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Or, what can happen when a 1930's style trunk road (complete with the marvellous "road house" pubs) is sandwiched (no pun intended) between a motorway and a major dual carriageway www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004...l
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Or more likely what happens when a coach driver full of school kids drives too close to the vehicle in front and/or is nodding off.
Whats the phrase? "be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear" or similar.
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The A66 from Scotch Corner to Bowes and from Brough to Penrith is a road I hate driving on. Too much traffic, and too many people (and more scarily lorries) driving way too fast for the tight road conditions.
Awful road.
--
Lee
MINI adventure in progress
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Yep, I drive on it regularly and it is terribly dangerous. Needs sorting asap.
I used to attempt to overtake (I was young, forgive me) but many others just haven't come to the conclusion that it will get you nowhere and just makes it more dangerous for everyone.
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The A66 will be dualled over the sections which aren't, starting in a couple of years.
However, don't blame the road, as the road does no cause ANY of the accidents.
It is the drivers.
BTW, why are they dualling the A66, when it will get blocked by snow in winter and be closed to high sided vehicles in strong winds.
They should dual the A69 instead: no crosswind problems, no high altitude sections, more sensible place for an east-west link...surely it's a no-brainer decision!
They are, of course, dualling the A66 because John Prescott has no brains...
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I remember the A66 as being a highly unpleasant stretch of highway when I last drove along it 11 years ago. I shudder to think what it must be like now and I don't envy those of you who are compelled to use it regularly.
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I remember the A66 as being a highly unpleasant stretch of highway
True it has French (toll-free) standards of scariness and life expectancy, but the road itself is quite a friendly old thing. I'm with Longdriver and Citroenian, the problem is the drivers who use it to try and make up the time they have lost in the congestion on the M6 and A1.
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As one who has patrolled the A.66 mentioned (to Stainmore - Cumbria boundary in my days) and dealt with fatals (1)on it then I would concur that the road is not dangerous as mentioned above. It is the drivers that use it at fault. It exists with all its problems of undulation, lack of overtaking opportunities and the ever presence of vehicles turning/pulling out for side roads, all signed, which abound which is not beyond a good drivers ability to cope with.
One needs patience and observations to drive along it. Sadly lacking by a large majority IMHO.
(1) Weirdest fatal was just west of Scotch Corner and beyond Sedbury Lay By. Two Scotch men hitching back home after many bevvies decided one would lay on the road feigning injury so that a vehicle would stop so they could hitch a lift. One didn't - ran over Jock causing fatal injuries and did not stop. Driver probably OPL but to his credit after an appeal on the media came foward 12 hours later reporting that he thought he had hit something on road. Vehicle seized for Forensic exam which came up with parts of watch of deceased in chassis. Enquiries through various watch repairers (they put a mark in the back) showed watch was from deceased. Further, accident occurred in winter and snow/ice from under vehicle bagged and Forensic found strands of pullover from deceased in snow. Road check a week later to the hour came up with lorry driver who could confirm antics of the two Scotchmen.
Car driver appeared Richmond Mags Court charged with failing to stop/failing to report. Forget what the sentence was, probably minor as I cannot remember.
DVD
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This justifies my decision to ignore a friend who advised me to go from Leeds to Stranraer on Friday via A1, A66 and M6. Went via the M62, M61 and M6 and saw the signs saying the A66 was closed. My route was only 23 miles further, but stress free!
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There have been about three occasions in many years' driving when I have come very close to being wiped out through lack of concentration by other drives - one of those was on the A66 travelling east.
There is a stretch of single carriageway which then enters an S-bend (left and right) before straightening out and then on to a sweeping right bend around a large property.
As I came up to the S-bend, all of which includes double white lines, a car coming the other way failed to bear to the left but came straight on and over the double white lines onto the wrong side of the road; the driver just might have been blinded by the sun.
With fractions of a second to spare I steered to the left, just managing to avoid a low wall and back onto the road again, a manoeuvre accompanied by a loud bang.
My immediate raction was one of being thankful to still be alive and avoiding a head-on smash, the second was amazement at the fact that we had come so close together that our door mirrors had caught each other on the offside - hence the bang.
Fortunately because it was a Fiat, the mirrors were of the fold-in backwards or forwards type and, amazingly, even the glass hadn't been broken.
It must have been little more than the thickness of the paintwork that separated us, but I still often marvel about self-preservation in times of need...
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Lost the left-hand door mirror in France on a dark country road.
Still wonder at the closeness!
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