I came very close to having a high-speed motorway accident over the weekend – I would say about a metre away – because somebody wasn’t up to speed on their Highway Code.
Traffic was moving at a decent lick and I was in the outside lane having just overtaken a lorry in lane two. I was just pulling back in when the nose of a blue BMW 3-Series became visible in my passenger side front window. He had undertaken the HGV via lane one and pulled out, which is why I had no clue he was there.
I accept it’s my responsibility to make sure the space I’m moving into is actually a space, rather than a large blue lump of metal, but honestly! As I veered back into lane three I hooted aggressively at him, but the bloke quite clearly didn’t feel he’d done anything wrong.
I’m telling you this because I have long held the view that it’s madness for people to pass their driving test at 17 and never have any more instruction. Retesting isn’t necessary, but a mandatory refresher safety session with an instructor, who can assess your skills and give you some pointers, would surely save lives. I reckon every five years would be about right. Let me know what you think.
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