[news] Two hundred hurt as 100 cars crash on A249 Sheppey crossing

[Gatt]

BBC News: BBC News - Two hundred hurt as 100 cars crash on A249 Sheppey crossing

 

Sounds a bad one

 

But...

 

Driver Martin Stammers said the scene was "horrendous" and described seeing cars under lorries and people lying on the floor.He said visibility was about 10 to 20 yards when he approached the bridge and saw five cars smashed into each other with one across the outside lane.

He managed to squeeze through a gap between that car and the central reservation, he said.

"For 10 minutes afterwards, all we could hear was screeching, cars thudding into each other, lorries crashing," he added.

 

Sorry but how fast were they all going!?!

If visibility was that poor then they should have been crawling along and leaving some serious gaps between cars..s

[Oaktech]

What seems like common sense to us is a foreign language to so many others.

[X-13]

He managed to squeeze through a gap between that car and the central reservation, he said.

 

>Bad accident

>200 injured

>[censored] it, I gotta get to work.

[Rawns]

Sorry but how fast were they all going!?!

If visibility was that poor then they should have been crawling along and leaving some serious gaps between cars..s

 

I would assume that if no one has been "seriously" injured/killed, then they must have been going slower than normal. From the pictures, none of the cars look like they have been massively smashed up either like they would have been if going at high speeds? However like you said, they should have been crawling.

 

I've only once driven in fog where I could not see more then 5 meters in front of me and it was on main country road. While I'm a confident driver, it was a bit unnerving and I went at no more then 15 mph. If anyone wanted to overtake, they were free to do so.

 

Edit: Seems a few more pictures are now out and one or two of the cars do look a little worse for ware!

Edited September 5, 2013 by Rawns

[sonofsanta]

It looks like it wasn't so much speed that was the issue, as people being bloody morons and driving without lights in the fog.

One witness said visibility had been very poor at the time of the crash but drivers were approaching the crossing with no lights.

 

We should copy Canada & the Nordic countries and enforce a legal requirement for automatic headlights if a car is out of neutral. Even when people do think to put lights on, half the time they only put sidelights on and they're as much use as a match in a snowstorm.

[Jawloms]

It looks like it wasn't so much speed that was the issue, as people being bloody morons and driving without lights in the fog.

 

 

We should copy Canada & the Nordic countries and enforce a legal requirement for automatic headlights if a car is out of neutral. Even when people do think to put lights on, half the time they only put sidelights on and they're as much use as a match in a snowstorm.

 

And of course on the flip side of that you get people driving around with their fog lights on cos it's raining......

[Rawns]

It's going to be a big task for all the car insurance companies to identify who was/wasn't at fault!

[Andrew_C]

It's going to be a big task for all the car insurance companies to identify who was/wasn't at fault!

Anyone with only "front end damage" is in for some stick.

[sonofsanta]

And of course on the flip side of that you get people driving around with their fog lights on cos it's raining......

 

Most people round here don't need the excuse of rain! They just do it cos it makes your car look like a rally car, and that's cool