Confrontation with reckless driver

Strider590

Horns and main beam flashing are supposed to be a warning of presence, ie "i'm here, just checking you've seen me". BUT for some reason in the UK it's socially considered as a rude or aggressive gesture, as well as a "come on through", as a result I largely ignore it.

sunshine1980

I was not dithering or took too long to move when the other driver flashed me. I know you are trying justify why the RAC driver overtook me but in this instance he should not have done. If I took too long to move then even though he still should not have overtaken me I could probably understand but as I said I was not dithering just cautious. I have driven along this road plenty of times and also being a passenger in somone's vehicle on this road and I was not any slower than anyone else but like everyone else I slowed down as it was not clear whether the other driver would give me right of way.

I know 2 years is not long but I am a confident driver and don't give off any "vibe". I have driven some distances and through city centres, built up places etc so am comfortable driving.

I am aware that overtaking is not illegal but in the highway code it states you should only overtake when it is safe to do so - it really wasn't in this case.

I would not have approached an unmarked vehicle it was only because it was an RAC van I felt able to do so. I won't be doing that again.

Again I appreciate all the replies and am happy to take constructive criticism.

sunshine1980

Strider590 wrote: »

Friend of mine did what OP did, the driver (who'd done something REALLY stupid), he claimed my friend was carrying a baseball bat (he wasn't), the Police showed up at his home and he spent 6 hrs in a cell while they searched his home/car for a weapon.

Although I think the other driver would not tell the Police I was carrying an offensive weapon I do realise that he could really say anything to the Police, exaggerate it etc. Or could ask someone to say they were a witness. Also, and I am not saying everyone plays the race card, but he was asian so he could also say I made some racist mark which I know the Police would take very seriously. I did no such thing but he could exaggerate what was said/happened.

burlington6

My earlier point was it was easy to play the angry big man knowing it was an RAC van. Next time it could be a few gypsies.

sunshine1980

Strider590 wrote: »

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.

I didn't "create" this situation - I did not have time to. If I had known he was going to overtake me I would have let him rather than risk a collision. I appreciate what you say and can imagine this does happen but honestly this was not the case.

The thing is I had not come to a stop I was still moving and a bit further out from the parked cars so I assume he must have known that and just barged though regardless.

sunshine1980

burlington6 wrote: »

My earlier point was it was easy to play the angry big man knowing it was an RAC van. Next time it could be a few gypsies.

Point taken. Honestly I will not be doing what I did ever again!

almillar

sunshine1980 - certainly, the way you describe it, the van shouldn't have passed you. I can only guess that he thought you were pulling over, he was very impatient, or he didn't see the other car which would make him more likely to want to continue.
Just a small bit of advice for what you CAN do, remember mirror, signal, manouvre? You should've looked in your mirror before your manouvre (overtaking parked cars) and you mightn't have been quite as shocked by his actions.

darkmatter101

Strider590 wrote: »

Also if your driving quite a small/slow car, when I drive the GFs Ford KA, I often find people cutting me up or pulling out in front of me, the "Must Get In Front" urge is too great for some drivers to resist, it's nearly as bad as riding a bicycle.

OP, your actions stemmed purely from anger. You will come across situations like this whilst driving a number of times and unless no one is injured and there is no car damage just take it easy and drive on. It isn't worth it. What you did was abusive and a public order offence.

Now as for the above quote, I am one of those drivers where if you have an idiot doing 40mph on a national speed limit B road, I WILL overtake them only when the road is straight and clear. I drive a E92 BMW M3 and so I have the power to easily overtake these cars, which like 'Strider' said tends to be smaller cars and Fords/Vauxhalls, a lot of the times driven by old women.

I have pi**ed off a lot of drivers with my BMW M3 but never have I put anyone at risk. Normally, it's just a situation where you have an idiot going too slow on national speed limit roads or they are doing 50mph on the middle of right hand lane of the motorway. I normally give them a few minutes so that they go to the left lane so I can overtake. Most of the time they don't because they don't know the rules. At this point I look at my right wing mirror, see if it's clear, dropped down a gear and rev 6-8k rpm and overtake them with ease.

Besides old ladies, other problems I face on a daily occurrence are idiotic teenage/younger drivers in their chavved out Ford Fiesta or Corsa trying to race me, whether it be on A/B roads/motorways or at the traffic lights. I of course do not entertain them in any way. At times it can get very dangerous, especially when they are behind me on motorways, as they tailgate me so close. So normally I just accelerate away to a safer distance (they obviously can't catch up) and I go on the left lane and slow down so that the idiot can overtake.

darkmatter101

Also I meant to add that it was wrong for the van to try and overtake you. It is wrong for most cars on the road (moderately powered 2 liter diesels and petrol's and everything below) to try and overtake because they simply do not have the power to do so in a quick enough time.

If you do not have enough room to overtake, or even if you do...DO NOT.

DUTR

sunshine1980 wrote: »

I was not dithering or took too long to move when the other driver flashed me. I know you are trying justify why the RAC driver overtook me but in this instance he should not have done. If I took too long to move then even though he still should not have overtaken me I could probably understand but as I said I was not dithering just cautious. I have driven along this road plenty of times and also being a passenger in somone's vehicle on this road and I was not any slower than anyone else but like everyone else I slowed down as it was not clear whether the other driver would give me right of way.

I know 2 years is not long but I am a confident driver and don't give off any "vibe". I have driven some distances and through city centres, built up places etc so am comfortable driving.

I am aware that overtaking is not illegal but in the highway code it states you should only overtake when it is safe to do so - it really wasn't in this case.

I would not have approached an unmarked vehicle it was only because it was an RAC van I felt able to do so. I won't be doing that again.

Again I appreciate all the replies and am happy to take constructive criticism.

Sometimes, different people assess the same situation at a different rate, at work once a year we have to do a road awareness test , some participants get really frustrated as they are not identifying all or not in a short enough time, the hazards that lay before them.

Sometimes I see at busy roundabouts or exiting a side road, drivers (more often than not but not everytime of a certain gender) do not look to the right to see if it is clear to proceed, they just look straight ahead and go for it, exiting side roads I do see many only looking to their left so I will sometimes pip the horn , that usually has them looking to the right then.
Sometimes people adopt caution by doing things slower than they usually would but they are not necessarily anymore safe than usual , we see this often in rain frost or snow conditions.

I'm no driving instructor and not teaching you how to suck eggs, I am annoyed/frustrated that you approached the van though for various reasons.... you didn't know what you may have been letting yourself in for, you had a child in the car, a stranded customer could depend on the vehicle technician, and the road assist person breathes the same air as we all do, so is not a lesser of a person to be 'told off' by anyone that does not have the authority to do so, without his consent.