Shaking- road rage incident

[123bumblebee]

Shaking currently. Just driving down a dual carriageway, 2 of the same huge artic Lorrie’s (without trailer attached) racing each other. One in outside lane beeping other cars to get out of its way so it could overtake its mate. Then pulled back into inside lane. My crime was to wave my hand (not swearing or anything) as my husband overtook (within speed limit, he’s a sensible driver) as they had just tried to overtake again into our car as we were passing.

Stopped in lane 2 of 3 at red light- lane 3 is a lane for a right turn. The lorry driver came around at the red light, into the right hand lane, in front of us, across and came out swearing at us. My husband told him we had our 2 year old in the car and lorry driver told us we were “fucking lucky we have her in the car or….” I can’t remember what threat was said, I was trying to get pics and so shocked.

I want to report to police, husband thinks they will just back each other up and while I have a pic of the lorry across us at a red light and also a live pic that has sound of him swearing at us but husband think it won’t be enough proof. I’m also worried if we did they would come after us and find out our address, they are clearly unhinged violent people.

@tuvamoodyson no, I waved as in “you just almost killed us!”

We were behind the one who was driving like an idiot to overtake his mate. As he beeped other cars out of his way. After he pulled back in we overtook, under the speed limit

The bit that doesn't make sense, is you claiming the driver of the cab that was overtaking his mate was "driving like an idiot", and yet, when he pulled in, you managed to overtake him, whilst still being "under the speed limit".

I mean, obviously he was completely over the top to block the road, get out, and swear at you - I'm not condoning that in any way, but I can't understand how you perceive that someone driving slower than you were is perceived as 'driving like an idiot'.

@123bumblebee I think sometimes lorry/ HGV drivers get bored on long drives.

I've so often experienced this on motorway driving - they like to play games and stop you from overtaking / cut you up / claim the road as THEIR'S because they are bored or because they're in a far bigger vehicle so can take the risk are bad drivers.

Report the reg so at least there's a record of complaints

If you know the company, ring head office and ask to speak to the fleet manager. Large companies with a reputation to keep come down like a ton of bricks on drivers like this.

A lot of lorrys now have a camera in the cab, which may help.

And do tell the police. In my experience they do take things like this seriously - especially if the driver has 'prievious'.

Source: I rode a bike for 3 decades in London, and had many, many near misses from lorry drivers who were driving aggressively, too fast or on their phones - or even reading the fucking paper.

@NewName24 so driving erratically, holding hand on the horn to force the cars in front of them to pull over is not driving like an idiot? We were able to overtake as driving on a dual carriageway overtaking a speed limited vehicle.

@setmestraightplease this is what they were doing. I’m sad people seem to be implying I am missing a bit of the story (I’m not), or playing games with them or somehow deserved to be blocked in and threatened with a 2 year old in the car.

OP there are people posting on here that are able to tell you what they would have done.
They are in the fortunate position of being sat at home not being confronted by an irate man.
Easy to say what we would have done.

How do you"wave you nearly killed us"??

Just asking

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator I’m not going to answer this if you cannot imagine what this might look like. You are just baiting me. Even if I swore at this person (which I didn’t) or wrote them a sign saying “you are driving like an idiot!” And hung it out of the window (which, hopefully you might realise is also not true) , would that mean it was ok for them to swerve around us at a red light, block us with a huge truck, swear and threaten us?

I'd report to the police, if he has form for this behaviour then another complaint may mean he's no longer able to behave like this both driving and abusing

It’s not that hard to imagine.

Are you actually physically shaking?

That pic backs your story up and he’s crossed a solid line. I agree the police are unlikely to do anything prosecution wise based on that but they might speak to him or they might have had other reports. Were you in the vicinity of TruckFest…..there seems to be a lot of revved up lorry drivers in the vicinity of that the last few days.

She gave him the Wanker signal, obviously.

Even if she did give him the wanker signal, he was being a wanker. And nothing justified what he's done.

The bit that doesn't make sense, is you claiming the driver of the cab that was overtaking his mate was "driving like an idiot", and yet, when he pulled in, you managed to overtake him, whilst still being "under the speed limit"

Not sure what you don’t understand about that. A two lane dual carriageway with a 70mph limit for cars and a truck that’s limited somewhere 52-56mph. Not rocket surgery is it?

Yeah I don't understand why people are getting so confused by this.

I'm imagining a sort of 'what are you playing at' hand gesture, like a bit of a shocked raised hand wave/gesture.

Tbh, I wouldn’t even have made eye contact with someone who was driving like this! It tells you exactly the type of person he is!

I had similar the other day. Was behind a lorry in the inside lane of the dual carriageway we were doing 60mph, maybe just under. Another lorry in the outside lane was trying to get past. Was blaring his horn, think he wanted me to slow down so he could get in front of me and pull in. But there was nothing behind me so I stayed doing 60mph. He stayed in the outside lane blaring his horn No idea why he didn’t drop in behind me 🤷‍♀️. Thankfully nothing more than that but even that was a bit unsettling.

@123bumblebee this is what they were doing. I’m sad people seem to be implying I am missing a bit of the story (I’m not), or playing games with them or somehow deserved to be blocked in and threatened with a 2 year old in the car.

Having done the motorway journey from Manchester to Newcastle and back again on many occasions, I totally understand where you're coming from - there are some idiot HGV drivers out there!

You'll get used to it and learn how to avoid it with practice 🙄🙄 (I know that's not the point tho)

In the meantime, report the bad driving because it's the only way to do anything about it

REPORT. Someone I know is currently in hospital and her child in a coma from a shit lorry driver 😞 they should know better and be held to account!

Im not surprised he was pissed off TBH, you’re pottering along well below the speed limit and below his limiter so he pulls out to overtake you, once he’s alongside, you increase speed to match his so he can no longer complete his overtake and effectively hang him out to dry. The sensible thing to have done would have been to just lift off for a few seconds, let him complete his overtake and be off on his way.

@Iudncuewbccgrcb this gesture! I don’t know why people are saying I did a wanker gesture? I didn’t. Even if I did (which, again, I didn’t) does that make it ok?

@Shade17 no, we were behind him as he overtook. He moved into the inside lane, and we overtook (he was holding us up as we aren’t a speed limited vehicle, but we don’t care about that! He tried to pull into us to overtake the next car)

you have place us in the wrong lanes!

I was replying to a PP, I completely understand what happened in your case.

It was indeed a sincere question ie, how do you "wave, you nearly killed us."

If you wont answer that, I hope another MN's here will enlighten me.