The wife returned from the shops yesterday visibly shaken.
Appears when she was returning, she misjudged the speed of a clapped out white van at a roundabout and pulled out in front of it (in a 30mph limit by the way!) Next thing she knows, the white van is alongside her and the chav drivers girlfriend is hanging out the window screaming and bawling horrible obscenities at her, with Mr Chav gesticulating wildly from the drivers seat. Next thing, the idiot accelerates past, swings wildly in front of her and in doing so claps on his brakes forcing her to do a full blown emergency stop. She had the presence of mind to pull out and drive on immediately before Chav/Mrs Chav had a chance to come back to the car.
She readily admits she made a mistake, but there is no excuse for this yobbish behaviour! She's now saying she isn't confident about driving in the area in question again. The wife by the way is 5' nowt and wouldn't harm a fly!
It's high time something was done about the level of aggression displayed by some people, but then that would actually mean an effective policing policy, laws that protect the innocent rather than the crims, punishments that befit crimes and a visible police presence, something that seems to be sadly lacking in our country at the moment.
Oh and by the way, take the law into your own hands in a matter like this and guess who ends up with the custodial sentence?
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Nowadays a lot of British people seem to be living on a 'hair trigger' and will fly into a rage at the slightest provocation. I often feel they like an excuse to be aggressive. We're gradually mutating into a very unpleasant race.
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Your best course of action is to get the index (number plate) then drive round to the police and report it. Or phone it in while you sit in the car (not if the miscreant is about to stove your windcreen in though).
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Just been reading a similar thread on a motorcycle forum. This country is in many ways turning into a nasty little place, where the slightest mistake or show of perceived disrespect ends with some looney attempting violence. If I was younger I would seriously consider moving to a more civilised part of the world.
Hope your wife regains her self confidence soon, we all have to put up with that sort of behaviour from time to time. The only consolation is that one day yer man may try that with somebody who is an even bigger maniac than him.
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When someone I come into contact with (not literally!) is so obviously a Chav I console myself with the fact that I am higher up the food chain than they are.
Snobby I know, but it works for me. Why should your better half feel that they should avoid the place because of someone like that - with time I sincerely hope that her reticence turns into mild anger and absolute defiance.
all the best.
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My friend had asimilar experience with a chav, fortunately he was in his landrover discovery as the Chav and his mate got out of their car to smash his windscreen or whatever, so he mounted the kerb and drove across a piece of parkland to get away from them.
Why do we have to put up with this sort of you cut me up by accident so i'll beat you up attitude.????
we all make mistakes, just chill out and accept the driver infront is going to make amistake now and again>
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"we all make mistakes, just chill out and accept the driver infront is going to make amistake now and again>"
I don't think most people get upset if another road user makes a genuine mistake and appears contrite but it really winds me up when people force their ay out of junctions at the exepnse of everone else or as happened to me a couple of weeks ago, another motorist had plenty of opportunity to pull in behind me enter the motorway sliproad exit - nothing behind me for about 800 yards but he passed me in the middle lane and then carved in front of me well after the 100 yard marker forcing me to brake sharply. I was in the Rover P5 V8 at the time so I passed him shortly after and I did a wholly legal 70 mph is the outside lane - he went nuts - Can't understand why as he seems to approve of this type of driving i.e making people drive at the speed he wants to go. He sat on my boot lid for a while (not a good idea to hit 1.7 ton of Rover in a modern car as the last Escort that did it found out.
Strangeley he backed off about a mile down the road when he saw a police car cruisuing at 60 in the middle lane.
I do feel for the ladies that are targeted by our agressive friends and I really wish they'd try it on with a car full of men but they won't - why? because like all bullies they're cowards!
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I feel sorry for her but if she avoids driving in that area again it means shes let the yobbos win. She needs to get back out there and regain her confidence.
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The road-rage thing certainly seems much worse in the UK than many places - just been to Toulouse in France on business & the driving is much more "crazy" than here. Cutting people up/undertaking/no indication is an everday occurence but never seen anyone getting upset about it, having said that everyone seems to drive the same way so I guess it's expected over there.
