Overtaking funerals

[Owllady]

Please don't do it. You just look like a twatty twat
Overtaking a hearse reversing into the churchyard whilst the family watch on. Biggest nobber in nobsville
I'm glad that's sorted

I am actually shocked that there are people justifying overtaking a hearse / funeral cortege.
I am at the fact IBS has been discussed at some length on this thread.
My fil had the works at his funeral, fella with the stick at the front etc. Was through an estate seen as rough....his friends lined the streets, kids stood still and we also saw council workers on the road stop and bow their heads. Bloody lovely and I'm crying thinking of it now.

I am going to have the 'No Overtaking' sign as a wreath in the back window.

Owl good solution I'm in the process of arranging the funeral of a parent, I hate dawdling and will request the correct hearse driver.

I remember reading somewhere that funeral processions going slowly dates from Roman funerals that were held at night, and if they went too fast the flames of the lights would be blown out. No idea if it's actually true.

In the Forsyte Saga, at Aunt Ann's funeral, the procession started off in the Bayswater Road at a 'foot's pace' but when it turned into less important streets it trotted, going back to a walk in the more fashionable areas. Probably the equivalent of slow driving in the streets and faster on the dual carriageways. That procession was going from near Hyde Park to Highgate Cemetery, so probably would have taken the best part of an hour. I wonder if they were upset by some impatient young man in a curricle overtaking them...

I nearly drove into the side of a car in a funeral procession just before Christmas. Was driving back from nearest large town, with Dual Carriageways got to the last roundabout where it goes down to single, roundabout clear so I pulled out, car from next junction pulls out in front of me, I managed to miss it, as fortunately I was going slow and no one was behind, driver just carried on, and I followed behind.

After a bit we were going really slowly this was on a 40 road when it dawned on me that it was a funeral. Car behind was also part of the funeral but there was no way I would have known this. Only a couple of miles to the junction for the crematorium so not too bad.

Is it really ok for all the cars to pull out without looking? There were quite a few cars between me and the hearse and not all turned to the crem.

The floral no overtaking sign is genius :o
Doe pass bab (one for each window) can be rearranged at the graveside to spell something else

I was at a funeral last year and a lollipop lady cut up the funeral procession. We couldn't quite believe it.

I can't believe that it would even enter someone's head that they would be excused from overtaking / holding up a hearse because they have IBS (and I say that as someone with IBD)

I too have often wondered about dual carriageway etiquette. I've over taken hearses 'respectfully' on dual carriageways but never single. I too remember a elderly man taking his hat off as my nan's hearse passed. That lovely gesture has stayed with me.

Lion I'd say overtaking on the dual carriage way is fine, so long as you overtake the whole procession and aren't ducking in and out between the mourners car and the herse.

Me too Itscliff, I too have IBD but not a chance would I overtake a funeral procession! seriously shocked by those who would, it's so disrespectful!

I accidentally started to overtake a funeral procession (40mph single carriage way that then had a brief section of dual carriageway up a hill). It was quite a long one so I didn't notice the hearse way up ahead until I'd started . I slowed down and got back behind them all but I felt like an absolute knob.

Just wanted to add a mark of respect story from random strangers. Our next door neighbour was a very special man who saved many lives in ww2 before working in the navy. Sadly his brave special man died of cancer and my df and dm took his sister (only family but id know him all my life so felt like my extra grandad, he always had sweets, time for my dsis and i whilst we were growing up) to the sea with myself to spread his ashes in the water as he wanted. We arrived at the sea wall which had loads of fisher man fishing randoming along the wall. His Sister throw the ashes out whilst my dad held onto her frightened she would fall in whilst my dm and i bowed our heads and his sister said a few things. I remember turning around (this makes me cry everytime) and you know what was behind us....every single one of those fisherman were standing behind us (they abandoned their rods) with bowed heads and looking to the ground. That one special act really meant alot to us and his sister.

Awww :( :)

I drove behind a funeral cortege for about three four miles, it was horse drawn - there was a very big tail back as I refused to overtake and put myself in the middle of about six other vehicles in the cortege.

Traffic driving the other direction slowed down, not sure whether out of respect or due to horse drawn vehicle.

I think though I would like www.google.co.uk/search?q=cycle+herse&oq=cycle+herse&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.3937j0j4&client=tablet-android-google&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#q=cycle+cortege+hearse&imgdii=3aoglFx4wwBjRM%3A%3BhkI_z7hmBUEFqM%3A%3BhkI_z7hmBUEFqM%3A&imgrc=hkI_z7hmBUEFqM%3A

That will slow them up

Many years ago my late dh and i were heading for my great aunts funeral and were running late. It was in the small country village where i grew up and where my father still lived. We belted down the road then turned off onto a small country road and ended up behind the hearse. I knew my mum would be wondering where we were so kept egging on dh to overtake. In the end he got very cross and made it clear he wouldnt so we crawled along for half a mile behind the hearse. We eventually got to my Dad's farm and i told dh to turn down the drive which he did. We then went like the Dukes of Hazzard through the farmyard and were level with the hearse which was on the road parallel to the farm drive. Luckily for us there was two roads to the church and we got there before the hearse and rushed up the church path in a similar fashion to Hugh Grant a la Four Weddings! Fast forward fifteen years and GA's sister died and we had her funeral in a town and didnt know where the cemetery was. We were all in a gaggle in the car park near the church when my sister said "There's the vicar, lets follow him!" which we did!!

