Tailgating and Road Rage

Topper Harley

Motorist wrote: »

A truly excellent driver would be monitoring his rear view mirror constantly assessing the risk from other drivers approaching, constantly scanning for escape routes and ready to react, and would have used hazards to signal a sudden slow down in speed to inattentive drivers behind. (20mph in 60mph zone is extremely dangerous )

There's only so much even an excellent driver can do while driving. There isn't always a safe, viable escape route and no amount of observation and assessment will guarantee that you can predict what some eejits will do.

cyrusdvirus

the amount of high horsery that's going on in this thread is unreal.

Unless you are a serving member of AGS it is not up to you to police anyone else's speed on the road, if they want to speed, let them, if they want to over take you, let them.
You do not know their situation or circumstances.


About 10 years ago I was visiting my parents house when my brother had an accident, and put his hand through a pane of glass... The problem was that he had been acting the maggot, jumping and lepping about the place and when he went through the glass his wrist came down on the shards, essentially slitting his ulnar artery. There was blood EVERYWHERE.
Anyway, me and my mother got him out into my car, while my sister was ringing the Ambulance and GP. The aim was to get him to GP to get the bloodflow staunched, then let the Ambulance take him to the hospital. When we got to the GP, he took one look at my brothers injuries and said
"we don't have time to wait for the ambulance"

Those words will stay with me.

Next thing he shouted for his secretary to ring the local Garda Station (about 10 miles away) and tell them that he needed an escort, but didn't have time to wait for them to get to the surgery.
Then told her to ring the hospital and tell them emergency case, partial limb severance.

His next line was to me.. "Gate, can you drive... Put your foot to the fuppin floor son" and he got in the back with my brother and by now totally hysterical mother

We were intercepted by 2 gardai in a squad car about 15 minutes later and i pulled over to let one drive and his colleague lead the way with blues and twos. That took about 30 to 60 seconds and, as i was beginning to lose my little adrenaline "keep it together, lad" rush so i was quite happy to let him take over.

My point being that if one of the self appointed speed enforcers had taken it upon themsleves to ignore the flashy lights/horn and hazard lights of me as i ignored the ROTR, you could have been responsible for my brother dying.

Instead the bollix is working over in Mongolia, but is based in New Zealand, and pretty much lives the life of reilly!! (even if he does work hard )

dub_skav

I do understand from some of the stories here that sometimes there is a real emergency, so you shouldn't be all high and mighty about others while in your car.
However, let's be honest, the vast majority of tailgating and speeding is just self absorbed twats.
So, by all means don't intentionally hold people up, but you don't have to overly inconvenience yourself to let everybody by either.

There is something about driving that makes us angry, Dylan Moran has a great sequence about it, some of it is here:
"If somebody blocks you when you're walking, you're positively Edwardian in your manners. You do this sheepish little smile together, and you step aside. And you both do it at the same time, and you go "for goodness sake, what a to-do! Oh-ho-ho, dear me! I'll just eh, I'll just—oh, we did it again, can you believe it, I can't believe it! We should be on the stage! One more time, I'll just—oh, how did we ever get this far as a species!" But, for some reason, in a car, that becomes "YOU SPUNK BUCKET!".... from, you know, an eighty nine year-old church warden"

TonyStark

zerks wrote: »

I agree with Motorist regarding using mirrors.My pet hate is driving along & catching up on someone coasting along the middle of the road at a snails pace who never glances in their mirrors to see the tailback that has developed behind them.Result is tailgating & risky overtaking,even then some of the dipsy drivers don't even see the cars passing them.

All well & good keeping your eyes on the road but remember folks that there's also stuff behind you to watch out for.

It's called driving without due care and attention and afaik it's an offence.

Shenshen

GerM wrote: »

The Ring of Kerry is 100kmph. For those that haven't driven it, here's an example (and certainly not the worst): http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/52/65/526502_95a9044b.jpg

It's ludicrous that there are multiple roads in this country where it is deemed acceptable to drive at these speeds. People who are not familiar with them will creep up close to those speeds ignorant that there may be a sharp bend up ahead. To compound the issues, a chunk of that road is cliff side as well as the fact that the clouds come right down onto the road in places, reducing visibility significantly.

That just confirms my suspicion that speed limits in Ireland are more often than not based on a dare.

Sunnyisland

gatecrash wrote: »

the amount of high horsery that's going on in this thread is unreal.

Unless you are a serving member of AGS it is not up to you to police anyone else's speed on the road, if they want to speed, let them, if they want to over take you, let them.
You do not know their situation or circumstances.


