Your bad driving encounters

bigmike20vt said:
a few days after I got my 350z I was driving on an A road and white van man was trying to climb into my boot. an animal jumped out in front of me, I didn't emergency stop but did slow down significantly. how the van didn't rear end me I will never know . at the next junction he pulled in front of me blocking me so I could not get past , got out of his van and went ballistic. he said I should have hit the animal and not been precious about my car (albeit with many expletives). he also said he had his toddler in the van who may have been hurt. he did.. with no car or booster seat

I mentioned that he should perhaps look at his highway code to work out safe distances , that he should get a child seat ... (and then sank to his level by saying I felt sorry for his kid as with a dad like hers she didn't have much chance in life)

I thought he was gonna hit me but thankfully he didn't. he then tailgated me even more until I eventually got fed up and put my foot down.
I get some people have temper tantrums ... and also people can make mistakes, but going off on one when they are clearly in the wrong I just don't get

if I almost rear ended someone my instinctive reaction would be to apologise.
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A white van did this to my Brother once on the M5, we were turning off J16 and this van driver swerved across 3 lanes to then weld himself to my brothers boot for 200m or so.. at that point a car pulled suddenly from the middle lane to the left lane, causing us to brake quite sharply, how the van driver didn't hit us was miraculous, but fair play, the van driver pulled up at the roundabout lights, wound his window down and ... apologised.. I think he realised that whatever red mist had descended he was lucky to have got away with it!

When I was teaching my daughter to drive, she was a bit sluggish pulling off from some lights which started to go amber as she crossed the line, however, the perpendicular lights instantly changed the other way, and a van driver arrived at them at speed just as they changed from red to red-amber and carried on.. queue my daughter still in the middle of the road.. he sound the horn for 20 seconds and was inches behind.. I told my daughter to stop, jumped out and he started telling me I shouldn't approach him with his young son in the car.. I asked if that was in case his son learnt better manners than his father, and just laughed as I pointed out that if he didn't want someone calling him out for his road rage, then perhaps he shouldn't drive like a tool and make sure the junction is empty if approaching at full speed just as the lights change and then harass a learner driver..
 
ivrytwr3 said:
£90 and Speed Awareness course offered - bit their hand off.
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Hopefully you'll get a decent course. The two old boys that did the one I attended were really nice guys but they came out with some right old twaddle. It was years ago now so most of it I've forgotten but a couple of gems I do remember.

1) In a 30 limit you should use third gear to avoid creeping over the limit. In a 20 you shouldn't come out of second. No context or caveats given. Just FACT.

2) When talking about the motorway markings that show 'Stay two chevrons apart'. "How many chevrons should you be able to see?" Quite rightly everyone said two. They just smugly sat their shaking their heads. "No... THREE. Because its two chevrons, plus one." The whole room gave a collective 'ahhh yeah... of course' and I'm sat there feeling like I'm in some kind of alternative reality.

3) It was a FACT that in the ice it would take 960m (nearly one whole kilometer!) to stop at 70mph because the stopping distance at 70 is 96m and it takes 10 times longer to stop in the ice. Missing the very obvious issue with that calculation.

There were things like this for the whole four hours but lesson is not to speed and it certainly felt like a punishment.
 
lordrobs said:
Hopefully you'll get a decent course. The two old boys that did the one I attended were really nice guys but they came out with some right old twaddle. It was years ago now so most of it I've forgotten but a couple of gems I do remember.

1) In a 30 limit you should use third gear to avoid creeping over the limit. In a 20 you shouldn't come out of second. No context or caveats given. Just FACT.

2) When talking about the motorway markings that show 'Stay two chevrons apart'. "How many chevrons should you be able to see?" Quite rightly everyone said two. They just smugly sat their shaking their heads. "No... THREE. Because its two chevrons, plus one." The whole room gave a collective 'ahhh yeah... of course' and I'm sat there feeling like I'm in some kind of alternative reality.

3) It was a FACT that in the ice it would take 960m (nearly one whole kilometer!) to stop at 70mph because the stopping distance at 70 is 96m and it takes 10 times longer to stop in the ice. Missing the very obvious issue with that calculation.

