On the way to work this morning I went via Tesco to get milk. I was in the traditional and daily queue of stationary traffic on the inside lane of the A14, actually second from the back, when a great big articulated lorry came by – still shaking and wobbling from massive braking as it swerved into the fortunately empty next lane.
“That was quite close,” I thought, but observed that I had left enough room between me and the car in front to drive into the lay-by at the side – if I’d noticed it in time. Two more cars arrived behind me, and then I noticed in the mirror another big lorry steaming down the road obviously going too fast to stop.
Putting into action the very plan I had just been considering, I started to move into the lay-by. The car two behind had the same idea but with more urgency and was already in the lay-by. This time there was no room in the next lane, so I re-considered when I saw that the truck was also attempting to use the lay-by as an escape route. Sadly for him, the lay-by was also now blocked, so the tanker (I could now see) went by us on the grass and then tipped gently into the ditch. Where it certainly still is now. We got out to see that the driver was OK – he gave us the thumbs up as he was already speaking to someone on his mobile (“Yes, I’m in a ditch. Again.”) and got out of the cab.
It didn’t seem right to take a photograph, so I didn’t. As the truck had actually managed to miss everything, there was no need for witnesses – so we all drove off, once the people in the inside lane let us out.
How was your trip to work?