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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To report driver?

68 replies

MiffedMummy · 11/01/2018 23:47

I was driving home today with DD in the car, I had a goods truck for a well known department store right up my arse to the point if I had stopped suddenly then I feared they'd have gone into the back of me and crushed the car (there was a truck in front of me). They then started flashing me, I assume wanting me to get out of the way. We were in the middle lane, I couldn't get into the left as that takes you to a slip road off and he could have overtaken me in the right hand lane.

I am able to get into the left lane after the next junction and I then see them get quite close to a truck in front.

WIBU to report him to his employer?

OP posts:

SandyDenny · 12/01/2018 09:53

Wasn't the 101 original comment an MN in joke?

It's unlikely a driver would be sacked for one instance of dangerous tailgating, they might if it was one of a string of similar things and tbh that would be a good thing surely if it makes the roads safer

Iwantamarshmallow · 12/01/2018 09:53

I might have got this wrong as I don't drive but I thought you wernt supposed to drive in the middle lane... Could that have been why he was flashing you?

maxthemartian · 12/01/2018 10:04

How are so many people missing the fact that the OP was in the correct lane for where she was going? In her case being in the left hand lane would have meant exiting the motorway so no she wasn't being a middle lane hogger.

Original poster

MiffedMummy · 12/01/2018 10:10

I was on an A road, driving 39 in a 40. That section is a 40 as there is a high number of accidents just after a flyover caused by people tailgating. If they can't overtake, they need to wait, no?

@saladdays66 it is exactly the same as SoupDragon says and the picture posted.

I got into the left hand lane as soo as there was opportunity for the left hand land and there were once again 3 lanes and that's when the driver carried on in the middle and I got the registration number.

I see this happening way too often on the motorway and it is dangerous, there are far too many HGV and lorry accidents.

OP posts:

bellagood · 12/01/2018 10:13

You did nothing wrong @miffedmummy

But yeah I would probably report him to his employer and ask them to have a word with him about his aggressive driving!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 12/01/2018 10:29

Even if @MiffedMummy had been driving badly/too slowly/in the wrong lane (which she wasn't), this is not an excuse for the lorry driver to harass her and drive dangerously! No-one should use someone else's driving as a reason to drive badly/dangerously themselves.

saladdays66 · 12/01/2018 11:04

Thank for the clarification, @miffed - sounds like the lorry driver was in the wrong and behaving aggressively. I had thought from your OP you were on a motorway, which don't go down to two lanes, so the lorry would have been OK to overtake you. But you were doing the speed limit and he was being an arse.

HoneyDragon · 12/01/2018 11:13

Iwabtamarshmallow what do you mean?

Oldraver · 12/01/2018 11:14

Am confused about the left lane taking you to a slip road - was there no option to stay in the left lane and not go off the slip road?

Why is that confusing ? Lots of motorways are like this now...

One journey we did up the M1 last year I would say (as I clocked one then started to look for it) every other lorry driver was on the phone or the like. One driver was resting his wrists on the steering wheel while holding his phone with his hands watching something...

OH has an unusual name which is on his number plate...one branch of his family are hauliers...we passed one of the lorries and OH said "i wonder if he will clock the number plate"... Er no as he was fiddling with presumably his phone and was looking down to his left.

It was really scary to realise so many people where twatting around

Lizzie48 · 12/01/2018 11:22

YANBU, OP. I always get nervous when having a lorry, or a car for that matter, come right behind me, flashing me. Being stuck between 2 lorries would make it far worse. Tailgating is very dangerous.

I don't get why some posters are making out that you must have been doing something wrong. There wasn't anything else you could have done.

RavenLG · 12/01/2018 12:03

how did you manage to get his reg number when all this was going on?

DD was in the car she could have taken it down, dash cam, or she has a memory and can read?

Report him OP, sounds like he's going to cause and accident sooner or later.

DGRossetti · 12/01/2018 12:53

DD was in the car she could have taken it down, dash cam

Little tip if your dashcam records audio, is to read out the number plate of dodgy-driving cars. Don't trust you will be able to make out the number plate - especially if the car isn't directly in front or behind you.

Snugglepiggy · 12/01/2018 14:36

Yep report OP.I've done this twice and the transport managers at both companies seemed to take it very seriously.And so has my DH once when we were I the car with kids and we were intimidated by an HGV driver ,and no way was DHS driving causing his behaviour,and went on to see him repeatedly driving far too close to vehicles in front.

babigailwabble · 12/01/2018 21:02

absolutely report. i did the other day when someone in a logo-ed civil engineering van overtook me on a blind bend. idiot. if it was my company van i'd want to know it was being driven by a twat.

TooManyPaws · 12/01/2018 21:23

I had thought from your OP you were on a motorway, which don't go down to two lanes

M90, M80, M9, M73, M74, M876, just to name the ones off the top of my head. Feeder lanes are also quite common on both motorways and A roads. I get the feeling that some posters haven't driven very far around the UK.

TooManyPaws · 12/01/2018 21:24

Oh, and the M8 is two lanes for large parts of it...

SouthWestmom · 12/01/2018 21:36

I posted a similar situation recently.

Lane peels off to the left - if you move into it (why?) you have to try to get back in ASAP.

Lorry behind me caught up with me, flashing etc, up my arse, van in front of me - I assume he just wanted to charge along at his own speed forcing everyone to move out his way.

BoneyBackJefferson · 12/01/2018 21:57

TheXXFactor

HGVs are massively over-represented in accident statistics. Have a look around you on the motorway and check out all the tail-gating, mobile phone use etc. Some drivers are also aggressive arseholes.

Yes, but a lot of other drivers and assorted roads users don't seem to understand that a 40 ton vehicle isn't a car.

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