Dangerous overtaking made worse by other driver!

Saruman

Today i was driving home from Blanch to Rochfortbridge (westmeath).
When you come off the M4 you have about 13km of road thats single white line and there is no overtaking.... although there is one stretch of road for about 2km or so thats wide, has a hard shoulder both sides and a good 700mtrs is straight, the rest curves... that some people overtake slow vehicles on sometimes if its safe to do so.

Anyway legally.. no overtaking until you get past Rochfortbridge... before there though there is a smaller village called Milltownpass.

Anyway today there was a Red Audio in front of me and we were both going along nicely till we got to a big truck doing about 60kph or less (limit of 80kph). The audi was rightly pissed off.. we got to the area people overtake on but it was not safe as there were oncoming cars so no overtaking.. this is just before milltownpass (in the galway direction). So after a few windy buts then just before we get in to milltown pass and about 400mtrs from the 60 zone and a traffic calming island the audio guns it and overtakes... this is VERY dangerous.. however what happens next is worse.... the truck driver.. taking exception to this swerves out to the other side of the road forcing the audi into the hard shoulder on the other side of the road and then he goes on and overtakes.. the truck moves back in!! I could not believe what i saw... The audi should get points sure... the truck driver should not only be banned.. he should be done for attempted murder in my oppinion!!!

There are houses along that road.. if a kid had walked out of their home they would have been killed!!!

Complete muppetry...

The i did not get the reg of either... as in i did not take it down too dangerous to write down a number while driving) but the truck was a 01-OY reg with 3 digits.. i think 01-OY-3*9* something like that. It had a fork lift attached to the rear.

gyppo

Know that stretch of road well. There is on old graveyard on the right as you come into Milltownpass from the Dublin direction. Not much room for manouvere there. Imagine a car meeting these pair of clowns.
It would make you sick, some of the carry on that goes on the roads

Saruman

Yes it was just after the graveyard.. there is a turn to the right and he started the overtake just about there... so very little time or space to overtake.. now in fairness there was clear view that nothing was coming in the other direction but still!!

He was an idiot but the trucker was completely off his head!!!!!!! What would have happened if the audi driver had not noticed the swerve and in fact they collided?

ninty9er

Audi driver was stupid, but the trucker was just plain psycho, makes you wonder.

Something similar happened me in a 60 zone a few moths back. An arctic passed me flashing, blowing horn and swerving on rumble strips 400 m from a roundabout.

How do these people still have jobs!!!!

Anyone who's seen the "most appalling driving...." thread can partly guess I was doing 60-62 at the time and slowing for the roundabout


Complete muppetry

Seth Brundle

I had something kindof similar last week on the M4 near Maynooth. I was driving along at the speed limit when I approached two cars doing about 100km/h - one was slowly overtaking the other.
I decided to make a move to overtake as the car overtaking was 2/3 past the other one. There was also a 4*4 booting up the overtaking lane (~160km/h) but far enough away (~150m behind) but nonetheless approaching. I figured that he would have had to slow down anyway so he may as well do so behind me. before anyone jumps on this I was driving safely.
Anyhow, no sooner had I pulled over he started madly flashing me. he was about 100m behind me at this stage. Anyhow by the time he had come up behind me I was already pulling in behind the 1st overtaking car so as to let him pass.
he slowed down when beside me and gave the two fingers and then he pulled over right in front of me (his lights were about about 1 foot in front of my car) and hit the brakes.
Anticipating him I had already slowed down but the screams out of my mother were unreal!

ninty9er

we should have CCTV on the N network and Motorways (which we don't really have anyway since the M50 is really only a dual carriageway with an M before it

unkel

Saruman wrote:

the truck driver.. taking exception to this swerves out to the other side of the road forcing the audi into the hard shoulder on the other side of the road

Unbelievable stuff. Is it me or is this a newish thing, as in the last few years? I've never seen anything quite as bad as that, but I have noticed more aggressive driving by trucks recently where in the past I rarely, if ever saw it

kbannon wrote:

I was already pulling in behind the 1st overtaking car so as to let him pass

That's important. You were not obliged to pull in behind the 1st overtaking car and I bet you would have speeded up back to the speed limit to overtake the 1st overtaking car and after that continue your way back in the driving lane were it not for the aggressive 4WD behind you

