30-06-2020, 06:43 PM
(30-06-2020, 06:22 PM)Reckless Rat Wrote: This is one of the reasons that a lot of drivers/riders come to grief on rural roads. It's not just a question of being able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear. You have to dial in the fact that whoever or whatever comes in the opposite direction ALSO needs room to stop, and allowances have to be made. ALWAYS expect the unexpected. It WILL happen, one day. You were lucky, Andrew.
I was damned unlucky! Someone coming towards me on my side of the road is not normal! I was unlucky to be there at that moment. Skill prevented the collision.
But I agree that being able to stop in the distance I can see to be clear is often not enough. This was brought home to me twenty odd years ago when driving on a very narrow very rural road. High hedges on both sides and going around a long curve. I could see a length of clear road in front. The car coming towards me could see a length of clear road in front of him. What neither of us had realised was that we were both looking at the same bit of clear road! We both braked, both kept well to our left using the narrow verges, and both stopped with our bonnets side by side, less than half an inch from wheelarch to wheelarch.