Driving fail - what would you do?

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

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I was on my way down the M3, middle lane at 70mph. A fairly new Fiat Punto bombs past me in the outside lane doing around about 85-90mph at a guess. Nothing out of the ordinary there except that the rear passenger tyre was as flat as a witches boob.

The woman driving has an Audi A4 TDi about 6 feet off her rear bumper so she violently pulls into the middle lane in front of me. I slowed down to get some distance as her car looked very unstable. I sit behind her watching and wondering how she doesn't know the rear tyre is flat. The car is drifting all over the lane and as the tyre appears to be disintegrating, the rear of the car is bouncing up and down.

After a mile or so, she appears completely oblivious so I pull out into the outside lane, pull alongside, give her a toot of the horn and try to mouth and hand signal that she has a flat. She obviously misunderstood. She raised her middle finger, mouthed off what I guess was some abuse and floored it up to about 90mph again. I slowed down, pulled back to the left lane and let her carry on. She exited the M3 for the M27 westbound.

I did consider calling the police but I didn't know wtf I was going to tell them so I just didn't bother. Now I'm feeling kind of uneasy. On my way back from Portsmouth about 30 minutes later, the car gave me a bong with a "Traffic disruption ahead" message just as I was coming up to where the M3 joins the M27. Right enough, all 3 lanes are at a dead stop and the overhead signs say "ACCIDENT SLOW DOWN". I got a rumble in my belly and thought uh-oh.

I exited the motorway before I reached the accident site but I really wouldn't be surprised if that silly ho was wedged in the barrier with some other poor victim.

What would you have done? Let her carry on, call the police or something else?

Yeah, cool story bro etc...
 
Absolutely call the police. I rang in a job when I was following a van with an very insecure load on the M27 Jct3. They ended up getting pulled around Jct 8.
 
Jokester said:
You did all you could to be honest.
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Indeed. Though when on the motorway it's sometimes hard to read / understand someone's gesticulations when you're travelling at 70mph. I guess calling the police could help if you're good at remembering number plates.


I was once given a death stare by a **** in a white jag because I dared try to point out his brake lights weren't working. :rolleyes:

I tried, and then slowed down and kept my distance - I didn't want to be involved.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Absolutely call the police. I rang in a job when I was following a van with an very insecure load on the M27 Jct3. They ended up getting pulled around Jct 8.
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Would they take a report like this seriously? I'm not sure why but I get the impression they'd shrug it off.
 
I'd ring and report it just in case it was her in the accident - it could be the difference between some innocent getting stung with a 50/50 insurance claim (or charged with a driving offence!) or showing clear liability. (Saying that, I guess they could quite easily see that the tyre had been flat for some time anyway?)
 
Scuzi said:
Would they take a report like this seriously? I'm not sure why but I get the impression they'd shrug it off.
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Yes, they would take it seriously. They are obliged to take all reports seriously!

If it was the Punto that crashed then your witness statement could prove very useful. I would give them a call. (Plus you may get to satisfy your curiosity).
 
Should have given her your best smile first, then frantically draw a circle in the air and point towards her tyres with the look of horror on your face :)
 
Scuzi said:
Would they take a report like this seriously? I'm not sure why but I get the impression they'd shrug it off.
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Yes, if you explained what you have here to the call taker, they'd send someone if they had the availability. The problem arises where you are on the motorway. Most normal response officers aren't fast roads trained as standard and therefore can't pull someone on the motorway, so a RPU unit from Totton or Fratton would have to be sent (assuming one isn't closer anyway). So it's all down to availability of units, but they would send a unit if one was free.
 
Just out of interest, what number would you dial for this? Does it warrant a 999 call? I would be naturally cautious about dialling 999 for cases like this but on second thoughts perhaps it would be a valid 'emergency'.
 
megakid said:
Just out of interest, what number would you dial for this? Does it warrant a 999 call? I would be naturally cautious about dialling 999 for cases like this but on second thoughts perhaps it would be a valid 'emergency'.
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I think 999 in this case would have been valid.. better to be safe than sorry, if the authorities then decided it was a low priority so be it.
 
I've had a similar situation before - but with a slower moving van. It was so heavily loaded that I doubt a deflated rear tyre made that much difference to its handling, but I overtook and pulled in front before putting on my hazards and putting my hand out the window and pointing over the roof a few times in the direction of the hard shoulder. The chap looked all around in his mirrors, before indicating and moving over.

Obviously, if the car is driving much faster, making overtaking impossible or unsafe it's much harder. If it's driven by a self righteous idiot with no clue who's paying no attention to their driving then more fool them - there's not a lot else you can do. My only hope at that point would be that they don't take anyone out when they inevitably crash.
 
a bit off topic, but I was once following a little old lady who had zero brake lights working at all.. so driving through town when we stopped at a red light, I jumped out and ran up to her window.. poor old girl nearly had a heart attack , I think she thought I was going to car jack her...
 
I wonder if she is telling old bill the cause of the accident was her speeding away from some stalker in a Beema. :p
 
leoncuprar said:
a bit off topic, but I was once following a little old lady who had zero brake lights working at all.. so driving through town when we stopped at a red light, I jumped out and ran up to her window.. poor old girl nearly had a heart attack , I think she thought I was going to car jack her...
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I had the opposite, I once followed a old Fiester which it's brake light would "stick".

At first when i was behind it it wasn't on but when it braked the light would stay on even when it was pulling away from me after a junction/light. Then it flickers and sticks or it goes off until it braked again. At one point it stayed on for about 3 miles through various bends, turns, incline thought villages and what not.

It wasn't safe for me to pull on the side of him and wave him down because of the country lane and I honestly didn't know what I could have done.
 
You tried to warm her, if she crashed and died for failing to maintain her vehicle at least you can say you tried.
 
Jokester said:
If it was her that crashed it would help with any prosecution against her.
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Indeed, even though it's after the event i'd phone the police and report the incident, some poor party might have been taken out by the woman and they might need all the help they can get to prove who was at fault.
 
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