There were things like this for the whole four hours but lesson is not to speed and it certainly felt like a punishment.
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I'd like to meet the person that slammed on while doing 70 on ice to measure that :D (I always thought the stopping distances were miles off). I think even in good weather its about 5 times longer than most modern cars can break in.
 
theone8181 said:
I'd like to meet the person that slammed on while doing 70 on ice to measure that :D (I always thought the stopping distances were miles off). I think even in good weather its about 5 times longer than most modern cars can break in.
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Brakes are vastly improved in modern cars so the braking distance is much much shorter than in the highway code. BUT people reaction times are much longer than they used to be. With al the toys and distractions in cars and peoples attitudes (my dad wouldnt have anybody talk to him while he was driving when i was a kid), the average person reaction time is almost a second now so at 30mph "most" people will have travelled 13m before then even start to brake/slow down. Or 31m at 70mph.
 
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Yeah the issue was that they took the total time to stop at 70 and multiplied it by 10... but just because it's icy you don't need 10 times the reaction time. And at 70 in the dry your reaction time is about 1/4 of the total stopping distance.

As for the highway code figures being complete tosh based on a 1960s car with cross ply tyres and drum brakes all round, I can't really knock them for that as that is the data they had to work with.
 
lordrobs said:
Yeah the issue was that they took the total time to stop at 70 and multiplied it by 10... but just because it's icy you don't need 10 times the reaction time. And at 70 in the dry your reaction time is about 1/4 of the total stopping distance.

As for the highway code figures being complete tosh based on a 1960s car with cross ply tyres and drum brakes all round, I can't really knock them for that as that is the data they had to work with.
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That's what I'd sort of assumed.
 
tom_e said:
I'm like this, wife hates it when we're on long journeys :D
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He was also must have both hands on the steering wheel at "10 to 2" except for changing gear. Stereo changes must be done before starting journey or by the passenger. Sweets had to be put in his mouth. He took driving very seriously!!!
 
Greebo said:
He was also must have both hands on the steering wheel at "10 to 2" except for changing gear. Stereo changes must be done before starting journey or by the passenger. Sweets had to be put in his mouth. He took driving very seriously!!!
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I'm definitely not that bad, I just can't do the chit chat while also trying to pick out who's about to try and crash into us :cry:
 
looks like i m in the market for a new car........ my wife was on the way to work today and saw an ambulance with the blues on coming the other way.
she pulled over, the guy on the other side of the road pulled over............ the ambulance went through.

unfortunately the person behind my wife decided the gap was big enough and tried to squeeze through at the same time....... he was wrong. hit the on coming ambulance, massive damage to the ambulance and his car (both vehicles lost wheels and the front of the drivers side of each of them totalled............. and then he also hit my wifes car and wrote that off as well.

thankfully no one hurt ......... i just hope the 2nd ambulance got to the person who was in need in time.

what a pita.
 
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bigmike20vt said:
looks like i m in the market for a new car........ my wife was on the way to work today and saw an ambulance with the blues on coming the other way.
she pulled over, the guy on the other side of the road pulled over............ the ambulance went through.

unfortunately the person behind my wife decided the gap was big enough and tried to squeeze through at the same time....... he was wrong. hit the on coming ambulance, massive damage to the ambulance and his car (both vehicles lost wheels and the front of the drivers side of each of them totalled............. and then he also hit my wifes car and wrote that off as well.

thankfully no one hurt ......... i just hope the 2nd ambulance got to the person who was in need in time.

what a pita.
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Please tell me the person who hit the Ambulance will be having the book, desk and building thrown at them...

Given you haven't mentioned and thus I am assuming it is a good thing, your wife and Paramedics were ok?

EDIT: Biggest issue I am dealing with at the moment (ignoring people with lights out) is idiots not ensuring their exist is clear when entering a roundabout. Get it most evenings on Podimore (A303) where drivers coming from the West bound side enter the roundabout when it isn't clear to do so thus blocking the traffic light controller traffic already on the roundabout.
 
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oweneades said:
Please tell me the person who hit the Ambulance will be having the book, desk and building thrown at them...

Given you haven't mentioned and thus I am assuming it is a good thing, your wife and Paramedics were ok?

EDIT: Biggest issue I am dealing with at the moment (ignoring people with lights out) is idiots not ensuring their exist is clear when entering a roundabout. Get it most evenings on Podimore (A303) where drivers coming from the West bound side enter the roundabout when it isn't clear to do so thus blocking the traffic light controller traffic already on the roundabout.
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yeah everyone was ok, the biggest injury was to the guy who hit the ambulance and i think that was mostly airbag bruises.

i didnt see him, but my wife said he was quite young, but really shook up and actually seemed a nice guy...... everyone makes mistakes, no one was hurt and it wasnt my ipace ;)

its still a pita, we need to sort a new car out, luckily we wont be reliant on the old car pay out to buy a new car (its probably only worth 3 - 3.5k anyway) but we can buy before the pay out if needed.

