Motorway Hell on the Highway S01E04 (31 Mar 2023)
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Motorways are fastest, widest and busiest roads.
00:07But when risks are taken...
00:10That's one hell of a near miss.
00:12..laws are broken...
00:14People are just far too impatient.
00:16..or sheer lunacy takes over...
00:20One of the most dangerous clips I've probably seen is that.
00:23..motorways become the stuff of nightmares.
00:26Eww!
00:28You just can't think stupid.
00:30It's just dangerous. All out dangerous.
00:36In this series, we'll reveal the shocking, jaw-dropping...
00:42..and just plain frightening incidents...
00:46..all captured on dashcam by the public in the UK and across the world,
00:51where, incredibly, no-one was fatally injured.
00:55You can hit the brakes as hard as you want.
00:57That force is pushing you forward.
00:59We'll show you our panel of drivers and driving experts
01:02reacting to the mayhem in real time...
01:05Jeez!
01:06..before they reveal what they think really went wrong...
01:10Some of them have completely failed to look at what's in front of them.
01:13..why they think things ended in catastrophe...
01:16The driver's just going too fast for the conditions.
01:18..and why almost all of this chaos
01:20was almost completely and utterly avoidable.
01:23It's a recipe for disaster.
01:25It's like bumper cars.
01:27This is how not to drive.
01:35This time...
01:38..lane change lunacy causes carnage in Sacramento...
01:42Ooh!
01:45Insurance companies are going to have fun with that one, aren't they?
01:48..a terrifying tale of tiredness in Tennessee...
01:51Goddammit, I'm going to be late!
01:55What a way to wake up, eh?
01:57..trucks fall victim to the hazards of high winds...
02:00You know there's some serious wind going on there.
02:02I mean, it doesn't get much more scarier than that.
02:05..and a biker is forced to switch vehicles
02:07in the fast lane of a motorway.
02:15You learn to expect certain things driving along a motorway.
02:19The sudden urge for the toilet once you've passed the services,
02:22slanderous graffiti on bridges and middle lane hoggers.
02:26But one thing you don't expect to see
02:28is a rogue wheel rolling towards you.
02:31Cue this first clip from Indiana.
02:35Is that a wheel?
02:37Do you think that's the wheel?
02:39A lone wheel travelling down the carriageway there.
02:42The wheel gets a little pump from the car we're riding on board with.
02:46Wow, so obviously someone has lost a wheel
02:49and it's just rolling, it's got momentum, it's going.
02:52Oh, no.
02:56Ooh! Oh, wow!
02:59That was just so unfortunate.
03:03No chance.
03:04They probably expected to hit it like this car did
03:07and just pump it along the road,
03:09but actually, no, it got under the car and launched it.
03:14It just goes to show that whatever you hit in the road
03:17can cause your vehicle to flip,
03:19cause a bedlam in the carriageway.
03:22You wouldn't have thought it could have done that.
03:25Good God, look at that roll.
03:27A bit like a Bollywood film crash and just keeps rolling and rolling.
03:31Fortunately, it lands back on its wheel,
03:33probably with very, very confused occupants in that car.
03:37Fortunately, incidents like this are incredibly rare.
03:41You know, I've seen wheels in the carriageway,
03:43I've seen vehicles lose wheels
03:45and I've seen wheels hit the side of cars and have big dents in them,
03:49but I've never seen a wheel flip a car upside down like that
03:52and keep going as well.
03:54Luckily, no-one was seriously hurt.
04:01When you're driving on a motorway, drama comes in many forms.
04:05Loss of radio signal,
04:07a suite lost to the abyss of the footwell
04:10or the kids asking, are we nearly there yet?
04:13But all of this pales into insignificance
04:16compared to a tyre suddenly losing pressure
04:19and blowing out in a shredded, terrifying mess.
04:25Over in Australia, this woman is driving on the M1 motorway
04:29just outside Melbourne.
04:31We've got the vehicle travelling down the carriageway,
04:34nice bit of sunshine, blue sky,
04:36so weather conditions are absolutely brilliant.
04:38Speed is looking nice.
04:40We've got this driver, the point of view, travelling in lane 3.
04:45They then are on the lane change
04:47and we've got the articulated vehicle in lane 2 there, travelling down.
04:52But unbeknownst to the dashcam driver,
04:54something's about to ruin their day.
04:58Oh, no.
05:00Wow.
05:01So there's a lorry, it's just had a blowout.
05:03Oh, that looks like metal. Oh, it is!
05:06Wow.
05:09Absolutely terrifying for the driver.
05:11And that is going to scare the hell out of them.
05:14That must have gone right next to the driver.
05:16Not only has she had a piece of metal fall off the lorry and hit her car,
05:20now she can't see out the windscreen.
05:23Fortunately for the driver, the windscreen didn't shatter,
05:26but she's shocked and in a dangerous situation on the motorway.
05:30So she's just a sitting duck, she's just waiting for other people
05:33to go into the back of her.
05:36There's traffic that could potentially hit you
05:38because of what's happened with the blowout.
