What do about being run off the road by a boy racer?

preilly79

conor_mc wrote:

Not sure I agree entirely with this - what happens if he realises his mistake and tries to tuck back in behind you.... meanwhile you're slowing down and making it more difficult for him to get himself back on the right side of the road.

By changing your speed you throw all the other drivers judgements out the window, be they sound or poor, and you're actively contributing to a dangerous situation.

There's a point of no return though, and once he's past that point in your judgement, hit the brakes.

as another poster has pointed out, what happens comes down to judgement and experience.

the rate at which they are overtaking you will also greatly affect what happens. if they are coming past you at a much greater speed than you are travelling the likelyhood of them braking and pulling in behind you are slim. depending on how fast the other vehicle is approaching, that's not always the best option.

no two situations are alike. but in this situation, when dealing with a boy racer (the kind of driver who tends to take chances) backing off would have been the better option.

regading what the OP said about possibly hitting a another vehicle pulling out of a driveway/side road: good point. but again, it's a judgement call on your part. you can ask yourself "what if ... ?" all the time, but you're sharing the road with other people, a lot of whom haven't a clue how to drive. a lot can happen on the road and you've got to be aware of what is happening around you and base your actions on what you feel is the safest option.

there's so many variables in this equation that no one person can say what should have been done. but IMHO backing off and a call to the gardai should satisfy your needs.

BrianD3

Some good points being made. I agree with the poster who said that drivers who misjudge overtakes rarely abort the maneouvre and fall back in behind the car they're trying to overtake. Instead they gun it and hope to cut in ahead. Obviously there is great potential for carnage in these situations, especially since the overtaking driver is accelerating towards the scene of the crash making any impact much worse.

It's also true that sometimes it's difficult/impossible for them to fall back as before they've completed their overtake the guy behind has started his overtake too and is up their ass. Highly, highly dangerous situation. Even worse if the "lead overtaker" is in a truck as this means that the guy following is on the wrong side of the road and has zero visibility of what's ahead. How the hell can people bring themselevs to do this? I suppose it's similar to people who overtake into dense fog when they can't see a thing. Madness.

Ay Cee

antodeco wrote:

There was a jeep in the middle lane, I was in the fast lane. There was a gap, large enought o fit a car through from my front left and the jeeps rear right. By gap i mean, if the 2 cars were parked, you would drive through slowly, but you would have enough room to fit through, not at 120Kmh though. He drove in between the gap, with me going faster than the jeep. I had no choice but to hit the brakes, otherwise I wouldve been killed for sure, as the jeep would and the car behind me. I jammed on the break and forced myself left onto the rubble on the right hand side of the fast lane. Car behind me swerved left but the jeep was also forced to jam on the breaks, as the primera swerved in front of him again.

All I can say is, luckily I saw him flying him beside me, if I wasnt aware of him, I certainly wouldve crashed

:eek: Fnckin' hell!!!

MrPudding

Kersh wrote:

Lets hope that when he has 'the big one' he only kills himself.
I would report him, then tell us what happens.

Exactly. Natural selection in action. You gotta love Darwin.

MrP

smash

I'd report him, there's a gardai phone number you can call. you see the signs for it on the M50

base2

Theres nothing you can do legally. You did what you could by challenging him.