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??)

Oh yes but what if he had his eyes shut, hmm?

You were probably fine, and he was just tooting to let you know he was passing, in case you opened your door to get out, especially if the road was not very wide.
Ignore the rabble rousers! Of course you are allowed to stop, your engine could have been hot and about to burst into flames, a small child could have run out of the hedge. You stopped safely after signalling, he overtook without a problem. Honestly I would never post a driving query on here, they all think they are expert drivers, I suspect they are mostly crap, but are deluded.

I can't see that you did anything wrong here. You needed to pull over and you waited until a place where the lorry could safely overtake you. You indicated and pulled over.

Assuming there wasn't a side road to the left shortly ahead, the lorry driver should have understood that you were pulling over.

My guess is that the lorry beeped out of frustration because he didn't anticipate that you would want to pull over, and was driving too closely behind you which caused him to have to act quickly. If he had been paying attention and maintaining a suitable stopping distance behind you there would have been no issue.

Did you indicate in good time before pulling over?

I certainly believe so, I pulled over slowly.

I haven't driven rurally very often, but I've had tractors pull over for traffic.

I do lot of rural driving ( as I live rurally ) and my experience is quite different, although appreciate that’s just my personal experience out of the millions of drivers.

Tractor and farm vehicle drivers ( usually carrying sheep) in Wales, for example, are wonderful for moving out of the way by taking the first lay-by they come to. There may be a line of traffic behind them by that stage but overall they move as soon as they can.

As I was so gobsmacked by some of these posts & spent far too long on the thread today, I felt the need to explain to DH why I was so absorbed. Told him about the dismissive comments about others' driving, the posters not reading what someone else has said properly, quoting highway code very confidently but getting it wrong etc. He looked at me a bit baffled 'Mumsnet? Are there men on there then?' 😅

If you were able to pull in so that the lorry could pass you without crossing even slightly into the opposite lane, then you were OK. It sounds like you pulled in, but he probably had to overlap into the opposite lane to pass you, which isn't safe. For something like a dropped sat nav, I'd play safe and wait for a layby, car park or something.

OP, you pulled over and a lorry driver gave you a quick toot.

Most people wouldn’t give this a second thought.

The fact that you’ve posted here shows some level of unease with the situation.

I think you know what you did was not illegal and likely not life threatening but I think on some level you know it wasn’t the best time and place to stop your car. It would have been fine to stop had the lorry not been close behind you.

How isn’t it safe? There was nothing on the other side of the road for a good mile.

No, I posted due to boredom and a Monday off post holiday. I thought I was fine. I was interested as to whether there was some element I was missing, but this thread has confirmed it was fine.

It wasn't some highway in the USA!
What single carriageways (one lane each direction) in the countryside have enough room for a car to pass without crossing the middle white line?

now that there are photos you are not only being unreasonable you are being a t wat. there may not having been oncoming traffic coming at the time but you absolutely forced the van on to the wrong side of the road. if something had been coming it could have caused an accident as you didn’t leave enough room to pass. How did you pass your driving test? go and read the highway code.

Was it fine though? You’ve veered between saying the lorry driver was too fast and too close to saying all was fine, so it’s hard to gauge what really happened.

57% of people saying you were being unreasonable should give you pause about treating lorries with caution.

Don’t be daft. How would rural roads function if no one ever overtook?

Every time I park at my house my parked car forces all oncoming traffic onto the wrong side of the road.

No, I said the only reason I could think of as to why he’d beep is because he was going too fast or too close. I wasn’t driving the lorry.

So I take it that horse riders, cyclists, dog walkers and farm traffic are also all ‘twats’ because they ‘force other road users onto the wrong side of the road’?

You’re also a bit slow to the party. It has been established that what OP did was not against the Highway Code.

The majority of people say you weren’t fine. But you’re choosing to side with the minority who say you were?

I'm not sure I have understood it all now since all the updates from after I posted but it's not OK to force someone to overtake on the wrong side of the road unless you've stopped because you've broken down.

Again. My car parked outside my house is forcing all oncoming passing traffic onto the wrong side of the road. Have you never seen a car stopped on a road?

now that there are photos you are not only being unreasonable you are being a t wat. there may not having been oncoming traffic coming at the time but you absolutely forced the van on to the wrong side of the road. if something had been coming it could have caused an accident as you didn’t leave enough room to pass. How did you pass your driving test? go and read the highway code.

WTF did a van come from? I swear I've entered some weird game of Chinese whispers. or it's wine o'clock on MN

That’s right.

The majority of people say you weren’t fine. But you’re choosing to side with the minority who say you were?

Since the majority appear to have not even properly read the bloody thread I'd suggest that the OP is being pretty wise to ignore them.