Your bad driving encounters

Following someone on the dual-carriageway who was doing a "good" 70 and as we approached a corner they suddenly slow down a lot - great I think 3rd person in a few miles who has done that to me and the last two I could see had pulled their phone out. So as we come around the corner I pull out to pass them expecting to see them on the phone and then become aware of blue flashing lights behind me. Unmarked cop car must have been doing quite some speed but the other driver must have spotted them well back (around a mile behind) just before we got to the corner - as I wasn't really paying much attention to anything beyond about half a mile back at that point (to be fair grey Skoda with the smallest possible blue lights and bright sunlight plus not using their siren gave them a degree of stealth).

I'm guessing they were after the Golf which disappeared off at 100+ a couple of miles back.
 
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Rroff said:
Following someone on the dual-carriageway who was doing a "good" 70 and as we approached a corner they suddenly slow down a lot - great I think 3rd person in a few miles who has done that to me and the last two I could see had pulled their phone out. So as we come around the corner I pull out to pass them expecting to see them on the phone and then become aware of blue flashing lights behind me. Unmarked cop car must have been doing quite some speed but the other driver must have spotted them well back (around a mile behind) just before we got to the corner - as I wasn't really paying much attention to anything beyond about half a mile back at that point (to be fair grey Skoda with the smallest possible blue lights and bright sunlight plus not using their siren gave them a degree of stealth).

I'm guessing they were after the Golf which disappeared off at 100+ a couple of miles back.
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I find often you can't even hear the siren if your windows are up and music is on. Sometimes I notice more because I see traffic on the other side pull over (usually way to early) :p .
 
theone8181 said:
I find often you can't even hear the siren if your windows are up and music is on.
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I don't tend to listen to music in the car unless doing a longer journey (over an hour). I usually pick up on emergency sirens pretty well - often hear them in the distance long before most people do. Shame I didn't have rear facing dashcam hooked up as I'm interested in how much earlier I should/could have picked up on the police vehicle being there before I did notice it.

It was one of these (second picture) https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/skoda-kodiaq-and-superb-280-joins-emergency-services-cars - with just 2 small blue light dots on the wing mirrors and 2 even smaller ones in the grill in this instance - in bright sunlight and no siren it was not very obvious.
 
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theone8181 said:
I find often you can't even hear the siren if your windows are up and music is on. Sometimes I notice more because I see traffic on the other side pull over (usually way to early) :p .
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Rroff said:
I don't tend to listen to music in the car unless doing a longer journey (over an hour). I usually pick up on emergency sirens pretty well - often hear them in the distance long before most people do. Shame I didn't have rear facing dashcam hooked up as I'm interested in how much earlier I should/could have picked up on the police vehicle being there before I did notice it.

It was one of these (second picture) https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/skoda-kodiaq-and-superb-280-joins-emergency-services-cars - with just 2 small blue light dots on the wing mirrors and 2 even smaller ones in the grill in this instance - in bright sunlight and no siren it was not very obvious.
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At work we can't have music on whilst driving (considered a distraction) & I pretty much always drive with the window cracked open, even in winter & very rarely here police sirens until they're on top of me. However ambulance and fire I can hear from quite a distance.

It just seems that police sirens are much quieter these days.
 
Special shout-out to the woman yesterday who was so surprised to see me standing at a zebra crossing, waiting to cross, at the super market that she leaned on the horn before braking.
 
Joined a roundabout behind a vehicle which proceeded to drive at about 15 mph (nsl road) for 30m or so while weaving slightly due to the driver messing with something in the car, he then floored it up to about 60 and then dropped to 50 while still drifting about. At one point he touched the central line when a car was come, they were probably around 15cm apart.

Quite relieved when he turned off the road, no idea what the idiot was doing.
 
godinman said:
no idea what the idiot was doing
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Ever since the pandemic, I don't know why, that kind of stuff has increased massively in my experience. Pre-pandemic I might see say 1 instance every 3 days, now it is more like 3 instance in 1 day if I do any distance. I just don't know what is going through people's minds - not a lot I guess.

The worst bit is sometimes you seem to "wake" them up by overtaking and they will resume to normal driving speed while you are in the middle of overtaking... idiots.
 
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Yeah seeing a lot of that as well, people just completely switching off, seems to particularly bad with the Tuesdays Wednesdays And Thursdays crowd on the commute. People doing 50 in the overtaking lane and forcing people to undertake them and completely oblivious to it. See quite a few folk these days just suddenly sharply braking for no reason with no one near them, guessing it’s the them coming out of their zombie state :p
 
My work (shared) parking lot is inside a one-way system. Effectively we're the island in a large roundabout - so when leaving , you're forced to turn right into two lanes of road.

Generally the far lane is a queue as it joins town - the closer/right hand lane is generally empty as it leads out of town and most people have come from that way.

Went to the shops at lunchtime and saw someone driving left out of our car park. They got 90% turned and into the lane before the entire road had to stop and wait for them to figure out what was wrong.

