Is dangerous driving becoming a sport?

Archeron

Wondering if anybody else has experienced this.
On my daily journey to work, half the journey is on bendy country roads, and the other half on brand new motorway. Over the past number of weeks, I've noticed that there seems to be some people who are driving dangerously for no reason whatsoever except the fact that they can. I know some people will take risks overtaking, manouvring etc, (not that that justifies it) but I've noticed a trend now to just drive stupidly for fun.
Example one. Road from Summerhill Meath to Kilock, Kildare. Not a terrible road, but not the best either. On two mornings in the past week, I have seen an Irish reg car full of young lads screeching through the village. On both occasions, the car ended up behind me. For some reason, they decided to spend the entire lenght of a straight just outside the town on the wrong side of the road. (they did not look foreign BTW, just looked lie Irish dudes)
Example Two. On the same road, I have seen vehicles weaving on and off the wrong side of the road, again for no apparent reason as no-one is actually overtaking, even though they could if they wanted to. This was kind of weird, because on one occasion there was a van and two cars doing it together, and it looked synchronized!!
Example Three. On a tree lined country road, a Honda civic is inching its nose out because it cant quite see oncoming traffic very well. Fair enough, but when traffic is approaching, the girl driving the car lurches forward, appearing to be pulling out, and when the oncoming traffic slows down/screeches on the road, she pulls back in, laughing!! :eek: I saw her do this 3 times at the one junction on this one occasion.
Is there actually people out there who think that this type of behaviour is fun? Perhaps they have always been out there and I've lived a sheltered life, but it just seems that a lot of the daftness on the roads as of late seems to be utterly pointless.

Bamboozled

No you're right. I stopped driving for 3 months and the difference I noticed on the roads is ridiculous. 3 months is a short space of time but the amount of idiocy (sp?) or maybe lunacy is incredible compared to prior to me stopping driving. There were idiots then, but after i went back driving the idiots seem to have tripled or even quadrupled.

bazz26

I agree. Just yesterday I was driving out to Ennis from Limerick and at the end of the dual carriage way the outside lane narrows until it is no more. Plenty of signs up saying this, so this guy in his 04 Galway reg Passat zooms past me doing about 120kph, he just about squeezes past me on the outside where the two lanes become one forcing me to brake so he could get through. All this so he could end up stuck behind a bus anyway. A stupid pointless risk considering he had his wife and 2 kids in the car with him. Almost another statistic.

Big Balls

On Fri evening heading south on the M50 I witnessed a young guy in one of these new Corollas with a bit of poke in them underake, weave in and out of lanes and drive as close as he could to other drivers to intimidate them into pulling into the inside lane. One driver wouldn't pull over for him so he swerved into the inside lane without realising that two cars in front, someone HAD moved into the inside lane, he was going way too fast to do anything but swerve into the hard shoulder and after spraying dust and grit everywhere he continued up the hard shoulder until he could join the inside lane again.

This continued until he turned off at the Red Cow slip.

If it was you I hope you either a) write your car off and or b) get the head kicked off you by someone you go too far with on the roads.

Henry Ford III

Driving between Ennis and the dual carraigeway at the Clare Inn yesterday.

Car overtakes on a very clearly marked solid lines and chevrons keeping carraigeways apart.

Some really insane stuff going on.

Stark

Scumbags, the lot of them.

Archeron wrote:

Example Three. On a tree lined country road, a Honda civic is inching its nose out because it cant quite see oncoming traffic very well. Fair enough, but when traffic is approaching, the girl driving the car lurches forward, appearing to be pulling out, and when the oncoming traffic slows down/screeches on the road, she pulls back in, laughing!! I saw her do this 3 times at the one junction on this one occasion.

You really should have taken her registration and reported her. If she was just sitting there doing it regularly, she should have been easy enough for the gardaí to catch, as opposed to your usual range of scangers on the road who are out of eyeshot long before you can do anything.

bazz26 wrote:

A stupid pointless risk considering he had his wife and 2 kids in the car with him. Almost another statistic.

