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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To hate those drivers that try and make you speed!!

125 replies

lisad123 · 18/04/2007 18:56

I was driving to a meeting today, mostly motor way or national speed limit but do pass though a few little villages at 40 and 30 MPH limits. I always try and do right speed as always remember that ad where little girl is broken against tree saying "hit me at 40 theres an 80% chance I'll die, hit me at 30 and theres a 80% chance I'll live", ooo makes me shiver!

Well some silly cow in a golf was right up my backside, waving her hands, and swearing at me for doing speed limit, making gestures as if to say "what the hell you doing"! Grr does anyone else have this problem or am i weird for not wanting to kill some kids on my way to places??

OP posts:
custy · 19/04/2007 11:00

brake drive brake drive slower sloer slower until they back the fuck off.

ipanemagirl · 19/04/2007 11:02

I don't understand why tailgating isn't fined more severely than speeding.
In my experience the worst offenders particularly on the M11 and m25 are in order of Total Tosserdom are:

1]White/Silver van man
2]Big huge expensive merc/bmw/whatever man
3]Golf drivers men/women
4]boy racers

No offence to anyone who doesn't tailgate but these people will Lane Sweep you when you're going the speed limit!

Why is their journey more important?
Why do they want to increase their chances of dying and killing other people?
Why doesn't the gov use speed cameras to enforce penalties on tailgating which is apparently illegal?

I called the traffic police about this and the were totally crap and just said oh well the m25 is policed by loads of different forces and it's hard to catch people etc etc - so unimpressive!

IcingOnTheCake · 19/04/2007 11:02

coming into bournemouth its a 50 limit and you get people slowing right down to 40mph for the speed cameras even though there are loads of signs saying 50

IcingOnTheCake · 19/04/2007 11:04

sorry i ment to say they slow down to 30mph

Ali5 · 19/04/2007 11:04

Oooh I hate bloody speed cameras. I got 3 points for doing 35mph in a 30 limit. I wouldn't be so mad but it was 15 yards from the 60 sign on a downhill stretch nowhere near any houses/schools etc.
I hold my hands up for speeding but it really gets my goat when prats speed up my road or in really dangerous places and do you EVER see a speed camera???
Easy money for the police grrr.

IcingOnTheCake · 19/04/2007 11:12

i hate people who DON'T signal

BandofMothers · 19/04/2007 11:22

My DH's best friend was nearly killed when someone who had been drinking overtook a car coming the other way on a bend at night on tiny back road.
It hit him head on and totalled his car. Luckily he is a big guy and had a very good car(don't ask me what tho) or he'd be dead. He got away with a bit of whiplash, and some bruising, but could easily have been dead. He still has nightmares tho and thinks now has Traumatic Stress disorder.
He got about a grand compensation
The other guy got a slap on the wrist.

whomovedmychocolate · 19/04/2007 12:02

My DH got prosecuted when someone hit HIM because she was tailgating. He stopped because the motorbike in front of him hit the central reservation, the car behind him smacked into him. The police said they couldn't prove who was in the wrong and so nicked the lot of them!!!!

ipanemagirl · 19/04/2007 12:03

but is anyone ever prosecuted for tailgating? It is supposed to be illegal.

chocolattegirl · 19/04/2007 15:48

The one who drive around with 'baby/princess/prince on board' and then proceed to drive like idiots get my goat.

Presumably the sticker is a magic talisman to protect them from harm .

2cheekymonkeys · 19/04/2007 15:54

If someone does that to me I slow right down to about 10mph in a spot where i know they can't pass me. Don't do it with dc in the back though in case they get so irate that they ram me.

saadia · 19/04/2007 16:05

this is one of the reasons I hate driving. I was on a dual carriageway last week, the car in front had a lot of smoke coming from the exhaust so I was keeping a distance and the idiot in the white van behind me kept flashing at me. Why didn't he just overtake???

Also, question about washing the windscreen, are you saying that the water from the washer goes and hits the car behind - if so I must try that.

marieg76 · 19/04/2007 16:07

Saadia - yup, it covers their windscreen too so they end up slowing down to activate their wipers. If they climb up your backside again, simply do it again - they then get the picture.

chocolattegirl · 19/04/2007 16:08

If you adjust the sprinklers right it can go right over the car behind . Keep your car windows shut!

Be careful that you don't spray pedestrians though as technically you could be sued for that if they got your number plate.

saadia · 19/04/2007 16:10

wow, thanks for that info, very useful .

