verbally abused by roadwork man
verbally abused by roadwork man
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jessica

Original Poster:

6,321 posts

283 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Had an incident today, basically local road is being re surfaced whilst staying open so traffic lights etc, on one side. get to a through road leading onto the main road. there is a sign saying road closed Access only. but i can see its not blocked in any way and i wanted to drive down it to look at a house for sale. So i drove by looked at house. could see clear at end, so proceed to junction with road with road work and lights on.
to be stopped by a furious workman. (I will call him a Cone putter outer) He starts ffing and jeffing at me calling me a ffing silly b XXXch etc. so agressive i didnt even wind down my window. i dont often get intimidated but this time i was concerned. He then proceed to threaten to get me three fking points on my licence. etc. and started the write down the cars no plate. he refused to give me his name and carried on verbally abusing me. He then wrote down the sponsors numbers on my car(boyfriends car_ he is a racing driver) i couldnt drive off as i was at the head of the traffic Q. So i had to wait for the light to turn green again.
was very stressed........... with afterhthought i should have taken a photo of him or refused to move and called 999.
what should i have done?

I have been back passed and taken the no of the van etc.
Can he really try to get me prosecuted when it was a geniune mistake. i couldnt turn around at this point, so just had to sit there and listen to his torraid of abuse.
I reckon he was piddled off with others doing this and saw me as a woman as an easy target.

should i report him to his company for verbal abuse?
or should i just let it ride.

Monki

1,233 posts

222 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Report it to his company and then let them know you are informing the police, and then do that smile

Ok you made a mistake, but there's no need to be abusive towards you. Same happened to my sister a year ago and luckily I was in the car behind (following her to an mot) so managed to sort the chap out.

Sorry to hear of the incident, problem is that it doesn't require much brainpower to put a cone out I guess!

Davey S2

13,394 posts

285 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?


anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
And breath! Just put it down to experience and call it a draw - you were in the wrong but he overreacted.

He'll do nowt and has no proof anyyway!

ZR1cliff

17,999 posts

280 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
He should have done his job properly and put out more road signs to make things clearer to motorists. I hope he's got an NVQ in traffic managementwink


You girls will do anything to look at a house for sale biggrin

robbyh_1

54 posts

227 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
tank drive this at him ..........

ludo

5,308 posts

235 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
If she was driving down the road to view a house for sale, that counts as the "access" in "access only".

This should be reported, any company should be informed about theor employees acting in an unneccesarily abusive and intimidatory manner.

Blib

48,363 posts

228 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
Yes, I agree. Had you obeyed the sign then you would not have encountered the workman. The sign was referring to you you know. Not just everyone else.

sanshou1

89 posts

227 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
I very much doubt 'cone putter outer' would have the ability to get you 3 points, I would definately report him to his company. However it may just fall on deaf ears. I work in the utilities industry (and shame on me) we have to close roads now and again. I have never heard of any of our gangers get points on peoples licences.

Make a complaint It may lead to some action, letters are usually better than phone calls in my experience.

Matt

jessica

Original Poster:

6,321 posts

283 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
but the road wasnt closed as in coned off totally. and cars were allowed down it the other way so i have no idea why i was the target for this aggression

randomman

2,215 posts

220 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Aside from ignoring a sign on her majesty's highway you did everything right.

No person at work should use foul language, complain as much as you can, report it to the police etc

zcacogp

11,239 posts

275 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Monki said:
Report it to his company and then let them know you are informing the police, and then do that smile

Ok you made a mistake, but there's no need to be abusive towards you.
This man's on the money.

And if he was working on a road (as opposed to a private driveway) at the time, make a formal complaint to the council responsible for the area in question, as he will be either council employee (unlikely) or contract staff.

Ensure that you DO inform the police, and that you DO complain to both his company and the council. Letting this sort of thing happen unchallenged is the short road to openly permitting it.


Oli.

anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
ludo said:
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
If she was driving down the road to view a house for sale, that counts as the "access" in "access only".

