Potentially caused a road rage incident
Discussion
Hello,
I'm concerned that I may have been responsible for causing a road incident. (I realise that I'll probably be condemned as a crap driver due to this post).
I was travelling in a 30 MPH residential area along a road with two lanes in each direction. This was previously a 40 MPH zone, and people still tend to treat it as such, so stayed in the near-side lane to allow people to pass.
Further along the road, there are some traffic lights, followed by a roundabout. I needed to take the fourth exit, so was seeking to change to the offside lane.
There was a car in the offside lane driving past me, with a reasonable gap behind between it and the next car. I checked my mirrors, signalled right, performed my final observations and began my manoeuvre.
While doing this, I noticed in my mirrors that the car behind appeared to be closing the gap so I aborted the manoeuvre. As he was driving past he sounded his horn (I sounded mine back, which I know was the wrong thing do), swerved his car in front of me and slammed his brakes on before continuing to the traffic lights..
I held back from the traffic lights (which were at red). Based on what he'd just done and the fact that he was driving around in a battle worn 09 plate Audi A3, I was a bit concerned that he might do something to my car.
When we pulled off from the lights, he was driving quite aggressively, undertaking people and changing lanes without indicating etc. However, I have a lingering feeling of self-doubt and that is that generally speaking, most people don't tend to behave like that without provocation (I haven't ever enacted a so-called punishment manoeuvre).
I intend to further reflect on and learn from the situation - I think that I could have pre-empted the situation better and certainly not escalated it by sounding my horn back at him.
In a worst case scenario (eg if dashcam footage showed that I was on the wrong and was submitted to the police), what kind of conviction would I be looking at (at present I have 19 years driving experience, with no points / convictions)?
I'm concerned that I may have been responsible for causing a road incident. (I realise that I'll probably be condemned as a crap driver due to this post).
I was travelling in a 30 MPH residential area along a road with two lanes in each direction. This was previously a 40 MPH zone, and people still tend to treat it as such, so stayed in the near-side lane to allow people to pass.
Further along the road, there are some traffic lights, followed by a roundabout. I needed to take the fourth exit, so was seeking to change to the offside lane.
There was a car in the offside lane driving past me, with a reasonable gap behind between it and the next car. I checked my mirrors, signalled right, performed my final observations and began my manoeuvre.
While doing this, I noticed in my mirrors that the car behind appeared to be closing the gap so I aborted the manoeuvre. As he was driving past he sounded his horn (I sounded mine back, which I know was the wrong thing do), swerved his car in front of me and slammed his brakes on before continuing to the traffic lights..
I held back from the traffic lights (which were at red). Based on what he'd just done and the fact that he was driving around in a battle worn 09 plate Audi A3, I was a bit concerned that he might do something to my car.
When we pulled off from the lights, he was driving quite aggressively, undertaking people and changing lanes without indicating etc. However, I have a lingering feeling of self-doubt and that is that generally speaking, most people don't tend to behave like that without provocation (I haven't ever enacted a so-called punishment manoeuvre).
I intend to further reflect on and learn from the situation - I think that I could have pre-empted the situation better and certainly not escalated it by sounding my horn back at him.
In a worst case scenario (eg if dashcam footage showed that I was on the wrong and was submitted to the police), what kind of conviction would I be looking at (at present I have 19 years driving experience, with no points / convictions)?
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