That's another close shave you've got me out of

I have only 5 weeks left on my contract, and only a few thousand more miles of driving to be done. I shan't miss the trips up and down the motorways and trunk roads between Wiltshire and Lincolnshire. On this morning, the fifth such Monday left to go, just North of Silverstone, a car rushed towards me and was past in a flash, and I realised it was on my half of the dual carriageway, travelling in the wrong direction. I had not even had time to flash my headlights, and because there was no flash in my mirrors I assumed that the panel truck I had overtaken earlier and which was a few hundred yards behind me was also too surprised to react.

About 5 minutes later a set of blue flashing lights rushed along the opposite carriageway, and a further 5 minutes later, another set went past also heading back towards Silverstone. I had to assume the accident had happened very soon after I was confronted by the mistaken motorist. I felt some guilt that I hadn't done anything, but I still don't know what I could have done that would have prevented the accident. If I had phoned 999, asked for the police, and reported a medium-sized car travelling Southwest on the Northeast part of the A43, would they have been able to issue a warning? We don't have in-car radios capable of picking up emergency broadcasts. I hope no-one died, but even airbags are going to be chancy at a closing speed in excess of 120mph.

Later on, travelling up the M1, frustrated by pairs of lorries running side by side looking for all the world as if they were carrying on conversations through their cab windows, I was just switching back from the fast lane after passing yet another string of artics, when a brief flash in the mirror made me swerve back again, and a car rocketed past me into the left hand lane through the narrow gap between myself and the lorry, easily doing 90 to my 70, too concerned with keeping up his speed to let me finish my own overtaking maneouvre. Two close brushes with accidents in less than as many hours, neither of which would have been attributed to my driving. But being a safe motorist now is not so much a matter of knowing the highway code and observing the laws and limits as of being lucky. The best way to avoid being involved in an accident is to not get into the car in the first place. I am losing my love of the road and the steering wheel. If only the trains were more reliable, more convenient, and safe enough to trust one's life to.

They say that we should pay to use the roads in the future, as part of a plan to reduce congestion, or to restrict pollution, or to simply make the taxation on transport fairer. I certainly wouldn't be prepared to pay extra just to take more and more chances with my life on these roads.