Over taking about to go wrong, do i slow down or does he?

jozi

Was thinking baout this the other day in the bus when there where lots of cars overtaking it.

Say im driving allong in my car and i meet a slower driver.
I wait for a safe moment to over take and go for it.
Mid over taking i realise this isn't going to work cause out of nowhere another car has come flying at me.
So i have to get back in my lane....

I brake and move in behind the car i was over taking or can you (or maybe you have done) expect the slow car your over taking to slow down so you can get in lane in front of him?

What if both cars slow down/speed up?

Just a note: this has not happened to me, i was purely thinking about it and what i would do if it happened to me.

peasant

There is no rule for this ...you just have to play it by ear and hope that you don't both do the same.

Melion

The car you are over-taking is supposed to slow down and let you in

Fey!

Pray!

Seriously, the rule of thumb for me is if I'm 3/4 of the way through the overtake I'll accelerate as hard as I can, dropping a gear if need be. If I'm less than 3/4, then I'd probably brake and go back to where I was.

This also depends on whether or not the person behind me has been really impatient and attempted to overtake at the same time as me, which happens a lot, or how much space the car behind me has left between themselves and the car I'm overtaking.

All depends on several factors.

Steve

Best bet would not to be in the situation in the first place.

Never drive anywhere your mind hasn't been 20 seconds before you.

It would depend on the circumstances. Unless you were 90% through the manoever, braking would prob. be the quickest route back to your own lane.

Don't count on the other guy slowing - he might not have seen the approaching danger.

nastysimon

jozi wrote:

Was thinking baout this the other day in the bus when there where lots of cars overtaking it.

Say im driving allong in my car and i meet a slower driver.
I wait for a safe moment to over take and go for it.
Mid over taking i realise this isn't going to work cause out of nowhere another car has come flying at me.
So i have to get back in my lane....

I brake and move in behind the car i was over taking or can you (or maybe you have done) expect the slow car your over taking to slow down so you can get in lane in front of him?

What if both cars slow down/speed up?

Just a note: this has not happened to me, i was purely thinking about it and what i would do if it happened to me.

Of course, this should never happen as you should have seen far enough ahead to prevent it. But, we all make mistakes.

I'd favour the course of action which gets me back on my side of the road in the shortest distance (if not quite the shortest time). This means that unless I am a bit ahead and going much quicker, I would hit the brakes. Actually, I'd favour the brakes for another reason too, if you do have a collision, at least it'll be at a much slower speed.
Assume that the other driver will do the worst possible thing (if you brake, so will they, if you accelerate, so will they, etc.). Additionally, since they are unlikely to perceive the danger in which you find yourself and since most people speed up when being passed, again, one comes back to the brakes as the best course of action.
All of this gets a bit more complex if there is following traffic behind in your lane, and worse again if someone has decided to follow your lead in overtaking.

All in all, prevention is the better option and the one rule I have about overtaking is: if in doubt, chicken out.

Fey!

I agree that it shouldn't happen, but things like hidden dips and bad lines/signage means that it unfortunately can happen quite easily on some roads.

NEVER assume that another driver is going to do the right thing, and likewise NEVER assume that another driver has spotted the danger that you see.

OMcGovern

I ended up stuck on the wrong side of the road in a bad overtaking situation.

I was stuck being a bloody slow learner driver for absolutely miles on the Enniskerry road after Stepaside. I had an underpowered 1.2 litre Opel Corsa, and a decent stretch of road in front of me. As I overtook, the idiot learner accelerated too... in the distance a car was coming around the corner on the other side of the road (which I was now on, side by side with the learner)

I decelerated to abort the overtake, but the learner done the same.
So all three of the cars involved came to a halt, no great skreeching of brakes or anything... but there I was, on the wrong side of the road, about 2 car lengths in front of the oncoming car. The learner was still stopped exactly at my side, on the right side of the road.

Certainly thought me a lesson about overtaking... and to appreciate the limitations of a small engined car ! Yes, the learner should take some of the blame as well...

regards,
Owen

Esel

jozi wrote:

.. can you (or maybe you have done) expect the slow car your over taking to slow down so you can get in lane in front of him?.

NFW! Expect someone else to get you out of danger? What are you on?

TychoCaine

OMcGovern wrote:

Yes, the learner should take some of the blame as well...

Some of the blame???? Speeding up when someone's trying to overtake you is just about the most stupid thing someone can do. What did he think would happen? :mad: :mad: :mad:

Deception

Its impossible to know the level of driving experiance a learner driver has

Remember there are 500,000+ of em in the country ...

My advice would be ...

1. Never overtake around someone on a blind corner
2. Never assume what the other driver will/wont do
3. Have a little patience
4. Get home safe

Senna

TychoCaine wrote:

Speeding up when someone's trying to overtake you is just about the most stupid thing someone can do.

Could not agree more, but i'll add my own stupid moment.

was driving from derry to belfast and was on a good stretch of road just after dungiven. was doing no more than 110kph and there was 3 cars behind. Coming onto a long straight and the 3rd car back, a 206, decides to pass everyone, now, it was a long road and he got past the first car, but was making slow progress, the car behind me was very close to my car and there wasn't room to pull back in. he was just about level with the car behind when a car pulled out onto his side of the road a couple of hundred yards in front.
I maybe should have braked, but as the car behind didn't i wasn't going to risk an accident, so i just dropped to 4th gear and floored it. i was away from them very quickly but the car behind speed up as well.
at this stage the car that came out of the side road was fully stopped as he had seen the car coming. But from what i seen the 206 only just made it back in before hitting the now stationary car.

Now the fella behind definitely shouldn't have speed up, maybe me doing it caused him to do the same, however, in that situation, i would do the same again.

Sorry not the best description or grammar.