Should I change my driving style for other road users?

Aretnap

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't know what either common law or France have to do with this thread, but to phrase my question more precisely, whereabouts in the Road Traffic Act 1988 does it state that an emergency allows you to drive contrary to the law (for example, at more than 30 mph in a 30 mph zone)?

Nowhere - but it doesn't have to. (In any event, the Road Traffic Act 1988 says nothing at all about speed limits - for that you need the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984).

Duress of circumstances is a common law principle which gives you a defence to any crime (except murder or treason) if you reasonably believed that you actions were the only way to avoid death or serious injury, to yourself or someone else. Hence, for example, in R v Conway a man who drove "recklessly and at great speed" was acquitted because he believed (wrongly, as it turned out) that he was being pursued by a shotgun wielding killer. And in Pipe v DPP a man was acquitted of driving at over 100mph while taking a seriously injured boy to hospital when no ambulance was available.

So yes, you can drive at over the speed limit in an emergency. "Emergency" is quite narrowly defined though - being late for work is not an emergency.

Gloomendoom

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't know what either common law or France have to do with this thread, but to phrase my question more precisely, whereabouts in the Road Traffic Act 1988 does it state that an emergency allows you to drive contrary to the law (for example, at more than 30 mph in a 30 mph zone)?

I doubt it does, which was my point.

However, I don't get my knickers in a twist if somebody else is exceeding the speed limit by a few miles per hour. They may have good reason to be doing it, for all I know.

Letting them overtake safely is surely better for all concerned. Reacting to somebody driving like a twät by acting like a pompous, holier than thou twät just exacerbates the problem and heightens the risk of something nasty happening as a consequence.

Richard53

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

I find a quick tap of the brakes normally suffices in these situations.

I've told the story before on this forum, so I won't repeat it, but I have been a witness to an incident where a driver dabbed his brakes to admonish a 'boy racer' tailgating him closely, and it resulted in a nasty accident which could easily have been fatal for several people. I wouldn't want to risk having that on my conscience, even if I were technically 'in the right'.

Mercdriver

motorguy wrote: »

Yes, however once someone is performing an overtaking maneuver, you should facilitate that by maintaining your speed, not accelerating further.

Had the O/P got to say 40MPH and saw the guy behind indicate and start to overtake he should have maintained his speed @ 40MPH, not continued to accelerate.

Accelerating further very nearly caused an accident.....

But he didn't actually perform the overtake 'til later. If you are going to maintain speed to encourage the idiot to overtake then you need to make some sort of signal to tell him he can pass. Simply staying at 30mph isn't necessarily going to help.

I would personally have indicated left and pulled in where safe to let the idiot past as I wouldn't fancy having an idiot behind me for god knows how long.

I try and drive with consideration , and driving in the Highlands last week on a twisty part of the A82 at twilight had one !!!!! in a van on my rear I pulled in to let him past where safe, and when another van approached - this one was more considerate but I sensed he wanted to go a little faster than I was going, I pulled in a larger layby without stopping and he used his hazards to thank me as he overtook.

Come to my trip back down along the poorly maintained roads along Loch Lomond and I ended up stuck behind one inconsiderate driver for 50 miles from Tyndrum to the edge of Glasgow. He drove erratically - every time he saw distant lights in the other direction he would slow to 25 and then speed up to 60 when he put his full beam back on, not once using his brakes, all engine breaking. So basically any time it was safe to overtake he would speed up. I left plenty of space in front of me because he was erratic.

Thought I had lost him at Tarbet when he got into the right hand lane signposted Campeltown. No such luck. He turned left in front of another car who just barely got past him without hitting him. He had plenty of laybys where he could have pulled in but chose not to.

mark5

He's got the problem but I think common sense says he was going to look to pass at the first opportunity, I would have just indicated left slowed down and given him the opportunity to pass me. I always do it for bikes as no matter how fast I go, I will always be holding them up.

Nasqueron

motorguy wrote: »

I used to see a variant of it quite a bit on my commute home from my last job. Cross country route for maybe 20 miles, only a couple of good safe overtaking points, 60MPH national speed limit, some gimp driving along at 25 MPH oblivious to the queue of cars behind them when you couldnt pass them and any time there was a straight where someone could overtake them they were away like Michael Schumacher then down to 25MPH again for the next corner...

Did they drive an old Peugeot and yell "MANIAC" at anyone passing them?

Nasqueron

nicechap wrote: »

I wonder if the eventual 'flashing' were blue lights.

Seen that once, driving home at night on a dual carriageway around 11pm, I'm doing 70, guy nips past, then police car goes by, I pass a slower car and pull back in left while chump stays in right lane but has obviously spotted plod so slows to 60! I'm now considering undertaking him, as in, I'm doing 70 in the inside lane so I would pass him in the flow of traffic until police blue light him and he moves over. Girlfriend told me they had flashed him before they lit up and he still hadn't moved and it was really obvious they were there (full livery police car) so no real reason he couldn't move over left. Think he was lucky they just let him go

Strider590

warehouse wrote: »

I had to drive my daughters car to work recently as mine was in for servicing. As a new driver she has a black box device so I was driving well within the speed limits.

I'd bet it's a small car, almost nobody will tailgate my Ford Mondeo, almost everyone tailgates my GFs Ford KA, even at the same speeds on the same roads.

It's more about psychology that it is about people being impatient. People see smaller cars as having inferior drivers.

photome

agrinnall wrote: »

Perhaps you could provide a link to the legislation that says if you have an "emergency" you can drive like a !!!!!!.

And drive faster than the speed limit.

2 posters have advocated that it is ok

motorguy

Mercdriver wrote: »

But he didn't actually perform the overtake 'til later. If you are going to maintain speed to encourage the idiot to overtake then you need to make some sort of signal to tell him he can pass. Simply staying at 30mph isn't necessarily going to help.

It would have been a fair bet the driver was going to pass as soon as he could. Even IF the O/P hadnt realised that, i certainly wouldnt have continued accelerating on from 30MPH->40MPH->50MPH->60MPH as he was doing so. I'd have steadied my speed, let him pass then continued to accelerate to the 60MPH limit (or whatever speed i chose to do)

Mercdriver wrote: »

I would personally have indicated left and pulled in where safe to let the idiot past as I wouldn't fancy having an idiot behind me for god knows how long.

+1

I'd have indicated left to let him know he could pass once we hit the 60, but continued on my business at 30MPH until he had - IF i'd had any doubts he was going to.

Mercdriver wrote: »

I try and drive with consideration , and driving in the Highlands last week on a twisty part of the A82 at twilight had one !!!!! in a van on my rear I pulled in to let him past where safe, and when another van approached - this one was more considerate but I sensed he wanted to go a little faster than I was going, I pulled in a larger layby without stopping and he used his hazards to thank me as he overtook.

Come to my trip back down along the poorly maintained roads along Loch Lomond and I ended up stuck behind one inconsiderate driver for 50 miles from Tyndrum to the edge of Glasgow. He drove erratically - every time he saw distant lights in the other direction he would slow to 25 and then speed up to 60 when he put his full beam back on, not once using his brakes, all engine breaking. So basically any time it was safe to overtake he would speed up. I left plenty of space in front of me because he was erratic.

Thought I had lost him at Tarbet when he got into the right hand lane signposted Campeltown. No such luck. He turned left in front of another car who just barely got past him without hitting him. He had plenty of laybys where he could have pulled in but chose not to.

Yes, its very frustrating on the roads - theres very little consideration for other drivers, even though like you i try my best to make sure i am considerate for others.