About 10 years ago I was visiting my parents house when my brother had an accident, and put his hand through a pane of glass... The problem was that he had been acting the maggot, jumping and lepping about the place and when he went through the glass his wrist came down on the shards, essentially slitting his ulnar artery. There was blood EVERYWHERE.
Anyway, me and my mother got him out into my car, while my sister was ringing the Ambulance and GP. The aim was to get him to GP to get the bloodflow staunched, then let the Ambulance take him to the hospital. When we got to the GP, he took one look at my brothers injuries and said
"we don't have time to wait for the ambulance"

Those words will stay with me.

Next thing he shouted for his secretary to ring the local Garda Station (about 10 miles away) and tell them that he needed an escort, but didn't have time to wait for them to get to the surgery.
Then told her to ring the hospital and tell them emergency case, partial limb severance.

His next line was to me.. "Gate, can you drive... Put your foot to the fuppin floor son" and he got in the back with my brother and by now totally hysterical mother

We were intercepted by 2 gardai in a squad car about 15 minutes later and i pulled over to let one drive and his colleague lead the way with blues and twos. That took about 30 to 60 seconds and, as i was beginning to lose my little adrenaline "keep it together, lad" rush so i was quite happy to let him take over.

My point being that if one of the self appointed speed enforcers had taken it upon themsleves to ignore the flashy lights/horn and hazard lights of me as i ignored the ROTR, you could have been responsible for my brother dying.

Instead the bollix is working over in Mongolia, but is based in New Zealand, and pretty much lives the life of reilly!! (even if he does work hard )

Is Gate your real name

Abi

gatecrash wrote: »

the amount of high horsery that's going on in this thread is unreal.

Unless you are a serving member of AGS it is not up to you to police anyone else's speed on the road, if they want to speed, let them, if they want to over take you, let them.
You do not know their situation or circumstances.


About 10 years ago I was visiting my parents house when my brother had an accident, and put his hand through a pane of glass... The problem was that he had been acting the maggot, jumping and lepping about the place and when he went through the glass his wrist came down on the shards, essentially slitting his ulnar artery. There was blood EVERYWHERE.
Anyway, me and my mother got him out into my car, while my sister was ringing the Ambulance and GP. The aim was to get him to GP to get the bloodflow staunched, then let the Ambulance take him to the hospital. When we got to the GP, he took one look at my brothers injuries and said
"we don't have time to wait for the ambulance"

Those words will stay with me.

Next thing he shouted for his secretary to ring the local Garda Station (about 10 miles away) and tell them that he needed an escort, but didn't have time to wait for them to get to the surgery.
Then told her to ring the hospital and tell them emergency case, partial limb severance.

His next line was to me.. "Gate, can you drive... Put your foot to the fuppin floor son" and he got in the back with my brother and by now totally hysterical mother

We were intercepted by 2 gardai in a squad car about 15 minutes later and i pulled over to let one drive and his colleague lead the way with blues and twos. That took about 30 to 60 seconds and, as i was beginning to lose my little adrenaline "keep it together, lad" rush so i was quite happy to let him take over.

My point being that if one of the self appointed speed enforcers had taken it upon themsleves to ignore the flashy lights/horn and hazard lights of me as i ignored the ROTR, you could have been responsible for my brother dying.

Instead the bollix is working over in Mongolia, but is based in New Zealand, and pretty much lives the life of reilly!! (even if he does work hard )

Granted you had an emergency case, and I'm glad your brother is okay. I think it would be fair to say that it is unlikely that the average ass hole that speeds up behind you and hangs off your hole has a bleeding family member in the back, he / she is just an inconsiderate ass hole.

I've been in a situation once or twice where I've been boxed off on the motorway, and while it's nerve wrecking to see how close people are willing to get to you, all I could do is throw on my indicator for the left lane and normally some good person would make room for me and let me in. While we're in no position to tell other people what to do, calling a spade a spade - it's bullying, and they are a danger to themselves and everyone else on the road.

Lord TSC

rogieop wrote: »

You are literally making people break the law, driving at them speeds is more dangerous because people are just getting frustrated.

I'm not saying driving at the limits makes me a "good" driver. But I've no intentions of breaking the law cause some idiot behind me wants to get home 10 seconds quicker. And I don't see how driving at the speed limit is making other people break the law; people break the law cause of their impatience and their desire to break it. If I'm on a 60 road doing that, and someone decides they don't want to do 60, they want to do 80, I shouldn't be blamed cause of their decision to speed. No one forces the person behind me to break the limit to go past me; that's their decision

The number of times I see someone overtake me when I'm doing the speed limit, only to get caught at traffic lights 5 seconds quicker than they would have if they'd stayed behind me is amusing to me. Some people get so impatient driving and become idiots and *******s in a bid to get somewhere 10 seconds quicker.