Considering he had his immediate genepool with him, it was almost another Darwin award

gibbon75

How about fog lights?It pisses me off,that idiots driving with their front fog lights on,because it looks so good :mad: But the other morning when it was really foggy,and you couldn't see sh*t,noone seemed to bother to turn on their lights even...
Oh,and night when they driving through the city without any lights whatsoever...

Last bank holiday weekend I was driving from Cork to Dingle,and it was a nightmare.These stupid narrow roads (N roads,my a**),no shoulder at all,not mention hard shoulder.I've collected new sratches on the left side of my car,beacuse the oncoming traffic is just driving in the middle of the road :mad:

I drove around 350-400k kms in my short life in various countries,but this is my worst driving experience so far.And I'm not saying it beacuse I'm not a national here,but all the local van and truck driver lads at my girlfriends company are sharing my view,and they driving a lot across Ireland...

Archeron

gibbon75 wrote:

I drove around 350-400k kms in my short life in various countries,but this is my worst driving experience so far.And I'm not saying it beacuse I'm not a national here,but all the local van and truck driver lads at my girlfriends company are sharing my view,and they driving a lot across Ireland...

I agree 100%, I'm genuinely worried at how many people drive in the middle of the road. I know what you mean about the scrapes, the passenger side of my car looks like it was attacked by a rabid tree because of this.

_Kaiser_

Archeron wrote:

I agree 100%, I'm genuinely worried at how many people drive in the middle of the road. I know what you mean about the scrapes, the passenger side of my car looks like it was attacked by a rabid tree because of this.

Whilst not excusing people who do it, a lot of the country roads (and even parts of the N3) are in bits along the hard shoulder. Same situation if you regularly travel a route that has ongoing roadworks. You do automatically start to keep the car in the centre of the lane (not road) as a result in general driving so as not to make junk of your left wheels/suspension.

For an example of what I mean take the backroads from Ballycoolin in Blanch to Finglas and you'll see what I mean. This section is signposted at 80kph btw :eek: and where the roundabout was put in the road just lifts like a rollercoaster and it's like that since the day it was done.

Poor road quality, inappropriate speed limits (both high and low) and lazy/incompetent/mismanaged council (funding) is a big part of it.

Stark

I know the section well. The new parts of the road are beautiful, but some parts are little more than hazardous dirt track. The new parts are marked down to 60kph too :rolleyes:

The damastown road is the same way. I cycle it regularly and often have to dangerously pull closer to the centre of the road due to potholes and debris everywhere. I also arrive into work filthy from all the crap on the road

LostinBlanch

Jaysus Stark,

I hope you don't cycle the Ballycoolin Rd to Finglas. I haven't cycled for a while but I think that anyone that cycles that road has a death wish. That road is just too narrow, bendy and has too much traffic for any bike IMO.

Stark

Oh no. I cycle the Damastown road. If I'm travelling the Ballycoolin to Finglas Road, I take the car.

Sparky

I hate the cnuts that do not bother switching off their high beams when you come around the corner when driving down country roads.
I got so pissed off at one stage that I was flashing the lights and blowing the horn at one car as it passed me.

On another case the post about the civic reminded me about the woman last week that pulled out from a top garage right infront of me. She clearly knew there was traffic coming on my side but was clear on her side, so rather than waiting another while, she decided to go for it.

Stark

Sparky-s wrote:

I hate the cnuts that do not bother switching off their high beams when you come around the corner when driving down country roads.

I remember driving through the Phoenix Park one night. A car drove up quickly then stopped about an inch behind my bumper, tailgating me for a large portion and shining his main headlights causing me to be nearly blinded by my mirror. I felt like doing something stupid but luckily for me I didn't because when he finally overtook me, I saw that it was a garda car. Dick.

Sizzler

Is it a prerequisite that before you buy a Toyota Starlet Galanza (Sh1tbox BTW) that you promise to A) Switch the fog lights on at all times Drive like a dickhead C) Be a skanger D) Squeeze as many of your mates in the car as possible and E) Ignore all speeding limits in housing estates.

