Responding to beckon

The_Daddy_H

Just a quick question. I was told two different things by different driving instructors. Its a fault to beckon other drivers but is it a fault to respond to a beckon? A friend of mine told me his brother failed his test by responding.

Also legally speaking should anything happen when you respond to a beckon you are obvious at fault as far as the law is concerned.

Holsten

As far as I know it's ok to respond, but it would depend on the situation.

DO NOT beckon ANYONE during the test though, you will fail for it.

ztoical

Big no no to beckon anyone. Regarding responding to a beckon from another driver I think alot depends on the situation and the tester. During my test I was waiting for ages for a break in traffic to pull out into a busy road and a car flashed its lights at me and the tester didn't mark me for responding and pulling out [thou I made sure to check mirrors and creep out a little first to check before moving off and didn't just fly out onto the road]. I have seen some drivers beckoning others in situations were it wouldn't be deemed safe and I could see testers marking down for responding to them.

I saw a great "stupid drivers beckoning other drivers" recently. Driving along a narrow road, coming towards a crossroads, the car driving towards me stopped and the woman driving beckoned for a car waiting on the right [her right, my left] to pull out. It was really stupid as there was no cars behind her or me and the car she was beckoning had to cut right across me in order to turn right. There were parked cars, trees and a wall blocking his view so he assumed when she beckoned the road was clear. Normally at this crossroads people creep slowly out but this guy came out very quickly.

I didn't know why she'd stopped until the other car came flying out in front of me, luckly its not a road you can drive very fast on so I wasn't going very quickly but I still had to brake pretty quickly. I started to move off again and then she beckoned for the car behind that one to come out as well and I had to fight the urge to get out of the car and go yell at her. The road they were coming out of was one way so it wasn't like she was waiting to turn in there. The next car waiting to turn out thankfully had the sense not to go no matter how madly she was waving at him. He creeped out a little saw me and stopped. I drove on and gave her the dirtiest look I could driving by. In my mirror I saw her drive on straight as well so I've no clue why she stopped to let them out.

snickerpuss

Holsten wrote: »

As far as I know it's ok to respond, but it would depend on the situation.

DO NOT beckon ANYONE during the test though, you will fail for it.

You won't fail for a beckon, you'll get a grade 2.
Just to say!

Alanstrainor

Responding to a beckon is fine, as others have said, just remember to check your mirrors and be on the look out for cyclists and such.

Wishbone Ash

snickerpuss wrote: »

You won't fail for a beckon, you'll get a grade 2.
Just to say!

My brother in-law failed for beckoning someone during the E+C test. (It was prior to the grading system though).

snickerpuss

Hmmm. Well someone I know got a grade 2 for a beckon last Friday in a category B test.