Amazing acts of driving stupidity.

[TUS 373]

I really used to enjoy driving, but of late it has become a necessity rather than a pleasure, and one that seems tainted with incredible danger.

Last Friday afternoon, I drove from London back to West Yorkshire up the M1. There were two incidents where cars had shunted in the outside lane, one necessitating a large and inconvenient diversion for me through Nottingham at rush hour. Another happened around 10 cars in front of me, when there was a 40mph temporary speed limit imposed. These cars still managed to make contact with one another bringing the outsde lane to a standstill, with other traffic coming from behind not being able to know what had just happened. I lost count of the heavy tyre marks I could see in the outside lane on the M1, where drivers had braked heavily to avoid the car in front, swerving in towards the central reservation.

In Huddersfield, there is a road where 2 lanes filter into one. The driver next to me refused to adopt a "filter in turn" and deliberately paralled me forcing me to stop hard. He then proceeded to overtake a queue at a roundabout, cutting into the traffic on the roadbout to go straight ahead. It just so happened that my route home followed his, and I now know where the driver of this car lives. I have the registration and address.

Saturday morning, 0830, heading along a quiet B road towards a mini roundabout that is tricky at the best of times. Chap in a pickup truck hurtles past doing something like 60-70mph in a 40 mph zone, overtaking myself and a car in front on the wrong side of the road as we are approaching a right turn lane, only to get past us heading into oncoming traffic, driving straight over the roadabout, without so much as an application of the brakes. He could quite easily have had a head on collision if anyone else had come onto that roundabout at the time.

Week before last, an absoulte looney decides to overtake a lorry (uphill) in the oncoming traffic, coming towards me absolutely head on, but with no where to go. He cannot get past the lorry, and causes him and me to do emergency stops so we don't collide head on. That was a manoeuvre that was frankly ridiculous, I could not believe it would even be attempted. It left me shaking because it was so close, and we could have collided with a closing speed of 80 mph had we not both slammed on. His car stopped facing my car about 6 feet away, on the wrong side of the road, and the oncoming traffic had to stop to let him back in.

These things have all happened recently, in the dark. They would certainly not have been 'accidents', but rather incidents down to these drivers driving without due care, and in the last two instances, wrecklessly. If I had an in car camera-video system, it would have made scary viewing. I take it though that if I was able to produce evidence and registration numbers, the Police would probably not have the resources to do anything at all, especially where a collision did not result.

There are real muppets out there, and seemingly more so at this time of the year. So take it easily everyone, be aware that they are there, and don't get involved.

[tezzer]

It is, unfortunately becoming increasingly common as driving standards continue to decline. I see more and more blatant acts of selfish driving, and as a old git now, it annoys me intensley, not least because I have two daughters in their 20s driving, at the mercy of these tts !