Did I do anything wrong here? Driving

[Azzywhatty]

I drove home from rural Northumberland today. On a single track road my sat nav fell out of its holder onto the passenger side floor. There was a lorry behind me. I continued along the single track road until it widened into two lanes, then indicated left, slowed down and stopped so I could pick it back up.

The lorry behind me beeped as I stopped. Did I do anything wrong here? I indicated and slowed and waited until the road went back to two lanes and it was safe to stop. I can’t work out why he was beeping.

There was no other traffic in either direction.

YANBU - you did nothing wrong
YABU - you did something wrong (what and why??)

He shouldn’t have been so close to OP’s car though.

Millions of roads throughout the UK have cars parked on them which forced passing cars onto the other side. All roads would have to be four car lengths wide to avoid this.

Personally, in this situation, I would have put my hazards on.

I would say the HGV Driver beeped, to make you aware he was there, incase you opened your door and stepped out of the vehicle.

From what I have read you waited to stop until there were two lanes available and then indicated left, pulled over a bit and stopped. Remember the lorry driver has seen you stop, but does not know why, or what you are going to do next. So the lorry driver then sounded the vehicle horn. If I was in my truck and you had stopped like that, I would have sounded my horn and probably flashed my lights as well. NOT to display any form of rebuke or aggression, but to warn you, both aurally and visually, that I was not stopping and was going to pass you. This would have drawn you attention to what was happening and saved you potentially opening the door into the path of my hulking great wagon.

Not 60mph country roads.

Are you being deliberately obtuse now?

Again, this demonstrates how little you drive on rural roads because this literally happens every day!

Tractor drives maintaining course and speed, cars that can build speed quickly overtake when safe to do so. Lorries hang back until tractor moves.

Are you new to driving OP?

Also, yes I've driven many a Roman Road, ever heard of Watling Street 🤣 or how about St Albans. You seem weirdly obsessed about it being a Roman Road.

Are you? They are 60mph because most of them are ungraded. No one was going at 60mph. There were only two vehicles as far as the eye could see and I was in one of them.

Are Mumsnetters driving eternally?
No wonder there's so much traffic on the roads if everyone's doing a 280 mile round trip for milk to avoid overtaking a badger on a bicycle

You might not have been going 60mph, but anyone with any level of driving competence would not expect a car to be stopped on a 60mph road.

You randomly decided to stop in a double lane road to check your phone??

Similarly you shouldn’t be behind the wheel if you don’t recognise that what you did was dangerous 🤷‍♀️ Indicating and slowly moving does not make the action not dangerous. You stopped on a road in a way that was dangerous. Lol at never being on a Roman road .. you clearly didn’t read my earlier comment - I live there. You must have VERY long arms if you were sat in your seat yet could reach the passenger footwell without bending 🤔 You said you came off the single track and immediately pulled over when the road became 2 lanes. So if other cars came off that single track, they would not be expecting to find a car immediately blocking their way on the new 2 lane road.

Are you genuinely trying to claim that tractors don’t pull over to allow vehicles to overtake? Of course they do - they’re meant to.

I’m saying Roman roads to show that they’re very straight and long, but I’m sure you know that being so familiar with them.

I was saying that 60mph country roads don’t usually have multiple cars parked on them forcing traffic onto the opposite lane, in response to your post I quoted.

So yes. It does seem you are being deliberately obtuse now.

Anyway, happy driving OP 😄

This thread has brightened up an otherwise dull Monday 😆🤣🤣

Agreed, tractors do pull over when they can and when there is a tailback.

So he had to manoeuvre around you by overtaking you in the lane for the opposite direction? That would have been difficult for a lorry to do, so it does seem you were in the wrong.

I don’t know what strange corner of the country you live in but in my neck of the woods (very rural Yorkshire) tractors regularly pull over for cars.

That's exactly what you should expect - that they will use the other side of the road. And if you are driving behind someone on a rural road and they indicate left and begin to brake (as the OP did), you should expect that they may not be turning left, instead they may be slowing down and pulling over. If so, you should expect to brake and, if necessary, wait behind them until it is safe to pull out and overtake them by pulling into the opposite side of the road when no vehicles are coming in the opposite direction. This is how the UK road system works and the system in most other countries I have driven in over the past 37 years. It is dangerous to expect anything different.

Yes, that’s right. I did an emergency stop, and then had a glass of wine before I got going again.

Sounds non-optimal but broadly normal to me. Ideally you'd pull over in a driveway/field entrance so no one has to cross the white line to go past you, but if the driver behind felt in was unsafe to pass they could have just waited. You would have delayed them approximately 15 seconds and then it would have been fine.

Its no different to what the lorry will have to do if it comes across any number of other road users - horses, cyclists, farm machinery, cows, sheep…

No but the lorry would in effect be in control and expecting for that to happen.

It wasn’t an emergency stop. It was signalled to let him know what was happening.

If it was a straight, clear road and they had the use of their eyes, I think they might have an inkling.

How is the lorry not in control here? The OP was indicating so he had fair warning of what she was about to do