to think overtaking a funeral cortege is beyond discourteous

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

3 times on 2 mile journey the procession was overtaken by impatient twits. I wasn't in the process in, just the first car behind the 2 ca s following the hearse.

Really? Have people got such low levels of respect these days.

[auld]

I think for the sake of argument of how many to overtake - if you can see a hearse and another or two other funeral passenger cars, you at the very most don't overtake the ones that look like they're in a cortege. ie, don't cut in behind the hearse.

I have two experiences of this. The first, the cortege was on the other side of the road coming towards me iyswim, and was being led by the funeral director on foot. It was in my small village and I stopped as a mark of respect (there were no other cars behind me, it is a really quiet road). A silly moo drove up really fast (speeding) started to overtake the cortege, realised what it was and that I was stopped on my side of the road. Funeral director had glanced behind and could see what was happening and shot panicked looks at me, as I was all a flustered trying to locate reverse and get out of her way. Silly disrespectful cow.

The second time was my babys funeral. We came out of my road and headed to the church - a distance of about 100 yards. People were standing on the pavement bowing heads for my baby. Then a pillock in a white van decided to loudly scream past us. Never forgotten the two spectrums - complete strangers standing for my baby and the idiot showing total disregard for everybody.

I totally appreciate that there may be circumstances where the need to overtake is understandable and perhaps necessary (flights, interview, duress of necessity) , but I still believe that I'm not unreasonable to think that it's discourteous.

Exactly tiggy. The person in the coffin isn't going to care one way or the other - but the grieving relatives and friends might.

Sorry to hear about your white van experience, Iamnotacaterpillar. :(

I totally appreciate that there may be circumstances where the need to overtake is understandable and perhaps necessary (such as flights, interview, duress of necessity) , but I still believe that I'm not unreasonable to think that it's discourteous.

it is very disrespectable. i have been behind a funeral cortege for miles before and did not consider overtaking.

"fruitysummer Tue 14-Aug-12 14:58:18
Those of you happy to overtake on single carriageway.

What do you do when there is more than one car to overtake?

Do you seriously overtake the one at the back then cut in front of the next one in the line and so on until you have got past them all? "

not sure what you're asking? It depends how many cars that can be passed given the speed everyone is travelling and how far you can see.

I hope I don't hold up the traffic when I'm on my last journey. I don't want a cortege; they can put me in a cardboard box in the boot!

Pictish I agree and when I die I want it made very clear that the hearse must not go below the speed limit unnecessarily. I had no idea it was seen as so disresepctful to overtake a funeral coursage (although it seems decidedly unsafe to me) and wonder how these rituals begin TBH.

"imagine if it were a child you were burying and someone cut in front of you and their coffin"
I don't see what the age of the deceased has to do with anything. Is there some sort of heirachy of dead people determined by age then?

"And you don't do it out of respect for the dead. You do it out of respect for the living - for those people who are grief stricken and who see the whole world carrying on as if nothing has changed. Just a small human gesture to them is the important thing."
I can see where you're coming from but the death of a loved one only effects those who were close, so it's a fact that life goes on as normal for the rest of the world. And yes, when my beloved Mum died I wouldn't have been offended if other drivers overtook her coffin.

BunBaker - I did pass, yes.

I recently saw a horse drawn hearse - very uncommon round here, as it's not the East End. Now that was going slowly, and had several miles still to go to the crematorium. Fortunately it was on the other side of the road to me.

I would love to see undertakers provide every car in the courtage with a black flag to go on the cars so other drivers know and can try their hardest not to break up the cortage.

The only time I ever overtake in on a duel carriageway and then I do so slowly and with my radio turned off (I always turn it off when I see a funeral)

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't overtake a cortege on a single track road and I wouldn't begrudge going slowly for a fair while. If I needed to get to a hospital/flight/job interview then I think I probably would go past as long as there was room to do it without causing disruption.

However, I'm surprised people wouldn't go past on a dual carriageway. I would feel very odd sitting behind on a multi-lane road. I would just drive past, probably a bit slower than usual.

On the occasions when I've been part of a cortege I wouldn't have noticed people passing normally - I would have been annoyed if someone tooted or cut us up, but normal overtaking wouldn't have registered at all.

I can also see how someone might do it by mistake. There are a lot of long, straight sections of single-lane road near us and you quite often get stuck a few cars back from a tractor or tanker or something else slow, with the cars in front not going past when there is the opportunity. If I am in DP's car it has the acceleration to get safely past a row of slow-moving cars and I have done so on a couple of occasions.

I have been to funeral services in Wakefield and, as we left the church, the undertaker asked who was going to the crematorium; then he handed out the little black flags attached to a magnet which we placed on the roof of the car. It is an excellent idea - presumably everyone in Wakefield knows what the little flags mean when they see them.

It is discourteous (emergency overtaking aside). A white transit van overtook my nan's cortege

On the plus side, a policeman made a youth take his baseball cap off at the bus stop opposite the cathedral. My Nan would have appreciated that, as did we :)

The same thing happened when we had the funeral for my ex MIL. She was in a horse drawn carriage and we were in the family car behind.

It was a single lane into the crematorium and obviously we were right behind the horse and carriage. Car horns were beeping behind us. That I found was totally disrespectful

I was bought up to stand still and bow my head if a hearse passes me by. I taught my DC's the same

I've never really thought about this. I can't remember what happened when I was part of my dad's funeral cortege, To be honest I don't think I gave a second's thought to the drivers around us, and I don't think I would have found it offensive if anyone had passed us, unss they were screeching past squealing tyres and making us feel like we shouldn't be there.

Car horns beeping - definitely discouteous. I hope they felt thoroughly ashamed when they realised it was a funeral.

yanbu

My Dad wants his funereal cortege to do 70. He says it's a total waste to have big Daimlers crawling about. Also he can't be done for speeding

I should add he lives 50 miles from the crematorium so this is possible

I also think it a funeral is turning left then as much as possible traffic should stop to let them all cross

Right even!