Woman flying along with newborn in the front

[Ithastobeacbeebiesday]

Can’t get this out of my head.
Yesterday, Dh, Dd and I were on the motorway and a woman joining onto our lane on the left, nearly crashed into us. She didn’t slow down or stop, so Dh had to slow right down, she came flying past and we saw she was talking/arguing? On her phone, gesticulating madly and that there was a buggy in the back and baby in a baby seat in the passenger seat.
We were in such shock at first at the way she was driving and thought she’d crash into us, then saw, she was on the phone, then the baby. It was one of those tiny smart cars, so no seats in the back, is this legal?
Dh was beeping loudly at her and said after that he wanted to follow her (we had to turn off)
Not sure regarding laws (we’re in another country) but surely this isn’t legal, cannot get over how she could drive like that with a baby in the car, such a strange sight to see.

@Facecream ? The right lane isn’t for overtaking and yes I drive, I’ve driven for 17 years

@Ithastobeacbeebiesday stop being coy and say the country.

Your husband could have eased off and let her merge more easily!

@TokenGinger I honestly had no idea you could do that, not sure why…it makes it somewhat less shocking, but the rest was still shocking at the time

@QuestionableMouse He had to ease right off, slammed the brakes right on, she came at such a speed without even glancing to her side to join onto the motorway

It’s Portugal

The number of people I see in the UK with no seatbelts on driving there cars and children in the front and back - no seatbelts - standing up!!! They either choose not to follow the laws of the land or don’t understand them or are just plain stupid. More traffic police are needed - random stop points -

No No No - you do not treat a slip road to a motorway as a give way! Do you have a driving licence?

What was he planning to do after following her?

@HeraldicBlazoning 🙄It’s not the U.K., you’d have to be here to understand the way it is and the lack of logic

@Sweetmotherofallthatisholyabov We wanted to get the licence. I suppose it was just in the shock of the moment and the worry about a baby being in there. Perhaps we were being dramatic, by the sound of replies on here, we maybe were 🤷🏻‍♀️

Which country are you in OP? It depends a lot. I've seen a whole family of four people on a moped in Italy, for instance (although no newborn baby).

Your DH is unreasonable for beeping and not being ready to brake when about to pass a slip road. I have no idea why, on a motorway, you'd have cars joining from a standing start. Sounds really dangerous in your country.

To beep at her, to follow her, both sound very aggressive. Much safer for you as a passenger to get a photo of the licence plate and report it.

@Ithastobeacbeebiesday Someone on a phone is clearly distracted when driving.
I was nearly knocked over by a woman exiting a garage blabbering away on her phone-
It’s dangerous, as anyone with any sense knows.

‘Dh was beeping loudly at her and said after that he wanted to follow her’

If anyone, especially a man, followed me after showing clear signs of anger at me, I’d be using my hands free to call the police. He wants to be careful about behaving in a threatening way to people, however crap their driving may be.

Thanks for update, have voted YANBU as she was driving illegally for Portugal.

You can't say it's illegal when you don't even know what country the OP is in!

@Ithastobeacbeebiesday why are you asking if it's illegal but not saying which country you're in??

Awaits person to go and look up all the laws of Portugal and come back shouting at me how I’m wrong 😅
You have to live here to understand the utter zero logic, plus the driving. She was in the wrong, couldn’t killed all of us and we were worried.
We’re normally chilled people but this was crazy and yes, we saw her on the phone and the passenger seat and then yes we saw the buggy shoved up in the back window as she sped off as it was easy to see, to see and take down the number plate that easily wasn’t easy. I’m not lying/making anything up, it’s just the way it happened. I genuinely didn’t realise babies could go in the front, now I know they can, it eases it a bit, but I am still shocked she drove like that on the phone and nearly caused an accident.
That was all really!

@SkylightSkylight I have done

Some Portuguese slip roads are very short and treated like a T junction with a give way to get on the motorway. It’s ridiculously poor planning and dangerous, but that’s how some of them are.

The baby being in front wouldn’t have bothered me- but her being on phone would have.
You could have video’d her as a passenger if you thought she was driving dangerously.

Driving with your mobile in your hand is also illegal in Portugal. Has to be hand free.

@Henddraig He beeped out of shock and anger really, she nearly crashed into us! We’ve all done that surely. We said about taking a photo of the number plate but I think that may be illegal here, not too sure, I think getting evidence from dash cams etc is (lots of privacy laws around photos/filming etc) so to try to get the number plate etc would have been our only option.
Dh had slowed down, but she literally shot out of nowhere

I used to drive around with DS in the front of my ancient classic mini. No airbags and only lap belts in the back.

I also had a tiny smart car and it did lend itself quite well to charging around in. I had to constantly check my speed as it never felt like I was going that fast.

@LaLoba It wasn’t to be aggressively following her! To get her number plate, check the baby was ok, neither of us are aggressive people at all. She was driving really dangerously and erratically, it was scary.

I’m trying to picture what you’re describing but can’t understand how you could see so much detail if she was going so fast?

Anyway, if you were correct in what you thought you saw, it sounds really dangerous. Beeping would only make the situation worse though.