prof beard wrote:
Kerb high, with about a couple of foot of grassy mush then trees. I wouldn't have liked to have to find out what would happen if you tried to mount it at any speed - it certainly would have caused significant damage to the car and might have thrown you back out. I probably would have just stuffed the car in the hedge if I'd been going at speed by the time the hatchback reached me though.
That kerb sounds like a no-no, although of course if the alternative is a head on anything is worth a try.
It's actually very hard for ordinary drivers to find lateral escape routes - they
focus on the impact and drive directly towards it - sometimes with the tyres on fire. It's frequently said
you go where you look.
Plenty of overtaking crashes - possibly even more than half - could have been avoided by the innocent oncoming driver taking a position further to the left.
On a lot of modern A roads there's even a couple of feet of 'spare' tarmac to the left of a white edge line. I
think I'd recommend crossing the edge line frequently (when safe to do so) - you don't want your subconscious to think of it as 'unavailable' space - and you can get substantial 'position for vision' advantages.
I believe that the best way to train yourself to look for a lateral escape route in a real emergency is to practice - consciously imagine 'problems' in normal driving and plan esacpe routes. At the very least this causes you to assess hedges, kerbs and verges. At best it trains you to find an escape route when you need one for real.