To be really sad at the way my 17 year old DD was treated when she broke down at a roundabout

[Greyhoundmad83]

My DD passed her driving test 2 weeks ago. She's driving my car around on the days I work from home.

Anyway, at rush hour after sixth form, she broke down on a busy roundabout in the middle of the city (the clutch had gone).

She put her emergency lights on and called me. It was very obvious she had broken down. Honestly I was so shocked to hear the beeping, people shouting at her and she said other were laughing as they went past too.

My daughter isn't excessively sensitive, but she was really shaken up.... not by the clutch going, but at the anger people had towards her for breaking down. There are several lanes of traffic, so people could get around her.

Thankfully an older man eventually stopped and managed to get the car into gear and down a side road until I got to her and Greenflag arrived to take it to a garage. I'm so grateful to this guy who had a daughter similar age.

AIBU to be disgusted at the way people treated her? I feel like society has got worse!

Worst one I had was driving back very late one night, foggy, icy, country lanes. I was going carefully and was very aware of a car up my backside the whole way. Really close. Coming up to a roundabout, a crash had occured just round the corner, due to the conditions, on it's roof, lady struggling to get out of the window. Awful. I stopped and the guy behind me beeped and raged, asked wtf I was playing at etc etc and tried to get past. DH was out the door banging on his window and gave him a piece of his mind. The guy was a taxi driver who then meekly apologized. He should have known better.

Why are people so mean 😭 my dh does a lot of driving for work the amount of times he’s told me he’s had to assist someone who has broken down in similar situations when everyone else is beeping /shouting etc makes me glad I don’t drive .

Me too. 30 years ago

i was trying to push the car on my own while the lorry driver behind sat on his horn. Knob,

Nonsense. It's just twats.

People
are idiots sometimes. On a plus that is probably one of the worst things she’s going to have to deal with and she coped …

I wonder how many women laughed and beeped at her before a man stopped to help?

@Greyhoundmad83 I had a similar experience years ago. I crashed into a wall during a snowy spell. I was pregnant at the time( which to be fair passers-by wouldn't have known.)So many people passed by while I was crying in the carobviously due to pregnancy hormones no adult checked on my wellbeing. The only person who seemed to care was a young lad aged about 12 who was with his mum. I heard him ask her if they should ask if I needed help, mum said no, but he said "She looks upset" He came and asked me If I was okay. By then my DH was on his way, so I thanked the lad and lied that I was fine( only because I wasn't sure what he could do to help) No one else gave a shit!

@Greyhoundmad83 at least the lad cared, bless him 🙏

Grrrrr it’s so annoying when other drivers take umbrage if you DARE to inconvenience them. Come on, it’s not as if it’s deliberate and they must think an awful lot of themselves if they act like it was done on purpose just to upset them. Your poor daughter and thank goodness for that kind man.

Anout 30 years ago I was driving to Bath from Oxford and ran low on petrol - winter around 8pm, so it was dark. Popped into a pub to ask where nearest petrol station was. Two middle aged men gave me contradictory directions, giggling away. The barmaid put me straight.

It's horrible, my car was hit by a lorry when they cut into my lane. My fiat 500 was written off and yeah... people were shouting stuff out their windows at me while I waited for the AA. It felt really shit.

It was an EU transit truck as well so took about two years for the claim to get settled because of the back and forth and translations between insurers (despite witnesses and CCTV etc.)

It just shows you how unkind (some) people can be.

I said the other day that the roads were horrendous on here (I rarely see a "good" day since starting driving a few months ago on the road where someone doesn't do something totally fucking stupid and dangerous) and got the old "I never see it it must be you who's the shit driver" response.

But honestly people just dont give a shit about other road users and think they are the most important person in the world on the roads.

I am an adult learner at present. Had my first lesson a few weeks ago. The driving school car has learned driver plastered all over it. An old man beeped aggressively at me being about 5 seconds too slow taking a junction, overtook badly and caused an obstruction himself. People can be such dicks on the road.

Your poor daughter. Put people in cars and they turn in to right dicks! Hopefully if someone fell over in the street they would act differently.

I got rear ended on the motorway, indicated to move to the hard shoulder and people wouldn’t let me move over
I mean WTF?! I’m trying to clear the motorway

Honestly nothing surprises me these days.

A few years ago I was at work (Nurse based in a health centre) where there was a mental health unit next door. One of the patients had thrown himself in front of an articulated lorry on the busy road in front. Of course we all rushed out to help, the poor driver was in shock and as we tended to this poor man the amount of cars that mounted the pavement peeping as they drove past was just jaw dropping. Utterly abhorant.

Luckily he did survive but I will never forget the lack of compassion I witnessed.

I literally had the exact same issue when I was 20, broke down on a roundabout as the clutch had burned out. Once the clutch is gone, there is literally no way to move the car. I had a completely different situation though, maybe because ky roundabout had enough room for people to pass. I had people pull over to ask if I needed help, I had people in vans pull over to see if they could push my car to the other side of the road. Many people got out of their cars or shouted out offering support. I’m so sorry for your daughter, I can’t imagine the frustration, the fear, the overwhelm and then on top people making things worse

People have become so angry and impatient. They have no bit of kindness left and I’m tired of hearing stories like this where people are struggling, no fault of their own, yet people are making it worse instead of offering a helping hand

Increasingly, people are arseholes. There's always been one or two but the level of self indulgence, entitlement, lack of consideration and empathy and sheer arseholery now is next level.

Encourage her to pay it forward. I'm glad someone came to her rescue. Sad indictment that only one person would stop and help her move the car.

This is a hard lesson in the realities of the worst of human nature. Mob mentality and selfishness have always been a thing. Thankfully there are decent and kind people out there. Most of all when we’re still alive and well I think we should actually consider that a win!

I had this a few years ago, op, and exactly the same reaction from people driving past, apart from one chap who helped. I honestly just think people are a bit thick and can’t work out that you must have broken down.

Bladderpool · Today 11:00

Try and focus on the decent person who helped. On any given day, most people will have 100 pleasant interactions but they’ll focus on one negative one and go on about it for years.

That’s because the strength of their horribleness due to the anger of that single person will easily outweigh a nod, a smile or a ‘thank you’

So disappointing, isn't it?

Same things happened to my son (20) recently. He lives 5 hours away from me. Broke down on a roundabout, he said it was obvious to everyone he had broken down but instead of stopping, people were beeping their horns and pushing past.

Eventually, a (very kind) woman stopped and helped him push the car to a safe spot!

People who do this are scum. I always look to make sure the person is out of the car, standing somewhere safe and on the phone. If they are not, then I would stop to assist. A young man skidded his car in the snow in front of me a few months ago. We slowed right down while his car was in the skid and then stopped to make sure he was okay before continuing on.

Rubber necking twats. Rest in the knowledge that people like this get their comeuppance sooner or later by messing with the wrong vehicle.

Did she have AA? I would have moved away from the roundabout and left the car there and called RAC.

Oh, people become total arseholes when they get in their little metal boxes, total personality transplants!
I noticed a collapsing manhole outside our house (busy main rd) when the water man came to look, it had created a big sinkhole that was hidden and close to collapse so he parked his van so that no one could drive over it until the crew with the digger/traffic lights turned up. The shouted abuse, honking horns etc because he was in a parked in a place tricky to overtake was quite a thing to behold. Should have just let the idiots plummet into the sinkhole!

I'm sorry that happened to her. Unpleasant people are in the minority, thankfully. I hope this is the last time she ever breaks down.