05:40So now she's like, I need to get out of the motorway,
05:42I need to pull over on the hard shoulder and I need to get away from this.
05:46The driver manages to pull over to the hard shoulder,
05:49unscathed by this freak accident.
05:55So lucky for the driver that it didn't enter the cab.
05:58Any piece of foreign metal, wood, anything.
06:04We don't want that coming into the vehicles.
06:07That is like a one in a million, billion, trillion chance of that happening.
06:11That is Lady Luck definitely smiling down.
06:14How they got away with that, I will never know.
06:20On a motorway back in Britain,
06:22and this van with the dashcam is just overtaking a truck.
06:25This articulated vehicle is just travelling down the carriageway.
06:29He's got a big trailer behind him as well.
06:31There's nothing on it, but that's still a lot of weight to be contending with.
06:35But the big trailer is the least of the trucker's worries today.
06:45I mean, that must have been so scary when that went off.
06:48I've had a blowout myself.
06:50I've had a blowout.
06:52I've had a blowout myself, and I know how loud it can be.
06:55Like a really loud bang, almost like a gunshot.
06:59If it's on the front of your lorry, and it's driver's side as well,
07:02that would have almost been ear-splitting.
07:04That would have been so loud, and it would have scared the crap out of him.
07:08The fact it's one of the front tyres doesn't just make it louder,
07:11it also makes it harder for the driver to control.
07:16Because this was a front right steering tyre,
07:19big, big problems.
07:20And when that tyre does go,
07:22that steering wheel is pretty much being ripped out of the driver's hand,
07:26and you can see the tractor unit veering off to the right-hand side.
07:30You're going to lose instant control of your vehicle.
07:32It's going to be harder to control your vehicle.
07:35If the tyre comes completely off the rim,
07:37there's a chance that your lorry could topple.
07:40Luckily, that vehicle was unloaded travelling down the road,
07:44and if he'd had a heavier weight on the back of that,
07:47you know, it could have gone a lot worse than it did.
07:51Luckily, no-one was seriously hurt.
07:54And to avoid being the cause of a similar incident,
07:57Sam has got some tips on how to maintain your wheels.
08:00It's a really simple thing to do,
08:03but I think an awful lot of people don't do this.
08:05They don't check their nuts often enough.
08:07And it's something you should probably do periodically,
08:09like check your oil, and also check your nuts.
08:12You'll be pleased to know I've checked my nuts this morning.
08:15You'll be pleased to know I've checked my nuts this morning.
08:17And they're all present and correct.
08:22Coming up...
08:24Truckers wishing the wind would turn off.
08:26You know, with white knuckles on the steering wheel, it's not nice.
08:29And tired drivers nodding off.
08:33Get the hell out of the way!
08:36That's right, blame somebody else.
08:38It's always someone else's fault, isn't it?
08:46WIND PLUS CARS
08:51Wind plus cars equals danger.
08:54Whether you're inside a car with my mate Barry after a night on the source,
08:57or Mother Nature's trying her worst outside of it,
09:00wind causes huge problems to road users.
09:09Croatia, a sun-drenched holiday hotspot,
09:12and the location for an unlikely David versus Goliath story.
09:17Beautiful, clear bit of road, nice weather.
09:19But don't be fooled by first appearances.
09:23The skies might look nice and blue,
09:25but look how much the back of his truck is blowing around,
09:27so you can see there's a lot of wind.
09:30He's driving in basically like a valley,
09:32but as soon as that comes to the end now, he's up into the elements.
09:38Now that valley's gone,
09:40watch how much more the wind starts affecting his vehicle.
09:44So look, it's literally trying to blow him across the lane.
09:48Oh, do you know what?
09:49It's so frightening when you're driving down open roads like that.
09:52You're basically a sitting kite.
09:54You know, once the wind takes a side of you,
09:56you're going to feel it, especially if you're unloaded.
10:00See, look how much he starts to wobble there,
10:02so you can see the wind's really picking up.
10:05Every time he's catching it, it's almost like he's just pulling it back in.
10:08Maybe he's a surfer as well, you never know,
10:10because he is dealing with this wind like an absolute trooper.
10:14But who will triumph, the truck or the Croatian wind?
10:21Oh, come on, fella, hold on.
10:22Come on, drive, hold on to the road.
10:24You can do it, slow down.
10:26Has he made it?
10:27Oh, he's not, he's not.
10:29Oh, don't go.
10:31No, no, no, no, no, no.
10:32Oh, it's stuck him.
10:39You can keep Formula 1, that's driving.
10:45What a driver.
10:46Wow.
10:48I can't believe this doesn't tip over.
10:51The driver returns the van back to all four wheels
10:53and presumably asks the dashcam driver behind
10:56if he can watch his miraculous escape back.
11:00He's done superb to do that,
11:01because every time it was tipping him,
11:02you can see he's steering into it and it turns him back
11:05and then it pushes his vehicle back onto four wheels.
11:08Superb.
11:10He's done extremely well to control that
11:12and not tip the truck over.
