For several years I have watched the antics of a man who regularly follows and overtakes me on my journey to work. He leaves his headlights on full beam, tailgates until he gets an opportunity to overtake, and then cuts in, all done without indicators.
It's not just me - he works his way up a line of traffic all going at a reasonable speed on a single carriageway A-road. He cuts people up, gets flashed by oncoming drivers, but seems not to notice anyone else.
Well today I passed the scene of an accident that must have happened about 5 minutes after he passed me. He had clearly run into the back of someone. Both cars looked slightly crumpled. He and the other driver were standing, unhurt.
A few minutes on I passed an ambulance, and then a police car, with lights on, presumably going to the scene.
I sincerely hope no one was seriously injured. But I can't help the feeling of I told you so, because he really was a man looking for an accident.
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At least once a week I pass someone (or they more usually, they pass me) like this. The stretch of the M8 through the centre of Glasgow is rife with with drivers who weave in and out of lanes at speed to get to wherever they're going 30 seconds faster. They drive in such a provocative manner that you can't help but wish they have a bump to teach them a lesson. I don't really, of course, because invariably, that bump could cause damage, inconvenience, injury or worse to some innocent third parties, but you know what I mean!
Sadly, I get the feeling in many cases that even an accident wouldn't be enough to stop some people who habitually drive so aggressively - they'll probably just blame other drivers for dawdling or having a "lack of skill"....
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The stretch of the M8 through the centre of Glasgow is rife with with drivers who weave in and out of lanes at speed to get to wherever they're going 30 seconds faster. They drive in such a provocative manner that you can't help but wish they have a bump to teach them a lesson. >>
Know exactly what you mean, XantKing. What lane do you stay in when heading west toward Charing Cross & the Kingston Bridge?
Your comment brought back a memory though. Used to live in Elgin, and was attending a conference in Glasgow. A colleague was staying out on the south side, so I picked him up on the final morning, and came down the M77 onto the M8. As we slipstreamed into the eastbound (almost stationary) M8 traffic at Kinning Park, I commented to him that it was no wonder insurance premiums were higher in the Central Belt - conditions like this must lead to a higher number of nose-tail shunts. Literally within 10 seconds there was a screech of tyres, and the sound of breaking glass as the car in the lane to my right was rear-ended and shunted into the back of the car in front of her.
Collleague commented "I see what you mean!"
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Know exactly what you mean XantKing. What lane do you stay in when heading west toward Charing Cross & the Kingston Bridge?
Yeah, it's true that section doesn't lend itself to simple driving, with it's unique third lane on- and off-ramps!
I presume you mean the section between the M80 and the Royal Infirmary mostly, where two lanes join it then leave again, making a 5-lane section for a quarter of a mile or so? To be honest, I treat the outer two lanes as part of the slip roads for their entire length, and stick to the original three lanes, but folk will persist in using them to jump the queue when traffic is busy on the through lanes. Same again at Charing Cross when the two outer lanes become slip roads for exits on both sides of the carriageway - I don't mind where folk are obviously confused by this arrangement, but most of the culprits are what we might refer to as chancers!
Anyone who hasn't yet experienced Glasgow's unique city-bisecting motorway, I urge you to give it a whirl, as a motoring experience, it's our answer to the finest chaos Paris roundabouts have to offer!
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"you can't help but wish they have a bump to teach them a lesson. I don't really, of course"
Why not? I do. It doesn't happen often enough, but it did happen to me a couple of years ago. A gleaming, silver new-shaped Toyota Avensis driven in much the same way as the OP describes on single lane carriageway, indicator on permanently, weaving across the white line, right up my bumper so desperate to show me what a pfd he was. Eventually passes and continues on harassing everyone in front. Some 15 minutes later the traffic comes to a slow crawl as people are passing the scene of an accident and guess who it was? A completely wrecked (but still gleaming) new-shaped Toyota Avensis. Pieces of it all over both carriageways and facing the wrong way in a ditch.
To say it was satisfying was an understatement, it was all I could do to refrain from getting out, pointing at him and laughing hysterically.
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Why don't you tell the police this?
This bloke clearly deserves all he gets. You say the cars were "slightly crumpled". It's lucky he didn't wipe a whole family out.
Tell the police.
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Why don't you tell the police this? This bloke clearly deserves all he gets. You say the cars were "slightly crumpled". It's lucky he didn't wipe a whole family out. Tell the police.
