Nearly killed again....sigh!

mike65

I dunno, you travel hundreds of miles a week then nearly get crashed into 3 miles from home! :mad:

Tonight at about 5.45 I was on the N25 approaching Waterford at the Holy Cross junction when a small Opel/Ford combi type van pulled out of the side road and nearly into me who was doing 55-ish, luckily he saw me and I him just in time. He braked hard, I lurched to the right and that was that...the old dear handled the manovuer with some aplomb...

As for Mr "I cant wait to get home in this foul weather so I'll put me and someone else in danger" I hope you learnt something from tonights little episode.


But I doubt it somehow....

Mike.

DMC

I trust the valetting bill wont be too much, Mike....

rymus

To make you feel somewhat better.... at least you werent driving around the mountains in the ring of Kerry (from Sneem to Waterville) in strong winds, absolute pissing rain and fog that left about 5ft visibility. Now that was a brown pants experience.

Victor

Originally posted by DMC
I trust the valetting bill wont be too much, Mike....

You mean dry cleaning surely?

Was driven Dublin - Cork by the brother. I'm a nervous passenger (for good reasons). Nearly tail-ended a guy being towed in Tallaght and another doing 40mph on the Kildare Bypass (country gent, complete with hat), stopped well over the line on a roundabout with a 4x4 coming towards us and nearly got rear-ended by someone coming out of an opposite exit as we left the petrol station.

PS also overtaking incident where truck pulled **mostly** into the hard shoulder to allow brother overtake, while a quarter mile away another truck allowed another car do the same in the opposite direction. Lane discipline was life saving.

DMC

Originally posted by Victor
You mean dry cleaning surely?

No, clothes can be easily washed in a washing machine or dry cleaning. Its when its gone too far into the seat fabric, then you have issues.....

mike65

Originally posted by DMC
Its when its gone too far into the seat fabric, then you have issues.....

My interior is black on black which hides just about everything - except the smell! :eek:

Mike.

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by mike65
My interior is black on black which hides just about everything - except the smell! :eek:
Mike.

www.homemadesimple.com/febreze/usfebreze.shtml

Atomic Pineapple

have seen idiots overtaking on corners with cars coming in the opposite direction having to pull into the hard at the very last second, i mean what goes through these peoples heads when they do these things?

was driving along one day and this idiot boy racer went to overtake me with a car coming in the other direction, must have been short sighted cos any ejit would have seen the car coming, i had to pull into the hard shoulder to let him by safely, safe to say i gave him a few one fingered gestures

nlgbbbblth

I don't know how you people do it

train and bus are far safer

Redshift

I'll give you a good one, Back in November I was heading down to dungarvan late one evening to commission a job the next day you might remember the evening there was a bad storm over most of the country it was an attrocious night for driving with really heavy rain and high winds I had the wipers on max and they still couldn't keep up. Anyway I was on a fairly good road doing about 40 I suppose the limit was 60 but with the conditions you couldn't even approach it. I was getting along ok when I got massive fright as I nearly rear ended a Black Fiat punto with no rear lights doing about 20 MPH The only thing I saw was his reg plate gleaming back at me through the rain at the last minute. In the heal of the hunt I ended up on the far side of the road facing the opposite direction I don't know how I hit nothing there was no oncomming traffic thankfully and as I lost it I just let everything go as I was trained to do until she righted herself. I was really shaken by it and I just had to pull in for a while untill I calmed down so I never caught up with the idiot in the punto. I wondered after how people could be so reckless as to drive a car like that especially given the weather conditions even if they had been caught out by an electrical fault they could at least drive with there hazards or fog lights on but there is no exuse for that behaviour.

That was one of my many encounters with complete idiots driving on our roads, Like mike I drive alot for work so I come across them all to often.

Cheers

Ryan

ZENER

Phew . . Close one Redshift. Have to say though Puntos without rear light are not unusual. AFAIK they use a contact plate on the floor to power the rear lights. I think a coat or something will render them useless. Makes you wonder if people should learn basic car maintenance for the driving test - ya know lights tyre condtion window washer wipers etc.

