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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

idiot bastard car drivers

137 replies

JoanByers · 18/01/2013 12:01

Fucking hell.

We've got 1/2cm of snow on the roads, I just went out, within 2 miles of home a car coming out of the leisure centre drive overshoots the junction and nearly smashes into me as I'm driving past - he obviously didn't think to test his brakes on a snow covered, downhill slope (leisure centre drive not gritted).

Half-a-mile up the road went to pick something up off freecycle, but no, the road is blocked, so I get out and see what's going on, an idiot has gone into the back of a 4x4, impaled on the towbar.

It's not that hard. Either stay at home, or don't drive like a cunt.

OP posts:

M0naLisa · 18/01/2013 12:04

I want to like your post lol

Lol @ cunt

HDee · 18/01/2013 12:06

Perhaps you shouldn't be out making non essential journeys when the roads are dangerous?

Eskino · 18/01/2013 12:12

I kind of agree, but i also think it can so easily happen even if you are being careful. It's happened to me and I am an experienced driver in snow, where I've hit a patch of settled snow and my clogged tyres have just slid over it and into the kerb. No amount of "good driving" can help you when your wheels turn into sledges.

Fakebook · 18/01/2013 12:12

This is why I'm not driving today. There's always someone being an idiot on the road and i cant risk it.I have no idea how I'm going to pick up dd from school with 12m DS. We have about 3cm of snow already and it's still falling. I'm thinking how I'm going to push ds's pushchair in the snow.

adeucalione · 18/01/2013 12:15

I'm not sure that anyone who is unfortunate enough to have a car accident in icy conditions can be labelled a cunt can they? It's called 'an accident' for a reason...best laid plans and all that.

Mintyy · 18/01/2013 12:19

"as I'm driving past" ... but you are not an idiot bastard car driver ??

countrykitten · 18/01/2013 12:22

Eskino - this happened to me too. I am a very experienced driver and commute a round trip of 80 miles a day. On this one occasion though I slid on sheet ice and went headfirst in to a Disco. Pretty scary for me and wrote off my car but the Disco had minimal damage! It was an accident I just could not help.

I think OP that you are being unreasonable on this one. Having an accident can be very unnerving and maybe a little sympathy would be in order?

Plus - did you need to do the freecycle thing when the weather is so bad? More traffic on the roads in this weather = more accidents.

As for the 'cunt' comment....lovely.

discorabbit · 18/01/2013 12:24

could be you tomorrow op! agree with countrykitten's post, want to like that

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 18/01/2013 12:25

I can't help but think that picking something up from freecycle is not essential and you probably done need to be it anyway.

I'm not driving today! I hate driving in the snow, I'm not working today so everything else can wait. Less cars mean less accidents.

I have driven in snow, you can't predict how your car will react and it's very scary.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 18/01/2013 12:25

Sorry, end of first line should read you probably shouldn't have been put in it anyway!

Groovee · 18/01/2013 12:26

Was it really essential you went out?

oldraver · 18/01/2013 12:27

No amount of good driving will help you if you start to slide out out of a junction on a slope that is covered in ice/snow.

I had it happen to me many years ago as where the road we lived on joined anotherr road was a very slight downward slope...I approached it slowly, used my gears to slow down, no slamming on of brakes and I still slid out.

Luckily there was no one coming along the road at the time idiot going on a non essential pick up from Freecycle

sixlostmonkeys · 18/01/2013 12:27

he obviously didn't think to test his brakes on a snow covered, downhill slope

HecateWhoopass · 18/01/2013 12:29

I know what you mean and I agree.

It's not a case of clear lovely roads or stay at home! People should adjust their driving to the conditions. If it's wet, if it's dark, if it's icy...

All those things don't require you to remain at home, but they do mean that if you drive as though it's a clear sunny day - you'll have problems!

During last year's snow I was driving into town. It was cold. Road was icy. But it was not stay at home weather. It was drive carefully you arse weather! Went past a car turned over into a field at the side of the road. 2 minutes after I passed it - I get overtaken by a car doing at least 50.

Some people don't have a single brain cell to call their own.

VivaLeBeaver · 18/01/2013 12:30

Maybe he did test his brakes 20 seconds earlier?

Having them working 20 seconds earlier doesn't mean that they'll work 20 seconds later.

BlueberryHill · 18/01/2013 12:32

Oldraver, that has happened to me also, it was very unnerving and I was going so slowly.

CheerMum · 18/01/2013 12:33

Joan, nice to see your halo is intact, despite your interaction with idiot bastard drivers. The advice for today is to only drive if absolutely unavoidable so I'm presuming your trip to pick up free cycle stuff was incredibly urgent? I went out this morning, tested my brakes, and then had a massive sideways slide down a hill - that doesn't mean I was driving like a cunt, it just means something went wrong ( hence the term "accident").
YabsoveryveryU, to the point of being insultingly U!

Fakebook · 18/01/2013 12:34

You should drive in higher gears in the snow. You have more control of the car that way.

Original poster

JoanByers · 18/01/2013 12:36

Yes my journey was essential. DH is a chef at a residential school, and he called to check if he had to come in, and the answer was yes, so I dropped him off, and the freecycler was on the way there.

The road where the car slid out wasn't much of a slope, just probably two feet or something, but he was going too fast for the conditions, in normal conditions you could shoot along the road at 20-30mph and stop on a sixpence, but when there is snow on the ground and no grit, you need to be creeping along at about 5mph.

I saw quite a few other drivers revving too hard, braking too harshly, it's just not necessary.

OP posts:

valiumredhead · 18/01/2013 12:38

Very easy to skid in snow even if you aren't driving like a cunt.

RandallPinkFloyd · 18/01/2013 12:41

I can see both sides of this one.

Yes there are a lot of people who have no idea how to drive in bad weather but anyone driving in snow (however skilled at it you may think you are) when it isn't essential is just making it more dangerous for those who need to be there.

The people who carry on as normal just to prove a point really piss me off.

DolomitesDonkey · 18/01/2013 12:42

YANBU.

Most Brits can't drive for shit in the snow - and I'm weeping at 3cm being considered snow.

Try driving in the alps with a rear-wheel drive in summer tyres.

Drive like a Finn.

Given yesterday's ridiculous driving thread the fact that these mumpties can't drive in what is called "snow" doesn't surprise me.

DSM · 18/01/2013 12:44

Your journey wasn't 'essential'. I hate the spoilt and precious use of the word essential.. Nobody was going to die if you didn't drive. It only mattered in your little microcosm.

Therefore it wasn't essential.

Original poster

JoanByers · 18/01/2013 12:45

I'm sure btw everyone who crashes in the snow and ice (and there will be lots), will say how it was an unavoidable accident, but I saw enough silliness to take that with a pound or two of (grit) salt.

OP posts:

Marlinspike · 18/01/2013 12:46

I have an image of lots of people boogieing on down on the frosty pavements, with a big glitterball suspended from the streetlights, and Countrykitten wading in to the lot of them.

Discorabbit, were you one of the party animals there?

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