Overtaking & Safety distances

Hey, you did well back there, didn’t I say a bit of courtesy goes a long way with the police? Admit it, you were worried that you didn’t have your documents with you right? But he said it was fine, just produce them at a police station within seven days (remember this) Are you looking in your rear view mirror by the way? There is a motorbike coming up fast on us, don’t try competing with him just let him pass... Wow he was well over the speed limit but I suspect we will be seeing him again, I don't think he realises yet that he is riding the demon road now where every wrong action has a consequence. Is that a spot of rain on the windscreen or a speed demon stirring? Anyway, let’s get back to enjoying the freedom of the open road ourselves.

Slow down for this right hand bend coming up and keep to the left to improve your view of the road around it (remember this). Oh, it was a spot of rain and now it’s beginning to rain, and is that a lorry up ahead? See those yellow and red markings on the back of it trailer? That means the lorry is more than 13 metres long, unlucky for some, definitely unlucky for us. Well, so much for the freedom of the road. With all these bends this road is not ideal for overtaking either unless you’re a motorbike of course. Don’t get too close now, that’s what’s called tailgating and at this proximity our sightlines of the road beyond the lorry are blocked. Furthermore we are also in the lorry drivers blind spot. Risky overtaking is the cause of many collisions so let’s fall back and await a safe opportunity for passing. Three situations where we definitely should not be overtaking is (1) when the view of the road ahead is blocked, (2) on the approach to a junction and (3) where we would need to turn left shortly after.

It's really starting to rain hard now which is only going to contribute to our visibility problems, just look at the amount of spray being thrown out by the wheels of the lorry from all this road surface water. You should definitely double the length of your safety gap to 4 seconds at this point because that spray is now inhibiting your view at the minimum 2 second safe distance used for dry conditions. There's a saying that only a fool breaks the two second rule, in 'The Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel' we expand this as follows. Only a fool breaks the two second rule but in the rain only an idiot does'nt double it. Invest in the Demon Road TTN when released on June 1st for the full version of this rhyme and we will see what can be done about this lorry next time...
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