The thing about taking hats off etc when a cortege passes reminds me of the old joke:

It’s a nice hot summer’s day and two men are playing golf on a course near a main road. As he is about to tee off on the 10th hole one of the men notices a hearse driving slowly along the road. He stops in mid swing and places his club on the ground, turns round, faces the road and removes his hat in a solemn gesture. The second man turns round to him and says. “Come off it, it’s only a hearse.”

“I know but we were married for 20 years…”

Ivykaty well done! We had a horse drawn procession when my baby died, about 150 people followed on foot. My last walk with my little boy it was only about a mile, people tried overtaking until they realised what was going on (all the people in black suits wasn't enough of a clue), lots of people stopped their cars on the opposite side of the road. Only 1 got past us, some silly cow driving a bus, I was furious.
My dad came out with a classic later saying 'well maybe she was having a bad day', my response was "yeah cos I was having the best day ever!", poor dad just tries to be nice to everyone!
She overtook at speed, not only disrespectful but incredibly dangerous with the horses.

I remember when my FIL died; I wasn't travelling in one of the family cars wth DH as not blood relation, so had my dad take me in my parents's car. We were delayed leaving the church as I was on crutches with broken ankle, so we got behind and ended up losing the cortege altogether. My dad was unfamiliar with the area and we took a while to find the cemetary even with directions. Got there pretty much towards the end of the burial. Although if I'm honest it felt like one of those times when I had no place being there anyway.

I don't drive myself, nor do I have IBS or similar, but tbh I can't really get worked up over this overtaking business. I don't expect the world to stop for me when I pass on, and I certainly won't want anybody to be suffer pain, embarrassment or distress just so my funeral cortege won't be "disrespected". I guess it just doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.

The journey from people houses to the church and church yard used to be very short and therefore it was reasonable to drive slowly as you past through your neighbourhood so your neighbour's and community could pay their respects.. Now the funeral procession has to travel miles to church and maybe ten miles or more to the crematorium, I think it unreasonable to go so slowly. I don't think you should slow down while overtaking a hearse on a dual carriageway either as that could cause an accident.

I think it is bad to 'split' the procession but don't get very wound up about overtaking apart from the fact that I think it is dangerous to try to overtake several cars at once so risks an accident or splitting the 'official' procession. In effect that means I don't think there are many occasions it would be safe to overtake. On a long journey, if the procession wants to go slowly, I think they need to pull in every few miles and let people past. I don't think the dead trump the living and concern for the mourners needs to be reasonable.

Am I the only one who doesn't see the issue? It's obviously twatty to actually get in the way of and/ or tailgate the hearse, but I can't see what's wrong with separating the mourners cars from the hearse. It was the funeral of my dearly loved grandma very recently - I'm sure we didn't follow the hearse with no cars between all the way, but I genuinely didn't notice or care. The shitty part of the day was that she was dead, not the traffic! What possible difference could it make?!

That said, my Mum was frothing at my wedding last year that someone drove in between the car we were in and the bridesmaids one, and I was similarly . I suspect I'm being unreasonable, but there is obviously something I'm failing to get here.

freeriver I also stop and bow my head if there's a hearse passing - I live very close to an enormous cemetery, so it happens quite often! I've noticed, too, that most people round here do too.

My grandmother's aunt's funeral was in the town where she was living when she died, and she was taken back to be buried next to her husband the following day. On our way to the church, we saw a van pulled over, bring booked by the police. When we got to the church, we were all hanging around waiting for the coffin to arrive - it turned out that the van we saw being nicked was the hearse!

I would be very careful not to get in between the hearse and the funeral cars, but sometimes, there can be quite a long cortege of other vehicles following - in which case, sometimes you can end up overtaking etc completely by accident as, indeed, people have when I've been in funeral processions. I agree it's rude to cut up, overtake, or otherwise disrupt the main part of the procession, but sometimes, it's hard to know where to draw the line.

On another note - does anyone know if it's true that undertakers carry the cane in front of the hearse because of the days they would have had to beat off body snatchers?

I have to make a journey down a road 4 times a DAY with a Crematorium and a Cemetary on the same stretch. I never overtake corteges. I may see 3 some days but I remember (as recently as last month 😪) how it feels sitting in that car, almost wanting that last journey to last forever so you don't have to say goodbye to your loved one. The tiny things, like people letting you drive over the lights to stay together, doffing caps (I obviously live in the 1940's ) or people just standing still - they all matter to me, they gave me comfort. So some twat in a purple micra, busting to get past won't cut it. Whatever the reason. Can't bear it.

When we were going to my FIL funeral, the hearse was late leaving my MIL's house, so rather than driving slowly it was belting along at 75mph along the dual carriageway with the entire funeral procession of about 20 cars behind him trying to keep up! We were definitely getting some odd looks from other drivers!

As sad as the day was, we were the first car behind the hearse and it was quite funny looking out the back window at the 'snake' of cars pulling in and out of lanes to follow the hearse as it overtook cars on the inside lane.

Idiots. Vicars/ priests have to go ahead or with the hearse so that wouldn't bother me.

feral I totally agree. It's so nice when people acknowledge your awful day.