Confrontation with reckless driver

dave030445

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

When you have been driving for a while longer, you will learn to anticipate when people are likely do foolhardy things like this.

In a few years, you'll be able to predict these times, won't be taken by surprise but instead prepared to react sooner or even prevent them from happening.

Until then, try to always think of how the person behind could interpret your actions. Especially when you're a new driver and you're putting out a certain vibe which doesn't instill confidence in others. You shouldn't have to, of course because you're in the right, but it will help.

Oh my god how patronizing get off your high horse.

DUTR

dave030445 wrote: »

Oh my god how patronizing get off your high horse.

Why is it patronizing? There is good content in the post, it's nothing to do with being on a high horse.

forgotmyname

JustAnotherSaver.

The bit about the van overtaking had me wondering. Thinking of the acceleration of a loaded RAC van. How hesitant was the OP when the car flashed them?

Its one of those situations where you need to see what happened to say where each party were in the wrong.

Strider590

forgotmyname wrote: »

JustAnotherSaver.

The bit about the van overtaking had me wondering. Thinking of the acceleration of a loaded RAC van. How hesitant was the OP when the car flashed them?

Its one of those situations where you need to see what happened to say where each party were in the wrong.

Unless the RAC van had not come to a stop at all...... Perhaps he thought the OP was dithering about, saw an opportunity (albeit a bloody stupid one) and went for it.

It may be that the OP saw the van about to overtake, decided this queue jumping just wasn't on and "created" the situation that occurred.

I don't think this is what happened, it doesn't add up in this case, but I see people "creating" issues out of nothing almost every single day, out of some misguided sense of entitlement or just trying to enforce the myway codes "thou must form an orderly queue behind the retard doing 40mph" section.
My personal favourite is when they race (from several car length behind) to stop you merging at the end of a dual-carriageway and then lean on the horn as if it's all your fault....... :mad:

Getting down off that tangent........

I was involved in an accident where some daft old bint thought the line of cars ahead of her was actually parked (double parked on double yellow lines), when actually it was me, a car behind, a parked car in front (half on the kerb) and then a line of cars in front of that........... As the line in front started to move, I went past the parked car, silly cow overtakes the car behind at speed and smashes into the side of me.

So not dissimilar to the OPs experience.

sh0597

You shouldn't change direction without first checking your mirror although most of us will lapse in our observation occasionally.


I'm guessing the van saw what was happening with two drivers unsure who to give way to and decided to go through. "Reckless" might be a bit strong but it is the sort of driving that is the opposite of "defensive".


There's nothing illegal about overtaking and indeed the highway code says to give way to overtaking traffic, that doesn't mean it's sensible to overtake when there are hazards and distractions.


On a driving test both OP and the van would have got dangerous faults.


The police won't be interested. You could report the van driver to his company.

arcon5

Definitely report him op, there's no reason he shouldnt have to explain his actions to the very people he represents.

And ignore most of the self righteous !!!! on this thread. To some it's never other people's fault. You could get rear ended at a red light and some on here would still find a way of apportioning some blame on you.

C_Mababejive

My view is that you just need to forget about it and move on with your life.

There are more important things to be getting on with than endless faffing about on the phone/writing letters to the RAC blah blah blah,,its just so tedious.

Who knows what was in RAC mans head? He may have had a completely
different perception of the situation than you and misread it.

My general good advice to all motorists is
a)Never never never make threatening words or gestures to another motorist or pedestrian.
b)Never,never never pull over/get out of your car and approach someone to rant/make threats,gestures
c)Dont use your horn. I can say hand on heart that mostly the only time the horn is activated in my fleet is when its being checked for MoT. I drive a van all day at work and i have my own private car.

This is what happens when individuals get involved in such squabbles. It is for us to follow the law and not try to enforce it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdvIfT8H5c


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3p08kixCUs


Being a daily driver, i can tell you there is a great deal of satisfaction and peace of mind in just tootling around at the speed limit and letting everything else fly by me. They can overtake, screech,pull in do as they like. Not bothered. Mostly nothing much happens.

marlot

Most likely the RAC man made a mistake in his driving.

So have most of us at some time or other. I know that when I was riding my motorbike there were a few cases (especially in the early days) when my inexperience put me in danger, and the reason I escaped harm was because of the tolerance and defensive drivers of other vehicles.

OP - you're not been hurt, which is the main thing. Make sure you get back into the habit of checking your mirrors when moving off or changing road position - you should have seen him coming (even if he was being silly/too assertive/dangerous). Assume that other road users will be pratts, will make errors, will sometimes be downright dangerous - and try to drive in a way which keeps you out of the way of them all.

Joe_Horner

arcon5 wrote: »

You could get rear ended at a red light and some on here would still find a way of apportioning some blame on you.

In a lot of cases, that'd be me and I'm happy to admit it.

But, in this case (going on the description we had), it's hard to see any way at all to make the initial incident the OP's fault.

It may not have happened if she was a little quicker reacting to the guy flashing her through but, in that sort of situation, you need to be certain that he really is flashing for you to go because it's not an official signal. So hesitating for a moment to be sure he's actually stopping is good driving.

She may have been able to prevent it developing with better rear obs, but that comes with experience and doesn't in any way absolve a van driver who decides to overtake when he's approaching a double line of parked cars with a possibly oncoming vehicle as well. I'd suggest that, if it had been observed by police, that would come firmly within the definition of careless driving, if not dangerous.

OP, it is annoying when idiots do this sort of thing on the road, but there are a lot of idiots out there and you have no control over them and confronting him afterwards was a mistake. He obviously drives aggressively, what's to say he won't also react aggressively to someone approaching him about it? As the actual danger had already passed, stopping and confronting just created another chance for your child to witness something nasty - like a 6 foot mechanic smacking her mum!

What you do have control over is how you react to them. Leave the horn alone (it does no good, really!), call them a wassock (or similar) under your breath - or out loud if your 3 year old isn't in ear shot - and get on with your day knowing that's one less idiot behind you

Incidentally, some seem to be suggesting that you see so many of these things because of your inexperience. I've got 30 odd years of experience and I'd happily stand up in court and state that I see far more of this sort of stuff now than I used to. Overall driving standards have dropped and got more aggressive. All you can do about that is keep your own standard high and learn to compensate for the other person's stupidity :beer:

corbyboy

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Not to single anyone out but i'll select post #11 as an example - don't use your horn to tell anyone off.

Seriously. How many of you (especially if you've been driving some time) have NOT used your horn to 'tell someone off'? My guess is that each & every one of you has beeped your horn in anger at someone. So don't be taking that stance when it's almost certain you'll all do it yourselves.

No, I have never, ever used my horn in that way. Also, I have never flashed my lights to tell a driver to come through. Not claiming to be a good driver, I just do my best to follow the Highway Code.