The Beast from the East.

[richardfrost]

A bit like getting the minis into the bus in the "Italian Job", only in reverse!

Make sure the wind doesn't blow your bloody garage doors off!

[guest5079]

Did anyone see the dash cam footage taken from a stationary bus. The road was pretty dreadful. The bus was stationary and as the scenario unfolded the drivers voice rose and rose. Why, in front of him was a small car. Usual driver in snow, foot down sliding all over the place, absolutely no control. Add to this a bus coming in the opposite direction. Car slides across road into the path of the oncoming bus. Somehow, the oncoming bus driver manages to get his bus across the road avoids the car and puts him on a collision course with the stationary bus. Then the driver somehow gets the bus back onto his side of the road much to the relief of the stationary bus driver.
Talk about watching a catastrophe unfold. All avoided by some b good driving. I am not a great admirer of bus drivers but that one deserved a medal. As to the car driver, well bury the so and so in the snow.

[richardfrost]

Somehow, the oncoming bus driver manages to get his bus across the road avoids the car and puts him on a collision course with the stationary bus.

''Her" bus Auntyneddy. Was a female driver who skilfully drifted her bus through that gap. Most impressive driving.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368

[culzean]

Somehow, the oncoming bus driver manages to get his bus across the road avoids the car and puts him on a collision course with the stationary bus.

''Her" bus Auntyneddy. Was a female driver who skilfully drifted her bus through that gap. Most impressive driving.

Driving was OK after she had started to skid because she was going too fast for the road conditions,  showing a bit of skill to get out of a situation she did not need to be in really. 

Like the van right on my tail yesterday on hilly bendy country Shropshire road in conditions of -5 deg C -- I had winter tyres and was sticking below 40,  he stayed on my tail until he almost lost it through the hedge,  after that he stayed about 100 metres behind (and more on uphills as he was obviously fighting for grip.  There was ice under a thin covering of blown snow but the numpty took a long time to realise it.

[John Ratsey]

Somehow, the oncoming bus driver manages to get his bus across the road avoids the car and puts him on a collision course with the stationary bus.

''Her" bus Auntyneddy. Was a female driver who skilfully drifted her bus through that gap. Most impressive driving.

It's at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368

Impressive driving but a very near miss which highlights that everyone needs to go slower in these conditions on the assumption that the unexpected will happen.

[John A]

Impressive driving but a very near miss which highlights that everyone needs to go slower in these conditions on the assumption that the unexpected will happen.

But if you're expecting the unexpected, then it's not unexpected 

Just like known unknowns

[Jocko]

Driving was OK after she had started to skid because she was going too fast for the road conditions,  showing a bit of skill to get out of a situation she did not need to be in really.

Didn't look like that to me. Bus was going at a steady speed on a clear road, until the car decided to turn in the road. As an ex bus driver I think women make the best bus drivers. And there are more and more of them.

[culzean]

Anybody catch the 'winterwatch' program on BBC last night,  it had archive footage about the winter of 1962 / 3  (black and white).

I suggest you watch it on catch-up if you can - its firmly puts the present 'short cold snap' and all the hype into perspective.

1947 winter was also truly terrible,  added to it was the fact we were still recovering from WW2 and rationing still in effect.

[John Ratsey]

until the car decided to turn in the road.

The car decided, but probably not what the driver had in mind. Autonomous vehicles have arrived!

[pb82gh3]

Anybody catch the 'winterwatch' program on BBC last night,  it had archive footage about the winter of 1962 / 3  (black and white).

I suggest you watch it on catch-up if you can - its firmly puts the present 'short cold snap' and all the hype into perspective.

1947 winter was also truly terrible,  added to it was the fact we were still recovering from WW2 and rationing still in effect.

Couldn't agree more. In 63 I was doing a morning paper round in 2 feet of snow, followed by school, back in the days when they never closed.

[culzean]

Anybody catch the 'winterwatch' program on BBC last night,  it had archive footage about the winter of 1962 / 3  (black and white).

I suggest you watch it on catch-up if you can - its firmly puts the present 'short cold snap' and all the hype into perspective.

1947 winter was also truly terrible,  added to it was the fact we were still recovering from WW2 and rationing still in effect.

Couldn't agree more. In 63 I was doing a morning paper round in 2 feet of snow, followed by school, back in the days when they never closed.

One of the things that impressed me was the steam trains with snowploughs fitted busting through 14 foot drifts,  you could not do that today as the snow would be shorting out the overhead wires, ice on the wires woulds stop pantographs working, added to that elf and safety would not let you do it, even if you wore a yellow vest, safety shoes and a hard hat...

We are really more pathetic these days than I like to think about.  In 1962 we would have bombed Brussels and Strasboug until they agreed to our Brexit terms    not gone cap in hand like beggars.   

[VicW]

If you think the weather is bad right now then you should have experienced the 1963 winter, this current spell is mild compared with that.
We moved home on New Years Day that winter, from Slough where we had a rented house to our own home. It was a caravan at Avebury in Wiltshire. Believe me the journey is an epic we find it hard to believe we actually did it these days.
We ended the journey being towed from the A4 to Avebury by the Avebury butcher doing his rounds in an Austin Gypsy. We had all our belongings in a Standard Atllas van I had hired.
The situation was complicated further by the fact that our youngest son at one year old had a broken leg.
We stayed in the Red Lion in Avebury for two nights before the road opened and we were able to move into our  caravan. I then had to get the Standard van back to Slough, that's another story.

Vic.

[culzean]

Just found the winterwatch program uploaded to youtube

[Jocko]

62/63 doesn't stick in my brain. It couldn't have been too bad here, though one of my ex workmates was always going on about it.

[MartinJG]

Driving was OK after she had started to skid because she was going too fast for the road conditions,  showing a bit of skill to get out of a situation she did not need to be in really.

Didn't look like that to me. Bus was going at a steady speed on a clear road, until the car decided to turn in the road. As an ex bus driver I think women make the best bus drivers. And there are more and more of them.

In general, I believe women are more 'teachable' than men. All starts in the classroom. That said, it takes a certain kind of woman to drive a bus or an HGV. Exception to the rule. Plenty of women drivers of varying descriptions in WW2.

Out of interest, what was the gender of the Mini driver who decided to implement a three point turn in the first place!

Oh well...