Should I have got involved?

looksee

I was driving along the Copper Coast in Waterford yesterday (narrow, winding road, nowhere to pull in on the stretch in question) when I came round a bend to see a car in the other lane, stopped - slightly pulled over but in the lane. Driver and passenger in it. The problem was that there was another bend just beyond them, that they had just come round, and they were very close to it.

I fleetingly wondered if I should stop and say to them they were in a dangerous position, but I was already passing them and just as I went round the bend another car came towards me, not speeding but pushing a bit considering the road. If I had stopped alongside the 'parked' car he would have come round the corner with no-where to go. As it was, provided there was nothing following me (there was not, I think) he would have been able to swerve round them. I flashed him as he passed so I hope he slowed a bit. A couple more cars passed, then a garda car so hopefully he moved them.

There was nowhere I could have turned, and if there was any damage it would have been done by the time I could go back. And was it my business to mix in anyway? What, if anything, would you do in this situation?

A bit hard luck on anyone driving into the back of him as they would be responsible even though the first guy was blocking the road.

Alanstrainor

I've encountered this before and I did stop and tell people to move. This was up the Dublin/Wicklow mountains on the military road, there's a long straight stretch followed by a dip in the road combined with a chicane (for want of a better word). A family of tourists in a rental had stopped in the middle of the road just after the dip and into the turn. They were invisible until very late and I had to jam on. Making it worse they were all standing in the middle of the road admiring the scenery. But it's a stretch that locals would tear down. I stopped and told them stopping there was dangerous and there was parking about 100 meters further on. They all moved after that.

I think in your position OP I might have given them a beep and maybe quickly rolled down the window to mention it. You'd probably get told where to go though.

Rmulvany

The skeptical side of me would think that they could have been trying some kind of "Flash for Cash" scam or the likes.
Stop the car on the exit of a blind corner and then when you see a car coming you start driving, get rear-ended, claim.

But there are so many other things that could have been going on, car cut-out, lost etc..

If the road had of allowed for stopping and warning them then that would have been the ideal action, but as you described it there was nothing you could do except flash and warn oncoming traffic

looksee

Rmulvany wrote: »

The skeptical side of me would think that they could have been trying some kind of "Flash for Cash" scam or the likes.
Stop the car on the exit of a blind corner and then when you see a car coming you start driving, get rear-ended, claim.

But there are so many other things that could have been going on, car cut-out, lost etc..

If the road had of allowed for stopping and warning them then that would have been the ideal action, but as you described it there was nothing you could do except flash and warn oncoming traffic

No, they looked like (older) tourists, might have been discussing route, there was no view to admire where they were. You are right, I could not have stopped, I didn't see them till the last minute, there was not enough road behind or in front.

biko

Yeah, I see similar time to time and always slow down to tell them to move.
It's mind-blowing the stupid things people do (myself included I'm sure..)

CramCycle

I once let someone know this and then they followed me, drove across a roundabout so they could get beside me and start hurling abuse at me for being abusive towards women?!? They were parked just around a blind bend, anyone should be able to stop but lets be honest here, not to mention to drive round them you had to move into a lane you couldn't see down or around them too.

Stopping to tell them would be the right thing to do but don't expect any niceties, or even politeness.

biko

CramCycle wrote: »

I once let someone know this and then they followed me, drove across a roundabout so they could get beside me and start hurling abuse at me for being abusive towards women?!?

Some people may have something wrong with their head. This shouldn't stop us from doing the right thing.

CramCycle

CramCycle wrote: »

Stopping to tell them would be the right thing to do but don't expect any niceties, or even politeness.

biko wrote: »

Some people may have something wrong with their head. This shouldn't stop us from doing the right thing.

That was the point I was trying to make, with a friendly warning in case people are mistaken into thinking the right thing reaps rewards.

looksee

Get what you are saying, but in this case the right thing would have resulted in me being either run into or another obstruction. You do have to wonder what goes on - or doesn't - in people's minds though.

the_syco

looksee wrote: »

then a garda car so hopefully he moved them.

looksee wrote: »

What, if anything, would you do in this situation?

Flash at the cars, and wave down the Gardai to tell them that there was a car stopped on a blind bend facing the wrong way on their side.

Have waved down a Garda once before, to inform them of something around an oncoming turn on their side of the road.

selectamatic

A few years ago I met 2 foreign women in a yaris parked in the middle of their lane on a pretty blind bend which is followed by a number of other bends on a two lane road where cars would often be going 60 ish mph. I was gone by them before I could fully process their stupidity.

Anyways next thing I meet a youngish fella probably the same age as meself tipping it on and heading their way so I flashed him. Quick as anything he's on the brakes and he shoots down a bog road to his left.

I had some laugh over the whole thing. I'd say yer man has told his story of skilfully avoiding the law many times since then.