Accident at Barugh Green

It's not that uncommon for older drivers with dementia to do this sadly

 

I know it's completely unintentional in those circumstances but how do they actually manage it? It looks so damn hard to get onto a motorway in the wrong direction even if I wanted to.

 

https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2024-03-30/m62-wrong-way-crash-driver-who-died-named-by-police it was an old bloke, looks like he got mixed up at the services and drove out the way he came in.

 

So not the young lad driving a Range Rover that ran off then, Or so the P1llocks on local Facebook groups said as fact?
Read link before commenting Juddy ffs so nothing to do with Barugh Green

 

My Dad, (88), would still be out driving if my Mum, (sadly no longer with us), hadn't made him cut up his drivers licence some years back. He was a menace even on a mobility scooter. He can't sadly command his own bowels, but thinks he'd be OK driving a car. We won't let it happen, but I'm sure there are a lot of elderly folks that should not be on the roads. It is a political hot potato that the 2 main parties will shy away from, for fear of losing votes. It needs a lot more joined up thinking as to who should be on the roads IMO. This is clearly tragic. There are also 50 year old boy racers, who are not getting done as well.

 

Very difficult subject, that one. On the one hand, there is the obvious safety issue. On the other hand, the car is literally the lifeline for a lot of older folk who would otherwise be confined to a miserable existence stuck at home. You just have to hope that folk know when they are no longer safe and call it a day but that's a hard call for anyone to make. I can imagine myself being very very reluctant to ever give up my license. I will need telling.

My mum still drives at 79 and is probably competent enough to do so, although I think she is a terrible driver and I would not get in a car with her. Not unsafe, just not very good. The kind that completes a 3 point turn in 5 minutes because every stage has to involve putting on the handbrake and redoing her mirrors. She has to park at the far end of car parks because she can't manoeuvre into a tight space and reversing in is just not remotely possible. Rather than driving into Doncaster and parking in the French gate multi story, she parks at Morrisons and catches the bus in. One day, I will need to tell her to stop, but I dread the day.

I remember my grandma, she had an old 1950s classic humber, probably very recognisable driving around Thurnscoe. My mum got the doctor to tell her she wasn't fit to drive and that he was going to report the matter to DVLA. She called the doctor a ******* *******.

 

He went through these No Entry signs.



And then these




But that's pretty much it.

**Edit - depending where he parked he may have not even had to go through the first set.

 

It was at 2am. To be fair the markings in some services are absolutely atrocious. It's easy to get confused when you're tired, especially in the dark when there are no other cars to guide you. I must admit I haven't done anything quite as spectacular as exiting down the entry lane, but there have been a couple of times I've got quite lost and ended up in the petrol station or lorry park when trying to use the services. I am relatively young, and (hopefully) compos mentis. Must be much harder when you're in your 70's or 80's.

 

That was the point I was making. I agree with @SuperTyke that from a junction it's almost impossible to go the wrong way down a Motorway. But from a Service Station...

So I took a look at Hartshead Moor, and Jesus, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. When it's quiet and in the dark, the design is so bad it's scary.

 

I agree, I can see how coming out of the services the way you came in could be done when confused and tired. But you would hope that the first obvious sign something is not quite right is when you appear to be merging back onto the motorway from a slip road on the right, into lane 3. If that passes you by, you probably aren't fit to be driving, unfortunately.

 

That happens when you enter the M60 from the A560 at Bredbury. You enter from the right into the fast lane.

 

Never even considered motorway services, I always just assumed it was people somehow getting on at a junction the wrong way but you're right it's pretty damn easy from some services if you take one wrong turn. They should make them have an angled exit like a proper junction has.

 

Same, wasn't until I read the article.

 

Yeah, I have seen the one on the M60. I'm not aware of any others. But you'd never see it from the services.

 

I can't immediately recall any others either, but having had friends/family live in Stockport I've used that one a lot so it sprung to mind.

 

But surely when you’re on the motorway…. You would notice the hard shoulder and central reservation were on the wrong side….

 

Usually, but not always. There are bits of the A1 round Peterborough and near the Dartford Tunnel where you've got parallel motorways or bits of dual carriageway going in the same direction. It's mightily confusing if you don't know the road layout, especially if you've got your navigator on as it can't always work out whether you're on the correct bit of road. This is just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are plenty of similar stretches of road in the UK.

When driving from Nottingham or East Midlands Airport to Lincoln, the road does a lot of alternating between single and dual carriageway. That can also get quite confusing if you're tired and not giving it 100% concentration. I once moved out to overtake during the small hours convinced I was on a dual carriageway section, before realising just in time that I definitely wasn't.

 

My grandad had a little bang in Morrison’s car park a couple of years back. It’s the best thing that happened to him as it meant his car was written off and nobody in the family would take him to buy a new one. A much bigger accident was waiting to happen with him at the wheel.

He’s now accepted we were right and gets lifts off the family if he needs to go anywhere.

 

You can't leave people to make giving up their licences to themselves it simply doesn't work it is too important to them to make a sensible decision. Why not bring in a competence test at say 70 not another driving test but just make sure they are not endangering themselves or others. Take them locally and on the Motorway if they aren't up to that take their right to drive on them away. I had to have a heated argument with my late father on this very subject as I was afraid he was going to hurt himself and others.