I caused chaos on the road this morning

[FrancisQuoynt]

Chucked it down with snow overnight and my car was covered in snow. I cleared the windows and drove off to go to work. I got to a roundabout where you can turn left, go straight on or turn right (as you do on roundabouts, I was going straight on) and there was an avalanche on the windscreen. I'd forgotten to clear the roof. It covered the windscreen and the wipers were jammed and I couldn't see a bloody thing.

I had to stop the car and get out and clear it off the windscreen. I was in the left lane, so anyone going straight on or right could still get by. A man behind me with a moustache and a trilby hat on started honking and shaking his fist because I had delayed him by about, ooh, 90 seconds.

Feeling a right fool. Trilby Man looked like someone out of a 1970s sitcom.

You could easily have said you made a mistake, raised awareness that you could have caused a dangerous accident by what you did and left it at that.

But instead you came on here to mock someones appearance and the fact that you caused a delay?

People have no patience these days……I’d have flipped him the bird

This is why women drivers get a bad rep.

Sorry to break the news to you OP, but it is incumbent on you not only to NEVER make a mistake whilst driving (or else be held accountable for all road deaths everywhere and for all time) but also to ensure that the reputation of the female half of the population is unbesmirched. That's all on you, on your daily commute.

If that were me I'd have been mortified, mimed an apology to the man behind plus anyone behind him for holding them up rather than coming on MN to take the piss out of him in likening him to a character from a sitcom. I'd also feel relieved I hadn't been going faster when the snow dumped on the windscreen causing an accident, also hoping no-one got me on dashcam to report me for breaking the law.

trilby man deserves to be mocked. Your horn is not a big loudspeaker to voice your distaste or anger. He wasn’t annoyed at her because she had snow on her roof which could have been dangerous. He was an impatient twit who couldn’t wait 60 seconds without making everyone aware he was super upset about it.

OP clearly knows she has done wrong. What’s with everyone’s intolerance of other in public nowadays? No empathy from anyone.

Yeah. That's what struck me the most about the post.

We are all negligent then, because we all make mistakes that if the WORST possible thing could happen could cause the injury of someone else. I highly doubt you are totally exempt from having ever changed lanes a bit too quickly, or jumping on a roundabout when maybe you should have waited, etc etc etc

I'm going to say to somebody 'you're supposed to charge the rod or the reason' today and see what they say

You'll know if they're a MNer as they'll check the roof of their car for snow!

FGS.

She forgot. LOCK HER UP! It's not like we habitually get snow.

I hardly think you caused chaos, annoyance and irritation sure but not chaos. Talk about a clickbait title.

Actually I'm a very cautious driver and can honestly say I don't do the things you said.
There are reasons for me being that way which I'd rather not go into
However my wider point stands when you are driving you have to maintain the car to ensure safety.

How can you "forget" to clean the roof are you blind?

More like you couldn't be bothered and just decided to with it hitting all the cars behind.

To be fair it was actually me that made the reference to Count Arthur Strong and I HAD suitably berated OP first

Ha! I've caused more chaos on Mumsnet than on the road!

The OP likened him to a sitcom character in her first post - and then repeated it. I imagine she felt embarrassed and stupid and didn’t like someone pointing out her error so went on the defensive and mocked him for his appearance because she didn’t have anything else to throw at him.

Thank goodness you didn't cause an accident. Stopping on a roundabout like that is very dangerous. Can understand why trilby man was mad. Strange that you seem to find this funny....

This could have been me this morning - cleared the windscreen but not the roof. Didn’t come to any harm but will clear in future!

It was an emergency stop.

You have clearly yet to experience the Windscreen Avalanche.😂

Glad you’re ok, OP. Could have been scary.

Chalk it up to experience aand move on. You'll never forget in future, and the only harm done was a small delay.

Shocked that in this day and age u were that reckless.

We’ve all done something silly/dangerous at some point. It was just your turn today.

Lesson learned without anyone getting hurt.

Oh dear, just when I thought that MN was getting sensible along comes The Man Is Always Wrong squadron! It could have been a 'big deal' had it happened elsewhere. A soft bristled long sweeping brush is ideal for clearing the roof.

I would also like to see police stopping the 'porthole' drivers, those who clear the ice from a small area in front of the driver, in Germany it used to be illegal to drive without at least 75% of the car's glass cleared of ice.

Is it now acceptable for a man to making mocking remarks about women or is the MN hypocrisy at work here?