11:14As soon as it starts to blow,
11:16he's steering left, he's catching it back over
11:19and he's bringing it down.
11:20Truck driver one, Croatian wind nil.
11:26Oh, my God, I've never seen that before.
11:29Over in the States, everything seems bigger.
11:32Even their wind is supersized.
11:34As this tornado ripping its way towards the city of Elgin in Texas
11:38is about to prove.
11:40There is a tornado rolling straight across the freeway,
11:44throwing debris absolutely everywhere.
11:46The telegraph poles are down, the trees are being ripped up.
11:51You know when you've got leaves going straight across
11:54on a horizontal axis in highballs,
11:56you know there's some serious wind going on there.
12:00I mean, it doesn't get much more scarier than that.
12:02Unless, of course, you're the person in the red truck in the distance.
12:06And by distance, I mean in the tornado.
12:12Wow.
12:15There is a truck that has just...
12:17Did it get flipped over?
12:18It's spinning its way along the central reservation there.
12:21And it's being rotated by that tornado.
12:24It's being twisted and twisted.
12:25Round it goes, full 360.
12:29It must be absolutely terrifying.
12:31We're certainly not in Kansas anymore with that one.
12:34But just when they think it's goodbye Yellow Brick Road...
12:41Wow.
12:42..the tornado miraculously flips the car back onto its wheels.
12:47Lady Luck was definitely smiling down on that driver at that point.
12:51She certainly was.
12:53Is he going to start driving again?
12:55Surely not.
12:56And he is.
12:57That's incredible.
12:59Just look at that.
13:00It's being hurled around like a little ragdoll in the wind.
13:03To then correct the vehicle, put it back on its four wheels and to drive off.
13:09That's just astonishing.
13:12I'll just carry on driving as if nothing had happened.
13:18It's February 2022
13:20and one of the worst storms in decades is battering the country.
13:25But on the M40 in Oxford, all appears unnervingly calm.
13:29For now at least.
13:31Weather conditions from the outset didn't look too bad.
13:35But we can see the area he's in, very flat, not too much hill.
13:40So if you are going to get a gust of wind, this is where it's going to amplify.
13:45Because you haven't got those mountains or buildings to slow that wind down.
13:50The soft sides of this HGV ahead are known as curtains
13:53and the open terrain immediately proves problematic.
13:58If you see that the curtain on the other side of the lorry is also blowing out,
14:02you know there's some serious wind going on there.
14:05The vehicle is bowing over to the right-hand side.
14:08He's put a little bit of left-hand turn on,
14:11which hasn't helped in my opinion whatsoever here.
14:15Oh my!
14:18Whoa!
14:20I mean the driver of that vehicle, the terror and fear.
14:25White knuckles on the steering wheel and just...
14:28You know when that fear goes through your body
14:30and you just get this cold sweat and your pupils dilate and you can feel it.
14:34Just so scared like.
14:37Wow.
14:39Sideslide!
14:41Losing the battle with the wind,
14:43the lorry ends up blocking all three lanes of the motorway.
14:47The poor lorry driver.
14:48You know, he could be the best of drivers in the world
14:50and all it takes is just a really strong gust of wind to knock him over.
14:56It's a really unfortunate position to find yourself in
14:59and it can just happen to anybody like that.
15:02Luckily the driver escaped with just minor injuries,
15:05unlike his truck, which appears to be a complete write-off.
15:10That's why lorry drivers hate driving in the wind.
15:17Sure, the self-driving car is very clever, but what's the point?
15:22I can already drive.
15:23Give me something that's useful, like a self-mending car.
15:27No more mechanics ripping you off
15:29and no more breaking down on the motorway.
15:32On a busy freeway in Los Angeles,
15:34the driver of this broken down car is about to have a day they'll never forget.
15:40So we've got a car sat on the interstate in the middle lane.
15:44Stop, but he's got his hazard lights on.
15:47Everyone is seeing him really late, slamming on brakes.
15:51How has he not been hit?
15:54Some near misses there.
15:56The silver car has broken down in the middle lane,
15:59leaving the driver in a terrifying position.
16:02You're always told if you break down, exit your vehicle,
16:05stand on the hard shoulder,
16:07but could you imagine even trying to do that in this situation?
16:10If he exits his vehicle,
16:12he's probably in even worse trouble.
16:15Oh, my God.
16:17It's so close, isn't it?
16:19There's another one.
16:21That guy sat in there, his heart must be racing,
16:24looking in that rearview mirror, seeing cars flying towards his car.
16:28He's just sat there like a sitting duck,
16:30just waiting for the worst to happen.
16:33But it seems he may have had a lucky escape,
16:35as a cop car eventually pulls up behind him
16:38and the traffic immediately stops.
16:40Can you imagine looking in your rearview and you're like,
16:42thank God the police have arrived.
16:44My car hasn't been hit, I'm safe.
16:47But just when he thinks it's all over...
16:50So, what's he doing?
16:57He's driving off?
16:59He hadn't just left him, has he?
17:03Wow. He's left him, hasn't he? They've gone.
17:06What the heck is going on?
17:09Why did they not stop?
17:10Why did they not try and warn everyone?
17:12Maybe there was a reason for it,
17:14but I can't really tell what that would be.
17:17The only reason you would have left that there
17:19is if you were going to another incident which was worse
17:22and there were no one else to go to,
17:24such as there's been a collision down the road.
17:26With the cops seemingly headed for the hills,
17:28the traffic soon speeds up again.
17:30Oh. Oh, my God, it's a free-for-all.
17:34Gets a little bit of a slide on, spins the car, here you go.
17:37That driver gets away with it, just about, doesn't hit anything,
17:41but still no action is taken to recover this car
17:44that's sat in a dangerous position.
17:47The amount of cars that's trying to swerve around him,
17:50the amount of cars that's trying to hit him,
17:52the amount of cars that's trying to hit him,
17:54the amount of cars that's trying to hit him,
17:56the amount of cars that's trying to hit him,
17:58the amount of cars that's trying to swerve around him,
18:00you bet your house that someone's going to hit him.
18:03How does nobody touch this car?
18:06He's, like, got a force field around him.
18:08He's got some sort of, like, powers
18:10that is just making cars avoid his car.
18:13But, unfortunately, the other cars on the road
18:15don't have the same superpower.
18:20Oh, my God.
18:24And the result, there you go, a guy tries to make an emergency manoeuvre,
18:27goes into another car and gets put in the wall as a result,
18:30and very nearly three or four other accidents in the wake of that.
18:34With another car out of action, the cops return,
18:36and it seems they actually hang around this time.
18:41Now the police have arrived
18:42and now they're going to start slowing traffic down
18:44and this guy can then try and eventually move him out of the way.
18:48That's the action that should have been taken much earlier.
18:51Fortunately, no-one was seriously hurt
18:54and the freeway was soon flowing smoothly again.
19:00But even when the boys in blue do stop and help,
19:02you can't always guarantee a safe outcome,
19:05as this next clip unfortunately demonstrates.
19:10It's a freezing January morning in the US state of Michigan
19:14and the road rescue services are already out in force.
19:18You've got someone trying to recover a broken car.
19:20The weather is pretty horrible.
19:22It's cold, it's slippy,
19:23and that recovery is going on in just about the worst place you can go,
19:27between a slip road and the freeway there.
19:31His vehicle is encroaching onto one of the major carriageways
19:34and then the slip road, obviously,
19:36you can see it's down to a single carriageway due to the amount of snow.
19:40And people are coming past at a fair old rate of knots.
19:46This is never going to end well, you can tell it already.
19:49On hand, too, is a local police officer
19:52whose dashcam in his patrol car is automatically recording the incident.
19:57The thing is, when you're at a collision scene,
19:59you've always got to have eyes in the back of your head
20:01because traffic is coming from every direction.
20:04But for the poor, unsuspecting recovery driver and police officer,
20:08no amount of extra eyes could prepare them for what happens next.
20:15Oh, my God!
20:16Oh, my God!
20:18Jesus!
20:20Oh!
20:22And I didn't see that one coming.
20:25He's lost the rear end long before he gets anywhere near the freeway
20:28and that's probably down to snow or ice, actually.
20:30Look, there you can see his line is wrong, he's on the snow and ice.
20:33Can't stop. Bash!
20:36Well, there's now two cars on that low loader when there's space for one.
20:40And for the recovery driver, it was the closest of shaves.
20:43Look at where the service operator for the recovery has to run.
20:47He runs out into the carriageway of that freeway
20:50and I think they'll all be thinking about that for a few days to come.
20:53Very lucky escape for everybody involved there.
21:03But if you think collisions with broken-down vehicles
21:06only take place at night or in icy conditions, think again.
21:11It can happen on the clearest of roads too,
21:14as this driver on the M62 near Liverpool is about to find out.
21:19So we're riding along, everything's fine.
21:21This car's following a little bit close.
21:23Not quite sure why everybody's in the right-hand lane,
21:25but you can see it's raining, there's a big rainbow in front.
21:28But sadly, there's no pot of gold
21:30waiting for the driver of the black Mercedes up ahead.
21:33You can see the Mercedes has got a clear line of sight.
21:37But seemingly, he hasn't spotted
21:39what the other cars behind him have already seen.
21:42There's a car broken down in the outside lane.
21:45Bentley's seen what's going on,
21:47moves to the left and gets well out of the way.
21:50I don't know what he is looking at,
21:53but how have you not seen a car stationary in front of you?
21:57Whether he's distracted by his phone, radio or the lovely rainbow itself,
22:02you get no prizes for guessing what happens next.
22:07What the heck?
22:11Oh! Wow!
22:14Oh, my God!
22:16The black car in front has just gone piling into this car
22:21that's clearly stopped and broken down in the outside lane.
22:24Your distance there was closing.
22:26Why would you not see that and just try to react?
22:29What were they doing?
22:31They can't have been looking forwards through the windscreen.
22:34It was very obvious that there's a car slap-bang in front of them.
22:37The driver of the broken-down vehicle has rightly exited the car.
22:42Look how lucky this guy is that's actually stood in the central reservation.
22:46If he was outside of that central reservation,
22:49right there, he's getting hit by his own car.
22:52It could so easily have been a different story.
22:55So no matter how pretty the rainbow, always keep your eyes on the road.
23:04Coming up...
23:06Disaster strikes when a trucker dozes off at the wheel.
23:09That's going to be a right mess, isn't it? Absolutely ridiculous.
23:13And trouble is piling up for these motorists.
23:16This is definitely a lesson in how not to overtake.
23:21DISASTER STRIKES
23:26DISASTER STRIKES
23:31The modern world is exhausting.
23:33I mean, how am I supposed to hold down a job, raise the kids
23:36and keep up with the latest box sets?
23:39But whilst most of us are more than happy to soldier on at work exhausted,
23:43there's one place that tiredness is an absolute no-no
23:47and that's behind the wheel of a car.
23:50We're in the USA, in Tennessee.
23:52And despite it being the middle of the day,
23:55the passenger in this car is fast asleep
23:58and the driver, well, let's just say he looks a bit tired.
24:01OK, he's shattered.
24:04Passenger's asleep, grandad's at wheel.
24:08Checking his head there, so he's obviously really tired.
24:11And he's squinting, so he's struggling to focus on the road.
24:14You can see the steering wheel starting to move left and right.
24:17And once your eyes shut, you go, you're gone
24:20until something happens to wake you up.
24:22The potential danger of driving when tired
24:24is massively underestimated by most people.
24:27Using strategies like opening the car window
24:31or drinking a coffee or turning the radio up,
24:35all of these things will temporarily help in the short term.
24:39But ultimately, the tiredness is there.
24:42And there is the tiredness.
24:44He's fast asleep in the fast lane.
24:58That's right, blame somebody else.
25:00It's always someone else's fault, isn't it?
25:05I think the passenger's got this.
25:07He knows that the driver is buzzed off.
25:09What a way to wake up, eh?
25:11This man appeared to fall asleep and lose control of his vehicle
25:14and then blame someone else.
25:22The dozing driver's hastily concocted story isn't working.
25:26I mean, the passenger was asleep
25:28and even he knew something was fishy.
25:31The passenger is furious at the driver
25:34and then just sees the whole thing's a bit funny
25:36because the driver blaming somebody else.
25:38People always want to feel that their actions have been correct.
25:42That is just human nature
25:44and nowhere is it more common than on the road.
25:46If that happens, you've got to do what you can
25:48to get the driver to pull over at side road.
25:50You need to be saying, stop the car, I want to get out.
25:52He should be pulling over, but, yeah,
25:54not acceptable in any way, shape or form.
25:56I carry on driving after that.
26:00But the driver still isn't coming to an immediate stop.
26:03Unless you actually stop and have a sleep and a proper rest,
26:07it will happen again.
26:08The pair eventually made it safely to their destination
26:11and here's hoping he got into his jimmy-jammers for a proper lie down.
26:18This could have been really nasty.
26:20They could have piled into all sorts of trouble
26:22and that's just unacceptable.
26:27Back over in Britain, it's just after 7am on the M5 outside Bristol.
26:33Nice early morning. Nice bit of blue sky there.
26:38Beautiful clear bit of road, nice weather.
26:42Visibility is good, the sun is out.
26:44This shouldn't be a problem for any driver, really.
26:46The car with the dashcam goes to overtake the HGV in the slow lane,
26:50but the driver's nodded off
26:52and the truck begins to drift towards the hard shoulder.
26:56The problems of just drifting across the lane
26:59with potentially 44 tonnes of vehicle travelling down the carriageway
27:03is absolutely enormous.
27:06Oh, dear.
27:07That HGV has decided to make overtaking easy
27:10by driving off the road all on its own.
27:14Oh, no.
27:18Oh, no.
27:23Straight through the central reservation on its side
27:26into the opposing carriageway.
27:29That's going to be a right mess is that, isn't it?
27:31Absolutely ridiculous.
27:34When it hits that little grass verge,
27:37she's then probably woken up,
27:39pulled on a little bit of right steering,
27:42overcorrected, hit the barrier
27:45and now probably travelling into oncoming traffic.
27:49She was really lucky that no-one was seriously injured in that incident.
27:53If that had been an hour later,
27:55that carriageway would be likely to have been a lot busier.
27:59Most HGV drivers' shifts can't exceed nine hours,
28:03but this truck driver had driven for half an hour
28:06over the maximum drive time.
28:08This is just one of those accidents that's entirely unnecessary.
28:12It was just a little bit too far, they were a little bit too tired
28:15and the result was one very damaged truck.
28:19The lorry driver got an eight-month suspended prison sentence
28:22and was disqualified from driving for a year.
28:27It's all about safety, it's not about being mean to anybody.
28:30It's about making sure that everyone's going to be safe
28:32and everyone's got a right to be safe on the road.
28:34The biggest advice here is if you feel tired
28:36and you're going to go on the motorway, probably don't,
28:39because a slightly late load or a slightly late journey,
28:42a slightly longer journey time,
28:43is better than not getting there at all.
28:45If you get very tired, pull over somewhere safe, have a break,
28:48have a leg stretch or have a cup of tea or coffee.
28:51Never tussle with tiredness because you'll never, ever win.
28:59As far as I'm concerned, rush hour should be renamed.
29:02Traffic's not rushing, it's at a standstill
29:05and it stays that way for way longer than 60 minutes.
29:09Almost half of all road accidents occur during rush hour,
29:13so it's more important than ever to concentrate on your driving
29:18and not sipping your latte or singing along to Rihanna.
29:22It's Monday morning rush hour and not for the first or last time,
29:26the M40 near High Wycombe is at a standstill.
29:30Rush hour when you're driving, everyone's itchy
29:33and they're trying to get to where they need to go,
29:35everyone's running late, I need to be there, you know, four hours ago.
29:38So people who are either under time pressure
29:42or who are naturally frustrated drivers
29:45or easily angered, they are more likely to feel aggrieved
29:50by being stuck in heavy traffic
29:53and that's likely to impact on their decision-making processes.
29:57And the decision-making process of this Mercedes driver
30:00is to stuff the queue and go for it down the hard shoulder.
30:08People think they can do what they want when they want
30:11and they don't pay any attention to what's around them.
30:13The hard shoulder is for emergency vehicles only or broken-down vehicles.
30:16That's all it should be used for.
30:18Vlad wants to undertake a hard shoulder
30:20because he wants to get on before everyone else.
30:22So the car in front follows him.
30:26The silver Mercedes clearly doesn't want to wait.
30:29He's more important than everyone else on the road
30:32and he's going to use that hard shoulder.
30:34At first glance, it looks like the silver car is following suit
30:38to dodge the traffic, but as our dashcam driver
30:41makes his stop-start journey down the motorway,
30:44he catches both cars parked on the hard shoulder.
30:49Oh, he was unmarked copper. Oh, that's beautiful.
30:53Oh, that's brilliant. Awesome, awesome. I love it when that happens.
30:57Yeah, tough cheese, Mr Merck. It was the cops.
31:01Good luck explaining your way out of that one.
31:04It's so beautiful to see, you know, this justice.
31:07I can't imagine that that driver would have nipped out into the hard shoulder
31:12if he'd have thought for one minute
31:14that there was a possibility of an unmarked car
31:16seeing him making an illegal manoeuvre.
31:18That driver's been an idiot and he's undertaken an unmarked police vehicle.
31:22Therefore, he gets, oh, that should be coming to him,
31:24which is pointing a real large fine.
31:26We always say, oh, I wish there was a copper around,
31:28but now there really is.
31:31Over in America, it's rush hour on Highway 50 in Sacramento, California.
31:38So you can see it's rush hour. There's traffic every lane.
31:41Never assume anything when you're going down the motorway
31:44when you've overtaken a lorry or any vehicle.
31:46A white pick-up truck changes lanes,
31:48unaware there is traffic bunching up ahead.
31:52And you can just see between the lorry and the truck,
31:55there's traffic slowing down. So why is he speeding off?
31:58See, this truck's coming quite quick, trying to move lanes really fast.
32:01Why would you do that? Slow yourself down and then it's too late.
32:04You're overtaking at the wrong point.
32:06Doing that any time is dangerous, but to be doing that during the rush hour,
32:09it's a no-brainer. You're asking for trouble there.
32:12Now, I've seen this on the road, when they've gone to overtake or whatnot,
32:15and I realise that there's traffic built up ahead
32:17because there's lorries and other vehicles in front of them,
32:19so their view's obstructed. And they don't slow down.
32:21They just think that they can go past this vehicle, overtake this vehicle,
32:24and carry on doing the speed they're doing.
32:26And he's going to go... Oh!
32:30Ooh!
32:33Oh, my goodness.
32:35That's going to be one expensive repair job.
32:39Wow. Insurance companies are going to have fun with that one, aren't they?
32:43They'll be the only ones enjoying this rush-hour rumble,
32:47but there's lessons to be learned.
32:50This is definitely a lesson in how not to overtake.
32:54If I teach a learner to move from left lane to right lane,
32:58you do it in separate movements.
33:00This guy's tried to do it in one movement.
33:02He's not seeing stuff.
33:04You know, everyone there has a pair of eyeballs.
33:06Everyone there can see what's going on ahead of him.
33:08And there was enough of a distance there for the lorry drivers
33:10and the truck drivers and the car drivers to have moved over
33:13and gone around that car.
33:15But this is what happens when everyone's in a rush.
33:18Five people were injured in the pile-up, thankfully none of them seriously.
33:22And several lanes of the highway were closed for the next few hours,
33:25meaning everyone else's rush hour in Sacramento was just a bit more rubbish.