Absolutely! The man sounds like a mental case imo, certainly should'nt hold a licence. Definately tell the Police.
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Without evidence, police will ignore you.
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I agree. You should tell them that you were overtaken - where and in what circumstances - this morning by that same car. It is valuable additional evidence.
Whether you should mention that you see him every day I don't know.
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As it happens he hadn't overtaken me this morning. I join his route at a junction about 10 miles back, and most mornings I get there first so he overtakes me, but sometimes because of timings he is already ahead of me.
I have sometimes wasted brain power trying to calculate the effect of altering my departure time by a few minutes so as to avoid him - either by getting to my destination ahead of him, or by joining the road after he is safely clear. But it's difficult to achieve in practice, and he usually, but not today, manages to come up from behind at some point on the 30 mile route we share.
It will be interesting to see what he does in future. Even if he has to get a new car his style will make him stand out - or perhaps he will be a reformed character, like Toad?
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"It will be interesting to see what he does in future. Even if he has to get a new car his style will make him stand out - or perhaps he will be a reformed character, like Toad?"
It wasn't his fault. The car in front slammed on the brakes without any warning. He couldn't avoid slamming into them. Stupid idiot, people who slam on their brakes like that should be on the road.....
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"It will be interesting to see what he does in future. Even if he has to get a new car his style will make him stand out - or perhaps he will be a reformed character like Toad?" It wasn't his fault. The car in front slammed on the brakes without any warning. He couldn't avoid slamming into them. Stupid idiot people who slam on their brakes like that should be on the road.....
No, people that can't stop in time if someone slams on the brakes shouldn't be on the road. It's not difficult. Do you follow people so closely that you can't stop, and blame them if they need to stop in a hurry?
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Oops, just re-read the original post by oldnotbold and I have a suspicion my irony filter is broken. Apologies.
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I have two favourite stories of this type:
1 on the M6 years ago there was a 3litre Capri barging his way through the traffic all flashing lights and cutting up manoeuvres, he finally got in front of me and blasted off again not noticing the Traffic Car in lane one we'd all been trying not to upset - cue blues and twos and capri being pulled over...
2 M90 in winter, lots of snow and 4x4 zooming by at about 70, the road goes downhill with a right hand bend before going up again just before Kelty - did the 4x4 get round the bend? no, he found out the hard way that 4x4's are subject to the same laws of friction on snow as the rest of us and went straight on and into the scenery - did I laugh? oh yes!
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if you are the subject of a regular bad driver and you can take someone else with you on your journey film them using a camcorder over several days and then hand that to the police (make sure the footage has a date and time stamp)
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Oldnotbold says: It wasn't his fault. The car in front slammed on the brakes without any warning. He couldn't avoid slamming into them. Stupid idiot, people who slam on their brakes like that should be on the road.....
You could be right but you need to consider whether the sun got in his eyes, he saw a rare butterfly and swerved to avoid it or was thinking about the charity event he was on his way to, knew he was a bit late and didn't want to disappoint the little, sick children.
I still think Cliff Pope should offer his evidence as to this man's previous to the police. Otherwise he'll come up with some silly story and get off far too lightly. The thing about this kind of horror story is that all too often the arrogant oaf who causes the accident walks away unharmed while other people don't.
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I still think Cliff Pope should offer his evidence as to this man's previous to the police.
He could offer himself as a witness to previous behaviour, if he's certain that it's the same person, in case there is action subsequent to the crash.
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Might be worth offering some evidence re previous manner of driving. If not driver may try and wangle out of his liability, maybe blame the other driver. Some third party evidence may help the police take a different angle and secure a conviction for Dangerous Driving rather than Careless Driving.
Edited by Fullchat on 11/04/2008 at 20:01
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It eventually comes to them
surprised an avensis driver was doing that; would have expected it to be a bmw driver :D
anyway, i had some guy in a lexus 220d or 250 act like this on my way to work. He overtoke everyone, every single day. Around the same time there was some guy on a bike that used to do about 100mph driving down the middle of a wide A-Road non stop all the way down it.
I haven't seen either since and i used to see them both everyday.
Possibility they both changed their car/bike. But it could have also come to them.
Its horrible to think of accidents but some people are completely reckless and i can't stand bad driving esp. when it involves other peoples lives esp. kids in the back on their way to school.
Edited by OldSkoOL on 12/04/2008 at 12:11
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