Wrong way during traffic jam on A34

DullGreyGuy

saajan_12 said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

imulsion said:

Thanks @maman and @Car_54 for your inputs. I will certainly explain the extenuating circumstances given the opportunity. With hindsight it was a pretty stupid thing to do but at the time it seemed reasonable. Either way I'll be more than willing to pay an FPN or go on a course.

I'm not sure what the "extenuating circumstances" are.

imulsion said:

An unlimited fine? Does that not seem harsh?

Unlimited makes sense as it would include angry driver barrelling down and weaving between 100s of moving cars. 

Equally there needs to be a way of differentiating between that and the OP's case. Maybe extenuating is the wrong word but the context and details of the offence are relevant to calibrating the level of punishment. 

it also allows the fine to be adjusted for someone's wealth/income... hence Ant of Ant & Dec fame got a £86k drink driving fine as Band C is 150% of weekly wage and so the UK average should be about £1,000 (unless you think drink driving is more prevalent in one socioeconomic group than another)

Nasqueron

prowla said:

I was once caught in a queue on the motorway after a big crash; they cut the central reservation and fed people through to go back upin the opposite direction.

I was on holiday in Cuba a fair few years ago, they had a motorway where one side was so bad they just closed it and traffic used one side as a 2 lane road, unrelated to OP but amused me

CliveOfIndia

Years ago I was stuck on the motorway, all 3 lanes jammed solid, there'd obviously been a crash or something.  All of us were patiently inching along, saw quite a few cars who decided to go onto the hard shoulder to skip past all the traffic.

After we'd gone about half a mile, saw all these cars stationary on the hard shoulder.  A police car was parked in front of them, two PCs walking down the line of cars giving tickets to them all.  Brilliant Karma

I've no idea what the penalty would have been, but to my mind it's quite a serious offence.  Not least because the hard shoulder is the only way for emergency vehicles to get past the traffic jam and to the scene of the accident.

DullGreyGuy

CliveOfIndia said:
Not least because the hard shoulder is the only way for emergency vehicles to get past the traffic jam and to the scene of the accident.

Obviously always depends on the location of the crash in relation to junctions and where emergency vehicles are coming from. Assuming the whole road is blocked then often they'll come from the next exit and drive up the clear road rather than come from behind down the hard shoulder as vehicles could be legitimately in the hard shoulder due to breaking down etc whereas with no traffic flowing the only things between the blockage and the next junction is open road. 

Thomas_Crown

prowla said:

I suppose the potential issue was if emergency vehicles needed to go along the hard shoulder.

There is no hard shoulder on the A34, it's a dual carriageway (Primary Route). Behind the white line which marks the edge of the carriageway, is a narrow strip of tarmac 2' - 3' wide, then a gravel filled drainage channel.

TripleH

I remember years ago going to rescue my sister after she crashed (hit black ice). The police had blocked off the A road at the nearest junction before the multiple incidents on that stretch.

We were allowed through and given instructions of where to go to leave once we'd collected my sister by a police officer.

As we went through some idiot raced through after us. I did hope he dinked his car as it was a 'handle' car.

Ganga

TripleH said:

I remember years ago going to rescue my sister after she crashed (hit black ice). The police had blocked off the A road at the nearest junction before the multiple incidents on that stretch.

We were allowed through and given instructions of where to go to leave once we'd collected my sister by a police officer.

As we went through some idiot raced through after us. I did hope he dinked his car as it was a 'handle' car.

Whats a " Handle Car "

Also with regards to these long breakdowns on the motorways ,what happens if you are caught short for the toilet ,i suppose it means jump over the barrier and hope for a tree to hide behind.