Shenshen

Motorist wrote: »

Your car speedo often overreads your speed by as much as 10%. Alot of people know this. So you think you are driving bang on 120kmp/h (but it's only 108kmp/h) and you are hogging the overtaking lane for no justifiable reason - no traffic to overtake whatsoever, and that incites frustration in them. You have the opinion that you are a quasi-Garda out saving lives by holding them in this position and restricting their speed. Some assho1es driving in Audi's or BMW's will look down on your $hitty car and begin dangerously tail gating you in attempt to intimidate you. True defensive driving on your part, and basic obedience of the law would mandate that you move over to let them by. But you don't.

End result is that they overtake on the inside while giving you the finger. This creates an uncontrollable rage in your limbic system - you think they have just been breaking the speed limit, now they are performing an illegal overtake while insulting you. Now you begin tailgating them and acting crazy, and before you know it, an accident has occurred or both sides have lost their temper creating a high risk of an incident occurring.

Lots of misunderstanding on both sides, ignorance or disobedience of the law coupled with emotions. Emotions outside of inner calmness have no place in driving. Be at peace with the other drivers, even if they're complete a$sholes.

Why do you assume from that post that

1) The poster is hogging the overtaking lane when they never said what kind of road they were on, let alone what lane they were in
2) That they were deliberatley obstructing speeding drivers
3) That there was anywhere for them to move over to in order to let the speeder past?

Where are these assumptions coming from?

cyrusdvirus

realies wrote: »

Is Gate your real name

Yeah. my parents didn't like me!!

The others have normal names like Alfonsus and Gertrude

Motorist

Shenshen wrote: »

Why do you assume from that post that

1) The poster is hogging the overtaking lane when they never said what kind of road they were on, let alone what lane they were in
2) That they were deliberatley obstructing speeding drivers
3) That there was anywhere for them to move over to in order to let the speeder past?

Where are these assumptions coming from?

I was just hypothetically citing common causative factors.

Cantona's Collars

TonyStark wrote: »

It's called driving without due care and attention and afaik it's an offence.

A lot of offenders out there.Witnessed one a couple of years ago.Short version:A trawler sank off the Wexford coast,cue emergency services scrambled.I was on the road & was passed at high speed by a coastguard jeep with every light flashing.500 or so yards on I caught up with them as some numpty sauntered along the road at 60kph & didn't even notice the big flashy thing behind them.Due to lots of oncoming traffic,the jeep couldn't pass.Eventually after nearly a mile they got by.Nice big hard shoulder to pull in so either the car driver was too dozy to notice what was on the road or simply too ignorant.I hope it was the former.

Personally I hate being tailgated as I'm not one for cruising along at a snails pace.Hi to the moron that tailgated me in torrential rain in the dark at 120kph on the M1,he even had 3 kids in the car-crazy!!

Stojkovic

Dont drive like Miss Daisy and you wont be tailgated. Simples.
Fecking taxi drivers driving at the optimum 34.62kph.

The Idyll Race

Stojkovic wrote: »

Dont drive like Miss Daisy and you wont be tailgated. Simples.
Fecking taxi drivers driving at the optimum 34.62kph.

Don't drive like a muppet either and you won't cause accidents. Simples.

Shenshen

One question : What exactly do people who do tailgate (and by personal admission there seem to be quite a few in this thread) hope to achieve by tailgating?

Personally, when I come up to another driver who does not drive as fast as I would like to, I tend to hang back, wait for safe opportunity, and overtake.
What's the point of driving along being glued to someones boot, when you can clearly see that they've noplace to go to let you past?

Abi

Shenshen wrote: »

One question : What exactly do people who do tailgate (and by personal admission there seem to be quite a few in this thread) hope to achieve by tailgating?

Personally, when I come up to another driver who does not drive as fast as I would like to, I tend to hang back, wait for safe opportunity, and overtake.
What's the point of driving along being glued to someones boot, when you can clearly see that they've noplace to go to let you past?

I don't think they actually care where you go, once you're not in front of them. Utter dick heads.

Nippledragon

Its worse when you see learner drivers getting bullied off the roads, do some people not remember they were learner drivers at some stage too? Pig ignorant arseholes.:mad:

If you are being tail-gated, slam on your brakes. Offender wont have a leg to stand if he hits you as he/she was driving too close.

