There has been yet another accident at this spot since this picture was taken in July of this year. That makes five accidents in total that I am aware of happening on this stretch of the M8. The damage to the barrier, shown in the image, occurred on a day in June experiencing heavy showers of rain. I came upon the accident a few minuets after it happened, and was faced with a car on it's roof straddling both lanes. I am still unaware what caused the accidnet but I do remember noting standing water on the outside lane near the wall. What was really odd though was that another, unrelated accident, happened on the opposite side of the motorway just a few dozen meters along.
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The first time I drove on the M8 I noted this section of road as being somewhat unusual for a motorway, but being honest, I never deemed it as dangerous. I felt it unusual because of the relative steep camber and sharp bend to facilitate the roads traversal over a regional road underneath. As mentioned above, both sides of this bridge have experienced accidents of varying degrees and I really do think the RSA are going to have to sort it out.
Maybe they'll fix it like how they usually fix dangerous roads, by putting up a few speed cameras. Sorry, sorry... putting up a few "safety" cameras... ¬_¬ [UPDATE 04.11.10] There has been another accident (possibly multiple) at this point since I wrote this post. The section of road has now been reduced to one lane in an attempt to stop people killing themselves... what am I saying... I mean, to stop the ROAD killing people.
I was stuck in traffic one Friday for over an hour a couple of weeks ago because there was a car that flipped at this location too. Straight through the barrier and was upside down past the fence. Between Exit 11 and 12 isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThat's the one, a few KM before the first exit for Mitchelstown.
ReplyDeleteI can see them dropping the speed limit to 100km/h, which will be a truly awful solution to a physical problem, if it works at all.