To not have a clue what I did wrong?

[Stationclare]

Back story
Inexperienced driver, not massively confident, but getting there.
Journey to work is horrible. Inner city. Dodgy aggressive drivers.
There are a few routes that i can take but I take the shortest and most familiar. There is one part I hate.
Anyhow, I always stay in the left hand lane but at this one part there are sometimes parked cars so I move to right hand lane. This was the case today. I indicated and moved over.
Next thing I heard police sirens behind me. I thought shit.
Did I do a dodgy manoeuvre? I didnt see the police prior to this btw.
They then moved into the left lane next to me. The officer driving, mouthed at me " are you fucking stupid?".
Well I feel fucking stupid. Now im thinking was he trying to get past and i Didnt let him out and didn't pay attention as i was too busy trying to keep safe on that dodgy road.

You clearly nearly drove into the path of the police car, and his reaction was probably because of shock. you need to use your mirrors all the time when pulling out, and also use them on and off whilst driving like we are shown to on our lessons

Not all police cars have in car recording devices, my area doesn’t.

I’ve been that blue light driver on several occasions where a driver hasn’t seen you and you have to take evasive action. You crap yourself and yes,I have sworn! I’m human🤷🏻‍♀️.

Rosso I'm hardly gping to make up random shit like this am I? Bit boring!!

It sounds to me as if they'd had their blues on for some time and you didn't notice. Could it be the red car wasn't even letting you out, but slowing to let them undertake and nip round, or flashing lights to catch your attention?

I also agree it's likely he didn't mouth what you think, and you just reacted in shock.

Sorry previous message typos.
30 mph road. They weren't behind me when i changed lanes.

Do you check your mirrors frequently or just when you are making a manoeuvre?

Sarah I think your explanation may be the right one. And ive mulled it over since and i am thinking that i misinterpreted the red car holding back.
I'm definitely right that the policeman swore though. No doubt there. We were next to.each other at the lights!! That's what shocked me the most.

Well, where were they when you changed lanes?

If it's a 30mph road, with parked cars taking it down to one lane, the likeliest thing is that you would have been able to see the blue lights somewhere behind you when you checked your mirrors to move across.

The fact you either didn't see them or didn't notice might indicate they suddenly switched on lights and siren simultaneously, just as they swerved past the other car to come behind you ... but it seems a lot more likely you just didn't notice them because you only looked at the car right behind you.

Cross post.

Well, if you say they swore, maybe. I think, TBH, when you've nearly caused an accident it behoves you to be a bit forgiving about other people's lapses in professionalism.

Do you lip read in daily life, out of interest?

They probably needed to get past and you took too long deciding what to do. If a police car is behind you with their lights on then you pull over to let them past. You probably didn't react quick enough

Then I think the red car couldn't have been letting the police at in as the red car was in the right lane (which I moved into). The police went to the left lane I came from and then turned left at next set of lights.

Either way, your observations were poor, you don’t check your rear view mirror enough and you nearly caused an accident.

You are an inexperienced driver, use this as a learning point. Be more aware of your surroundings.

I would just let it go. Everyone did something stupid and got in the way of a police car or similar when they were a new driver. If you didn't panic and stall, you're ahead of most, however disparaging people on the thread are being. You'll get more confidence and experience. It takes practice and time, that's all.

And if you're not great with your mirrors, then play some games with yourself until you are. My dad used to cover my rearview mirror randomly when I was learning and ask me to tell him what was in it. Be ready to do that at any moment. And set yourself the task of only using wing mirrors for a journey or a stretch of one (obviously stop that immediately if anything arises that needs you to use your rearview) so that you're completely comfortable with interpreting what's in them at a moment's notice. I've been driving for 30 years and I can describe exactly what's behind me even when I haven't been conscious of looking, but it doesn't come overnight.

How long have you been driving? I did the Pass Plus course shortly after passing the test to help with my confidence. Could it be worth looking into that?

In this case, no damage was done. Try not to let it knock your confidence.

did they actually sit at the lights beside you? because if so sounds like they didn't have an emergency to get to and shouldn't have been using blue lights...

but - think you just need to take a deep breath and let it go. i once had a police van nearly drive into me as they came out of a junction. they then flagged me down a couple of hundred yards up the road to apologise but because they are the police it still felt more intimidating than it otherwise would.

Police cars with lights/sirens on don’t stop at traffic lights...

The red traffic light has to be treated as a stop/give way. By stopping it doesn’t mean they were not on a blue light run, just that it isn’t safe to just drive straight through.

Quayy Yes they do. I’ve been a blue light driver for 16 years.

@Nicknacky

Quayy Yes they do. I’ve been a blue light driver for 16 years.

Oh really? Never seen them at the lights with sirens on, they always just go on through! You learn something new every day.

Quayy If they are unable to proceed safely then they may turn off their sirens/lights so as not to intimidate drivers and risk an accident.

The general ethos is that it’s better to arrive safely than not arrive at all.

I won’t risk my life for the sake of running a red light that isn’t safe.

If the police car was behind you with sirens going you needed to get out of its way in the safest way possible. You do sound s bit confused as to what you should have done.

Nicky
You are probably right.
Nudge thank you.
Has knocked my confidence though and im worried about going that route again now.
I perhaps didnt get out of the way when i was meant to? But ive never had the police behind me before!!
Plus its bloody ironic that the first time I see the police they are involved with me when the dangerous driving in that stretch is astounding.

Your dodgy/unsafe maneuver aside, a police officer swearing at a member of the public? That is not on. Have police officers stopped being pillars of the community all of a sudden? Role models? No?

Can't believe that no one has commented on this.

If the police or any other emergency service is behind you, don’t panic. Indicate, pull to the left if safe to do so and they will work out how to get around you safely.

So you didn't see the police car coming, but you paid enough attention to lip read a sentence?

Assuming you were driving at 30, and it took 2 seconds to see that you will have travelled nearly 30m, which is a long way to have no attention on the road.