Traffic report

Sites seen during an extensive driving tour of the M1, both north and south carriageways over the weekend of 14 - 15 July 2012.

• A midnight traffic jam
• A car on fire, smoke boiling from its rear wheels, but still being driven at speed down the opposite carriageway
• Four queues caused by car crashes further up the road
• Seven cars wrecked by crashes. One was a mini that was all but decapitated. The beginning of a very bad day for some poor soul.
• A coach slewed across the slip road with its rear end blackened and melted by fire.  Its passengers were huddled on the hard shoulder and fire-engines were in attendance.
• Three times, cars passed me on either side then indicated to join the same stretch of road in front of me at the same time. They approaced then bounced away like magnets.
• One road rage incident during a traffic jam as people weaved their vehicles across the lanes trying to get ahead in the queue. This meant one van driver cut up a man in a Ford Fiesta. When the traffic stopped again the Fiesta driver hopped out and, eyes popping with rage, banged on the van driver's window and told him what he thought of him. From what I heard it was not complimentary.
• One lorry cab was dressed in white lights that left an afterimage of a skull when I blinked - or maybe I was wearier than I thought when I saw it.
• On one long straight stretch of the motorway in the gloom of the night ghosts of warnings flickered through the pixels panels on the overhead information signs. They heralded my progress along the road and I wondered if somewhere in a control room, bored, someone was playing a game with me. 
• Similar information boards further down the road promised congestion that never arrived.
• Three hawks hovering over the verge.
• Rain. Rain like I've never seen before.