To feel shaken by this incident and want to leave work?

[Cynthiaramsey]

It’s been non stop raining where I live for days. I don’t drive so on my dinner I walk to a local Sainsbury’s. Today I waited for the rain to stop and then went out, so I didn’t have an umbrella and I don’t have a coat because even though it’s wet, it’s still warm.

I was walking to Sainsbury’s and the road was clear, then I suddenly heard a car speed up. I didn’t have time to wonder what was going on because before I knew it, they drove speeding into a puddle on the side and splashed me. It was a massive puddle so the water has drenched me! It stopped me in my tracks because it was freezing and all my hair and face were wet. As the van drove off, the guy in the passenger seat wound his window down laughing and shouted “slag!” At me. I feel really upset. I know nothing awful happened in the grand scheme of things but it’s just knowing that they sped up to do that on purpose and then laughed about it and called me a name. I am back in work now but my hair is wet and my clothes are so wet they are stuck to me on one side. I feel freezing cold and want to go home so that I can get changed and then just work my last few hours at home.

Would I be unreasonable to ask? Am I being dramatic? I told my boss what happened because I walked back through the door all wet and he was just saying that they’re idiots etc but hasn’t offered to let me go home to change into something dry. So I feel like he would say no. I just feel a bit sad and miserable now.

This is awful and i would be distressed and shaken too....i have had things shouted at me from cars and vans etc and that was bad enough.

Drivers can actually get in serious trouble for purposely speeding up to splash a pedestrian, including a fine or points on your license.

flexed.co.uk/blog/ever-driven-through-a-puddle-and-splashed-a-few-pedestrians-maybe-even-on-purpose/#:~:text=However%2C%20what%20many%20people%20don,hefty%20fine%20and%20penalty%20points!

You’re not being unreasonable to want to go home and get showered and changed etc.

Sorry that happened to you, some people get their kicks from doing things like that and it does in fact mean they’re cunts, so the jokes on them really. Don’t take it personally, you won’t be the only person they’ve done it to. When I say ‘they’ I’m saying those men, and often it’s a sexist thing too where they also get their kicks from calling women slags. Feel sorry for the women in their lives.

How horrible for you, I'm glad you're going home to get dried and hopefully a nice cup of tea and a few biscuits.

The trouble is when something like this happens you go in to shock and it takes a moment to register what has happened so you often can't note the vehicle description/registration in time. But yes it is worth reporting and seeing if there is CCTV.

Well you wont know until you report it.

If you get the CCTV you can also complain to the company and make an insurance claim against them

I feel for you OP definitely see if you can go home

You're so not unreasonable.

It's horrible to be out / at work in wet clothes.

But more than that, it was done by men, to a woman walking alone, with a misogynist slur thrown in too (just in case you hadn't guessed they were pathetic little pricks).

All these little "nothing terrible in the grand scheme of things" incidents add up. They serve to remind women of our position in our deeply unfair patriarchal society. If you're one of the many women who've already experienced male violence, incidents like this are retraumatising.

If misogyny wasn't so entrenched it would be classified a hate crime.

I don't wish crash and death on them though. I'll settle for some horrific necrotising knob disease.

I know it’s largely my job and position, but it wouldn’t occur to me to frame it as a request. You need to go home to change and the only logical thing is to wfh the rest of the day.

CUNTS!

Hopefully the press will pick the story up, & go after them. This prick’s probably been doing this to people all day.

In the Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 3, the rules on splashing pedestrians comes under the heading "careless driving", which is a criminal offence.24 Jun 2024

This.

Its driving without due care. Was it a company van? I would do everything I could to make that bastard pay.

The police will be interested.
They did it deliberately.
They shouted slag.
They probably make a habit of doing this and they need reprimanding.

This happened to me before when I was waiting for a bus to go on a nice day out. I had to walk home to get changed and wait for a later bus. I felt like I’d been assaulted, it’s awful. I felt so so angry about it and frustrated that there was nothing I could do. They must have done it on purpose because there was enough room for them to have gone round the puddle if they had wanted to. Please report it, absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Actually it's even more serious than that - it can also come under common assault and/or battery.

I wouldn't ask, I would tell your boss you are going home to clean up and get into warm, dry clothes and you'll work the rest of the day at home.

If they say no, remind them it's not school and this is your decision and it's final, or would they like HR to join you both for a further discussion.

Just saw your other post. A sensible boss then.

Wow! Really?!
Yes they're absolute arseholes but to wish them to crash and die? You've got issues just like they have!!!

I'm glad you're going home OP. That was a really shitty thing they did to you.

He's scum, OP. There are cameras everywhere. Report it to the police. They have access to local authority's footage and there's a good chance that they can find this van. Make sure you know the time (as close as you can), the location and anything you remember about the van or driver.

I'm really sorry this happened, it's not you, it's these feeble, inadequate men who do this to women because they can.

I would definitely ask your employer if you can go home, you're not really in a fit state to work and you shouldn't be sitting around in wet clothes. Ask them now.

If I'm passing a huge puddle, I always stare behind me at any traffic so they can see I'm clocking their number plate (never mind that I have a shit memory).

I also didn't see your update, I'm glad that you can be at home.

Oh OP - I feel so sorry for you.

I was cycling home about 18 years ago and two lads in an ADT van kept pulling up to me and playing "who let the dogs out" and laughing their heads off.

It was crystal clear they were telling me I was a dog.

It never occurred to me at the time - but I should have reported it to ADT.

I proper cried when I got home and I still feel awful every time I think of it now - 18 years later!

About a year after that I was cycling home and there was a bus behind me and I was coming up to a bus stop - the bus was waiting for me to pull in and a man at the bus stop shouted at me "get off the road you stupid bitch" - I cried at that one too.

I just don't understand where men get off with this sort of thing - they are just total idiots! :(

Would I be unreasonable to ask? Am I being dramatic? I told my boss what happened because I walked back through the door all wet and he was just saying that they’re idiots etc but hasn’t offered to let me go home to change into something dry. So I feel like he would say no. I just feel a bit sad and miserable now.

They can’t force you to sit there in wet clothes.

I hope you are soon in warm, dry clothes. That is horrible what happened. It would have shaken me up too, you were not being dramatic in the slightest.

It's terrible that this even needs to be in your thoughts, OuterSpaceCadet but it's a real issue.

I'm always so careful driving through puddles, I crawl through at snail's pace but, if I hadn't spotted a pedestrian and accidentally splashed them, I would stop and I would apologise and offer a lift to where they're going.

Def report it to police, it's assault.

They'll just keep on doing it otherwise.

Perfectly reasonable to go home and get dry if you are wet and cold and cannot get warm and dry at work!

Sorry this happened to you OP. You seem to have met more of those women-hating men.

They should suffer consequences for this. (Throwing a milk-shake can get you in court. Using a van to throw dirty water seems worse.) If they don't get these- they will do it again to someone.

Is it possible that there is any CCTV on that street and (even if their action against you isn't shown on camera) that you could identify the van - and the time it is there?

As you say - reporting them to their employer would be something and wouldn't need the level of proof required for a court.