we could do with a courtesy car however and have not the 1st clue how to sort that. anyway i am rambling OT now so will leave it at that. hopefully he learned a lesson today and will think twice in future when there is an emergency vehicle around.
 
bigmike20vt said:
yeah everyone was ok, the biggest injury was to the guy who hit the ambulance and i think that was mostly airbag bruises.

i didnt see him, but my wife said he was quite young, but really shook up and actually seemed a nice guy...... everyone makes mistakes, no one was hurt and it wasnt my ipace ;)
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I hope they took him to Specsavers. Seriously, should be banned from driving.
 
oweneades said:
Please tell me the person who hit the Ambulance will be having the book, desk and building thrown at them...

Given you haven't mentioned and thus I am assuming it is a good thing, your wife and Paramedics were ok?

EDIT: Biggest issue I am dealing with at the moment (ignoring people with lights out) is idiots not ensuring their exist is clear when entering a roundabout. Get it most evenings on Podimore (A303) where drivers coming from the West bound side enter the roundabout when it isn't clear to do so thus blocking the traffic light controller traffic already on the roundabout.
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Imo roundabouts should follow the same rules as box junctions. Would make a couple of them much better on my commute if people got fined for waiting on them. Theres a mini roundabout I cross when taking the kids swimming and so many people block it when turning right so people from the next exit can't turn right. Utter muppets.
^ if that guy was young, I wounder if he was being daft and didn't see the ambulance and thought your wide was just pulling over, rather than driving like a ****. I did experience someone pulling in infront of me once, except the ambulance was roughly half a mile behind us so I overtook the car and carried on, imo the pulling over is only when it's near, and if it's needed. Some people pull in (I assume instinctively) when emergency services are coming towards them if there's no traffic for them to get around.
 
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bigmike20vt said:
looks like i m in the market for a new car........ my wife was on the way to work today and saw an ambulance with the blues on coming the other way.
she pulled over, the guy on the other side of the road pulled over............ the ambulance went through.

unfortunately the person behind my wife decided the gap was big enough and tried to squeeze through at the same time....... he was wrong. hit the on coming ambulance, massive damage to the ambulance and his car (both vehicles lost wheels and the front of the drivers side of each of them totalled............. and then he also hit my wifes car and wrote that off as well.

thankfully no one hurt ......... i just hope the 2nd ambulance got to the person who was in need in time.

what a pita.
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One that amazed me awhile back was while waiting in a queue at traffic lights and just as the lights changed an ambulance came up behind lights and siren on then started to proceed down the other lane, about half the cars moved to the side or held position but several cars straight away started to pull out to go around the stopped cars, blocking the ambulance and then had to awkwardly reverse back in...
 
Rroff said:
One that amazed me awhile back was while waiting in a queue at traffic lights and just as the lights changed an ambulance came up behind lights and siren on then started to proceed down the other lane, about half the cars moved to the side or held position but several cars straight away started to pull out to go around the stopped cars, blocking the ambulance and then had to awkwardly reverse back in...
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Happened several times for me at work. Pull in for the emergency vehicle and everything behind starts overtaking thinking I've pull in for a bus stop.

Emergency vehicles should have their own version of Operation Snap and drivers that do this get a fine. They then may learn.
 
theone8181 said:
Imo roundabouts should follow the same rules as box junctions. Would make a couple of them much better on my commute if people got fined for waiting on them. Theres a mini roundabout I cross when taking the kids swimming and so many people block it when turning right so people from the next exit can't turn right. Utter muppets.
^ if that guy was young, I wounder if he was being daft and didn't see the ambulance and thought your wide was just pulling over, rather than driving like a ****. I did experience someone pulling in infront of me once, except the ambulance was roughly half a mile behind us so I overtook the car and carried on, imo the pulling over is only when it's near, and if it's needed. Some people pull in (I assume instinctively) when emergency services are coming towards them if there's no traffic for them to get around.
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Given that he ploughed head on into the ambulance by the sounds of it it must have been relatively close. They're generally not doing warp speeds.
 
I'd like to nominate the person in a Honda Civic whose ABS kicked in for about 10m outside my house this morning. I'm putting my money on ditch finder tyres, speeding and terrible ability to anticipate the junction right in front of them along with understanding their cars (very minimal) capabilities. These are the people we all share the roads with...


Also cross posting one I submitted on PH a little while ago. https://thumbsnap.com/26iAT6zj
 
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