Each time I reverse out of my house I look in the rear view mirrot and can see the reflection of the car in the window of the house across the road. Also many modern cars now include some form of indicator on the dash to warn the driver of a dead lamp - now I dont know about anyone else here but when the light comes on I replace the offending lamp straight away. I bugs the hell out of me when this bright yellow light is glaring at me while I drive - purpose served I guess !!!

Tinky

Victor

Originally posted by tinky
Each time I reverse out of my house I look in the rear view mirrot and can see the reflection of the car in the window of the house across the road.

OK, fair enough you can see a reflection, but you are not meant to reverse from a minor road (your driveway) onto a main one.

mike65

Originally posted by Victor
OK, fair enough you can see a reflection, but you are not meant to reverse from a minor road (your driveway) onto a main one.

Victor have you ever tried reversing off a main road into a side road (your driveway) at a busy time in the dark and wet??

Mike.

ZENER

In fairness Victor is - of course - correct - but the estate I live in is very quiet and visibility is very good each way so I get away with it. My point though is that it's possible to check rear lights are working without having to get out of the car to ensure something like Redshifts incident is less likely in the future.

What about the driving test basic maintenance idea - anyone any thoughts ???

Tinky

NeRb666

Originally posted by tinky

What about the driving test basic maintenance idea - anyone any thoughts ???

I think it would be an excellent idea. Half the bloody cars out there have only one headlight working.

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by NeRb666
Half the bloody cars out there have only one headlight working.

...and the other one is not correctly aligned

ZENER

Driving home from work this morning (07:15AM) on an unlit backroad - raining - poor visibility etc and almost drove up the ar*e of a trailer with no lights whatsoever and no reg !!!! The trailer was tall enough to hide the rear lights of the van towing it !

It was being towed by a hi-ace van toward a new building site at the back of the airport - still trying to calm down !

What sort of f*****g gob***** would do this ????

Tinky

Stark

Was crossing the road before (during the green man) when a car sped through the red light, did a hard u-turn then veered back in our path again nearly knocking down a few people who were crossing the road. Luckily a garda car was passing through at the time and immediately chased after the ****er. Hope he got what was coming to him.

mike65

Originally posted by tinky
...almost drove up the ar*e of a trailer with no lights whatsoever and no reg !!!! The trailer was tall enough to hide the rear lights of the van towing it !

It was being towed by a hi-ace van toward a new building site at the back of the airport...

What sort of f*****g gob***** would do this ????

Tinky

I'm tempted to say a typical hi-ace driver! Thing is if you crashed into him you'd be more in the wrong than he in the eyes of the law!

Mike.

sceptre

Originally posted by tinky
What sort of f*****g gob***** would do this ????

The kind of f****** gob***** that would rationalise it with "ah sure I was only driving it for a few miles". Belongs in the same box as "sure I was only double parking and blocking the road for a few minutes while I went into the bank and to the shoe repair place and to get my hair done and to buy a new pair of football boots"

Originally posted by k.oriordan
Was crossing the road before (during the green man) when a car sped through the red light, did a hard u-turn then veered back in our path again nearly knocking down a few people who were crossing the road.

That sounds almost surreal - as if the guy decided to mow people down for he sheer hell of it.

seamus

Originally posted by Victor
Was driven Dublin - Cork by the brother. I'm a nervous passenger (for good reasons).

Nervous passengers are another hazard. They make you uncomfortable, and their general nervousness can distract you from the road.

Have to say though Puntos without rear light are not unusual. AFAIK they use a contact plate on the floor to power the rear lights. I think a coat or something will render them useless. Makes you wonder if people should learn basic car maintenance for the driving test - ya know lights tyre condtion window washer wipers etc.

Yeah, rear bulb used to always blow on my old Punto. Quite annoying, cos it's not until someone bothers to tell you, or you use a white wall in the dark to check your lights that you find out. A couple of times I wa driving around for more than a week with only one rear bulb (and at this time was doing 90 miles per day, half of which in the dark). The only good thing was that the bulbs had two filaments, so even though the rear light was gone, both brake lights still worked fine.

Victor

Saw a moped (muppet?) driver with no headlight this evening :rolleyes: