Road Rage

nogoodnamesleft

Hi all,

Just wanted to know your opinion on what I should do?

Anyway here is what happened. Was drivin home earlier this evening alone after jog. I was behind another car on a straight with a brow of a hill approaching. Something in my right hand mirror caught my attention. next thing a fiat proceeded to cut me off. Voicing my extreme dissatifaction (putting it lightly) at this type of driving a put my hand on the horn and left it there for bout 10secs as this particular streach of road has claimed 3 lives in the last year and a half or so. He then braked and pulled to the left and started to jesture. I flicked him the finger and just drove on. Over the next mile or so he followed flashing lights etc. I just ignored it and continued on my way. he then took the same turn off i took and as i approached the next junction he overtook within a 30 and v near the junction, pulled in front of my car and forced me to stop. He then got out of the car. I checked behind me and put the car in reverse and stuck it in gear and drove forward and opened a bit of space to manovure as the cars were that close. As it was quiet narrow (im living in the country) i pulled along aside (this is now on the wrong side of the road). He made an attempt to open the passenger door put i just hit the central locking button. anyway i Opened the offside window and had a few words. He asked if i had a prob" this comming for the lad who is after forcing me to stop. I told him he was after cutting me off and there was no need etc. He said that he didnt cut me off but that I was too close to the car in front for him to pull in!!! I always though that when you overtook some1 that you made sure that 1) it was safe to continue the manovure and 2) you had sufficent space to pull in after you overtook!. rather than talking **** to some knob jockey while i was on the wrong side of the road I just said left it at that at i know that in situations like that if you get out of the car your also at fault. I only have a vague description of the car and the driver. Should i go to the gardai and make a complaint?

projectmayhem

what would the gards do? seriously they've got a vague description of a guy involved in road rage. both of you took a stupid incident way out of proportion... you can complain all you want but in reality all you'll be doing is giving more paperwork to the gards

Duff Man Jr.

If you have his reg repot him to thast hotline for dangerous driving. I really doubt the gaurds would do antything.

I told him he was after cutting me off and there was no need etc. He said that he didnt cut me off but that I was too close to the car in front for him to pull in

There is no point in trying to talk to these people, your responce should have been " F*** off you w***er" Just keep cursing at him and dont give him a chance to respond, and slag his car.

OMcGovern

A vaguely similar thing happened to me, and I did report it to the Guards.
I even gave a reg number, but they said it didn't match the car colour & model I gave.... and they dismissed it. It was a traveller driving the car... probably with false plates... he threatened to follow me home, and I drove straight to the Gardai station.

Face it..... you leant on the horn for 10 seconds. That could be classified as road rage too. Road rage isn't just physical violence, it's losing the head.
You were both guilty of that.

A lot of guys are guilty of aggressive driving, and that includes driving close enough to the car in front to be able to "defend" against overtakers or lane changers.

In summary, you should've either took the guys reg number and reported him,
or held your temper. Call it a learning experience.

nogoodnamesleft

Was thinking that i kinda over reacted a small bit in retrospect . Could have been worse could have forced d other car to stop :rolleyes: Ah sure ill know better next time ill put it down to experence. Thanks for yer advice anyway.

overdriver

You know what? I have found nothing smokes these guys up more than ignoring them. Also I gave an undercover cop the finger, and the excuse to pull me over and hassle me. Better to ignore.
By far.

ballooba

Well, next time you might leave a bit of space between you and the car in front unless you are going to overtake them.

Laredo

ballooba wrote:

Well, next time you might leave a bit of space between you and the car in front unless you are going to overtake them.

Good point.

To the OP: unless you were driving at sub 20mph you should have left more than enough distance to the car in front for someone to pull in.

Yes the guy was an agressive moron but you were not completely blameless either, as long as there was a broken line and he had enough room to pass you then he should have been able to slot in between you and the car infront.

Also how much attention were you paying if the first time you noticed the car was when it was passing you?

I have had tossers intentionally closing gaps on me when overtaking, a very dangerous thing to do but I suppose daring to pass them was reason enough in their eyes. I really felt like pulling them over and handing out a good beating.