IcingOnTheCake · 19/04/2007 16:12

I hate driving to. There is so many nutters on the road and everyone always thinks they are in the right. This woman once knocked my ex off his motor bike on a roundabout. He had right of way as he was already on the roundabout, she just dug her heals in and wouldn't admit she was wrong. She just pulled straight out without bothering to stop or even look right. She was a BMW driver.

lisad123 · 19/04/2007 17:15

We were involved in a major crash last year, with my DD in the car.
I had to slam on my brakes quick as car in font had done the same. I stopped in time, but the white van man behind ran straight inot the back of us we then pushed the car in front under a car transporter. It was horrible, that car had a preggy woman, a nan and 2 kids in it! All ok, but me and preggy woman were both backboarded and in resuss
Man in van was not insuranced and had no linsence, he was also charged with careless driving. He must have been driving too close, he hit us doing about 40-50mph.

OP posts:
Fillyjonk · 19/04/2007 17:43

"Oooh I hate bloody speed cameras. I got 3 points for doing 35mph in a 30 limit. I wouldn't be so mad but it was 15 yards from the 60 sign on a downhill stretch nowhere near any houses/schools etc. "

can'r agree, sorry

you speed, you deserve what you get

if you don't want points, don't speed, tis that simple

idlemum · 19/04/2007 17:53

Spot on 'Fillyjonk' - what these people seem to forget is that they are BREAKING THE LAW! There is no excuse for speeding through residential areas. People seem to always be in a tearing hurry which would suggest that they are not leaving enough time for their journeys. I have heard people say things like ''well - it's about 20 miles so it should take me about 20 minutes'' - what planet are they on where they think any journey could average 60 miles per hour?

Ripeberry · 19/04/2007 17:59

At the end of my village there is an office building used by IT types and over Xmas at around lunchtime when i was driving back from a playgroup there would be a total w**ker in his big Volvo estate up my ass all the way along a country lane with blind bends and he would be inches away.
After this happened the second time i found out where this guy worked and as i passed hi office i could see him getting out of his car with a sandwich.
So i pulled over on the side of the road and wound down my window and said . "OY you are a totall speedfreak and if you do that again i'll report you!"
He just looked at me as if to say "What are you talking to me?"
There was just no need to scare me just so he could get back and eat his sandwich.
Another time a guy tailgated me on a 40mph stretch and overtook on the wrong side of the road when joining another road so he went the wrong side of a bollard!
I just flashed him and beeped and made a rude gesture and then he just stopped dead in the middle of the road.
I kept my distance and just beeped non-stop so i would have some witnesses if he did try something nasty.
Luckily we were in the middle of the village in the early afternoon.
Hate people who think that they have the right to put your life at risk just because you inconvenience them.
AB

Fillyjonk · 19/04/2007 18:00

yes this attitude makes me very , tbh

I don't really see cars as a right (except for a few eg those with disabilities). They are a convenience, a privilege

and you know what else fecks me off? People behave in cars in ways they would NEVER behave if they actually had to speak and make eye contact with the person they were tailgating

I mean, you make a small mistake, a hestiation at a roundabout, say, and you get half a dozen white van drivers beeping you. WHY? WHY does it feckin MATTER so much?

southeastastra · 19/04/2007 18:03

because driving is a great leveller. some people think that because they are 'so important' in real life, we should all bow down to them on the road.

RedLorryYellowLorry · 19/04/2007 18:14

I was on the way to the gym with dd 2yo at the time. A guy tried to overtake me and a bus just as the bus moved off and so he tried to cut in front of me but I managed to avoid colliding with him. We both went in the same multi storey and as we came out I confronted him. We were both heading to the gym but when he realised I'd still be bending his ear while he bench pressed he turned on his heel and walked off Arrogant shite.

chocolattegirl · 19/04/2007 18:22

I love comparing road rage stories - no one was ever in the wrong and it was all the other person's fault .

Says she whose current car has been twatted twice (once on an otherwise EMPTY motorway at 1am!!) and her first car written off ..... thanks to speeding MEN!!!!!!!!!!

TheDuchessOfNorksBride · 19/04/2007 18:42

I find emergency braking gets people off your backside.

But as I've always driven big and usually ancient Landrovers (& tractors & horseboxes), I do have the courage of my convictions!

And it's bliss to see their terrified faces in your rear-view mirror.