You pulled into the driving lane @100km/h behind the 1st overtaking car as this was your first safe opportunity to clear the overtaking lane and let the aggressive driver pass you. That was the safest option you could have taken. I would have done the exact same thing

kbannon wrote:

he slowed down when beside me and gave the two fingers and then he pulled over right in front of me (his lights were about about 1 foot in front of my car) and hit the brakes

Unreal. Asshole, no, way worse than that :mad:

What the hell did he expect of you? I just don't understand. Then again anyone who produces the two fingers is an asshole anyway

Carb

unkel wrote:

Unbelievable stuff. Is it me or is this a newish thing, as in the last few years? I've never seen anything quite as bad as that, but I have noticed more aggressive driving by trucks recently where in the past I rarely, if ever saw it

I've had an 40ft Artic tailgating and flashing his lights at me to get out of the way. He then proceeded to try and undertake me on the hard shoulder. When his cab was up level with the front of my car, he backed off. He finally got to a stretch where a high powered car would be able to pass out a car. He pulled out on to the other side of the road, came up beside me, and swerved in forcing me into the hardshoulder. I wouldn't mind, but I was doing 110kmh in a 100km/h zone. So much for restrictors.

Saruman

Hey i have noticed that.. a lot more trucks recently are faster than they used to be.. its annoying.. they still have to slow down to 50km or so on country roads where there are bends but then where you can overtake them safely they speed up beyond the 80 or 100km speed limit making it impossible to overtake without breaking the law.. not to mention overtaking at that speed on a country road unless its very long and straight

If i had a video camera mounted it would have been great footage.. could have even sold it to one of those Sky "worst driver" shows.

BrianD3

I've also noticed that trucks seem to be going faster these days. 3 possibilities
1) It's my imagination
2) My own speedo is overreading by a big margin so they're not going as fast as I think
3) The restrictors are inacccurate/tampered with etc.

I believe HGV restrictors are supposed to be set to 55 or 56 mph with the actual speed limit being 50 mph. Almost every truck seems to break the limit on good roads and it would appear that many can go faster than their restrictors should allow

Squirrel

The other day on the Tallaght bypass going past the Toyota dealer there I was in the outside lane going past a car on the inside, nothing wrong with that, except for the truck swerving across both lanes behind us. Bearing in mind I've only been driving about 3 months it was pretty unnerving

Wing Walker

Is this the new thing on the M4. Assholes speed up to overtake you, pull back in on top of you and then slow back to approx 100-110? You then go to overtake them again, pull back in when they're behind you and then they start overtaking you again! Then when they overtake you, they slow right down beside you and start shaking the head/making gestures (sp?), then blast off at ~130kph.

It's happened a couple of times with cars, trucks and Bus Eireann coaches! Time to buy a helicopter me thinks!!!

Wing Walker

Squirrel wrote:

The other day on the Tallaght bypass going past the Toyota dealer there I was in the outside lane going past a car on the inside, nothing wrong with that, except for the truck swerving across both lanes behind us. Bearing in mind I've only been driving about 3 months it was pretty unnerving

This seems to be the new thing. I've noticed it with trucks and vans, they weave about behind you and you move out of the way. They then overtake you and start doing the exact same thing to cars in front. Crazy ass driving tbh.

BrianD3

Wing Walker wrote:

Is this the new thing on the M4. Assholes speed up to overtake you, pull back in on top of you and then slow back to approx 100-110? You then go to overtake them again, pull back in when they're behind you and then they start overtaking you again! Then when they overtake you, they slow right down beside you and start shaking the head/making gestures (sp?), then blast off at ~130kph.

It's happened a couple of times with cars, trucks and Bus Eireann coaches! Time to buy a helicopter me thinks!!!

A lot of this is due to idiots not concentrating on what they're doing. Eg they will tend to slow right down when they answer their mobile phone or as they're slobbering an ice cream cone all over their face. Once the distraction is gone they speed back up again. They'll also slow down to a crawl on slight uphill gradients and then speed back up on slight downhills.

The result is that on a 10 mile motorway journey you will often find yourself overtaking and being re-overtaken by the same people several times even though you've been at steady (Within a couple of mph anyway) speed all the time.

conor_mc

Can I hazard a guess that alot of these trucks are dumper trucks?

Maybe it's just me, but they're doing my head in this last couple of years. Artic drivers generally have decent road sense. But when you see one dumper truck overtaking another on a motorway, the take literally 2-3 minutes to complete the maneouvre because they're only doing 2-3 mph more than the inside truck, while 10 cars behind them bunch up dangerously as they all hammer on the brakes from 75mph down to 50ish. And that's just the pointless maneouvres, never mind the ones where they try to move out into a gap that I'd be inclined to let go myself in a car...that's just pure recklessness and idiocy!

