Road Rage + Foreigners = Modern Ireland

rymus

Had an interesting experience today that I thought I'd share with all you fine people. My girlfriend and myself were driving home from my parents house (about a 5 mile drive). I pulled into the overtaking lane to pass several slower moving cars in the slow lane. Just before the two lanes merged back into one, one of the cars I had just passed started beeping his horn, drove right up behind me (not even 1ft between the back of my bike and the front of his car). As I drove toward my house, he continued beeping, charging up behind me and breaking just before he hit me and his passenger was hanging out the window screaming abuse at me and my girlfriend.

As it was perfectly obvious that he was following me, I passed the turnoff for my estate and drove on for another few miles, eventually parking in the car park of the nearest Garda station. He pulled into the space next to mine, got out and proceeded to abuse me on the recklessness of my driving, how "people don't drive like that in his country" (yes he was foreign, eastern Europe.. probably Turkish). I noticed his passenger was quite drunk and had an amount of Amstel lager on the floor next to his feet.

The abuse continued for a few minutes in broken English before I finally extended my hand, said "theres no problem between us, why dont we leave it at that" and motioned for a handshake. He went to get back into his car but made a point of saying something like "you dont need to go to the gardai" before taking off.

Got the reg, make & model of the car and phoned a garda friend of mine that checked it out for me. Nothing has been reported against me so far. Needless to say, I'll be going to the Gardai tomorrow, not to make an official report, but to explain to them how frightened I was by the obvious recklessness of the foreigner and abuse both myself and my girlfriend recieved.

Apparently this kind of thing is increasing. Apparently a few days ago a woman who pulled out in front of a foreigner at a roundabout in Bandon, Co. Cork, was spat at (in the face) by the foreigner when she had stopped at traffic lights.

I'm not just being racist here, I know well that all foreign nationals don't drive like assholes or made extreme road rage a part of their daily lives. In over 4 years of driving this is the first time anything like this has happened. I think I'll move to the country where the most interaction you have with other road users is a friendly wave or a nod.

But I guess there are assholes everywhere...

Seth Brundle

hope your case gets sorted but I doubt anything will really happen legally.

anyway, no offence rymus but I think the mods should lock this thread as everyone with some kind of racist chip on thier shoulder will be tempted to post a reply on the driving habits of anyone non-Irish on our roads
K.

zapata

I do a fair bit of driving and am amazed at the amount of crazy drivers and road rage incidents happening everyday. There should be absolute zero tolerance adapted by the gardai policing the roads.

As it was perfectly obvious that he was following me, I passed the turnoff for my estate and drove on for another few miles, eventually parking in the car park of the nearest Garda station.

Was that Garda station closed or what?
You should have nailed it on the head there and then.

rymus

fair point kbannon.. I'm not here to start a racism discussion, I was just commenting on a couple of related incidents. Mods feel free to lock/delete.. I've vented my frustration now.. might go out for a spin in a minute just to prove to myself that not everyone on the road is a freaking lunatic.

& yes, the garda station was closed but there were several cars parked outside it. Only stopped there because I knew nobody would be stupid enough to take a swipe at me outside a police station.

BrianD3

rymus, you've had one bad experience in several years on the road. That's not bad going. The guy you had the altercation with was just a loon and possibly drunk or drugged or both His nationality is irrelevant. It could just as easily have been an Irish person.

I have driven ~200k miles on Irish roads since I was 17. In that time I've been involved in one road rage incident where myself and another (Irish) guy got out of our vehicles and squared up to each other. Normally I wouldn't dream of getting out of my car to confront somene but in this case I knew I was 100% in the right and wasn't going to let him get away with trying to intimidate me. Fortunately it was just handbags stuff - shout verbal abuse at each other etc.

I've also witnessed a couple of road rage incidents involving others, again it was just verbal abuse really. In all cases, it was Irish peopel that were involved.

BrianD3

TommyK

I've only ever crashed twice and in both cases were foreigners who crashed into me. One destroyed my car completely and the other caused over £2,000 worth of damage (T'was in pre-Euro times). One disappeared and the other had no tax, insurance, or licence and the car wasn't even his.

I was thinking that I should let a few Irish people crash into me because I'm probably racist for being in their way in the first place!

Have to "redress the balance" an' all that in case the PC police are about

Tommy.

Mythago

To be honest since the introduction of Penalty Points I've noticed a number of attitude changes among drivers.

When overtaking vehicles I've been flashed & beeped at for no reason that I can think of other than the fact there was a car approaching on the horizon

Drivers pulling into overtaking lanes, essentially blocking them, as if to say if I'm doing 55 so are you:rolleyes: This has always been a prob but have noticed it alot more in the last month or so.

But, generally driving standards & peoples attitudes as a whole have fallen.

seamus

Most of the really bad cock-ups I see on the roads seem to be caused by foreigners. Irish people are far worse for generally very poor driving, but the large majority of people who I've seen do completely off the wall, how-the-hell-did-he-manage-to-get-into-that-position stuff like cross an exit slip road and back onto the motorway, or park right in someone's way, on a main road, in a yellow box, crooked, and just get out of their car (Yes I saw that), seem to be foreigners.