Road rage incident learner driver

TK Lemon

I'm a learner driver and very inexperienced. I was driving with Mr. Lemon in the passenger seat.

We came to a set of traffic lights at the exit of a supermarket. I cut out and missed the green. The man behind did Riverdance on the horn.

Mr. Lemon got out to politely point out that I'm a learner driver. He flew into a rage and roared at Mr Lemon. He said "I was warning her about the effing red light".

Mr. Lemon got back in and I conked out again at the green. He got out of his car and tried to open the door and banged on the window.

He said "I'll punch the fücking head off you if you get out of your car again".

The whole incident had me in tears and it's shaken me.

Why are L plates like a red rag to a bull. Mr. Lemon wants to call the Gardaí but I'm afraid it'll only backlash on us.

Wanderer78

TK Lemon wrote:

Why are L plates like a red rag to a bull. Mr. Lemon wants to call the Gardaí but I'm afraid it'll only backlash on us.

What a crappy experience, I'm driving a good few years, and still regularly cut out, some drivers are complete arseholes. I had a driver do a riverdance during a driving lesson, my instructor proceeded to calmly lean over me to respond with a similar response, twas funny, I got a laugh anyway. You should really inform the gardai, that's unacceptable behaviour, please don't give up the driving, it's worth it, best of luck

Yeah you want to get the reg and report anyone doing that. The fact they’re such a psycho they probably shouldn’t be on the road at all.

Wanderer78

I want tk lemon now, damn you!

Atlantic Dawn

Never ever get out of your car, plenty have ended up dead with this approach. Just ignore the beeping, will annoy them even more.

TherapyBoy

Wanderer78 wrote: »

I want tk lemon now, damn you!

Classic soda-rage!

While ignoring people who sit on their horns works well, this case is different.
Is you have their reg number, then I would report it.

It's not acceptable for that driver to threaten violence against anyone & he needs to know that.

ratracer

The driver was a plank, but Mr Lemon shouldn’t have got out as it only inflamed the situation further.
People are gonna beep at you on the road, it’s a part of motoring, stick with it!

Atlantic Dawn

bubblypop wrote: »

While ignoring people who sit on their horns works well, this case is different.
Is you have their reg number, then I would report it.

It's not acceptable for that driver to threaten violence against anyone & he needs to know that.

The other driver could say he felt under imminent attack from Mr Lemon.

Clare Kat

bubblypop wrote: »

While ignoring people who sit on their horns works well, this case is different.
Is you have their reg number, then I would report it.

It's not acceptable for that driver to threaten violence against anyone & he needs to know that.

Agreed, report him. Sounds like a completely over the top reaction especially as you displayed L plates. Just remember he was once a learner driver. People seem to forget that.

Atlantic Dawn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The other driver could say he felt under imminent attack from Mr Lemon.

He could.
I'm just going by the OP when they said Mr lemon politely pointed out lemon was a learner driver.
Could happen though, that they can say anything. Very true.

Rubberchikken

It's horrible behavior from any driver but don't let it put you off .
Tbh they'll be out there for all the years in the future you'll be driving. Best thing is stay in the car, try to relax and ignore the crappy carry on from such morons.

No one was born knowing how to drive, anyone can cut out any time.
Good luck with the driving.

Truthvader

Useless angry thug. Forget about him. But next time dont get out of car but take reg in future and report Mr Bully

Atlantic Dawn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The other driver could say he felt under imminent attack from Mr Lemon.

Away and ****e.

The “motoring massiv” clique wades in now. The same crew who think it’s ok to go 200km/h everywhere will no doubt think this is ok because nobody should ever get in their way.

granturismo

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The other driver could say he felt under imminent attack from Mr Lemon.

This isnt the USA.

Ta ceist agam

Mr Lemon should have just got out and taken a pic/video of the tossers car and gone straight to Garda ststion, that'll quiten him down. As much as I hate phones, by simply videoing a situation scares tossers like this away!

Marcusm

Sorry that the guy was blowing the horn; that was really unnecessary. Getting out of the car and approaching the other driver was very inadvisable and sounds like it seriously escalated matters. Anyone who approaches my car in this manner would make me think they intended violence. Perhaps that says more about me than Mr Lemon but it certainly did not diffuse the situation. It certainly did not assist you.

Darc19

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Never ever get out of your car, plenty have ended up dead with this approach. Just ignore the beeping, will annoy them even more.

"plenty"

Seriously, a little over the top.

Can you point to one incident in Ireland over the past 20 years.

There have been two I believe in the uk in the past ten years and both led to long prison sentences.

Put it this way, it is HIGHLY unlikely for such outcome. You've a better chance of winning the lottery twice in one week.

Daily mail hysterical nonsense is not something to base your life on.


For the op, 100% make a report to gardai.

JeffKenna

Why was he warning you about the red light? Is there more to the incident than simply stalling at traffic lights?

Mr. Lemon should have stayed in his car, it was aggressive to get out and approach the other driver.

JeffKenna

JeffKenna wrote: »

Why was he warning you about the red light? Is there more to the incident than simply stalling at traffic lights?

Mr. Lemon should have stayed in his car, it was aggressive to get out and approach the other driver.

Probably isn’t any more to it, they’d have said if there was.

But feel free to make up stuff.

JeffKenna

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Probably isn’t any more to it, they’d have said if there was.

But feel free to make up stuff.

So why did the other driver say they were warning the OP about the red lights?

Sam Quentin

Mr Lemon was only trying to defend his missus because he was bitter about the other guy squeezing on the horn.


I know I know sorry but all I can picture is actual Lemons sitting in the car.

GrumpyMe

Darc19 wrote: »

...Seriously, a little over the top...Can you point to one incident in Ireland over the past 20 years...

How about two?



https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/man-beaten-to-death-with-a-hurley-for-slow-driving-26686398.html
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truck-driver-50s-killed-in-apparent-road-rage-incident-36805503.html

mojesius

Dust yourself off and get back behind the wheel. The more you drive, the less you conk out!


I know it's a horrible feeling when something like that happens. On my 4th lesson, I conked out on the north quays and couldn't restart as I panicked. Cue furious beeps galore. I was mightly pissed at the instructor for bringing me into city centre traffic but it's probably the quickest way you learn.

There are a lot of assholes on our roads but the majority of Irish drivers are courteous. When I was less experienced, I used to give drivers like yer man the middle finger but that would usually enflame the situation (eg they'd perform a dangerous overtake/tailgate afterwards).

Now I completely ignore them and it does wonders for your blood pressure.

Vestiapx

GrumpyMe wrote: »

How about two?



https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/man-beaten-to-death-with-a-hurley-for-slow-driving-26686398.html
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/truck-driver-50s-killed-in-apparent-road-rage-incident-36805503.html

Years ago, when I was a learner, I decided I had to go out alone, back when that was allowed! , & just go for it!

Got caught at traffic lights, uphill at a T junction. I was trying to turn right. I
I missed the lights at least twice! Engine cut out.....
I was sweating!!!!
The guy in the car behind me got out & walked up to my window......I was ****ting it, thought he was gonna **** me out of it.........he didnt! He was super nice, told me to relax, helped me to drive, etc etc. I
I got it eventually, all thanks to the driver behind

Ta ceist agam

bubblypop wrote: »

Years ago, when I was a learner, I decided I had to go out alone, back when that was allowed! , & just go for it!

Got caught at traffic lights, uphill at a T junction. I was trying to turn right. I
I missed the lights at least twice! Engine cut out.....
I was sweating!!!!
The guy in the car behind me got out & walked up to my window......I was ****ting it, thought he was gonna **** me out of it.........he didnt! He was super nice, told me to relax, helped me to drive, etc etc. I
I got it eventually, all thanks to the driver behind

We need more of these nice guys!

Del2005

Ta ceist agam wrote: »

Mr Lemon should have just got out and taken a pic/video of the tossers car and gone straight to Garda ststion, that'll quiten him down. As much as I hate phones, by simply videoing a situation scares tossers like this away!

While beeping the horn is illegal, in most circumstances, getting out to record someone beeping their horn is a complete over reaction. The accompanying driver should have been reassuring the learner so that they can pull away not getting out of the car confronting the other driver.

Brian Scan

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The other driver could say he felt under imminent attack from Mr Lemon.

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Away and ****e.

The “motoring massiv” clique wades in now. The same crew who think it’s ok to go 200km/h everywhere will no doubt think this is ok because nobody should ever get in their way.

Well done for completely missing AD's point.

c0rk3r

This is something i can relate to as recently i have started to learn how drive in a manual car. I have a full automatic licence from a different country which i converted into an Irish licence. In the first 2-ish months i was beeped 7 times for not taking off like Nigel Mansell in Silverstone at various lights. My beep to beeped ratio was ridiculous. Now i wanted to get out and point at the L-plate... but to do this would result in a fight which isn't worth it.

When im cycling i despise motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists. When i drive i despise other motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. Its like because people are secure in a car they believe they can behave in any way they like. What all these road users have in common is that they are living, breathing human beings, who we all know can be as*holes. If this pandemic doesnt wipe us out we can be hopeful that the impending climate change disaster followed by a biodiversity collapse will finish us off and we can embrace sweet sweet death. Then we wont have to deal with each other.

Until then, report the driver and continue to take lessons / keep driving. The only way to stop cutting out, embarrassing as it is, is to continue driving and improving. In time, you will become those drivers we all despise.