Obviously the "garages" that sell these cars have a checklist and you dont qualify unless you promise to fulfill all of the above :rolleyes:

The funny thing is these yoks are made of plastic and crumble if they hit a decent ditch at more than 30mph ! Have insurance companies not recognised the fact that 99.99% of the people that have these cars fall into the above category?

Lemming

Stark wrote:

I remember driving through the Phoenix Park one night. A car drove up quickly then stopped about an inch behind my bumper, tailgating me for a large portion and shining his main headlights causing me to be nearly blinded by my mirror. I felt like doing something stupid but luckily for me I didn't because when he finally overtook me, I saw that it was a garda car. Dick.

Little tip I once had imparted on me regarding the sh*te-bags that do this Stark ... tilt your rear-view mirror. The high-beams reflect back at them and they quickly get the message to stop doing it.

_Kaiser_

Stark wrote:

I remember driving through the Phoenix Park one night. A car drove up quickly then stopped about an inch behind my bumper, tailgating me for a large portion and shining his main headlights causing me to be nearly blinded by my mirror. I felt like doing something stupid but luckily for me I didn't because when he finally overtook me, I saw that it was a garda car. Dick.

I'd have taken the reg and reported it to the superintendent of whatever station it belongs to (quick call to headquarters should determine that).

Just cause they have a badge, some of them think they can go around pulling crap like this and intimidating people. They're forgetting who pays their wages :mad:

Wing Walker

Sizzler wrote:

Is it a prerequisite that before you buy a Toyota Starlet Galanza (Sh1tbox BTW) that you promise to A) Switch the fog lights on at all times Drive like a dickhead C) Be a skanger D) Squeeze as many of your mates in the car as possible and E) Ignore all speeding limits in housing estates.

LOL, it's so true.

I'm not entirely sure if Kaiser hasn't hit the nail on the head with the trying to keep the left hand side of your car in one pieve though. Perhaps that why so many people seem to drive practically on the white lines now? I've a couple of scratches from where I've been forced into the left because of crazy/car protecting driver in the middle of the road.

I just wish sometimes that I had Bond's DB5

stevejazzx

BACK to op

Drive the naas rd. everyday and see so much idiocy, it's hard to take in.
This morning a van driver weaving in and out of lanes mentally, I thought they shooting a movie or something, and whats with the huge trucks now...? in and out of lanes like theres no tomorrow....so I I'm in the middle lane doing 70kmp and a guy comes up behind and starts flashing his lights....he's virtually touching the back of my car he's that close to me...eventually he overtakes me, rolls down his window and calls me a wannkr, nice, and then proceeds to fly off down the road at a mental speed.
But yes the best for last, last week..one morning a peroxide blonde goes around the walikinstown roudabout the wrong way at rush hour in her micra somehow avoiding oncomers who i can only imagine were astonished....as we approached the rounabout I was alongside her and noiticed she was having difficulty, car cutting out etc..as i pulled off to the left I noticed her pulling off to the right...I didn't realise for a second what she'd done...and then i heard the beeps and roars and got a quick glimpse of her at the end weaving into her turnoff...mad stuff altogether....

Archeron

stevejazzx wrote:

BACK to op

But yes the best for last, last week..one morning a peroxide blonde goes around the walikinstown roudabout the wrong way at rush hour in her micra somehow avoiding oncomers who i can only imagine were astonished..

that would have been a sight to behold. Most people hate going round that the right way

stevejazzx

a bit surreal tbh...it's funny until you think jesus she could of killed someone

Sparky

My aunt was telling me the story of her driving through fairview where on the other side of the road two lanes merge into one, well anyway she was explaining the time a old honda was driving on the wrong side of the road, at this time she said she was going through her head that this driver was not going back into his righfull lane, so as a split second decision she seen a gap where cars would park and drove into it. Thus avoided an accident. He just kept on going.
She was so shocked at the event that it took her 5 minutes to get her head back together and drive off again.

From what I could gather from her story, is that the driver either was trying to overtake and then discovered there is nowhere to merge back in, or never seen that the lanes merged and kept on going straight, or was drunk/drugged.

Ive had simular cases myself where other drivers misjudge their overtaking abilities and in return reduce you to either path hog or nearly slow to a stop for fear of a head on collision.