33:34Over in New Zealand, it's 5pm on a busy motorway in the city of Auckland.
33:39When it's rush hour, people want to get home,
33:41but they don't want to be stuck in traffic.
33:43They've had all the time at work and they want to get there as quick as they can do.
33:46And that's when accidents happen.
33:49So this is evening rush hour, so you know roads are going to be busy.
33:53There's cars in every lane.
33:56Everyone is trying to get home.
33:58So motorway, three-lane carriageway, traffic flow is going at a nice even pace.
34:03It's got a bus lane, which is technically the hard shoulder,
34:05which is clearly instructive for buses.
34:08But one driver didn't get the memo about the left-hand lane being for buses.
34:15Oh, was he off? What the hell?
34:17That is ridiculous.
34:20I'm not sure there's ever a good time to do that,
34:22especially not during rush hour.
34:25Flying down the motorway like that, you're asking for trouble.
34:28Like, why would you do that?
34:30How have you not thought about your speed at that point?
34:33I wouldn't even say he's doing the speed limit there.
34:35He is flying down this road.
34:39My speed is definitely going nowhere near his.
34:42Even if I was hungry or dying to get to the toilet, it doesn't matter.
34:45He's got nowhere to go either in the back of a bus or back of a vehicle in lane one.
34:49And luckily he's picked a vehicle in lane one rather than back of the bus.
34:53If he'd have picked back of the bus, he'd have been killed instantly.
34:56Amazingly, neither the driver of the speeding silver car
34:59or the person behind the wheel of the car he hit
35:02were injured in the rush hour smash.
35:05You always get that one idiot that's trying to come through,
35:07create a path for himself and get home as fast as he can.
35:10And you can just see it just ends in tears.
35:12If you don't want your rush hour to end in tears,
35:15here's our panel with some handy tips.
35:18During rush hour, you've got to expect there's going to be traffic,
35:21there's going to be build-up.
35:22We know we're not going to get from A to B
35:25in the same time as if it was a really quiet time of the day.
35:28So leave yourself enough time.
35:30Don't rush.
35:33Patience. Patience is the key.
35:37Everyone's trying to get to where they need to be.
35:39If you're late, well, leave home a little bit sooner.
35:42Coming up, one motorcyclist loses their cool.
35:47Absolutely crappy driving from a motorcyclist.
35:49Don't know what he's doing.
35:51And another loses their bike.
35:53There's the bike. Where's the rider?
36:11Motorbikes.
36:13They embody freedom even more than unlimited calls and texts.
36:18But that freedom comes at a cost,
36:20as statistically a motorbike will result in a trip to the hospital
36:24faster than any other vehicle on the road.
36:29Our first easy rider is rolling down the I-5 in Washington.
36:33We're on board on what looks like a truck,
36:35slow lane of an interstate somewhere in the States.
36:39A black car is tailgating another car up ahead in lane three.
36:44He's tailgating him so bad.
36:46If that front car touches his brakes,
36:48the car in the middle has to hit their brakes really hard.
36:52The wannabe stunt rider then enters stage left,
36:55zooming into shot at high speed.
36:59There's a bike coming in from the left. What's he going to do?
37:02The motorcycle might not be looking far down that road
37:05or might not be able to see how close he's tailgating.
37:09But while the tailgating car manages to brake and avoid a collision,
37:13the biker didn't get the same script.
37:16And he probably wasn't expecting what happens next.
37:21There's the bike. Where's the rider?
37:23Did he go over the barrier?
37:26It's a bike. I shouldn't have laughed.
37:29He's on the back of the car.
37:32He must have been hanging on for dear life at that point.
37:38The rider is also wearing a camera,
37:40which incredibly catches the incident from his own terrifying point of view.
37:53That's shocking.
37:55It's shocking.
37:58But the situation is far from over.
38:02He's now got a ride on the back of this grey car,
38:05which does not seem to be slowing down or realise it's been hit,
38:09and is setting off at a rate of knots down the fast lane of a motorway
38:12with this guy clinging on for dear life on the back.
38:17Do you know what makes me...
38:19It makes me laugh, but I know it's a serious incident.
38:21But the initial impact, he's noticed,
38:24all right, I've crashed, I'm still alive.
38:27But then he then notices,
38:28hold on, I'm stuck on the back of a moving car now.
38:31And that's when he starts screaming.
38:37The oblivious car driver hurtles down the fast lane,
38:40whilst the biker does his best Spider-Man impression.
38:44He's still riding on the back of the car in front.
38:47And the car hasn't stopped.
38:49Does the car not realise he's got an extra passenger?
38:52Or is it a new form of Uber?
38:54I could not imagine looking in my centre mirror
38:56and seeing someone hanging onto my boot.
38:58It's got to be scary.
39:00Thankfully, the car stops before his luck runs out.
39:04Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
39:06Fair play to the driver, they do pull over quite quick.
39:09Oh, my...
39:10Frankly, he's lucky to be alive.
39:13He should just be thanking his lucky stars there.
