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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To hope they shit themselves?

81 replies

MaxPepsi · 19/06/2015 14:28

I have just very nearly had a car crash this afternoon which would probably have resulted in serious damage to the other driver not just their car.

Thankfully, my reactions are bloody good and my car is practically brand new so the brakes are all in fine working order.

There I am, happily driving along the road, one car several lengths in front and one a bit further behind me. The part of the road I am on is NSL and I'm doing about 45mph.

To my left is a private driveway, with plenty of room to position your car so that you can both see and turn either way. (I know what it's like, I've come out of it myself). I can see the car waiting to come out, they watch the first car go past, then for some completely inexplicable dangerous fucking reason they pull out on me really fucking slowly.

I've had no choice but to do an emergency stop, only narrowly missing their tiny little car with my much larger and more robust estate car, whilst I sit in horror watching the car behind me getting closer and closer. Thankfully, they were far enough back to be able to stop also.

However, whilst I am sat there thinking fuck fuck fuck, the bastard who's caused all this just merrily carries on like nothing has happened.

This is the bit that has really annoyed me, I totally accept that people have lapses in judgement every now and then. Apparently it is surprisingly common from what my DH tells me (he's a fireman) and from accidents friends have had But surely when you have one of these lapses you fucking acknowledge it, a hand gesture to say sorry, a mouthing of the word sorry you don't just drive away.

I very rarely wish ill feeling upon other people, but AIBU to really hope they shit themselves literally when they saw my huge, not easy to miss car baring down on them at speed?

OP posts:

DuchessofNorks · 19/06/2015 19:21

I have never understood how you are allowed to motorway drive as soon as you have passed your test.

Our nearest motorway is around a 2.5-3 hour drive away in good traffic. So you would drive 3 hours to get there, have around half an hour lesson and drive 3 hours back, then what about the test?

That's an entire day gone for one session alone and one of the reasons it isn't compulsory.

GERTI · 19/06/2015 19:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DisappointedOne · 19/06/2015 19:54

They are NO DIFFERENT in terms of the way you should drive on them.

They are different in terms of the amount of traffic using them and the impact a serious incident can have.

ragged · 19/06/2015 20:02

If I do something stupid on the road I would probably wave an apology but it feels totally inadequate. It's meant as sorry but I wonder if the wave is taken as a petition for forgiveness which really would make it quite annoying, like I was trivialising the stupid action.

Feels to me like wave or no wave you can't really win, still messed up.

MrsGrimes · 19/06/2015 20:10

My driving test is next month and this thread has left my heart in my throat!

SuffolkNWhat · 19/06/2015 20:18

The worst crash I was involved in was at a particularly nasty roundabout near me which (before the A11 widening) was always snarled up on a Friday evening because of the Center Parcs traffic.

I had joined the roundabout (it's pretty big, you can't see your exit when you join) and found that a lorry was blocking my exit, knowing the roundabout well I was not going fast. I slowly stopped and then BANG! a huge American car had driven full pelt into the side of me, the side DD1 was sitting in.

I just thank my lucky stars that they didn't join the roundabout at full speed but at about 20 mph but still they could see I was in their way and blocked in. Apparently they don't understand how they work because they are American, I'm pretty sure even in America you don't drive into the side of a car if it's fucking blocked by a lorry.

My mama tiger mode left them a bit shamed faced once I had finished and luckily their insurers paid up very very quickly.

BlackbirdOnTheWire · 19/06/2015 20:33

I used to drive to school on the M25. As soon as I passed my test, my parents booked me on an advanced driving course run by the local police, which included a couple of hours on the M25 and M1 as well as a session at the police skid centre and on a hazard simulator at different speeds. It was fantastic, incredibly useful. Courses like that should be compulsory - I frequently think of their advice whilst driving, and that's over 20 years on when it's mostly habit. It definitely saved my life when I went into a skid on the M1 after a lorry fuel spill.

Best of all, it was free.

Dionysuss · 19/06/2015 21:56

I was going straight over a roundabout on a duel carriageway. A car pulled straight out in front of me. It was a huge roundabout with a small forest in the middle, so I hadn't just pulled out or appeared from nowhere. I slammed on my breaks, as did the other driver and we both came to a stop. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders at me, then drove off. Just as a lorry drove into the back of me.

I don't think the stupid shit even realised he caused an accident.

LindyHemming · 19/06/2015 22:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 19/06/2015 22:57

There seems to be one set of rules for "senior drivers" and one set for everybody else.
The woman who drove into the back of my barge last year has no idea about safe parking.
Twice this week I have seen her car, parked directly opposite a T-junction, blocking the pavement, a drive and a lane of the road.

I agree with the option of motorway lessons. I think there is (or was?) a thing called "pass plus".
That offered a few lessons, including motorways and night driving.

BabyMurloc · 19/06/2015 23:21

My mum always said "when you drive always assume other drivers are stupid" This advice is great as it does prepare you for stupidity.

