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??)

I conclude you must be the lorry driver? Or his wife.

No one can know why he beeped, there are a dozen possible explanations.

It could… possibly… but most of the YABUs on here weren’t arguing that, they were arguing illegality

I’m using your idiotic logic. You think because I disagree with you then I must be either a sock puppet or a sycophant. You can’t seem to conceive the possibility that I simply disagree with you. It is truly a pathetic form of defence on your part.

I didn’t assume you were a man at all but now you’ve got me wondering. ‘Little miss cheerleader’… you are starting to come across rather misogynistic.

No but he has witnessed it a couple of times in his 20 years on the road. Being the first on the scene on one occasion. He's had ptsd ever since. It's no joke.

You mean why did I assume the the lorry driver was a man? Because the OP referred to him as such. Do you think she was lying for some reason?

I really have no idea why you are attacking me in this way. Have I offended you on another thread or something?

This thread isn’t still going on, is it? We need to indicate, pull up somewhere very very safe and park it!

I’d argue that I was defending myself, rather than the OP. And admittedly I’ve posted more than I usually would because I’m laid up in bed with a chest infection so I have more time on my hands.

It’s not up to you to police the thread or my posts. I’m mainly replying to people that are posting at a similar frequency to me. Are they demented too, or is that only people who disagree with you?

Vicious? Please show me where. I’m not getting anything back from you. I’d be happy to debate the subject of this thread, but you’ve just resorted to trying to shut me down and belittle me. It’s seriously poor form.

@Azzywhatty "It was a country lane that had been a one lane track. It is the side road."

And you expected a lorry to pass you on a country lane ? Nope. Not acceptable.

It is unexpected to pull over on a Roman road without pavements where the speed limit is 60. You may have been doing 20 when it was single track but you can easily get up to 60 on a Roman road with good visibility and you would be expecting to accelerate not slow down. Also it depends on the side of the road- bushes - definitely don’t stop but grass verge you can pull right onto possibly, but not something you see a lot and certainly not comparable to a residential street without pavements where driveways and a speed limit of 20 or 30.

So to avoid SoScarletItWas getting admitted to A&E with alcohol poisoning and others on here having a coronary, can we try and put this to bed with points of agreement:

• it is legal in the UK to pull to the side of a road where there are no parking restrictions, with appropriate signalling
• it is legal in the UK to overtake into the lane for oncoming traffic if there is not a solid white line down the middle & you have good visibility
• it is not a good idea to overtake when there IS oncoming traffic or you can't see whether there is & to place pressure on others to do this by parking where visibility is poor
• it is not the best idea to slam your brakes on with no warning with a heavy truck right behind you (in fact you are unlikely to be posting here if you have done this or overtaken into oncoming traffic)
• parking at the side of narrow country lanes can cause others inconvenience, but is unavoidable at times, especially if it is necessary for country dwellers to be able to get out of their cars when they get home
• parking on fast A roads is much more problematic than parking on quiet country lanes, though most of these have parking restrictions

So far, so good?

Only Azzywhatty knows how fast she was travelling, how close the lorry was and whether she gave sufficient warning that she was pulling over. It sounds as if all this was ok though, so I voted not unreasonable.

Perhaps the point of disagreement is the nature of the road she illustrated at 14.57pm yesterday. Given that part of it was single track and the photo showed worn central markings & only one car, I assumed very minor B road with occasional traffic doing no more than, say, 40mph ish, despite not having any speed restrictions. But I think some people assumed faster, busier road where it's rarer for someone to pull over as it would be difficult for others to overtake, particularly a lorry.

We also have some interesting disagreement about signalling. I go for left indicator if I pull over as I've always thought that was what highway code says (it certainly used to), but it seems some would use their hazards in some situations.

So is that a fair summary and can we all move on? Please.... 😊

You clearly haven’t read the thread because I haven’t defended the OP on every point at all. I’ve defended myself. But what’s it to you what I defend anyway? You absolutely are policing my posts. You seem obsessed.

I said your logic was idiotic. Which it was. Get a grip yourself if you think that’s vicious. Why have you come onto a thread to just have a go a people and make no contribution to the discussion? What’s the point? Is it how you get your kicks?

I'm not sure you understand what anticipate means in fairness.

You can't expect or predict someone is going to suddenly indicate then come to a stop in front of you on a 60mph road in the middle of nowhere, there were no houses, no bus stops, no gates, nothing to stop for.. if anything he was probably anticipating that she would speed up on the wider stretch of road.

So because he couldn't anticipate she would do what she did, he could only react to what happened in front of him as it happened, which he did and he moved around her but something about what she did annoyed him so he beeped to show his displeasure, maybe he thought that the time between indicating and slowing down wasn't enough and didn't give him much time to react to what she was doing, or maybe he thought she was inconsiderate to even come to a stop in the road in front of him, when she could have found somewhere to pull over instead.. if that was the case then I don't disagree with him.

I live in rural Northumberland so I know the kind of roads you mean. Had you put your hazards on you'd have been far safer. You don't just stop! You should have waited until you passed a lay by or similar!

You made one small statement, then just seemed focused on making accusations at me. I assume you don’t really think I’m the OP or her cheerleader so why say it, other than to shut me down? It’s not my fault you seem to be incapable of joining in with the discussion and have to resort to these derailing tactics. I’ve taken plenty of criticism on this forum but I can’t stand it when people start gaslighting.

Im not tagging you, I’m replying to you. Do you not understand how mumsnet works?

You think I’m strange because I don’t agree with you.

I assumed very minor B road with occasional traffic doing no more than, say, 40mph ish, despite not having any speed restrictions. But I think some people assumed faster, busier road where it's rarer for someone to pull over as it would be difficult for others to overtake, particularly a lorry.

I think that assumption was wrong though @Ramblethroughthebrambles. That road is mostly 60mph, not 40mph. So it is a faster road than you thought (even though OP was not travelling at that speed I know). It was not a tiny country lane at the point at which she stopped.