Another "who to blame" thread

jase1

Yesterday, on the commute home, I am in the middle of a convoy of traffic on a single-carriageway A-road behind a slow driver doing approximately 28mph in a 60. We arrive at a roundabout, where the single lane branches into two, and continues in two lanes for around half a mile at which point it reverts to a single lane.

The slow car indicates right and pulls into the right-hand lane. Most of the convoy continues straight on.

However, once on the roundabout, the slow car cancels his indicator and proceeds to take the second (straight-ahead) exit and travels in the right hand lane at 20mph or so. The cars going straight on appear to initially hold back, then on realising that the slowcoach isn't speeding up pass him on the left.

Two or three cars get past, then the next nearly gets wiped out as the slow driver cuts in front without signalling, only to wake up half-way through and dart back into the right-hand lane. I was two cars behind the near-miss.

Slow driver is then let in by the next car who probably didn't fancy a nice 206-shaped dent in the side of his Passat, at which point the convoy enters the overtaking lane en-masse in an attempt to get past him before the road narrowed.

The question is, in the event of a collision who would get the blame? On the one hand, passing on the left is a frowned-on manouvre, IMO the slow driver must take a great deal of the blame.

Strider590

Captain slow should have licence revoked..... Probably been driving 40 years and never had an accident.

pendulum

Neither are fault free. I'd probably place 75% of the blame on the undertaking drivers because they've blocked him from returning left due to their impatience. If you're going to undertake someone (as I do occasionally), you had better be damn sure they're not going to return left, and be ready with a plan if they do.

iolanthe07

It's best to give a very slow driver plenty of room and expect anything. They are often elderly, very nervous, or both.

Lum

Is the right hand lane marked as right turn only?

Is the exit two lanes that then merge down to one?

Can you give a Google maps link to the junction and indicate which are the entrance and exit lanes?

jase1

Lum;

1) No. If you actually turn right on the roundabout you end up doing a 180 as there is no 3 o'clock exit, just 9, 12 and 6.

2) Yes, but the road continues as a two-lane after the roundabout for at least half a mile, probably 3/4 of a mile.

3) No, as the roundabout only came into being last month.

kataklysm

I'm with Pendulum on this. If you're behind a driver, you have a choice - take a risk and blame the other person when it goes wrong, or be a GROWN UP like Mr Passat and give the dithering idiot room to do what they like. You could argue that those cars were undertaking slower moving traffic on the right... but that applies to queuing traffic, not one car going too slowly. This was just plain undertaking and it's dangerous. Plus hitting the back of another car is pretty much always going to be your fault.

Crikey people, it's not a racetrack out there, can't we all just try to get home in one piece... ¬_¬

iolanthe07

This was just plain undertaking and it's dangerous

No it isn't. I lived in the US for five years and undertaking is a perfectly normal and safe manoevre, as it should be here, especially when some people insist on hogging the middle lane.

Strider590

iolanthe07 wrote: »

This was just plain undertaking and it's dangerous

No it isn't. I lived in the US for five years and undertaking is a perfectly normal and safe manoevre, as it should be here, especially when some people insist on hogging the middle lane.

Isn't there a huge problem in the US of people driving slowly and hogging lane 2 (on their equivalents of dual carriageways), thus preventing people overtaking?
I've heard they cut people up if they try to undertake OR they speed up and sit next to another slow vehicle to cause a rolling road block.

So I sort of assumed that "undertaking" was illegal over there?

jase1

FWIW I did not pass the car on the left, I was behind the Passat, and followed said VW when he pulled out to the right hand lane once 206 was safely back in its box. My chosen tactic was to have been to have "stalked" the slow vehicle, waiting on the inside lane behind him and flashing him to move over. This is, I believe, IAM recommendation, and something I do regularly with right-lane dawdlers on the 2-lane A1M. It's effectively what the Passat did but I'd have been ready with the horn had he not taken notice -- he clearly was not aware of vehicles around him.

scheming_gypsy

In case of an accident the person undertaking would have been at fault. The correct procedure is to drop it into second and pull out from behind the driver at the last moment, overtake on the correct side of the road and cut back in just in front of him causing him to parp loudly on the horn. Once you have his attention you can give him a cheery 'winkers' wave and continue on your way.