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That's nothing. About a couple of years ago I had somebody try forcing me off the road, and I hadn't even done anything wrong! I was on my way to work, and it took me a few hours to stop shaking! There really is no excuse for it.
The reason for the overtake was because I wasn't speeding. I was cruising at the speed limit, and this Silver Vectra pulls up behind. Tailgates me, flashes me, then trys to undertake, but he started to cut in when his rear wheels were roughly where my fronts were. I slammed the brakes on, and missed him. You could argue that I should've been in the LHL, but I needed the right hand lane for a roundabout further ahead. If he was in such a hurry there's no reason why he couldn't have undertook me from the start.
I had another incident a few days ago too. There was a white van man, and I suspect he was on drugs or something. Serious road rage like this is far too common, and other forms of road rage are VERY common. They shouldn't be on the roads!
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Last night I took the car out for a good blast and had a fantastic time I might add. Anyway, I looked down and in all my enjoyment, forgot all about the petrol. The light was blazing away and judging by the position of the needle, I had very little time to fill up.
So here I am, miles from anyway with no petrol. I decided I may as well head back to civilisation and if I ran out, take it from there. I got up to speed and shoved the car in 5th without labouring it at all.
To bring this post onto the subject because it is going somewhere - trust me, I soon started to see houses and then my hunt for a petrol station began. I noticed the VASCAR timing marks on the road which seemed to be every couple of hundred of yards which was convenient given I had no petrol. I adhered to the speed limit in 4th -5th gear to conserve petrol and had the pleasure of 6 cars on the back bumper. SIX! Not being able to sufficiently dispose of them in a cloud of my dust I had to grin and bear it. Two were dangerous enough to warrant me spraying the washers and they got the hint.
The other three turned off after sitting so far up my behind that I couldn't see the bonnet of their cars and I pulled over to let him past.
I got "the look" as he drove past and then I resumed my crawl to the petrol station. He then stuck at 30mph exactly and indicated perfectly every time either doing it on purpose or thinking I was a cop.
The only time I get "angry" is when someone coasts along at 35mph in a 30 limit and then carries on at the same speed in a NSL.
I almost wish one of them had crashed into me. Try explaining how that one happened.
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Adam
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As is the norm for my posts, I have noticed a number of mistakes which, had I bothered to proof read it, would not have been there.
"miles from anywhere.."
Not 6 cars in a queue but over the length of the journey, six consecutive cars.
The one I let past was the last car who hadn't turned off.
The overall theme I was trying to convey in case I waffled on too much was that it's amazing how many people you can anger simply by sticking to the limit.
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Adam
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Mr.P,
This will probably get deleted but I sincerely believe that as the police have abandoned us to our fate we need to help ourselves.
I would hope in similar circumstances any female friend of mine would have taken the plate number and by whatever means necessary I would find the said miscreant and demonstrate my golf swing to him.
Remember you can only be prosecuted for taking the law in to your own hands if the police catch you in the act because frankly they are not interested in pursuing an 'investigation' anymore as its not 'time efficient'.
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As I have often reported, driving in the Philippines is a high-speed, me-first any gap will do, traffic-laws-what-laws? experience. Traffic lights are largely ignore if there's no enforcer around, indicators are generally dispensed with in favour of a nice blue or other coloured bulb that stays on all the time.
In heavy traffic be prepared for the lanes to be so crowded that your side mirrors are always being clouted at 90kph!
Everyone knows a nice new car or a BMW or similar will always back down rather than risk a ding, whereas an old wreck will make a gap even if there isn't one at any cost. Taxis are maniacal but everyone expects that and just moves over.
Yet everyone rubs along in an amiable sort of way. I have never in 11 years seen an incident of road rage and even dings are quite rare.
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I would find the said miscreant and demonstrate my golf swing to him.
Judging by the fact they were probably [trouble] (White Ford Transit, come on), you're a much braver man than me.
So reporting it to the police would be useless as well.
n.b. Note edited to remove a certain term. Mark.
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Yes my thoughts exactly! - A couple of Chavs or Gypsies. In any case reporting to the Police would mean taking the matter further or letting the matter drop. Taking things further then allows the scum access to your home details etc. As I mentioned at the start of the post, with no faith in current policing, punishment, protection etc you have got to ask yourself - why put yourself through the potential pain!
