|
Why didn't he pull you over? Maybe he was en route to an emergency - I've seen this done in any number of those fly on the wall traffic cop documentaries. Main thing is nothing happened and you're OK.
|
|
|
Maybe he didn't pull yu because he thought it an easy to understand error. Maybe he was having a crap day. Who knows ?
>>Also if someone hits your rear end aren't they usually if not always in the wrong?
Not if someone has pulled into your path suddenly. You'll have the "we love to abuse the police" people in here in a minute, and they'll explain about how he was driving too fast, and its disgraceful, you should report him to his boss, and its all part of a communist plot.
However, given that he actually stopped, I'd doubt he was going that fast. Given that you pulled into his path, it would have been your fault. And given that he didn't pull you, then I'd presume that he had a look at your driving over the next couple of miles and decided that there was nothing to worry about.
Or it could all be part of that communist plot......
|
I know he was not on the way to an emergency Vman cos if he had been on blues and twos I would have heard and seen him and also he would not have sat behind me for the next couple of miles at 29.99mph.
Maybe he was just late for his dinner , or maybe he wanted to admire my flat cap and sheepskin jacket.....I just feel worried and embarrassed to be falling into the Civic driver stereotype!
|
No, I agree with Mark, he didn't pull you over because it was a mistake, simple as that. He probably realised straight away that you knew what you'd done, so there was no point.
Believe it or not, they're not all unreasonable jobsworths, out to get you.
-M.
|
|
|
|
"it could all be part of that communist plot......"
Fascist plot, surely? ;)
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
|
|
Surely even a communist plot would have to be run by fascists ?
|
Yep, things need to be run by fascists or it all falls apart. Mussolini made the trains run on time and everything.
Gawd, it's not even Friday yet.
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
|
|
|
|
Well I think Its disgraceful. He was obviously driving too fast, if I was you I would report him to his boss. Its all part of a communist plot. I am not sure what plot but it must be.
Seriously, had he hit you, you would in all probability been in deep do-do and bin looking at three points worth of careless or due care.
Still no one hurt, no one knicked, as usual another tale of a copper being sensible and resonable (as they mostly tend to be)
Had the trousers washed yet BTW?
|
|
Luckily I was wearing the brown ones RF....
|
As you were positioned ahead of the police car, indicated that you were going to turn left after a change of mind and saw no other vehicle in the left hand driving mirror, I can't really see how a police officer could "have a word" with you.
It was his responsibility to be aware of what was happening in front of him and to be able to stop in time if necessary. That was, just about, the case.....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
and saw no other vehicle in the left hand driving mirror, I can't really see how a police officer could "have a word" with you.
Absolutely. The last word in defence - "I didn't see you therefore its not my fault". My daughter tries a similar thing at bedtime.
It doesn't work for her, either.
Unless your logic is that if anyone pulls out in front of you, from a side road, and you hit them, even if you only had 3ft to stop - then its your fault. Best we all start driving around at 1mph then.
|
Mark - I think you perhaps misunderstood the original post. I did not pull out onto the main road in front of him , he was coming up behind me on the same road and was turning left.
I was stopped, positioned for and indicating right, saw the road was blocked and decided to turn left, glanced in nearside mirror , saw nothing and indicated.
He was coming up behind me rapidly on the same road and not on the road I was joining.He therefore saw me signal right assumed I would move right and was aiming for my nearside to turn left at which point I changed my signal which was presumably when he braked .
.
|
No, I didn't misunderstand. I was responding to Stuart, not to you. Stuart was referring to the point that it was the policeman's responsibility. Given that you were stationary, not in his path, and then moved off into his path then that being the policeman's responsibility would be similar to the idea that your are somehow responsible for anybody moving into your path. In fact, you are not.
Hitting somebody in the rear would be your fault if they were already in your path, not if they moved into your path without sufficient time for you to deal with it.
|
No, I didn't misunderstand. I was responding to Stuart, not to you. Stuart was referring to the point that it was the policeman's responsibility. Given that you were stationary, not in his path, and then moved off into his path then that being the policeman's responsibility would be similar to the idea that your are somehow responsible for anybody moving into your path. In fact, you are not. Hitting somebody in the rear would be your fault if they were already in your path, not if they moved into your path without sufficient time for you to deal with it.
What if a small child had run out from between the cars waiting in the r/h lane?
|
|
Helicopter,
It might help if you give more information on the T junction...does it terminate in two lanes (one left, one right) and did you turn left from the right hand lane?
Or was it a single lane with a slight widening right at the give way lines so that there is not a clear path for two cars to turn (left and right) simultaneously?
StarGazer
|
Yes Stargazer , I turned left from the right hand lane after looking in the mirror and changing indicator from right to left.
The junction actually opens out to the left at the T. There is room for two at the T if one is turning right and the other left but it is a single lane behind and as I was already positioned to turn right it is possible (but a tight squeeze) to come up the inside of me to the left hand of the T. He must have been aiming to squeeze inside me and then seen my indicator change and thrown on the anchors.
It is all hypothetical - it just worried me that I did not see him and what might have happened.
As I say SWMBO ( 30 + years driving unblemished by conviction or accident ) was with me and she does not normally -ahem- restrain her criticism if she thinks I have done something stupid but she actually said how fast he had come up behind us and reckoned I had done everything as correctly as I could in the circumstances.
|
|
No one has mentioned the possibilty of it being the signalman's fault for keeping the level crossing barriers down and blocking the road...
|
|
Yes of course! Bob Crowe the Railmans union leader is a commie. The plot lives!
|
|
Our leader is Crow not Crowe
|
|
Thats the ways its spelt in moscow
|
|
Maybe the police car was being driven by the mechanic just finishing off his road test and was subsequently off by the moron in the Civic sitting at 29 mph :)
|
Moskva.
If you don't believe me, ask Bob Krva.
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
|
Your mistake was probably not looking in the rear view mirror as well as the left hand door mirror, which would be unlikely to show the view behind your vehicle. I set both my door mirrors to continue where the rear view mirror's coverage ends.
However, you state you indicated before actually moving, so that would be a warning to whoever was coming up, policeman or otherwise.
That same policeman would most likely decide, say, at an accident scene that if someone hit a vehicle from behind, in all but very exceptional circumstances, he or she had not been paying due care and attention.
In the vast majority of cases policemen prove human, believe it or not, which is why he probably took it no further...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
Could have been a civilian driver unable to stop you.
Could also be that the police driver does just as daft things. It pains me to say that around our way, the police drivers don't believe in indicators. Very annoying and unprofessional..and dangerous.
|
If the road simply widens but is white lined as a single lane then no other vehicle has right of way coming up your inside. I have a junction near me where it is unwritten to locals that 2 cars can sit waiting to turn left and right. The Highway code doesn't cover this dilemma!
--
\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
|
"West Sussex Police Car screeching to a halt inches from my rear bumper"
Since you were at the junction already, perhaps he was screeching to a halt anyway because he had misjudged the junction. You just made him screech ten feet earlier! Or perhaps he recognised it as a genuine mistake rather than reckless/dangerous or even careless. We all make mistakes - luckily this had no really bad consequences(except for your trousers!!)
Incidentally, "SWMBO was in the passenger seat and said that he had approached the junction very quickly" How did she know and why didn't she warn you??!!
|
|
Ten years or so back, in the wee small hours and with absolutely nobody around (I thought!), I left the M27 along the sweeping uphill curve at Havant to join the A3(M) Northbound, at a solid 90 or so. I held this speed to the next exit (Purbrook IIRC), at which point I had a quick whizz up to, err, rather more than 90, before bleeding speed off and gently running up the Waterlooville exit slip. Previously, as I passed the top of the Havant slip to enter the A3(M), I had noticed the lights of a car down at the bottom. Yes, as it turned out, Les Flics. Hampshire's finest. A few seconds after I entered the 30 limit at Waterlooville, bang on 30, without braking, they were on my tail, and my heart sank. I was followed all the way to my then home, and given a stern look as they performed a U-turn outside the house and drove away. Licence remained intact, and never a word was spoken, but then it didn't need to be. Brown trouser moment was enough of a warning! Either they knew this, or I was lucky that they never got a speed fix.
|
I accept that I made a mistake by changing my mind and that I was wrongly positioned.
Good point though Phil. It did all happen rather quickly as these things usually do.
I did not see what SWMBO did as I was looking in the nearside mirror ( believe it or not).
She regularly travels that way to work and is constantly complaining that whenever she is in a hurry the level crossing gates are against her for up to 10 minutes at a time.
She is always 'driving with me' and as a driver herself she is always aware of potential danger and will warn me ( even if I have seen the danger). Some people call this back seat driving and find it distracting but it is more often helpful I think to have another experienced set of eyes beside you.
Consequently when I got to the right hand turn and said that the gates were down and I was going to go to the left she was probably either looking in the mirror or over her shoulder behind her.
I was too busy worrying about the police car behind me to notice what she did but as we left the junction I said something to the effect of 'that was a police car that I just cut up' to which she responded 'well he was coming up behind us too fast'.
As I say she is not normally noted for her restraint of criticism of me when it is warranted........
|
|
|
|
|
|