C_Breeze

no offence but you were the idiot for balsting on the horn for 10 seconds. you can just as effectyvely express your dissatisfaction by 2 small beeps. plus the fact that you never know who you are beeping at in the fitrst place.
Stupid move on your behalf , especially for what he did to "disatisfy" you in the first place

PRENDO

ths very little the gardi can do but you should report it so there will be a record of the incident and if you meet this guy on the road again the law will be on your side if there is an incident.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

nogoodnamesleft wrote:

I was behind another car on a straight with a brow of a hill approaching. Something in my right hand mirror caught my attention. next thing a fiat proceeded to cut me off.

how do you mean "cut you off" is it that he was overtaken you and tried to pull in in front of you...

also "Something in my right hand mirror caught my attention" did he come out of thin air or didn't you look in your rear view for a while...

by the sounds of it, you were the one in the wrong... you started the rage with you flashing of lights when he pulled in in front of you ( completely legal )

he pulled in to see what the problem was and you race past him giving him the finger...

i would say your a lucky boy he didn't boot the fu@k out of you, and to be honest you deserved it.

nogoodnamesleft

I accept and im not disputing that fact that lost the plot I am also partly to blame for the incident. But how does that justify following some1 for over 2miles and dangerously forcing them to stop their car? Never mind tryin to open the passengers door? No matter how pi**ed off id get i wouldnt go that far.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

nogoodnamesleft wrote:

I accept and im not disputing that fact that lost the plot I am also partly to blame for the incident. But how does that justify following some1 for over 2miles and dangerously forcing them to stop their car? Never mind tryin to open the passengers door? No matter how pi**ed off id get i wouldnt go that far.

well you did blow your horn for a while when he did nothing wrong ( i presume you allow people to over take you) ... then when he stopped to find out what was wrong, you pulled off giving him the finger... what did you expect a bunch of flowers.

nogoodnamesleft

I have no prob with people over takin me but he cut me off. Thats why blew d horn. I had left a gap between me and the car in front "2second rule" to allow me sufficent space to brake in an emergency. He pulled the d left jesturing and I reciprocated. Most people would just leave it at that.

fatboypee

I'm sorry, but I'm totally in agreement with the OP on this one. I drive the N7 on a very regular basis. I try to leave considerable distance between myself and the driver in front wherever I am able, yet time and time and time and time again I experience little sh1tty gits in souped up little shopping trollies overtaking me, ghosting in front of me so I very clearly see the brake lights and cutting down my safe stopping distance to less than the one-one-thousand (traffic slowing) often forcing me to brake to give distanc again.

Very often then pr1cks are driving so fast they have little or no option than to cut my distance down radically or slam headlong into the oncoming vehicle, braking hard to avoid hitting the guy in front of me at the same time.

I personally take great offence at my stopping distance being cut from under me, (especially when I'm travelling with my kids in the car) in this manner and I would be equally as vocal if it happened to me.

NOBODY has the right to overtake where doing so endangers the safety of other road users, what the OP described to me is wreckless driving which impacts his safety and he has EVERY right to voice his outrage. Once off, let it go, but every ofther fkking day this kind of bad driving occurs, we see it in the statistics read out every month on the news in the shape of deaths.

Fatboy.

cpoh1

Fatboy,

There's a big difference between inconveniencing other road users and endangering other road users. If you are obeying the 2 second rule and travelling in tandem with the car in front at 60mph then the gap will be roughly 50m, this is a completely safe gap to pull into in my opinion. My advice to you, get off your high horse.

RiderOnTheStorm

i totally agree with fatboy and OP. Dangerous driving has to expect a response from those that are driving correctly. To those posters that auto think to find fault with OP, well, you are just begrudgers of the highest order. There was enough space for the overtaker to pull in between OP and car in front, as evidenced by the fact that he did it. Because later he (overtaker) claimed there wasnt enough space is just an a-hole trying to justify his manoeuvre, or shift the blame to the OP. As for the week point of 'how often do you look in your mirror' .... some of these racers are traveling at such speed that if you are unlucky, you can not see them coming even if you are looking every 5 - 10 - 15 seconds..... you cant drive looking in your mirrors all the time!

why is the onus on the law-abiding driver to bite his tongue when other drivers recklesly put our lives in danger? maybe 2 toots on the horn will make them change their ways.............

