Overtaking safely......or not?

[Zed 44]

The scene. A car at rolling road block speed - 48 in a 60. A short section of straight road which is clear. One of the few. To pass at a speed not exceeding 60, not possible. To safely pass at 70+ easy.

What does the law say. Don't exceed the posted speed limit. Options. 1. Stay behind the rolling road block 2. Pass not exceeding nsl. Dangerous. 3. Take a chance that you won't get nabbed by the plod. And if you do see the van as you are about to complete the overtake, jam on the brakes and see if the guy you have overtaken is as quick on his.

[Zed 44]

Appreciate the mostly sympathetic replies here.

Since the event, I have tried being a rolling road block myself. It is curiously less stressful for me with an open road in front, albeit with about a dozen cars behind. Curiously none of them seemed to get annoyed. Probably says quite a lot about the demographic of North Norfolk.

Anyway, I'll have to wait for Europe (6 weeks over 3 trips) to enjoy the thrill of driving on proper roads.

[Zed 44]

Andehh said:

I'm always wary about the situation OP details, if it that marginal then how much room is there for the "rolling road block" to suddenly decide to drop a gear and floor it as you pull level...


When I was young and recently on the road I had a van do that to me, a vw transporter type. Went from an acceptable-ish (as per op's question...) overtake to down right hairy one very very quickly.

Never underestimate asshole motorists grasping an opportunity to be bigger assholes.

Don't think this would have been the scenario as:

A. I took a run at the car from some distance back

and

B. Using 600bhp, the car is capable of just over 9 seconds 30-130mph.

...which probably didn't help reaching a somewhat illegal speed of 77mph at the moment of overtake and spotting the visible part of the camera van half hidden by the hedgerow.