Im realy beating myself up over this one. Came off the westbound M25 on to the Southbound A3 at 12.40. A white Luton van was sitting mostly in lane 1 with its hazards going. Alarm bells rang out in my head, I had a bad feeling about the situation. Had I been traveling down the A3 I would have certinaly stopped in the hard shoulder and waved traffic off in to lane 2 (exactly what the two dick heads sitting in the cab should have been doing). Alas the armco barriers were between them and me on the sliproad. In hindsight I should have pulled over and walked back to get them out of the cab and prevent an accident. I carried on regretably…
20mins later a motorcyclist collided with the rear of the van.
I only found out 30mins later when heading northbound on the A3 after my collection. The road was blocked both ways to allow the Air Ambulance to land. I felt sick instantly when the traffic cop told me a biker had been injured. I asked him if it invloved a White Luton and he looked shocked “yea, how did you know?”
Think i could also say similar as i had a choice of return to yard journeys from Tooting either A3 or hampton court at this approx time and i took the hampton choice .
But you could have also ended up being a part of this in a serious way .
^^ everything they said. i understand why you’d blame yourself, but there really wasn’t much you could do. those to blame include the idiots in the van (where was their warning triangle, or even a hi vis on the back?) and the camera operators / fake police in the 4x4s who are normally on this kind of thing before you can blink on the busy roads. he absolutely didn’t deserve what happened but the poor bugger on the bike possibly could have been paying more attention too, although it’s easy to lose concentration momentarily and he or she paid a heavy price. here’s hoping they get better soon…
oh, and as an afterthought, you are surely already a few karma points in the black for the serv thing…
Charlie, I can’t see how you can be to blame for a biker riding into a stationary white van with hazards.
Did you actually see the people in the van? They are not dickheads for not waving over traffic. That would be dangerous as it would have put them at risk. They are dickheads if they just sat in the van. The correct thing for them to do is to abandon the van and find safe refuge after putting the hazards on and placing a warning triangle if they have one (although not a legal requirement in this country). On the road everyone is responsible for their own safety. There are things we can all do to help that, but there is nothing for you to beat yourself up about.
Don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know it was going to happen but you sound like the sort of bloke that would’ve helped if you had seen it happen so kudos to you.
You shouldn’t take it on yourself. There must have been hundreds of vehicles passing the van after you had and none of them stopped. To me that says something about the dangers involved in doing so. I think you did the right thing to carry on. I also think you probably thought about this much more in retrospect i.e. once you knew the outcome and that has given you the guilty conscience. As others have said you would expect the camera operators to pick it up and activate the gantry messages at the very least. Even if you had stopped there is no guarantee that you would have been able to get the van moved in time (or safely). There is no way of knowing whether the accident would have happened or not. It was clearly a dangerous situation but by observing it you were in no way responsible for causing it.
Thoughts go out to the biker involved and hope he’s okay.
Yes they were sat in the cab. I presumme your idea of safe refuge would include the area behind the armco barrier and if so why not a 100yards further up the road so you can warn traffic?.
The only good news I can recall is there was no tail lift just a rollor shutter door. Hopefully absorbed some of the impact.
Unfortunately, he was well known by my friend (lesser known by myself).
I haven’t read the link you posted yet but, as I was told he passed away shortly after the accident. My friend is torn up about it, like I’ve been round his house for the last three days trying to make him feel better.
Don’t blame yourself mate, in the end you did nothing wrong. Sometimes we stop, sometimes we don’t, sometimes we can’t. But in the end of it all it’s the van driver’s fault for being an idiot on a busy and fast paced road. So PLEASE don’t be torn up about it? It will only do your sanity harm if anything…
Chris this only happened yesterday (10th), you sure its the same guy? Can’t see how you would be at your friends house for 3days. I’m sorry for your loss in any case. Charlie
+1 to both these comments (minus Jewell’s initial bit :hehe: )
If you stopped to help, the problem would then more likely to have been you, rather than the van.
As road users, we are all responsible for looking out for stationary vehicles and riding/driving in such a way that we don’t hit them or endanger other road users.
If someone failed to do that, then it’s hardly your fault, is it?
A motorcyclist riding a 125cc scooter is in a stable condition following a collision with a van on the A3 at Wisley yesterday (Thursday, 10 March). The rider in his twenties was in collision with the white Ford Transit which had broken down in lane one of the southbound carriageway just before 1pm. He was taken to St George’s Hospital in London with head injuries. Surrey Police is appealing for witnesses and asks anyone who may have information to call the Collision Investigation Unit on 01483 639922."
