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Eleven vehicle shunt at Falmer causes traffic chaos

9:28am Friday 19th March 2010 in


An 11-vehicle shunt on a slip road off the A27 brought major delays to westbound traffic this morning.

Traffic jams built up back to the Lewes bypass while the vehicles was cleared following the multiple collision on the Falmer slip road, near to the University of Sussex, at around 8.10am.

Most of the vehicles involved were able to be driven from the scene and the road was clear by 8.53am. However, the resulting congestion took some time to clear.

One woman was slightly injured and was treated by ambulance paramedics at the scene.

Comments(8)

magic_chimp says...
9:37am Fri 19 Mar 10

Cambridge University boffins have an equation for this sort of thing:
Fog + (Drivers in a hurry/Slightly Wet Road) x Inconsideration + No Headlights in Foggy conditions = 11 car shunt

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tombraider59 says...
11:00am Fri 19 Mar 10

Yes, why is it that people (particularly those in lightish colour vehicles) refuse to put their headlights on in poor driving conditions? Surely they must realise that they're almost invisible in fog?
Do they think they're invincible?

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badger55114 says...
11:10am Fri 19 Mar 10

So agree with this! It's because people have the very mistaken impression that headlights are there solely so the driver can see. They are not: they are there so others can see you - and that means headlights, not those stupid pinpricks of sidelights that you can't see either.

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corruptive says...
11:49am Fri 19 Mar 10

Truth be told, a lot of these cocoa-shunters are just very lonley people, and ramming the car in front of them is just desperate way for them to try and meet new friends.

Security word: Come-sBob

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davyboy says...
1:50pm Fri 19 Mar 10

now we know why places like sweden drive with their lights on permanantly. just because you think you can see ok, others cannot necessarily see you. my old driving instructor gave me a bit of advice, which was, 'if you need your wipers, then you need your lights'. if people cannot be trusted to think for themselves, then remove their licences. i have witnessed drivers without lights, even in monsoon conditions, driving right behind the car in front, at 70+ on the motorways.

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Spanners says...
2:45pm Fri 19 Mar 10

lots of cars have automatic headlights that come on when it is dark. Only reason I mention it is that I wonder if a bit of fog is enough to activate them. I can imagine that these drivers get out of the habit of turning their lights on and off. I am not making excuses for them, I just wondered if the technology has its flaws by training drivers not to think about their lights.....and then not turning on when required.

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quedula says...
3:33pm Fri 19 Mar 10

I'm not surprised. I've always thought this was a shunt waiting to happen.

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davyboy says...
4:22pm Fri 19 Mar 10

Spanners wrote:
lots of cars have automatic headlights that come on when it is dark. Only reason I mention it is that I wonder if a bit of fog is enough to activate them. I can imagine that these drivers get out of the habit of turning their lights on and off. I am not making excuses for them, I just wondered if the technology has its flaws by training drivers not to think about their lights.....and then not turning on when required.
drivers who need to be told when to put their lights on should not be behind the wheel. some cars DO have automatic lights, but the driver still has to engage his/her brain when behind the wheel. Mercedes also have the automatic cruise control to keep a set distance from the car in front, but you can't use that as an excuse when you run into the back of someone!! drivers today really need to be switched on, as there are too many idiots out there who are not. there should be no distractions in the car whilst you are driving, smoking and phones being the worst two.

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