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

cpoh1 wrote:

Fatboy,

There's a big difference between inconveniencing other road users and endangering other road users. If you are obeying the 2 second rule and travelling in tandem with the car in front at 60mph then the gap will be roughly 50m, this is a completely safe gap to pull into in my opinion. My advice to you, get off your high horse.

your spot on.

i think the problem here is people here don't like been overtaken when they don't have the balls or power to overtake themselves.

so what are they saying no overtaken at all ???? seems strange.

nogoodnamesleft

Who said I was travelling at 60mph? at most the car in front was doing 45 -50mph. I was actually planning in overtaking him at the next SAFE opportunity as i know the road quiet well. As for the last posters comment about not having the power to overtake the other car in question was a Fiat Punto!!

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

nogoodnamesleft wrote:

I was behind another car on a straight with a brow of a hill approaching.

nogoodnamesleft wrote:

at most the car in front was doing 45 -50mph.

the mind boggles...

fatboypee

cpoh1 wrote:

Fatboy,

There's a big difference between inconveniencing other road users and endangering other road users. If you are obeying the 2 second rule and travelling in tandem with the car in front at 60mph then the gap will be roughly 50m, this is a completely safe gap to pull into in my opinion. My advice to you, get off your high horse.

This kind of rhetoric does make me smile. I'm on no high horse. I wholly agree, if the manoever is completed safely and does not force me to brake sharply then I take no issue, perfectly fine and dandy, sadly however, very often the overtaking car is still pushing the wire when the traffic is slowing and every cars distance is dramatically slowed and I still get ghosted because some twat wants to get one car in front.

I have taken and passed my advanced driving exam, I'm no fuddy duddy, yet I drive within the law and within the limits. I don't honestly think its too much to hope for that other road users do the same.

We all went thru the go-faster or fastest stage.

Some of us, however, grew up.

Fatboy.

fletch

fatboypee wrote:

I'm sorry, but I'm totally in agreement with the OP on this one. I drive the N7 on a very regular basis. I try to leave considerable distance between myself and the driver in front wherever I am able, yet time and time and time and time again I experience little sh1tty gits in souped up little shopping trollies overtaking me, ghosting in front of me so I very clearly see the brake lights and cutting down my safe stopping distance to less than the one-one-thousand (traffic slowing) often forcing me to brake to give distanc again.

Very often then pr1cks are driving so fast they have little or no option than to cut my distance down radically or slam headlong into the oncoming vehicle, braking hard to avoid hitting the guy in front of me at the same time.

I personally take great offence at my stopping distance being cut from under me, (especially when I'm travelling with my kids in the car) in this manner and I would be equally as vocal if it happened to me.

NOBODY has the right to overtake where doing so endangers the safety of other road users, what the OP described to me is wreckless driving which impacts his safety and he has EVERY right to voice his outrage. Once off, let it go, but every ofther fkking day this kind of bad driving occurs, we see it in the statistics read out every month on the news in the shape of deaths.

Fatboy.

Would you rather that the person behind attempted to overtake you and the car in front (and possibly the car in front of that, and the car in front of that etc) all at once? Or do you think it would be safer for everyone to just sit there in a big long train of traffic lemmings style? It sounds to me like you are not leaving a sufficient gap between you and the car in front.

nogoodnamesleft

if you read the previous post i was actually planning in overtakin the car at the next safe opportunity. It is the overtakings car responsibility to make sure it is safe for himself and other road users to overtake BEFORE to he even performs the manoverue.

fatboypee

fletch wrote:

Would you rather that the person behind attempted to overtake you and the car in front (and possibly the car in front of that, and the car in front of that etc) all at once? Or do you think it would be safer for everyone to just sit there in a big long train of traffic lemmings style? It sounds to me like you are not leaving a sufficient gap between you and the car in front.

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand your point ?

The issue here is about overtaking dangerously or at inappropriate times. I leave sufficient distance to allow my car to stop. Very often the overtaking car will not heed the conditions or speed of the traffic and will commit a manoever that forces me to brake (often violently if the traffic dramatically slows whilst the overtaking car is parallel) to let the same distance again.

This is not a safe monoever and heeds no conscience for the safetly of other road users who do not have the same death-wish approach to motoring.

I'm fine with people overtaking, but do it properly,safely and at the right time eh ???

Fatboy

cpoh1

fatboypee wrote:

This kind of rhetoric does make me smile. I'm on no high horse. I wholly agree, if the manoever is completed safely and does not force me to brake sharply then I take no issue, perfectly fine and dandy, sadly however, very often the overtaking car is still pushing the wire when the traffic is slowing and every cars distance is dramatically slowed and I still get ghosted because some twat wants to get one car in front.

I have taken and passed my advanced driving exam, I'm no fuddy duddy, yet I drive within the law and within the limits. I don't honestly think its too much to hope for that other road users do the same.

We all went thru the go-faster or fastest stage.

Some of us, however, grew up.

Fatboy.

Help me out here, you were doing the speed limit and keeping the 2 second rule or so you say. How then are you caused to slam on the brakes when a fella overtakes you with a gap of over 50m in front of you?

All your post above is completely off topic. Youre moaning about racers and people growing up, from what I can see if you really are maintaining a gap of 2 seconds (or 50m at this speed) then it is perfectly safe to overtake you on a straight road.

fatboypee wrote:

I personally take great offence at my stopping distance being cut from under me, (especially when I'm travelling with my kids in the car) in this manner and I would be equally as vocal if it happened to me.

To me this quote says it all, like I said get donw off your high horse...

fatboypee

cpoh1 wrote:

Help me out here, you were doing the speed limit and keeping the 2 second rule or so you say. How then are you caused to slam on the brakes when a fella overtakes you with a gap of over 50m in front of you?

All your post above is completely off topic. Youre moaning about racers and people growing up, from what I can see if you really are maintaining a gap of 2 seconds (or 50m at this speed) then it is perfectly safe to overtake you on a straight road.



To me this quote says it all, like I said get donw off your high horse...

How many times do I need to say this ? If the manoever is done safely, i've no issue. if there is sufficient distance and I've no need to brake abnormally then I've no issue.

My point is this:

All too often the manoever is attempted at a very bad point on the road or is executed poorly leaving me to brake hard as the traffic has slowed (or worse the overtaking car cuts in far too close to me while executing the manoever)

I fail to see how this rational approach to what is clearly a dangerous occuptation (driving) puts me on a high horse ? Just because I take issue with the general point of bad driving does not make me aloof in any form and from my point of view, justifying such manoevers is purely indicative of this kind of problem !!!

Fatboy.

Gregor Samsa

cpoh1 wrote:

Help me out here, you were doing the speed limit and keeping the 2 second rule or so you say. How then are you caused to slam on the brakes when a fella overtakes you with a gap of over 50m in front of you?

I've had people who've overtaken me when there was a clear road ahead of me and still manage to cut right in on me, causing me to brake suddenly. The last time it happened (dual carrageway, me in the left lane, nothing in the right forcing the overtaking guy in on top of me, me NOT accelerating - I don't mind people overtaking me), I blasted my horn, and got the fingers for my trouble.

Not the OP, so I don't know if it's the same as his situation, but there you go. I can, and does, happen.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

fletch wrote:

Would you rather that the person behind attempted to overtake you and the car in front (and possibly the car in front of that, and the car in front of that etc) all at once? Or do you think it would be safer for everyone to just sit there in a big long train of traffic lemmings style?

very good point.

i telling ya, those people just don't want anybody to overtake them....they are the same people who sit in the overtaking lane for days on end.

Giruilla

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ wrote:

very good point.

i telling ya, those people just don't want anybody to overtake them....they are the same people who sit in the overtaking lane for days on end.

If you actually read their post, those people just don't want anybody to ovetake them dangerously!

mike65

Right take this as a general warning - any more hostile attacks on fellow posters will result in a BAN.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ and cpoh1 I'm looking at you two in particular while C_Breeze also catching my eye for the wrong reasons.

If you can't express yourselves without resorting to abuse then I suggest you find a more appropriate forum for your 'talents'

Mike.

cpoh1

mike65 wrote:

Right take this as a general warning - any more hostile attacks on fellow posters will result in a BAN.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/ and cpoh1 I'm looking at you two in particular while C_Breeze also catching my eye for the wrong reasons.

If you can't express yourselves without resorting to abuse then I suggest you find a more appropriate forum for your 'talents'

Mike.

Show me exactly where im giving anybody any abuse in this thread

Now if if asking someone to get down off their high horse constitutes as abuse then maybe I shouldnt be saying the same thing to you but what the heck...

maybe you should get down off that black beauty of your own...