I would dearly love to inflict some harm on these people, but as my better half points out, they could form part of a local mafia so again why put yourself into this position?
Too many beers on board now to make sense, but I fear this country is owned by the lawless as they know there is no-one to answer too. As an example, we were at a wedding the other day two "guests" were dicussing the best way to get off with their crime was to plead guilty. I really dread getting older as if society keeps going the way it's going, its going to be a hell of a country to live in (rant over!)
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On another similar veined thread to this, No Wheels made the point that law enforcement has to begin with the softer targets, i.e., the fundametally lawful but uncharacteristically lapsed; or else not to begin at all.
I apologise for not replying to that thread, but I feel that my view is just as valid here. I do not agree with this position, possibly driven by a league table centric philosophy.
Would you rather catch 100 people doing 32 in a 30 limit, or one person driving an unroadworthy, untaxed, uninsured car while under the influence of alcohol or other mood enhancing substances?
Motoring law ought to be enforced in the difficult areas, or upon the persistent offenders first.
Yes!, this is the expensive route, where traffic officers do have to deal with real life scroats, using skill and judgement, rather than dealing with meek joe public via (s)camera and NIP.
By dealing with the problematic areas of motoring law first, the alienation felt by motorists who do have respect for the fundamental tenets of motoring etiquette and safety is avoided.
While I do not agree with all of the laws that we have in place, I do believe they should all be enforced; I'm not an anarchist! I can't help but think that the genuine person who submits to the governmental registration and taxation is unduly punished in modern British society.
Number_Cruncher
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I agree with NC. If your in the system, car registered in your name then whammo you get the lot. Couple of days late on your tax? Thats £100 thanks!
Take yourself out of the system and you can do whatever you want.
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Behaviour like this makes me despair, it seems the number of nasty people in this country is rising at an alarming rate.
Roll on ten years time when the mortgage is paid off and my daughter is grown up then I can emigrate to a non-scum infested country.....
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Behaviour like this makes me despair, it seems the number of nasty people in this country is rising at an alarming rate. Roll on ten years time when the mortgage is paid off and my daughter is grown up then I can emigrate to a non-scum infested country.....
Well said!
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My first reaction to the latter stages of this thread, was to wonder whether this site been taken over by the Daily Wail! On reflection, there may be something in this after all! But, where can you go without coming across stressed-out, spaced-out, low-life? Maybe I'll apply for me second passport, from a certain nearby, less frenetic state, that still has space. Not a lot of sun though:)
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Sorry to hear about your wife's nasty experience. Sadly such incidents are all too common these days. There's a lot of aggressive scum about. I was verbally abused a week or so ago for no good reason and left somewhat shocked. A few weeks before I had a tailgater flashing his lights, forcing me to go slow approaching roundabouts, overtakes, and then stops, indicates right, waits for no traffic, and turns into his house. I am sometimes abused for obeying the speed limit too.
The only consolation is that many of these Neanderthals are all mouth and no trouser.
If a copper saw such abuse, I'm sure (s)he'd step in and do the "'Ello 'ello 'ello, what's goin' on 'ere then" malarky.
Leif
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Same sort of thing happened to a friend of mines daughter who rang the police from her mobile. They told her to drive to the nearby garage and pull up to the paywindow and lock her doors. She duly did this and took the offending drivers number. A few days later a surprised and embarrassed company director was hauled from a meeting and given a warning by the boys in blue.......nice one!
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In a way, I think the significant thing in the case of Perturbed's wife is that she made a mistake, which she admits.
I make mistakes too, as do most drivers. But not everyone is very understanding. And she may well have felt that having made a mistake, the police would not have been very understanding either - and taken the view "never mind the people in the van - you were driving without due care and attention."
Curiously, one incident of road rage which I remember happened about 25 years ago. Middle aged driver, wife & kids in car, makes a mistake in city driving. Very angry offended driver pursues, and jumps out of car at lights, comes to offending vehicle, opens door, shows police card (he was not in uniform), and yells at driver who made mistake. I was a youngster at the time, and rather shocked that a police officer should behave thus.