39:17For the rider and the driver of the car,
39:19that's probably the most memorable journey they'll ever have.
39:25So, does our driving instructor
39:27teach similar avoidance techniques to his students?
39:31It's not a lesson that I actually give, if I'm honest, no.
39:38Back in the UK, and our point-of-view car
39:40is travelling in lane two of the motorway.
39:43Riding along in the middle lane of a motorway,
39:46being overtaken on the outside by a silver people carrier.
39:49Motorway, lane two, good weather, good observations, roads are dry.
39:55Vehicles are bunching a little bit in lane one.
39:59Ahead of the Ford people carrier, traffic is slowing
40:02and there is a wall of brake lights.
40:04People carrier here should be on the brakes at this point.
40:07It's not, it's still driving towards traffic
40:10that's essentially stopped in front of it.
40:13In this scenario, where you've got a heavy traffic in lane three,
40:17the chances are people are going to do that lane change and avoid it.
40:23Whilst the traffic is building up in lane three,
40:25there is still space in lane two.
40:28He's seen brake lights in the distance, so he's thinking,
40:31aha, I'm going to do a little lane change here and move over.
40:35So what he's going to do is he's going to mirror signal manoeuvre
40:38and make sure it's safe to do so.
40:41Oh, no, he isn't, Paul.
40:46Oh, crikey. Boom. Oh, my God.
40:49You could see that coming straight away.
40:51The biker's slipped down the road.
40:53I don't know where the bike's gone off, under the bridge somewhere.
40:55I think we need to look at that again to see how that came about.
40:59Let's cue the slow-motion replay.
41:02People carrier was a little bit slow to react to the traffic in front.
41:06The motorcyclist behind it didn't react to the brake.
41:10People carrier swerved, took the motorcyclist out who was trying to go past.
41:14We're not getting mirrors, we're not getting indications.
41:18But you got manoeuvre, Paul, so that's one out of the three at least.
41:22Fortunately, the rider wasn't seriously hurt in this incident.
41:27He's up. I'd say he's just a few minor injuries with this,
41:31but he's lucky to get away with that.
41:33And it just goes to show, one second you're driving all right,
41:36next second your lane ain't carried his way, eating a bit of tarmac.
41:39It's not worth it. Switch yourself on and stay safe.
41:43True fact, nobody wants tarmac for any meal.
41:53We're over on the A50 near Stoke, hometown of Robbie Williams,
41:57and also this queue that's longer than a line to get into one of his concerts.
42:01Slow-moving traffic. We've got the right-hand lane joining,
42:05as we can see by the arrows on the ground.
42:07That lane's going to come to an end and you all need to get into lane two.
42:10Good driving conditions, it's dry, good visibility.
42:15Here comes a motorcyclist, slowing down.
42:19Oh, looks like a bit of an emergency stop from some vehicles ahead.
42:23Normally in the UK, we're famed for our patience when it comes to queues.
42:27I think the motorcyclist thinks that the silver car is moving
42:30to stop the motorcyclist overtaking him.
42:33That's created a little bit of argy-bargy between them.
42:37The rider and driver have a discussion,
42:39and I'm fairly sure it's not about the weather.
42:42Words being had.
42:44I'm right, you're wrong. Move out of my way.
42:47No, you move out of my way.
42:50Unfortunately, a car's always going to win with that sort of thing,
42:53because it's bigger.
42:55But the queue-barging motorcyclist then picks a fight
42:58with the biggest vehicle of them all.
43:01The red mist has come down, he's getting a bit het up under his visor,
43:05and decided rather than just setting off and going about his own business,
43:08he decided to have a bit of a set-two with the truck driver.
43:11This is just absolutely crappy driving from a motorcyclist.
43:15I don't know what he's doing.
43:17The mist starts to creep in, and you've got to keep your cool,
43:22you've got to stay calm.
43:24These vehicles are large, and the motorcycle is very, very vulnerable.
43:29You've had a word, you've got to be careful,
43:31because people don't like it.
43:33So I think this is one of those great examples of when the rider,
43:37the rider in this case, has just got a bit too angry,
43:41and it's probably time for them to have a little word with themselves.
43:48And I hope you are not too angry, because this is the end of the road.
43:52We've broken down,
43:55hung on for one hell of a ride,
43:59gone through the eye of the storm and safely out the other side,
44:04and we've seen things that will keep us awake at night.
44:11Next time, outrageous overtaking.
44:15It's mirror-signal manoeuvring, but so few people get this right.
44:19A driver tussles with a trailer that's out of control.
44:23Oh, no! No!
44:26And a white van wallops someone in the fast lane.
44:30Oh, my goodness, look at this.
44:32Completely and utterly out of order.
44:36Motorway Hell on the Highway is back next Friday at eight.
44:39It's fight night, and we've got live boxing
44:42as Harlem Eubanks steps into the ring with Miguel Antin from Ten O'Clock.
44:46Next, hopping off and on to pet the elephants and monkeys,
44:50Nick Knowles has an amazing railway adventure in Malaysia, brand new.
45:02Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk