Speeding and tailgating in freezing conditions

tech77

I was driving back tonight and it was close to freezing so i was conscious of keeping below the speed limit and not take bends sharply.
I thought other drivers on the road would be doing pretty much the same but man was i wrong..

In a 80mile journey where my car thermometer read 0 degrees most of the way and where i kept below 100kph I witnessed about a dozen cars tailgate me and travel at about 120-130kph. That wouldn't have been so bad but they were all taking corners sharply.
I was positive i'd see one or two in an accident up ahead.

What really made the mind boggle though was when about 5 or 6 of these clowns were held up by an inappropriately slow-moving vehicle a mile or two up the road they wouldn't overtake when it was clearly safe to do so.
So I end up overtaking the lot of them as it was clearly safe to do so (no oncoming traffic, straight stretch etc etc) while all the time still keeping nicely below the limit.
Of course once these fcukers eventually got past the very slow-moving car they're up on my ar$e tailgating again and speeding when they got a clear road again.

I was genuinely puzzled by this behaviour:
1) Why would you speed and tailgate in freezing conditions (you just can't legislate for black-ice etc)
but
2) not overtake an inappropriately slow-moving car when clearly safe to do so.

All i can say is there are some really stupid fcuks out there. :rolleyes:

BrianD3

I was driving this evening as well, TBH I was not too worried about ice forming even though my themometer was reading 0 degrees. I think with experience you get a very good feeling for what conditions will and won't produce ice. Also if you practice smooth driving/progressive use of controls at all times that will carry over well to icy conditions.

Anyway I agree with you about drivers breaking the limit, tailgating and then not overtaking when safe to do so. I think these idiots have a form of tunnel vision where they just concentrate on the small patch of road directly infront of them. If this road is clear they floor it. When they come across a car they drive up its arse but they don't even consider overtaking as they're not thinking about the clear space in front of the car. They also never look at their speedometer, it doesn't register that they were doing 120 km/h a minute ago and have now slowed down to 80 km/h because of the slower vehicle. All they're doing is staring at what's directly in front of their nose. I find that middle aged women drivers (usually with their faces pressed up against the windscreen) are the worst for this

tech77

I was driving this evening as well, TBH I was not too worried about ice forming even though my themometer was reading 0 degrees. I think with experience you get a very good feeling for what conditions will and won't produce ice. Also if you practice smooth driving/progressive use of controls at all times that will carry over well to icy conditions.

Interesting.
TBH it dropped to -1 and -2 in parts so i was wary enough.
And i still witnessed 130-140kph when this was the case.

Anyway I agree with you about drivers breaking the limit, tailgating and then not overtaking when safe to do so. I think these idiots have a form of tunnel vision where they just concentrate on the small patch of road directly infront of them. If this road is clear they floor it. When they come across a car they drive up its arse but they don't even consider overtaking as they're not thinking about the clear space in front of the car. They also never look at their speedometer, it doesn't register that they were doing 120 km/h a minute ago and have now slowed down to 80 km/h because of the slower vehcile. All they're doing is staring a what's directly in front of their nose. I fidn that middle aged women drivers with their faces pressed up against the windscreen are the worst for this

This "fast-slow syndrome" is my biggest bugbear on the road.
Instead of nice, smooth progress.

Multiple overtaking is generally alien to most of these fcuks but speeding and tailgating is second nature.
It just smacks of shortsighted morons behind the wheel (as you describe in your post).