Is it just me who gets bothered by this?

Hobbes

I had a horrible one this morning.

Driving on the N3 a car coming onto the road was driving at 50kph. I had to slow right down in the left lane to stop myself from creaming into him. I then had to wait for another car passing on the right before I could attempt to over take (that car is fine).

I overtake them and then pull into the left again. They have totally safe breaking distance. Then they straight away pulled into the right hand lane and sped up (to about 60kph). I was thinking he was planning on overtaking me but he stayed steady at 60kph. So the land hand lane is totally empty beside him when a hi-ace van comes screeching braking behind him to stop themselves smashing into him. He won't pull over so hes flashing his lights at him, finally giving up and having to undertake him.

Totally insane driving by the muppet.

Saruman

Indeed... im sick of idiots hogging the overtaking lane, especially on motorways!!

There is one brand of trucks i notice take more risks than others.. Tesco truckers!!! Its weird but every time i see a tesco trucker they are overtaking another truck holding up traffic on the motorway (this is illegal now!!) and pulling out of minor road junctions instead of waiting for traffic to pass forcing everyone to slow down.. they seem to be of the opinion "im the bigest thing on the road... who do you think will win?" And of course they get away with it because they are the biggest thing on the road and so no one will mess with them!!!!

mloc123

I hate when trucks try to overtake each other on the motorway, they crawl past doing no more than 5mph more than the truck on the inside lane and slow everyone else down. Why do they bother? Its not like they can even pull away from the first truck after passing.

Idleater

Saruman wrote:

There is one brand of trucks i notice take more risks than others.. Tesco truckers!!! ...

Really? I am not doubting your experience of this at all but I have found Tesco truckers to be the nicest and most courteous truckers (and drivers) on the road. They all have the "How's my Driving" plate on the back too which I thought helped.

Anyway, maybe I just have a different experience with them on the bike but they always move out of the way to let me by and wave and let people in infront of them and in my experience they leave adequate distance between them and the vehicle in front (and as a result they have a lot of people pulling in in front of them).


L.

CrowdedHouse

Saruman wrote:

There is one brand of trucks i notice take more risks than others.. Tesco truckers!!!

I thought it was just me that noticed this !

babybundy

if someone tried that with me i'd stop the car go back and give him such a wallop i haven't had that yet but wat i did have is i over took an old fella doing 60 ish he was going up and down the speed limit was 100 as i over took him doing about 80 he kept up so i speed up to about 100 and so did he so i spead up to 120 and so did he well at this point i was rightly pissed and give the car one swerve at him as a warning the then pulled on top of him i think he cliped the step but he backed off it just shows not all the asshol*s on the irish roads are young men oh ya it wasnt a residentual area so if i had run him of the road it would have been safe enough except for him as far as i am concerned it was self defence

Anan1

babybundy wrote:

if someone tried that with me i'd stop the car go back and give him such a wallop i haven't had that yet but wat i did have is i over took an old fella doing 60 ish he was going up and down the speed limit was 100 as i over took him doing about 80 he kept up so i speed up to about 100 and so did he so i spead up to 120 and so did he well at this point i was rightly pissed and give the car one swerve at him as a warning the then pulled on top of him i think he cliped the step but he backed off it just shows not all the asshol*s on the irish roads are young men oh ya it wasnt a residentual area so if i had run him of the road it would have been safe enough except for him as far as i am concerned it was self defence

Perhaps you should try finishing school first.

