going uphill with limited visibility ahead when the car behind us does an overtake.  We were doing 55 in a 60.  Extremely dangerous as the brow of the hill ahead was approx 100m away at the time of the overtake – there was no way that the driver of the car could possibly have seen what was oncoming the other side of the brow.  My Learner instinctively came off gas – a very sensible reaction, as it gave the overtaking vehicle more opportunity to nip back in. 

What made this event worse was that a 2^nd car also did an overtake following the first car – whether they were racing we will never know.  I suspect they may have been connected.  Not only was visibility dangerously poor up ahead, but we were also coming into a 40 a few hundred yards away, so both vehicles now found themselves accelerating towards a 40 sign.  Hardly good planning.

In order to comply with the 40 they would have needed to have done some sharp braking, which I noted never occurred, but really that particular effect to this inappropriate overtake was minor compared to what actually happened.
 

When we got to the brow of the hill, 2 meaty oncoming motorbikes flew passed us (I imagine ‘opening up’ after coming out of the 40’s).  Interesting to consider what their own vision of these 2 overtaking cars must have been as they climbed up the hill.  By my reckoning, had the 2 cars delayed the overtake by about another 5 seconds, I think a collision was inevitable.

But as it happens, nothing happened.... seemingly nothing.  I wonder whether the 2 motorbike riders discussed what happened later, appreciating what a near miss that actually was.  The 2 drivers in the cars that did the overtake...... I doubt they even registered the enormity of what just very nearly happened.

My client and I were able to discuss this incident, talk about overtakes, vision, overall stopping distances, KSI stats on rural roads and more, but I tell you now, this blog could easily have been more tragic in it's content.


This is the kind of incident that turns an otherwise beautiful evening into one with nightmare consequences where you have an air ambulance flying in to urgently get someone to Boston or Peterborough hospital.  Me, my client and all other witnesses would be there for hours speaking to Police, not to mention our own possible injuries and/or damage sustained to our vehicles.  The entire road gets closed, allowing Police to properly investigate the cause. 


People may be traumatised, mentally scarred for life from what they see, people are put off driving for life, people can't hold down a job, they lose their livelihood.  Coroners, funerals and so much more.  It's the kind of thing that when we discuss, it's easy to just consider the effect of raised insurance premiums due to a claim, but the actual effects can be far more reaching - life changing.


It never happened!  Hoorah!  It never happened!  We're all safe, we all slept soundly last night, we all wake up this morning to see the start of what looks like another beautifully sunny day.


I wonder whether the drivers of the 2 cars that did the inappropriate overtake are feeling 'lucky' again today?  It's a bit like russian roulette - not only playing with their lives, but also being reckless of the lives of others too.