Bumped into a colleague and he said "Yes, that car nearly drove into me in the parking lot"!
 
Tuesday night when I was heading home (jocks lodge incase anyone live near hull/Beverley). There's some concrete barriers separating a works road from the main one. This guy in a range rover (with private plate of course) comes bombing down this road at maybe 40 (the main road was standstill with traffic), he almost wiped out a workman in his hut. Tempted to pull the footage from the car. This 4x4 also stopped on a roundabout before deciding where to go :rolleyes: .
 
theone8181 said:
Tuesday night when I was heading home (jocks lodge incase anyone live near hull/Beverley). There's some concrete barriers separating a works road from the main one. This guy in a range rover (with private plate of course) comes bombing down this road at maybe 40 (the main road was standstill with traffic), he almost wiped out a workman in his hut. Tempted to pull the footage from the car. This 4x4 also stopped on a roundabout before deciding where to go :rolleyes: .
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Deffo send to the rozzers if you got it on camera.
 
Rroff said:
but the other driver must have spotted them well back (around a mile behind) just before we got to the corner - as I wasn't really paying much attention to anything beyond about half a mile back at that point
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Driving that road again I found the Qashqai has really poor rear visibility going up the angle of the hill there - in the rear view mirror you can only see about half way to where the road disappears behind if that while in the Navara can see all the way back.

Uther said:
Drove round a blind bend to find an artic on the wrong side of the road overtaking a cyclist.
That was fun.
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I had a cyclist get funny with me yesterday - they went past us twice while waiting at lights forcing everyone to pass them again then 3rd set I not entirely intentionally blocked them from passing - otherwise we'd have been stuck behind them yet again at barely 10 MPH for another mile or so.
 
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On a single track country road yesterday. Both sides of the road was grass and either hilly or deep holes. A woman in a 4 x 4 towing a horse box came tearing around the corner so i slowed down to edge onto the grass so as not to damage my vehicle and to allow her to do the same. Yeah she didn't!

Didn't slow down, threw her car and horse box onto the grass - i saw her bouncing around the cabin and no idea if there were horses in the back! Had to have a moment as i thought she was going to take me out - stupid bint.
 
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Approaching a junction yesterday with a car in front of me and a truck in front of them , the truck was already turning left and there was barriers up on the kerb , some lad on an electric bike ( who had already passed me a few minutes earlier when I was doing 30 :rolleyes: and riding one handed using his phone) decided to squeeze through the gap - barely even slowing for the corner

I just don’t get how these people can be so stupid to put themselves at such risk


Had an old guy get mangled a few years ago against railings and truck on a left turn although that time I believe the cyclist was already in front and turning when the truck failed to see him and commenced turning also
 
JBuk said:
Had an old guy get mangled a few years ago against railings and truck on a left turn although that time I believe the cyclist was already in front and turning when the truck failed to see him and commenced turning also
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This happened to me when I first started cycling (aged 24 - already had driving lessons and Highway Code under my belt). I was following a road as it bends round to the left - in a cycle lane - but a double decker bus was following. Driver decided to overtake me and cut into the lane. Bashed me 3 or 4 times as it passed and amazingly I was still upright after. Was quite a shock when I stopped and dusted myself off and realised I wasn't dead TBH.
 
Rroff said:
I had a cyclist get funny with me yesterday - they went past us twice while waiting at lights forcing everyone to pass them again then 3rd set I not entirely intentionally blocked them from passing - otherwise we'd have been stuck behind them yet again at barely 10 MPH for another mile or so.
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Frustrating as it is, technically you were in the wrong to block them, and if they're catching up with you at multiple sets of lights then you're probably not travelling fast enough for them to be making much difference to your journey time.

Of course they could have also had some consideration and held back for traffic to move off first
 
Haggisman said:
Frustrating as it is, technically you were in the wrong to block them, and if they're catching up with you at multiple sets of lights then you're probably not travelling fast enough for them to be making much difference to your journey time.

Of course they could have also had some consideration and held back for traffic to move off first
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We were only getting to pass them just before the lights, at one point they even stayed on the road when there was a ~50m stretch of cycle path they could have used so we could pass.

I had to pull in at an angle across the road after passing them approaching the lights, could have straightened out a bit squeezing up on the car infront but knew they'd just go to the front of the queue again and with heavier traffic coming the other way after that we'd have been stuck behind them for quite a bit.
 
Good one just now. Travelling at 70mph down a dual carriageway in the left lane. I’m turning off left shortly and at about the 250 yard marker board there’s a side road for a couple of houses.

Some absolutely lunatic emerges from the side road, despite seeing me, when I’m about 25 metres from them (it’s about a 70 degree turn for them).

There was a massive gap behind me they easily could have waited. Luckily there was nobody in the right lane and I could overtake. If not I would have had to anchor on.

They take the same slip road as me and at the roundabout they are still indicating left as they then turn right.
 
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