AIBU to overtake a hearse?

The slow-moving granny and crocodile of children are not the same thing and you know it; those are examples of lawful road use and pedestrians are not time-limited to cross any road regardless of 'green man'. You've used them to illustrate a different and irrelevant point. I've never, ever seen anybody beep or heckle pedestrians on the road. Never.

Physically holding traffic back from a junction is dangerous; traffic behind don't know or can't see what is going on.

That’s nice. I always stand still if a procession goes past in a residential area. Having been in the mourners’ car a couple of times I think it does matter.

Dual carriageway I think it depends - maybe try to avoid it if you know you’re near the crematorium or whatever.

Dual carriageway 100% fine

If there were a backlog on a dual carriageway due to nobody wanting to overtake the hearse on the outer lane, I would think there would be some people in the traffic who would have disrespectful thoughts about the procession.

Death is a normal part of life and hearses an increasingly common sight due to the aging population. We can be respectful and still drive past.

It's absolutely fine on a dual carriageway. Your mum doesn't know what she's talking about. Ignore her.

I wouldn't overtake. Our nearest crematorium is just off a dual carriage way but it's a 40mph suburban one so no-one overtakes the hearses.

It's a dual carriageway, you did nothing wrong OP.

You weren't overtaking. You were in a different lane

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe that's a bit harsh.
It was some horses moving slowly followed by the family of the deceased.
Can people really not just wait a few minutes?
Would you also say "they had no legal right to do that" to someone who has politely held up traffic so a slow moving granny can cross the street (because the green man doesn't give her enough time) - which is something I have done before.
Or getting a crocodile of 30 small children across the road which sometimes takes slightly longer than the green man.

We live between two crematoriums that both have a dual carriageway in the lead up and it’s fine to overtake, just make sure you do not need to pull in between the following cars. Our dual carriageways would grind to a halt if no one overtook a hearse as it can be absolutely miles to reach the crem and one direction is a busy lorry route to an Irish ferry crossing.

I saw a teenager doff his baseball cap at a hearse going past near the local college once, nearly brought a tear to my eye.

I would have overtaken on a dual carriageway. I think this is predominantly an age divide. When our population was smaller then there were fewer processions, so it makes sense that people could find more time to show their respect. I sometimes see two or three hearses in a day in my large town. I would never overtake on a residential road mind you.

I think that your local knowledge comes into play here, not everybody would have that. Drivers new to the area would be following satnav or similar and they wouldn't realise how the layout is perhaps?

😂😂

Imho it's fine on a dual carriageway. Roads would quickly get gridlocked otherwise. But I wouldn't overtake on a single carriageway or in town etc. And don't break up the line of mourners. So I think OP's mum was BU.

My thoughts too.

My driving instructor told me it is good etiquette to not overtake and also switch off music/radio so I naturally follow that lead when I see a procession

But it is more of an etiquette thing than a road rules thing and agree that it’s different on a dual carriageway as it would cause a tailback. someone further back would have no idea of the reason and overtake anyway

Edited to add that this reminded me of the time I was once in a funeral car for a family funeral where the hearse broke down and caused quite a tailback. Few days later I was with friends and one was moaning about the delay to get into a car park a few days ago due to a hearse breaking down, didn’t make him late for anything crucial he was just going into town to do some minor errands.

Was a bit of an awkward silence when I said yes that was my grandpa’s funeral and we were on our way to bury him when that happened

Or resigned. What else could they do? He had no legal right or business doing that but he did. People aren't disrespectful for the sake of it, I believe that, but there were probably rolling eyes en-masse.

It's not the breaking the law/rules of the road for me but that high-handedness wouldn't have impressed.

They're dead, I don't think they care, somehow. And I doubt their mourners even noticed. Too busy being sad about the dead relative.

But not to certain posters who would pass anywhere as they are so important.

I think on a dual carriage way it was fine. I have to say as someone who has had to be in a procession behind a hearse more times than I would have liked, I wouldn’t care if someone overtook. tbh I probably wouldn’t even have noticed as it’s the last thing on your mind.

I wonder if the posters saying it’s disrespectful are drivers and if they even know what a dual carriageway is??

No non a dual carriageway of course it's not a thing. People are being ridiculous. A hearse may be driving for many miles. If every time a hearse was on a dual carriageway everyone slowed right down for the duration of its many miles journey the country would come to a halt.

Overtaking on a single lane road is generally not great but even then it's not unreasonable as long as it's done calmly and not at ridiculous speed

There's a dual carriageway near me that's very short. I wouldn't pass a hearse on it. But further along is the A1. I would pass a hearse on that. So to me it depends on the length of the dualling.

I was once in town heading home when I saw someone overtake a hearse just a few hundred yards heading away from the crematorium to the city bypass. So disrespectful. It actually made me tear up as it had been a year or so since my mum died.