Looking on the bright side....

I'm very, very grateful to be here tonight, writing my blip. At 3.20pm this afternoon I came within a hairsbreadth of death while driving back home down the A1, after depositing Chris in Sheffield.

The journey had gone smoothly up to that point. I was on a completely straight stretch of road in the fast lane overtaking a red van (and sticking to the speed limit) when I saw a lorry waiting to turn right, in one of the very few places where you're still allowed to turn right across the dual carriageway.

I saw him, and I know he'd seen me, so I was amazed when he actually started to turn across in front of me and then came to a stop with the whole of his cab in the fast lane. I couldn't pull over without potentially hitting the red van, so I found myself heading towards the lorry at 70mph with no apparent means of escape.

I'm not really quite sure what happened next. I think I must have speeded up, and the red vane must have slowed a little, because somehow I just managed to squeeze between the lorry and the red van, with centimetres to spare. As I approached the lorry I clearly remember seeing the driver raise his hands in an expression of hopelessness.

I suppose I'm lucky that this is the first time I've ever had such a near miss, and that my instincts carried me through. I was very shaken (and I'm still finding it quite hard to write this) and thought about pulling over, but I then thought I might not pluck up the courage to continue, so drove the next forty miles alternating between reliving the sheer terror I'd experienced and feeling completely numb.

I can only presume the lorry driver completely misjudged the situation, and had briefly thought he could make it across the carriageway. I just wish they'd finally get rid of the remaining death traps - the A1's just too fast and busy for it ever to be safe to make a right turn across it.