Penultimate…
Honestly, I always thought it well known that MPs tend to be out of touch with the real world, but I’d have hoped that someone, anyone in power would realise that encouraging people to drive on the hard shoulder is BLOODY STUPID.
The answer, it seems, to all the worries about the danger this poses is to build “refuge areas” alongside the hard shoulder.
We already have these on all motorways. They are the aforementioned hard shoulders.
Now, as a motorist of 20 odd years, who has been involved in numerous accidents, breakdowns and other things that happen every day on the road, I’d like to point out that the reason the hard shoulder runs the entire length of the road, rather than only being placed at various spots alongside it, is because accidents and breakdowns can happen anywhere. If your car breaks down, has a blow out, or (as has happened to Flipper) gets rammed from behind, you really aren’t often left to think “it’s inconvenient to stop here, I’ll carry on a few miles to the next safe area”.
I’ve had to stop because part of the car fell off, and was dragging itself (in a “I’m going to be causing sparks” kinda way) under the car. I’ve had to stop because MY CAR WAS ON FIRE.
In both these instances I stopped as quickly as possible. In the latter case, my passenger was out of the car and running away before I’d even managed to stop completely.
Ruth Kelly’s pronouncement that this is a good idea is, well, the sort lack of thought I’d imagine anyone who regularly beats themselves is capable of.
It’s dangerous, stupid, and quite frankly, I wonder if we can measure in weeks or only days how long it’ll be before someone’s entire family becomes a horrible statistic because they were unable to reach the former safety of the hard shoulder.
Add comment October 24th, 2007