MayPolist · 19/06/2015 23:32

driver parked up on the hard shoulder suddenly pulled out, in first gear onto the carriageway.......the carriageway I was doing at least 70 on hmm I couldn't pull over as cars were overtaking me. What possessed her I couldn't imagine!

I knew I was going to crash and it'd be a baddun, so braked as hard as I could to try and minimise injury. All kinds of thoughts flashed through my head, but I had literally nowhere to go.*

Couldn't you have swerved onto the hard shoulder?

MayPolist · 19/06/2015 23:33

Had she not done so of course

wol1968 · 19/06/2015 23:43

No wonder some people are scared of motorway driving with all the horror stories on here.

I was lucky enough at 18 to live in one of the areas that has an A road that is essentially a motorway in all but name, so my driving instructor took me out on it late on in my learning. I'm still a little bit wary of longer journeys though, and don't like doing long stretches of motorway driving.

nocoolnamesleft · 19/06/2015 23:50

Think it might be the same fuckwit that decided to right turn in front of me, with no time and not signalling, this afternoon. Thank god for nice new brakes.

alteredimages · 19/06/2015 23:56

SuffolkNWhat that driver does sound stupid but in the state where I lived the right of way on a roundabout was with the car entering the roundabout and not the car already on the roundabout, so if you hadn't been stationary the driver may have been expecting you to cede the right of way.

Stupidest rule ever though.

DisappointedOne · 20/06/2015 00:11

Think my 3rd driving lesson was on a major A road dual carriageway. I passed after 12 lessons and drove from Cardiff to Glasgow 2 weeks later.

Rattitude · 20/06/2015 10:22

So... Only Womble driving a silver car then? I could do with more data to prove / disprove my theory.

DisappointedOne · 20/06/2015 10:33

Used to have a silver car. Never had any problems. Now have a navy blue 4x4 which 2 drivers (one of whom was in a silver car) have managed to hit when perfectly parked and unattended!

limitedperiodonly · 20/06/2015 13:07

There's another one which is crap; it's incredibly narrow, has to be shared with pedestrians - who (rightfully) have right of way, so if you meet one you have to dismount to pass each other.

That's interesting GERTI. Is that just that cycle path, or all of them?

There's one opposite Waterloo Station that I cross on foot a lot. Lots of people do when they're streaming to and from work.

It runs uphill, or maybe two-way, whereas the road traffic is strictly downhill only. I always look both ways because I've learned but lots of people don't, probably because they're fooled by the stream of one-way motor traffic.

The abuse from some cyclists is shocking. I find it quite funny to see someone who was obviously getting ready to scream at me have to turn it into a curt 'thanks' when he's noticed me look and stop. How disappointing for him .

It's a really stupid place to put a cycle path because it brings cyclists and pedestrians into conflict all the time.

likeaboss · 20/06/2015 13:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GERTI · 21/06/2015 08:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 21/06/2015 09:07

Not long after DH passed his test (aged 17) his car was written off in an accident. At first glance it seemed like DH was at fault, he was sat in the back of a police car and they didn't seem to believe what DH was saying happened, the damage was that DH had driven into the other driver from behind. It wasn't until the other driver (older gentleman) happened to mention the traffic light was green to the other police man.

There was no traffic light from his minor road into the major road that DH was driving along. There was however a green man for the pedestrian crossing on the other side of the road. The older gentleman had (as DH had explained to the Police) pulled straight out in front of him slowly from the junction, DH had no where to go but straight into the back of him. The Police assumed DH was speeding and therefore couldn't stop in time.

The other driver had clearly not has his sight tested and had been pulling out of that junction for ages thinking he had a green light. Totally worrying and also worrying how the Police initially thought DH was at fault.

Tinklewinkle · 21/06/2015 09:08

Someone pulled out on my a couple of weeks ago. I was doing nearly 60 as it was a long straight, clear, wide road. Nothing in front of me and nothing behind.

The side turning he pulled out of was also wide with a clear view. He had stopped, was stationary for ages, then pulled out on me as I approached, then proceeded to toddle up the road at 30mph for 200 yards, before turning off again. It was cloudy so wasn't blinded by the sun or anything like that so fuck knows what he was doing. I still don't know how I didn't hit him.

As for motorway driving before passing tests. We don't have a motorway here. We have about 1/2 a mile of dual carriageway and that's it. It's quite scary actually. We don't have any madly busy roads, or massive roundabouts or anything like that. You leave here and bang, straight into a busy city, with no experience beyond a small dual carriage way it's quite daunting

Original poster

MaxPepsi · 21/06/2015 11:33

My car is black. Completely black.

My previous car was silver, people pulled out in front of me in that put I presumed it was because 1. I'm a women driving a typical womans car and 2. It was fairly old so they thought it couldn't go that fast 3. I drove more in rush hour traffic, now I go against the flow of rush hour.

OP posts:

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