Fcuks sake stop advising people to get into car crashes, it's utterly stupid advice

Nippledragon

bluewolf wrote: »

Fcuks sake stop advising people to get into car crashes, it's utterly stupid advice

Arseholes who cannot drive properly are what cause crashes ie tailgating, speeding etc...

Nippledragon

Nippledragon wrote: »

Arseholes who cannot drive properly are what cause crashes ie tailgating, speeding etc...

Slamming on your brakes just to cause a crash is what causes a crash. No amount of "but he was annoying me and being mean" justifies that

cyrusdvirus

Nippledragon wrote: »

Arseholes who cannot drive properly are what cause crashes ie tailgating, speeding etc...

Don't forget brake testing just for giggles n squirts.

If you had been in front of me in the situation i described earlier i would have driven into the back of you, then drove on.

Then come after you for the damage you caused to my car.

Nippledragon

If someone knew how to drive properly they should have enough clear space in front of them to make an emergency stop. Tailgating is complete disregard for other road users. I had a t0sspot in a van doing it to me once, I slammed on the brakes and he backed the fook off the gob****e. I hope he soiled himself a little too

ejmaztec

Nippledragon wrote: »

Its worse when you see learner drivers getting bullied off the roads, do some people not remember they were learner drivers at some stage too? Pig ignorant arseholes.:mad:

If you are being tail-gated, slam on your brakes. Offender wont have a leg to stand if he hits you as he/she was driving too close.

You only need to press the brake pedal enough to switch the brake-lights on, then watch them slamming their brakes on. That way, you won't have to waste any time standing in the middle of the road waiting for the Guards and the ambulance to show up to sort out the carnage. Afterwards you won't have to waste even more time fighting to get your car repaired, or writing letters backwards and forwards to the solicitor and insurance company.

Nippledragon

Nippledragon wrote: »

Tailgating is complete disregard for other road users.

So is deliberately causing car crashes.

cyrusdvirus

Nippledragon wrote: »

If someone knew how to drive properly they should have enough clear space in front of them to make an emergency stop. Tailgating is complete disregard for other road users. I had a t0sspot in a van doing it to me once, I slammed on the brakes and he backed the fook off the gob****e. I hope he soiled himself a little too

you sound like a wonderful human being.

Watch out you don't hurt your head when you fall from that impossibly ignorant and high horse

RustyNut

Nippledragon wrote: »

If someone knew how to drive properly they should have enough clear space in front of them to make an emergency stop. Tailgating is complete disregard for other road users. I had a t0sspot in a van doing it to me once, I slammed on the brakes and he backed the fook off the gob****e. I hope he soiled himself a little too

If someone knew how to drive properly they would know the danger they put themselves and every body else in by slamming on the brakes and risking the tailgaiter or themselves losing control. The law of unintended consiquences might just kick in here.

marcsignal

marshbaboon wrote: »

My brother has the most incredible solution to tailgating. He slows down. Doesn't matter if he has somewhere important to be, he'll drive as slow as he can get away with, and feed on their tears of rage.

I used to do that too.

If you're doing the speed limit, on a normal suburban road, tailgaters deserve no quarter. However, consider that when the dickhead tailgating you, gets the opp to pass, he/she will tear off past you swearing in his rear view mirror, and flatten an old woman crossing the road ahead of him/her.

Tailgating should get you 4 points on your licence imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5d2DP4Pp0

Nippledragon

gatecrash, your story is an exception - if you see a car coming speeding with flashing lights and hazards you would know something very serious was up.

Why resort to insults?... I have never been on a snobby horse that was taking drugs

RustyNut

Nippledragon wrote: »

Tailgating is complete disregard for other road users. I had a t0sspot in a van doing it to me once, I slammed on the brakes and he backed the fook off the gob****e that was driving in front of him. I hope he soiled himself a little too

FYP there.

ejmaztec

A few years ago in the UK, I was on a stretch of newly re-surfaced road, so naturally I slowed down because of the loose grit. Some guy appeared behind me, almost in the boot egging me on to speed me up. I kept on going at the same speed, despite him being in a hurry, and because he was so feckin close, it was only a matter of seconds until his screen went, and he had to pull in.

About an hour after I arrived at the office, I saw his car being towed onto the forecourt of a garage across the road, and he was stuck there for about three hours while they sorted his screen out.

He got held up for at least half a day for being a tail-gating knob.