Had quite a close shave last night. Coming up to a mini roundabout near my house, nothing coming from opposite carriageway, nothing from left (always careful on this one as a lot of people don't realise is a roundabout). Was just entering it when an Impreza WRX came flying out from the right. Road is covered by hedgerows, so is blind.
Impreza stopped, and I carried on. No horn waving or gesticulating, but guess Impreza man may have been a bit sheepish as he lives in the road, and was coming the wrong way out of a one way road, and was in the middle of the 2 one way signs pointing against his direction of travel.
Has made me think though, if we had come together, who would have been in the wrong.
Incidentally, told my wife about this, as was in her car taking her mum home, and she said has seen him doing this quite a few times.
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Who would be in the wrong? Well, he would, no question.
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Think the answer night be in the fact he was going wrong way on a one way road?
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Thanks for that, was my immediate thought, which is why I kept going and didn't give way. Was only later, started to wonder if could have gone to a 50:50!
But judging by the fact he stopped to give way to me- and there was no remonstration he was probably thought was bang to rights too.
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I believe I am right in saying that just because you are in the right it doesn't mean that you should not do everything possible to avoid an accident.
Or, to put it another way, if there had been a collision and you hadn't stopped when you could have, or if you were going too fast, you might have to shoulder part of the blame.
Perhaps one of the legal experts might like to comment.
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Who would be in the wrong? Well he would no question.
It might not be that simple.
Sure, he has come the wrong way up a one way road to join the roundabout.
But as soon as he joined the roundabout, he was coming from the OP's right - so he surely had the right of way...
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Sure he has come the wrong way up a one way road to join the roundabout. But as soon as he joined the roundabout he was coming from the OP's right - so he surely had the right of way...
Had there been a crash, it would have been his fault. Did he have right of way, did he heck as like, as they're fond of saying Up North.
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Had there been a crash it would have been his fault.
It's his fault no doubt, but I am thinking from an insurance companies point of view.
Had there been an accident on the roundabout, the Subaru would have come from the right - the OP is required to give way to traffic on a roundabout coming from the right...
Going the wrong way up a one way street could be said to be a separate incident. It could be said that you should always look right and give way to traffic coming from the right on a roundabout...
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Hi Pendulum, as have said elsewhere in this thread, the junction is shrouded by high hedgerows/ trees. The only way to see if anyone is driving the wrong way down the road is to pull onto the roundabout. Guess council didnt see the need to provide good visibility as was not a foreseen issue.
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if we had come together who would have been in the wrong.
It didn't happen so what does it matter?
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Well, in a way it does matter to me. The roundabout is just round the corner from my house. My wife uses it several times a day as is part of the school/ nursery/ work route, and as she said this driver seems to do this on a regular basis.
My concern is that last night I was lucky not to have had a collision- but next time we may not be as lucky. As soon as I saw him I did an emergency stop. In a way I was lucky having MiL in the car with me- she is a very nervous passenger so I take things a bit more carefully with her- although on this roundabout am always particularly careful as regularly have cars cut across me from the left.
Hope this helps- should have made it clearer am also wondering if should start looking to the right now in case this idiot reappears- as he was not exactly hanging around when he came out the turning- and due to the hedgerows there was no way of knowing he was there (streetlights hid his lights).
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either have a quiet word with him yourself or ask the local police to have a word with him. When we had zebra crossings put in locally loads of people would ignore them, more than once I had near misses when taking the kids to school. After the third or so encounter with the same car I noted his reg and reported him and he got a visit that evening. No action was taken but he now knows not to do it anymore.
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Thanks normd2, had crossed my mind. Luckily- close neighbours are all very reasonable people, but in this day and age you never know what sort of reaction would get to a polite and friendly word!
If have a walk about and see if can see them.
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I suppose you're not the only one to have a near miss, so he won't necessarily put two and two together.
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Pay for a solicitor to send a recorded letter to the drivers address stating that they are acting for a client who is concerned about dangerous driving in the road and threat to life etc, include any future incidents will be reported to Police and insurance company. Emphasise that if CPS decide not to prosecute, civil action may follow.
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It was a miss. I would leave it alone, trouble with a person living near to you ( never know their mental state) could make this incident pale into insignificance.
Regards
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Who knows! Unless we have an insurance person who assesses these situations we will never know for sure.
Anyway insurance companies these days tend to go 50:50 to reduce legal costs associated with contesting a claim.
Whether or not you were completely in the right, the truth is that you have to drive taking into account possible mistakes of others, and assume others are idiots. I know this having been in a very dangerous situation some months back due to someone else's dangerous driving. Although I was (I think) in the right, that would not have helped had I (or someone else) been killed.
So I would recommend always looking right at a roundabout, in case there is a moron about.
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BTW what would have happened had you not looked right knowing that the right hand road was one way, but the council had changed the road to two way? Yet another reason to always check. (We all make assumptions based on previous experience, especially on local roads.)
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That is a very good point Leif, and one will keep in mind from now on.
Have to admit, although genuinely believe driving standards in the town are atrocious these days, had not thought is something that could happen before.
Sadly, most of concentration has been looking out for cars coming from my left and not stopping.
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Similar thing happened to me near my house. Oncoming van didn't even slow for the mini island and almost hit me, I was already on the roundabout and signalling to turn right. Like PW some people do not seem to realise it is an island.
Do what I did. Report it to the local council. My council are to re-apply the road markings and improve the signage. Trouble is I reported it last November and still no action. I wonder what they would do to me if I took as long to pay my council tax?
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Already know Council will do nothing- as view lousy markings round us as traffic calming (although in the real world causes more problems and road rage).
Have contacted them previously about improved signage and double yellows, but they're not interested.
Instead T junctions are all bricked, and the end of the joining road denoted by darker coloured bricks. Busy roads are turned to single carriageway by cars parked on the side, often causing a slalom effect, and as the corners are blind (and reduced to single carriageway) creates bottle necks and jams.
In the instance above, guess all this did save me as drive very cautiously round the estate as just don't know who or what is going to pull out on you next.
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