danger_mouse_tm

As a truck driver myself i may be able to let you in on a few secrets of the trade. Motorway overtaking : Some clown of a politician decided to take the uk law of no overtaking on motorways and apply to our motorways cos he couldn't get over the m50 quick enough. As you may know . British motorways have 3 lanes so its never really a problem when one truck wants to over take another one. Since the introduction of this law i have take a different approach to overtaking on motorways. Firstly, I need at least 10kmh over the truck i am about to over take. That means i can pass in less than 15 seconds.. I may use by CB to call the driver i am about to overtake although i find some drivers (including myself) will knock off the cruise control and wind back the speed if being overtaken by another truck. its better to have a faster truck out front anyway to check the road for speed traps. Secondly, I will try to move out without interfearing with cars coming up on my outside or causing them to slow down. After all I have been threatned by car drivers whom i pulled out ahead of who took great offence to having to reduce their speed to my restricted 90kph. Some trucks do go faster. Limiters can be modefied by pulling fuses out, bending pins in the tachograph or even pushing in the clutch on a decent to let your load push you on. however, I have to say that when i drive from dublin to cork in my truck, it takes three and a half hours. when i do it in my car, it takes three and a quater hours. Now thats over a 270 km journey. So many times i have been overtaken by cars at high speed only to catch up with them in the next town or even see them turning off a short distance up the road. As far as that red audi that you saw on your way home to roachford bridge, i think it was crazy for the lorry driver to adapt this "ill show you" attitude. I've seen it before one Friday night and we were in convoy on our way down to Cork before the cashel bypass opened. There was a straigh stretch along by the stud before it came into some bad bends. We were being ovetaken by a guy in a Saab, who was right up against the trailers and overtaken two at a time. I was ahead of the convoy of 4 trucks and the trucker behind me called out on the CB for me to dipp my headlights so that the guy in the sabb wouldnt be able to see the bad bend up ahead in the hopes that something might come around the corner at him. Could you imagine?? That could have turned out to be some nightmare to be waking up to everynight.

IrishRover

Sounds like you're a good driver Danger Mouse, as are just about all truck drivers I encounter on the roads. Only very occasionally do I see bad driving from a truck driver. I always appreciate how you can tell that the truckers are always well aware of what's happening around them and can read the road well. Very rarely do I see truckers with bad attitudes or bad driving skills, although I don't know if it's my imagination but I've seen a few truckers not driving so great lately.

I think you've got to develop some kind of immunity to the road rage if your job is on the road all the time, otherwise you'll have an aneurism with the stress. That guy trying to orchestrate an accident for the guy in the Saab must be one of the rare bad eggs.

franksm

I never really thought about it to that degree until now, but I guess there's some truth in that - I have never seen an artic driver doing anything daft nor thoughtless.

All of my near-scrapes and taiilgating have come frmo being hounded by fixed-body lorries - which must surely be white-van-man's big ugly brother.

I normally give artics a wide berth, especially on roundabouts - which pi$$es people off behind me when they see me not going up the inside of an artic bending itself around the roundabout. I saw a cement truck go over on its side once on a corner, and that was enough to teach me

Wickedcat

well...lessons we learn on our daily drive. those near accident experiences always gives us reasons to be thankful for the escape and beats our head out to become defensive drivers.;) :cool:

Conar

conor_mc wrote:

Can I hazard a guess that alot of these trucks are dumper trucks?

Maybe it's just me, but they're doing my head in this last couple of years. Artic drivers generally have decent road sense. But when you see one dumper truck overtaking another on a motorway, the take literally 2-3 minutes to complete the maneouvre because they're only doing 2-3 mph more than the inside truck, while 10 cars behind them bunch up dangerously as they all hammer on the brakes from 75mph down to 50ish. And that's just the pointless maneouvres, never mind the ones where they try to move out into a gap that I'd be inclined to let go myself in a car...that's just pure recklessness and idiocy!

Is it just me who gets bothered by this?

Most definitely not just you.
That drives me MAD!
Buses can be quite prone to it too.
I was in France last week and it was great. Trucks simply aren't allowed in the overtaking lanes most of the time.

dudara

Generally, I find truckers to be good, careful and considerate drivers. However, that's not to say that you don't have your cowboys too.

On the road to Galway (from Cork) we came up behind two trucks travelling one after the other. My bf was driving and he was looking out for overtaking opportunities, but it seemed as if the truck in front was deliberately closing the gap so my bf couldn't overtake him. The truck's driving started to get weirder and weirder and we eventually realised that he was tailgating the first truck, trying to intimidate him.

We fell back a good safe distance, deciding that being well behind that moron was the best course of action.

daymobrew

No one has mentioned the Garda TrafficWatch line: 1890-205-805.
I've been ringing it a few times a week this month. Dangerous overtaking, using mobile phone and being distracted, running red lights etc.
Most of the time they get back to me within 24 hours.

I have a notepad handy to note the reg plate, if it is safe to do so (I can write without looking at the notepad; I decypher my scribbles later).

tensecyclist

when drivers (reckless) overtake at a crucial point...they're plainly wishing for sheer luck!..but they'd usually get it!:D