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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it wouldn't kill them to pull over once in a while?

310 replies

Featherbag · 03/05/2014 15:08

We're driving through County Durham, it's a beautiful day and were heading to a lovely village for afternoon tea and ice cream for the toddler. We're on a National Speed Limit road, single lane, stuck behind a horse box doing 23mph. There are 8 cars in front of us also stuck behind it, and I can't see the back of the queue. It's been like this for almost half an hour - AIBU to think it would be polite of the horse box driver to pull the fuck over every now and then to let the queue pass?!

OP posts:
Original poster
Featherbag · 06/05/2014 08:36

Thank you to those with half an ounce of common sense who have refrained from being nobs and taken the thread in the spirit in which it was intended! I think some posters need to read their posts back and ask themselves just why they feel the need to be so aggressive to a total stranger on the internet who hasn't actually said anything wrong.

OP posts:
Montegomongoose · 06/05/2014 08:51

he's practically left teeth marks in the steering wheel being forced to go so slowly!

Thank fuck.

I'd rather be stuck behind a horse box than be endangered by someone driving too fast on winding country roads.

SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 09:26

No-one needs to slow down and look for a layby - esp. when they're already going so slowly that they are causing massive tailbacks. Large laybys are usually signposted, and if you're paying attention to the road you will see those signs.

You have to consider safety when driving like this - not just your safety, but the safety of others. If you choose not to pull in (and that might mean you have to wait for a while before you can pull out again, I acknowledge that) and continue to drive for many miles in this way, despite there being opportunities to pull over, then you are increasing the risk of frustration building in the long line behind you, and for someone to decide to take a risk - which can impact adversely on both you as the 'hold up' driver and the many other drivers in the line who are also frustrated but who are driving safely.

Those of us who regularly drive rural roads (and who have always done so) are used to driving behind large slow moving vehicles, and you adjust your driving accordingly - but when the drivers of those vehicles (and smaller ones) refuse to show consideration for others by pulling over it's a metaphorical V-flick to other drivers on the road.

Booboostoo · 06/05/2014 09:44

Feather can you please tell us the name of the road to sort out the lay-by issue? I am rather interested in this windy country road that also includes long stretches with well placed lay-bys.

SirChenjin live animal transporters and liquid load transporters do need to slow down to make any change in direction, including pulling over in a lay by. Out of interest have you tried driving a truck with large live animals or a liquid load? It's a driving experience like no other.

TobyLerone · 06/05/2014 09:49

booboo, I think you probably need to step back and stop hounding the OP for information she clearly doesn't want to give. You seem very overly invested.

dorathedestroyer · 06/05/2014 09:53

Blimey, the PO on this thread...

featherbag I live in a very rural area and while the tractors with huge trailers of potatoes/apples/hay regularly pull over to let cars past, more often than not, long streams of traffic turn out to be held up not by the horsebox/oil tanker/combine at the front, but by a Nissan Micra doing a defiant 31mph on a NSL stretch. I've seen tractors overtaking some of them...

Lj8893 · 06/05/2014 09:54

I live in rural Dorset, and can easily think of several roads like the op has described. It's not that interesting Hmm

SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 10:00

Booboo - if you really plan on sitting with a map of the road and working out the laybys then you really, really need to think about getting a hobby. Seriously, you're starting to sound a bit crazed.

If we're going down the conspriacy road - perhaps the OP wasn't really even in County Durham. Perhaps it wasn't ice-creams she was going for. Perhaps she was driving in Kent, going to meet her crack dealer, and her husband and DCs weren't even in the car Shock. Or perhaps we can just take it that she was telling the truth, having nothing to gain by lying about the layout of the road.

And no - like the majority of the population I haven't driven a truck with large live animals or a liquid load. Did you actually read my post - slowly and carefully? If you didn't, please do. If you did, then your questions was pointless.

Sparklingbrook · 06/05/2014 10:03

at wanting to know which road, which car etc. Because obviously if that information was given no more would be said would it?

Callani · 06/05/2014 10:25

Slow moving vehicles should pull over - it's part of the highway code. Unfortunately if the council / government / whoever doesn't provide them with enough places to pull over, or good enough quality places to pull over safely, then it's not their fault they're stuck with trundling along.

SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 10:29

No, it's not their fault - but the OP has said that there were ample opportunities to pull over.

Some drivers just get a kick out of controlling the cars behind them - just as other drivers get a kick out of tailgating, or hogging the middle lane, or not letting other drivers out into their line of traffic or whatever.

Booboostoo · 06/05/2014 10:45

TobyLerone why am I overly invested? I have been driving trucks for a while now and in my experience these rural roads with lovely lay bys don't really exist, so it's a simple question with a simple answer that would settle this really easily. If the road did have these lay bys the horsebox driver was extremely rude and inconsiderate, if the road did not have these lay bys the OP's DH was unreasonable. It's AIBU after, asking for details to day whether OP is BU or not is hardly unheard of!