This should be reported, any company should be informed about theor employees acting in an unneccesarily abusive and intimidatory manner.
I'd re-read the OP thread. She went right through the road to exit at the other end!!!

esselte

14,626 posts

298 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Blib said:
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
Yes, I agree. Had you obeyed the sign then you would not have encountered the workman. The sign was referring to you you know. Not just everyone else.
But what if you actually need access to the road described as "Access Only" ? As I understodd the OP to mean....

Timsta

2,779 posts

277 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Blib said:
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
Yes, I agree. Had you obeyed the sign then you would not have encountered the workman. The sign was referring to you you know. Not just everyone else.
Access only

She did obey the sign. She required access.

Blib

48,363 posts

228 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
ludo said:
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
If she was driving down the road to view a house for sale, that counts as the "access" in "access only".

This should be reported, any company should be informed about theor employees acting in an unneccesarily abusive and intimidatory manner.
I think that 'access only' refers to the owners of the property who need to get to and from their homes or businesses. Extending it to those who want to gawp at a house or other trivial things would mean that any and everyone would have just cause to ignore the 'road closed' sign.


philthy

4,697 posts

271 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
So you ignored a traffic order by "mistake" but admit that "you could see it was clear", and got caught out.
I'd chalk this one down to experience, and don't drive up any more road closures. It sounds like he overreacted, but if you hadn't driven down there, he wouldn't have had the opportunity.

NiceCupOfTea

25,607 posts

282 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Can't quite work out what you mean from your description but I should think it's his word against yours.

215cu

2,956 posts

241 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
jessica said:
Had an incident today, basically local road is being re surfaced whilst staying open so traffic lights etc, on one side. get to a through road leading onto the main road. there is a sign saying road closed Access only. but i can see its not blocked in any way and i wanted to drive down it to look at a house for sale. So i drove by looked at house. could see clear at end, so proceed to junction with road with road work and lights on.
to be stopped by a furious workman. (I will call him a Cone putter outer) He starts ffing and jeffing at me calling me a ffing silly b XXXch etc. so agressive i didnt even wind down my window. i dont often get intimidated but this time i was concerned. He then proceed to threaten to get me three fking points on my licence. etc. and started the write down the cars no plate. he refused to give me his name and carried on verbally abusing me. He then wrote down the sponsors numbers on my car(boyfriends car_ he is a racing driver) i couldnt drive off as i was at the head of the traffic Q. So i had to wait for the light to turn green again.
was very stressed........... with afterhthought i should have taken a photo of him or refused to move and called 999.
what should i have done?

I have been back passed and taken the no of the van etc.
Can he really try to get me prosecuted when it was a geniune mistake. i couldnt turn around at this point, so just had to sit there and listen to his torraid of abuse.
I reckon he was piddled off with others doing this and saw me as a woman as an easy target.

should i report him to his company for verbal abuse?
or should i just let it ride.
Report it.

My 4-months pregnant wife was treated to something similar a couple of weeks ago. Road half closed, side roads 'access only' she went down one to use the newsagents, got chased by an 'operative' who told her it wasn't for 'popping to the shops' which was interpersed with plenty of expletives and assignation as to the parentage of the child.

She got the contractor and the road name and was really shook up, there's were tears at home.

Rang through to the council, reported the contractor and road name and left it in no uncertain terms that they had 72 hours to take action and report back or I would be reporting the contractor to the Police.

I got a letter back from the Clerk of Works office of the contractor apologising unreservedly and that appropriate steps had been taken. A Roads & Traffic officer also called to say they had words with the contractor as well.

I suggest you do the same, most contractors just get on with the job, these are just ill-educated oafs that need taking down a peg or two. If people let this kind of thing slide, they keep doing it.

anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 31st July 2008
quotequote all
Timsta said:
Blib said:
Davey S2 said:
jessica said:
what should i have done?
Not driven down a road which had big 'Road Closed' signs at the start of it?
Yes, I agree. Had you obeyed the sign then you would not have encountered the workman. The sign was referring to you you know. Not just everyone else.
Access only

She did obey the sign. She required access.
BUt she said she went right through the road to exit at the other end. That's not just access is it?
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