Best of luck

Ta ceist agam

Or we will soon just be sitting in a car allowing computers and sensors to drive us!

Wanderer78

Ta ceist agam wrote: »

Or we will soon just be sitting in a car allowing computers and sensors to drive us!

probably gonna happen anyway

The chan chan man

When i was learning, 15 years ago, I cut out 4 times and missed the green a few times at the same set of lights. The driver behind me, a blue Audi A4, didn’t budge, didn’t beep and knew what was happening. I was so panicked but am now so grateful and try to pay that forward when an N or L driver cuts out in front of me.

Some people are just arseholes in all aspects of life. Don’t let it put you off. Forget him anyway, you’ll never see him again!

TK Lemon

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the replies so far.

I cut out approaching the lights as they turned green and started panicking when I was getting beeped. So I missed that green light. :embarrassed:

I plan on going out again and hopefully becoming more confident.

Wanderer78

TK Lemon wrote: »

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the replies so far.

I cut out approaching the lights as they turned green and started panicking when I was getting beeped. So I missed that green light. :embarrassed:

I plan on going out again and hopefully becoming more confident.

keep at it, you ll eventually get there, i still want tk lemon though, gonna have to acquire some today, best of luck

Treppen

Surprised nobody has advised a dash cam ! Reporting to cops without video is a waste of time (unless he committed another crime that day).

Just search for " iiwey front and rear dash cam " on Amazon OP. It might save you thousands in the long run too in case of an incident. I got into a 'disagreement' before and just pointed to the dash cam and everything changed.

£35+postage , but probably get an SD card with 64gb space if you want to record good quality picture and audio.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Included-170%C2%B0Wide-Dashboard-Detection-G-Sensor-Black/dp/B07V1NPX9X/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=74670981741&dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqT5BRAPEiwAJlBuBcnR4HbtEPme9eRN1kx3bBG-BygTdGLHB-g1OaRDh51o7hH8IBiR4hoC-oUQAvD_BwE&hvadid=381356735506&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=20489&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=b&hvrand=6878860582190537275&hvtargid=kwd-819310606942&hydadcr=8870_1819972&keywords=iiwey+dash+cam+front+and+rear&qid=1596536761&sr=8-3&tag=hydrukspg-21

Mr tk could fit it himself, just pop it behind the trim all the way to cigarette lighter/usb

YellowBucket

I was in Dublin City Center yesterday and a taxi politely beeped incessantly at me because I slowed on the end phase of an amber light and stopped. Apparently you’re supposed to drive through the reds. He drove up to my bumper to the point the car’s rear sensors started to trigger and kept flashing and beeping.

Unfortunately, some people are complete psychos and shouldn’t be in charge of a car.

Nothing to do with you - don’t take it personally. Just ignore them. You’re not going to be able to solve people’s anger management issues.

LollipopJimmy

My advice would to never ever get out of the car in that situation. Beeping a horn won't hurt or hinder you and little Mr.Nopenis in the car behind is having his rage and pushing himself to a heart attack.

Keep practising and don't worry about a thing.

Treppen

YellowBucket wrote: »

I was in Dublin City Center yesterday and a taxi politely beeped incessantly at me because I slowed on the end phase of an amber light and stopped. Apparently you’re supposed to drive through the reds. He drove up to my bumper to the point the car’s rear sensors started to trigger and kept flashing and beeping.

Unfortunately, some people are complete psychos and shouldn’t be in charge of a car.

When lights go green just wait a few seconds then arm out the window and wave him to overtake.:pac:

But seriously though you never know what's going on with other drivers, they could be in a rush to the hospital with a sick kids or something, or just been fired from a job.

Yester

Something similar happened to me when I was learning. I cut out at a green light and the car behind me kept blowing the horn. I decided I wasn't going any further until he stopped and just sat there blocking the road. He had to go around me for a finish. I know this is not the correct response to someone blowing the horn but feck him. I was a bit shook by the whole experience at the time to be honest. You'd be nervous enough anyway when you are learning. I guess it was a good learning experience as I always give learner drivers all the time they need. I know what it's like.

Samuel T. Cogley

Good lesson. Never get out of the car. Sometimes it takes more willpower than giving up smoking.

iguana

Some people really just are complete twats and total idiots too. Beeping at a learner driver who has just stalled will most probably lead to further delays as the shock or stress will just make it harder for them to drive off.

When I was learning to drive there was a set of lights on a hill that caught me out a couple of times. Once when the lights went green, I stalled. Restarted the car, carefully came up on the clutch and the car behind beeped just as I was getting it and I jumped and stalled. Tried again and just as I was getting it, they beeped and I stalled. Lights went red. The car behind just started beeping like crazy and the driver was clearly very p'd off. I was in a state of complete flight or fight (totally flight) and was half fantasising about just getting out of the car and running away. My dad was with me and helped me calm down and prepare. As the lights were about to go green (I could tell from seeing the opposing lights going amber.) I came up on the clutch, was very gently pressing the accelerator and had my hand on the handbrake ready to release it. The lights went green and the two cars behind me started beeping their horns and I jumped and stalled. I was pretty close to just bursting into tears and the cars behind were beeping and beeping, the drivers and gesticulating out of the windows. My dad was at this point getting seriously pissed off with them because their behaviour was making things so much worse. The lights went red again. The drivers behind went crazy. My next attempt to go on the green light resulted in me rolling slightly backwards when the car behind me drove right up behind me to somehow force me to go. I was completely panicked, my dad roared out the window for them to back off. Then said to me that when the light went red again, we'd swap places. I somehow managed to go completely calm and drove off, just as the light went red behind me and the other two cars were held at it, which was very grimly satisfying.

YellowBucket

Funniest one I’ve ever seen though was in Cork a few years ago. Really agressive driver was doing similar driving up to a car that was very gently stopping at each traffic light and driving gently, but at a reasonable speed, yielding to pedestrians and bikes and so on. Nothing unusual at all but just polite driving.

Car kept driving up to its rear, revving loudly at it when it was at lights and then blasting and flashing.

Car stops. Door opens. Two Gardaí get out.

TheBoyConor

no point reporting to the gardai, or showing videos on the phone.
Gardai aren't going to give a crap. I mean, what do you expect the Gardai to do? Take him to court for blowing the horn and being a cantankerous dickhead?

Just get over it and ignore.

Ta ceist agam

There are some fools on the road.

I was driving in a one way car park and allowed time for a driver to reverse out, and as I could see he was going to turn towards me going the wrong direction I put my window down to warn him.

As I sat there waiting for him to manoeuvre out, I was looking at an arrow going my direction and cars behind me. This driver saw me with my window down , roared his car towards me seni blocking me and as he was in ear shot I said "it's one way" but he screamed at me beeping the horn "you're completely in the wrong you idiot" As he squeezed past other cars behind me all looking at him in bewilderment.

Point of the story is that empty vessels make the most noise, and this is no more apparent than on the roads!

Clare Kat

YellowBucket wrote: »

Funniest one I’ve ever seen though was in Cork a few years ago. Really agressive driver was doing similar driving up to a car that was very gently stopping at each traffic light and driving gently, but at a reasonable speed, yielding to pedestrians and bikes and so on. Nothing unusual at all but just polite driving.

Car kept driving up to its rear, revving loudly at it when it was at lights and then blasting and flashing.

Car stops. Door opens. Two Gardaí get out.

That’s brilliant. I especially love that it happened in Cork.

hoodie6029

Very sorry to hear what happened you. You have a decent enough case as there is two of you to give a statement and he was on his own. It won't look good for him.
TBH, it's not worth the hassle reporting him. Not worth your time, energy and worry.
These guys are all mouth and invariably meet the person who is no mouth and let's their fists do the talking.

My OH was learning to drive a few years ago around Dublin. I took the car out a few times and hadn't taken the L plates down and they way people treated me was despicable. Speeding up to block me. Blowing the horn if I didn't break a light. Driving up behind me really quickly. I don't know what comes over people when they see that plate.

Hopefully this doesn't put you off driving. And if you really hate using a manual gearbox just spring for an automatic. You'll never go back to those antiquated sticks again.

Samuel T. Cogley

TheBoyConor wrote: »

no point reporting to the gardai, or showing videos on the phone.
Gardai aren't going to give a crap. I mean, what do you expect the Gardai to do? Take him to court for blowing the horn and being a cantankerous dickhead?

Just get over it and ignore.

Sadly the way the guy worded it meant it stopped short of a Section 2 Assault. No point in reporting it.

TheBoyConor

Yep. Sure even if he made credible threats of violence against the driver, they Gardai wouldn't want to know. Sure it'll be all he said she said.

Gardai won't want to hear you unless there is actually irrefutable assault.

Gardai have bigger fish to fry than not even handbags at the traffic lights.

Ta ceist agam

There are some fools on the road.

I was driving in a one way car park and allowed time for a driver to reverse out, and as I could see he was going to turn towards me going the wrong direction I put my window down to warn him.

As I sat there waiting for him to manoeuvre out, I was looking at an arrow going my direction and cars behind me. This driver saw me with my window down , roared his car towards me seni blocking me and as he was in ear shot I said "it's one way" but he screamed at me beeping the horn "you're completely in the wrong you idiot" As he squeezed past other cars behind me all looking at him in bewilderment.

Point of the story is that empty vessels make the most noise, and this is no more apparent than on the roads!

galwaytt

For reasons such as this, I think all learners should have front & rear dashcams fitted as a matter of course.