SirChenjin it's none of your business how I plan to spend my time and calling me crazed for wanting to look at a map is fairly rude and unpleasant. You said no one needs to slow down to look for a lay by, I suggested that you do when driving large animals or liquid loads - what is your problem with that if you don't actually have any experience of these situations? There is no conspiracy; I just think the OP may be telling retrospective porkies to justify her DH's huff behind the wheel which was not supported by all the replies. Again easily sorted if she tells us which road it was (and I don't care why she was on it, or where she lives, just whether it has lay bys).

SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 11:27

Yeah, you're still sounding a bit crazed.

Taking a thread so seriously that you actually want the OP to give you the road number so that you can pull up Google Maps, plot her route and then decide whether or not a horse box (obviously you don't know the size of the horse box, so presumably you'd be working out a few permutations...) could safely pull in/out is not normal behaviour and suggests, as Toby says that you're probably a lot leetle bit over-invested in something which is really, really not worth that much of your time.

Sparklingbrook · 06/05/2014 11:29

If we knew the road we could search for nearby stables and then we could ring them and ask how big their horsebox was.

Booboostoo · 06/05/2014 11:55

Yeah SirChenjin you're still sounding a lot rude. Considering it's not even your thread it's clearly me who is over-invested!

SisterMerror · 06/05/2014 12:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CabinetSauvinyoni · 06/05/2014 13:26

I'm going to jump in and say OP YADNBU.

Now I'm jumping straight back out before I read any more ridiculous comments that suggest a man wanting to drive faster than 23mph on suitable stretches of a NSL road is a dangerous or inconsiderate driver, or that because horse boxes have a right to be on the road they are automatically entitled to drive like idiots as slowly as that without letting the traffic pass by in the appropriate places.

Total madness!

frostyfingers · 06/05/2014 13:31

Some people turn into prats behind the wheel whatever vehicle they are driving. Where possible yes slow vehicles should allow you to pass, but what you think is possible may be completely unrealistic for the vehicle ahead of you.

I have driven trailers for over 20 years and now have a horsebox which has as its happy speed at about 40mph, however on most of the roads round here 30-35 is more usual. I do pull in if I can, but travelling a horse isn't just like driving a large vehicle and you can't nip in and out of laybys. If you know the road and where they are then it's easy, but if you don't and they just appear, even at 30mph to brake suddenly could cause a huge upset in the back. I was out the other week and a Royal Mail van zoomed up behind me, flashed his lights and leant on the horn - even if I was driving a car he wouldn't have been able to get past but he stuck so close to my backside that when I did pull over into a large gateway he nearly crashed into me.....

Obviously it's frustrating, and it does sound as if the driver could have tried a bit harder, but if you don't assume that everyone driving a horsebox is a selfish git, and in turn I'll assume that not every car driver is a selfish git!

TobyLerone · 06/05/2014 13:44

There's nothing to settle, booboo. The OP can moan about whatever she wants. She can exaggerate parts of the story or even outright lie iv she wants, and she is under absolutely no obligation to provide you or anyone with proof yo back up her story.

You are sounding increasingly crackers.

TobyLerone · 06/05/2014 13:46

*If
*to

Stupid bloody phone.

SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 15:05

Boo - it's not me demanding the OP provides the name of the road so that I can go away and measure up for horse box manoeuvrability - I'm just posting on the thread like everyone else. Seriously - you're sounding deranged. Do you want the measurements and weight of the horse box too, so you can get your pull in/move out calculations to the nearest 0.000001?

Original poster
Featherbag · 06/05/2014 15:18

Booboo you appear to have mistakenly assumed that I give a shit whether or not you believe me. For the record, I have no reason to lie but neither am I going to bother providing you with more details.

This thread has once again reminded me just how weird some people are!

OP posts:
SirChenjin · 06/05/2014 15:28

Well, actually Feather - maybe there are questions you should be called upon to answer.

Was it really County Durham you were driving in?
Are you sure your DH and DCs were in the car with you?
Was it ice cream and afternoon tea you were going for - or crack?
Was it raining, or was it sunny? (I'll be checking the weather reports for County Durham, mind)
How many cars really were behind and in front of you? (I'll be emailing NASA for stills from their satellite images, so tell the truth). What colours were the cars? Make and models?
How big was the horse box?
How many horses were in it? What colour were they, and how many hands?
What did you have for dinner when you got home?

Only once we have the answers to all of the above will be able to move on and get meaningful lives.

Wink
TobyLerone · 06/05/2014 15:34

Also, what colour pants was your DH wearing. I'll know if you're lying.

eurochick · 06/05/2014 15:38

What odd reactions from some on this thread.

If there were places to pull over and let the traffic pass, the driver should have done so. Not to do so breaches the guidance in the Highway Code (as someone posted on the first page). I'm not sure why so many people are defending the horse lorry driver's bad driving.

I've generally found horse box and tractor drivers very willing to pull over when they realise there is a line of cars behind them.