This past week I observed one of the saddest, slow motion accidents narrowly avoided. It is time I remind us to be vigilent for these circumstances.
The setup goes like this: you are waiting at the exit of your estate road to enter into the main road. A car is coming from your left, if you drive in a country that has driving on the right-hand side; or from your right if you drive in the United Kingdom. The car is signalling that he will turn right, which you assume he means that he will turn into the same road you are exiting. There is no other traffic on the road so you move out across his path which you think he will abandon by turning off. No! He means that he will turn right into the next entrance, so by moving out he will most likely smash into the driver's side of your car.
A genuine case of a simple misunderstanding. No one was reckless in this case, but still we now have two cars ready to be written off. All you can do is say, but I thought, etc, and you would be wrong.
What can be done to avoid this happening to you?
We can make it a golden rule that when faced with this set of circumstances we should stand firm and not move untill we are absolutely certain where he is going. We can also stop if there is a car on the roundabout. If we think he is going to go off on the exit before he gets to us, we will be wrong more times than not. That's called Murphy's Law.
Keep this in mind and you won't go too far wrong.
Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael