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>>this sort of you cut me up by accident so i'll beat you up attitude.????
That's exactly the attitude. Yet you also know that if the low-life cuts someone else up, who so much as dares blow his horn, there'll be another tirade and he won't have the intelligence to work out the irony.
We have a large chunk of the population who simply need removing. We have been protecting people from themselves for too long and should stop doing so.
If you are someone who "suffers" from road rage, then why do you do it ? And how do you justify it to yourself when nobody else is listening ?
And by the way, roadrage isn't just chavs mouthing obscenities; its horn blowing, gestures, waves, deliberately driving slowly or in the middle of the road, etc. etc.
Now I never do it. I used to. Until the first time someone did it to my mother, upsetting her, and I wasn't there to beat carp out of them. My Father asked me how many "other people's mothers" I'd ever upset ? I've never done it since, to males or females. Life is too short.
Mark.
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I too used to be Mr Angry. I too realised that life is too short, reinforced by the reality that I too am too short.
I'll get my (42" short) coat. That's coat Mr Dave smarty-alec, I've got an edit button and I know how to abuse it Moderator.
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>>That's coat Mr Dave smarty-alec, I've got an edit button and I know how to abuse it Moderator.
Yes Dave, you are a bad person. Naughty, naughty, boy.
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Yes Dave, you are a bad person. Naughty, naughty, boy.
That'll teach me to leave my pc on autopilot when I'm not around. It's starting editing stuff all by itself.
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Same sort of thing happened to a friend of mines daughter who rang the police from her mobile. They told her to drive to the nearby garage and pull up to the paywindow and lock her doors. She duly did this and took the offending drivers number. A few days later a surprised and embarrassed company director was hauled from a meeting and given a warning by the boys in blue.......nice one!
I take it the reasoning is to get him on CCTV?
Clever. I'll remember that one next time I'm pursued, which has happened.
These days I try to moderate my use of the horn i.e. as a warning of my presence when someone has not seen me, and responding in kind is bad news, not that I haven't done that in the past.
Leif
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My sympathies go to your wife. I hope and I'm sure she'll regain her confidence soon
Only this weekend I said to my other half that I need to remain more composed at the wheel in 'situations'.
My problem is that I cannot abide people driving badly around me, putting me and my passengers at danger.
At the weekend, I was in a queue which was starting to move off and another set of lights which feeds into this queue had already gone green. Their way was not clear to proceed so they had to wait. A driver in a people carrier disagreed with this and pulled straight in front of me, looking at me whilst doing so. If I hadn't braked we would have collided. He would not have walked in front of me in a queue at the Post Office so why should he on the road. I sounded my horn (a lot - too much) and pulled into the nearest garage where I hoped he would join me so I could remind him how to drive. That isn't a euphamism for punching him. I genuinely wanted to tell him he was rude, dangerous and a bad driver. It may have involved shouting but there would not have been any trouble, I get angry but not stupid. He didn't stop.
I find it very hard if someone has deliberately say, approached a roundabout in the wrong lane to beat the queue and then cut in front of me, not to do anything about it (and become very angry). I don't think that rudeness should go without acknowledgement.
I often try to remind myself of the Ken Noye M25 murder and other such incidents which have got out of all proportion because drivers want to 'tell the other driver what they think'.
This is no admission of being one of the thugs mentioned above because I am absolutely not. More of a cry for help from someone who gets extremely annoyed by bad, discourteous and plain rude fellow road users.
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Yep the Kenneth Noye incident is worth remembering. Young fit guy probably showing off in front of his girl was definitely going to teach that old geezer in the 4 wheel a lesson...
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reminds me of an incident in clapham, south london a few years ago.
pregnant solicitor driving with her young child when a local gangsta type pulled out in front of her. she blew her horn. he got out of his car and shot her in the knee causing her to go into premature labour.
he later said it was because she 'had dissed him'.
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... there is no excuse for this yobbish behaviour!
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>>It's high time something was done about the level of aggression displayed by some people, but then that would actually mean an effective policing policy, laws that protect the innocent rather than the crims, punishments that befit crimes
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Reminds me of the instance where a two cars ahd stopped at a traffic light, the lights had turned green and the car in front didn't move or took too long to move on so the car behind blew it's horn. Car infront turned out to be a unmarked Police car and the driver of said car that blew it's horn was the recipient of a ticket.
