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.

Just for info, the Smart for two has a speed limiter at 80mph.

@Honeyandlemonnn We did Truly care but also realised how on earth would we catch her up without dangerous driving too, likely not allowed where we are to take a photo/video, not turning off would send us god knows where and we had someone waiting for us. Still doesn’t stop me thinking about it and worrying, so yes, I do Truly care. What would you have done?

@ormaybenot Yes, sorry I’m thinking/talking in kms in my own head, just used to that on the roads, no idea obviously how fast it definitely was, but she didn’t slow at all

Generally if you want advice whether something is legal or not, it helps to post the jurisdiction the alleged offence occured in somewhere in the first 10 of your posts ... I appreciate that you did eventually tell us, but it took quite a while to get there! If you just want to know whether it was bad driving or not, well even then it helps if people are aware of the sorts of roads you're talking about. In the case of Portugal, it's common practice for people to move over to the left lane (the overtaking lane) if they can see a slip road coming up. I suspect that's not written down anywhere, but it's the way you're expected to drive, to move over to allow people to join and then move back once you've passed the junction. You're not expected to do this at the last minute so you can zip in between people doing 120 km/h with no gap, you're expected to plan it and move over in time. This woman may have thought that if you were not doing this then you must have been going quite slowly and she would have the time to speed up and past you.

It doesn't sound like amazing driving on her part, particularly the phone. But part of being a good driver is being able to anticipate what other people around you might do based on the standard practices in that place, even if they're not following the rules of the road. On that basis it sounds as though your husband wasn't driving brilliantly: if you've been in Portugal long enough then you know that this is a common behaviour and he really should have been able to guess that she might try it when he saw her coming along the slip road.

The baby thing is odd. You said yourself that it was a two-seater car. So even if this had been somewhere where it's illegal to carry babies in the front if a back is available, you must have realised before you posted that this couldn't apply to vehicles which don't have a back seat.

If your DH had time to hit the horn then he had time to hit the breaks. As for wanting to follow her! Why? that’s just creepy.

Your DH is the kind of driver that makes other drivers feel very anxious.

She was doing 120mph before entering the motorway, in a smart (or similar) car?! Wow.

@Ithastobeacbeebiesday Not sure what i would have done but i certainty wouldnt have done what your husband did. Which likely could have made things worst

Well it’s Europe so it would be 120kph not miles.

So around 60 mph.

She absolutely wasn't because as already stated on here at least twice the Smart for two has a speed limiter that doesn't allow it to go faster than 80mph.

The OP's car should have moved over not sat beeping. Don't all decent drivers allow people out of slip roads?

I certainly do.

And obviously we wouldn’t stop her to ask to check the car to see how the baby was ffs.

And yet you literally JUST said to me Yes, to check the baby?!! when I questioned your DH following her.

I know, it was more making me think the OP has perhaps embellished quite a bit!
Yes, they should have moved over to let the car join, OP's husband beeping at her then considering following to "check on the baby" is downright creepy.

Ok, I’m out of here, this seems to be just an excuse for people to jump on my post, really quite odd and say my Dh was the dangerous driver 🙈okay, thanks all.

This isn’t the U.K., completely different rules , you can’t compare at all.

@Loics Nothing is *Creepy at all, it’s called giving a shit about a baby being driven by an out of control woman on her phone, nearly crashing into others. If you’d just drive off as though ‘Oh dear’ then that’s you

It was ok for you to tell embellished stories about a poor woman in a Smart though wasn't it?

This isn’t the U.K., completely different rules , you can’t compare at all.

Which is why Fink's post is really quite useful. You should read it (and pass it onto your husband)

How do you know she was arguing? Maybe she was getting to an emergency or relative who needed help. Or maybe she had just received bad news and was trying to make sense of it. No excuse for driving like a maniac of course, but you can't assume you know she was having an argument. And my babies always went in the front with me when I drove alone. The fact your partner was beeping is another issue in itself. She was clearly already distracted yet your partner decided to try and distract her even more, also the horn isn't meant for angry use. I'm glad you didn't follow her, bizarre behaviour from you and your partner to be honest. There will always be shitty drivers unfortunately and unless you are the police it is not your job to sort it out.

In Tunisia we saw a family of 3 all on one moped, 2 adults and a baby, not a helmet in sight.
DH (Tunisian) has carried a sheep 🐑 on a moped before. His cousin driving, DH at the back and the sheep sideways across the seat in the middle of them.

I seriously can't believe everyone doesn't move over automatically to allow people off slip roads.

I've been driving 40 years and I've always done that or if traffic stops me moving out I'd flash the person trying to get out to let them know I've seen them and they can pull out ahead of me with no problem.

Well, yes. I mean, it's hard to tell what actually happened as you use a lot of dramatic language, but I'm not a police officer - I can't do anything. I would keep driving and think it was irresponsible, but what am I going to gain from beeping at her and following her? Absolutely nothing, apart from maybe distracting her more and probably scaring her when she notices the man in the car beeping away, following her home.

The original AIBU seems to mostly be about having the baby in the front seat.. which assuming rear facing and air bags off isn’t a problem.
The speeding, using a phone etc is U obviously.

Maybe sit down with a ☕🍪 till your adrenaline is under control.
You are coming across as a quite illogical and lashing out at anyone in range.

Where were you expecting her to put the baby of there is no back seat?

How did you see all that if she went "flying past" you? As for your husband wanting to follow her, what on earth would that have achieved? She'd probably just have driven faster to get away from the mad stalker.