Motorway Crashes

Advice About What To Do

Should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in a car crash on the motorways, here are some words of advice that might just help a bad situation a little better for you.

If your car comes to rest in lane–1, and you are not too badly injured, try to get it to the hard shoulder. If the engine has stalled, and won’t re–start, cars with a manual gearbox can be moved by putting the gear lever into first gear and then cranking the engine over on the starter motor.

If moving the car on the starter motor doesn’t work then you are just going to have to leave it where it is – but don’t take the keys with you! If the police or highways agency patrol attend it may be possible for them to shift your car out of the carriageway, but without the keys and with the steering lock on, the choices become far more limited.

Still in lane–1, and not being able to shift the car to the hard shoulder, you are best to get out if you can, and to do so by climbing over to the passenger side, assuming the car is still facing your intended direction of travel.

Once out of the vehicle, wherever possible, get over onto the verge and preferably behind a barrier so as to be away from the main carriageway. Once you have left the car, DO NOT go back to it, but remain within sight of it in case your presence is required by the emergency services.

Motorway Accident Scenes
It’s All About Personal Safety

Report the incident to the motorway control room as soon as you can, either by use of a motorway SOS phone, or by your mobile. Remember to use the marker post information to identify your location when you do this, although a call from an SOS phone will give your location automatically.

If you become stuck in the outside lane, and if you can get out of the car, stand next to the central barrier a few yards ahead of the car. NEVER try to run or walk across the lanes until directed to do so by a member of the emergency services, and NEVER cross the barrier to the opposite carriageway. By standing ahead of the vehicle you are using it as a crash–buffer as it will offer you some protection from the approaching traffic.

Think Clearly and Always Consider The Greater Risks

If your vehilcle is in a collsion, and comes to rest in one of the centre lanes, you have a difficult decision to make, as you will have to complete a swift dynamic risk assessment to determine the best option.

If you have several vehicles all stopped behind you, and the integrity of the passenger cell of your car is still relatively intact, you may be better to remain in the vehicle, as the structure will offer you some protection, as will the stationary vehicles to your rear. However, it may be a good idea just to check that you can open a door so as to be able to get out in a hurry should you need to, and that you can get your seatbelt off.

If you are stranded in one of the centre lanes, and your vehicle is unprotected by others to the rear, this may be an occasion where it will be prudent to get out and make for the hard shoulder (leaving your keys behind, of course), but be careful. Hopefully, because of the collision, the unaffected traffic will have slowed, but be aware that vehicles cover a lot of ground in a short time on this type of road and the average driver is only looking 30–yards ahead of their bonnet, or at the crashed vehicles.

The Fear Your Vehicle Will Catch Fire

With regard to vehicle fires, it seems that we have become very much accustomed to seeing car fires in films, especially ones that show a car chase, where every time a vehicle hits something it bursts into flames. You will note that the car does not just catch fire, it explodes into a fireball, but this is all done for dramatic effect and will have been engineered by the film company special effects department to spice to the production.

If you have a crash for the first time the chances are that your mind will immediately replay one of those scenes from a film you have seen, as if you have a DVD player in your head.

The reality is that crash for crash, vehicle fires do not happen very often. Always remember that under your bonnet you have a lot of water in your cooling system and when a coolant hose or the radiator becomes ruptured, these being quite delicate items, the coolant fluid will produce clouds of steam, especially when it spills onto a hot exhaust system. This can make you think the car is on fire, but try not to panic, because the chances are you will be looking at a cloud of steam and not smoke.

Using Your Mobile Phone to Raise The Alarm

In this age of the mobile phone where just about everyone has one, the poor motorway control room operator has a very difficult time when it comes to people reporting collisions, or other motorway emergencies by use of a mobile phone. This is because well–meaning people will try to report a crash or a vehicle fire and not have a clue where they are. This can waste valuable time and often results in emergency service vehicles being sent to the wrong location. So how do you know where you are when on a motorway?

Firstly, you should know what motorway you are on, so that is a help to start with, and you should know the direction in which you are headed, which is also a help. However, the best way to pin–point your exact location is to use the information on the nearest marker post.

Marker posts are positioned every 100–metres along the verge next to the hard shoulder. They are those little white, blue and red things, and if you look at one closely you will see that it has a number on it, within a blue band around its top.

The markerpost number is unique to the location of that post, so in the case of the example in the photo opposite, if you told the telephone operator that you were on the M40 motorway, travelling towards Birminhgham, and at marker post seventy–three over one, you will have given the precise location of where you were calling from.

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Motorways Are Dangerous Places When Things Go Wrong

This page was last updated
Wednesday, 02-Feb-2011

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