Police were rediculed for issuing a ticket and for making something out of nothing. Now IIRC I did point out that the issuing of the ticket was msot probably correct because blwoing of the horn was inappropriate in that case and the driver of said vehicle msot probably had an agressive and unapologetic demeanour - how would you have felt if it had been your wife/daughter/mother/elderly couple from next door in the first car...how intimiated would they have felt?
So, as afar as I can see, the Public cannot ahve it both ways. When the law was robustly applied on that occasion, the Police were laughed at and people sympathised with the driver. I don't see anyone laughing now.
... and a visible police presence, something that seems to be sadly lacking in our country at the moment.
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Yup, quite agree, but there's very little that can be done without major shift in emphasis by the Govt.
Oh and by the way, take the law into your own hands in a matter like this and guess who ends up with the custodial sentence?
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Most probably (and sadly) quite true. Blame the judicial system for this inequality.
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Im not plain stupid, just a special kind of stoopid.
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I've always considered a short parp a reasonable way to wake someone up if they don't move after a generous amount of time has elapsed at a green light. I've been parped a few times, and put my left hand up in front of the mirror as an apology, and then driven off. A short non-aggressive honk doesn't seem to get people's backs up. I think the highway code says that you can use the horn to alert other drivers to your presence. (Am I alone in finding the various words for the hooter and the noise it makes amusing? Hooter ... there you go, another one ... snigger.)
Leif
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I've always considered a short parp a reasonable way to wake someone up....
My Vectra horn is unable to give a short parp. Even the shortest tap of the steering wheel gives a full on in your face get out of the way parp.
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in reply to ihpj:-
A very, very loose correlation between this situation and the one my wife had, ie a couple of thugs hanging out a window shouting vile obsenities followed by the need to do an emergency stop to avoid collision, followed by the need to drive off quickly to avoid getting done over versus someone blowing a horn! The punishment on this occasion fitted the crime. Thuggish behaviour is not being dealt with in this manner, with the majority of offenders given "community service" - big deal!
I'm afraid I stick with my original comment - something need to be done about full on aggression.
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I'm afraid I stick with my original comment - something need to be done about full on aggression.
Perturbed I was simply drawing the parallel that the chap who got the ticket (in my example) will perhaps think twice before he is that impatient at the traffic lights or junction - since on that occasion he blew his horn, the next time his 'rage' might get the better of him and we end up in the situation in which your wife found herself.
Hopfully, by getting the ticket at that early stage, he will be more calm and polite to other road users. This is where i was trying to draw the parallel.
If people feel they can get away with little things then it is only a matter of time before they progress to something higher up the scale since they feel confident that noa ction will be taken against them.
It is sad to hear of your wife's predicament but I feel that when police take a stance, it is rediculed adn then in the same breath the Police are criticised for 'doing nothing' - The Public cannot have it both ways.
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Im not plain stupid, just a special kind of stoopid.
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You shouldn't use your horn to show displeasure.
But if the driver in front at the lights isn't paying attention and is still fiddling with the stereo well after they've turned green, you give a little parp to let them know the lights have changed.
No impertinence intended, you're helping them - letting them know. How long would they sit there if you didn't?
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It's happened to us all - just tell her to try to forget it. Some of them are so thick that it's a wonder they're allowed to use such a potentially dangerous item such as a car or van. What can you do? Tried sending them all across the world to an isolated continent (Australia), but that backfired!
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"it's a wonder they're allowed to use such a potentially dangerous item"
It does rather argue for a harder test (and not just a multiple choice paper for the theory) but then that assumes that these types have actually bothered to get a licence...
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...and I meant to add, with a psychology component. Tricky, I know, but there must be more than a few out there who are simply unequipped to be road users.
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"it's a wonder they're allowed to use such a potentially dangerous item" It does rather argue for a harder test (and not just a multiple choice paper for the theory) but then that assumes that these types have actually bothered to get a licence...
I doubt that a harder test would be of use. They're on ceremony during the test and revert to type on their own.
Leif
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