Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Driving down the M11 in my scoob minding my own business. An 06 Nissan Almera 5 dr had come racing up behind me on the A11, I saw it, had moved out of its way and let it carry on, no hold up or anything.

M11 at the top is 2 lanes and from J9 south there are a series of hills which are notorious spots for accidents. As I always do, I keep in the inside lane unless overtaking, but station myself behind the cars on the outside lane. I do not merrily drive up the inside. The reason for this is that if everyone brakes suddenly, then I won't get caught up in a massive smash. The upside is that sometimes when everyone yanks the brakes on, you move up a few places but at the end of the day, its a safer place to be.

I happened to be behind the Almera again, went to move out behind him and the car behind decides it wants to close the gap causing me to brake. Fine. Pull out behind that car, overtook the lorry, then back into the inside lane again. 1/2 mile further on and the traffic all slows rapidly in the outside lane and I'm next to the Almera, side by side. So unconcerned was of anything that may be annoying someone and minding my own business that when the Almera suddenly veers hard into my lane I was shocked. He moved so hard and continuously that I had to brake hard and was forced onto the hard shoulder, where the wheels locked up (RA no ABS) and I found myself sliding sideways down the hard shoulder WTF! No way was it anything other than deliberate.

I would have to say that at this point the red-mist came down, I corrected the skid, dropped it to 3rd and went off after this guy to show my displeasure. Quite what I could do other than force him off the road and batter him I don't really know (not my style & I've only just taken up Karate!) but having had someone deliberately force me off the road, I wasn't thinking straight.

This idiot decides that having forced me off the road, he'd better bog off quick as I was drawing up on him, as traffic was heavy, he shoots off down the hard shoulder. Like a prat I follow - red mist still there. Ahead of a couple of lorries, the traffic was very light and he sticks on the hard shoulder, I move back in, past a van and then I'm in front of him. Being in a scoob, my acceleration is better and my manoeverability is better and my brakes are better. He can't get past despite trying to resort to slipping back onto the hard shoulder when going round a van. I just succeed in slowing him down. When he is behind me, he is really very close, giving hand gestures and "come on" type gestures. I don't react, just keep an eye on him.

Up ahead, traffic becomes dense again so when he tries to get in front again (hard shoulder) I let him and back off. He disappears and I go back to being a normal citizen cruising down the M11.

Just another daily incident in the rich tapestry of life.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Oh this could be some thread for sure.

Puff, FWIW I don't blame you one iota for reacting, there is so much of this sort of thing on the roads today that it is inevitable that at some point you could just snap and that is what happened to you.

I try so hard not to let things get to me on the roads, but I too have been guilty of the odd incident not disimilar to yours. While on the one hand it is sensible to try and let it go there is another school of thought that says while we keep doing that these people will keep acting like this when what they really need is a damn good hiding so they don't do it again

It's a pity more emphasis isn't put on tackling this sort of behaviour by the powers that be, but sadly that doesn't seem to be top of their priority list as far as traffic policing goes.

PPPRob

Sadly its not just on the roads that this should be the case IMHO.

The whole country is like it in every aspect

MattW

Take his number, call police tell them he is weaving about looking drunk and he just forced you onto hard shoulder. Sit back and smile.

MattW

I agree, however Puff would have been "done" too for using the hard shoulder.

Daft Lad

Would he then get done himself for using his mobile whilst driving?

funkyspider

I recently saw a program and some insurance companies in good old US-of-A are now fitting cameras into ordinary cars. It's permanently recording but to save the last 30seconds or so you just press a button and it saves it, probably to memory card or small hard drive etc.

This is primarily for use in case of an accident, but I thought what a good idea it was and how useful it would be, in incidents like this, if you could hand over footage to the police who could deal with it appropriately as they use their own video evidence from their cars now.

It may be a little 'big brother', but could prove useful in some cases, dunno if the downside outweighs?

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Yes, but what I meant was if there was more of a deterent then this incident may not even have happened.

MattW

Granted.

Puff, just be thankful he didn't hit you, if he gets so upset with someone getting a car ahead one day he will get his come uppance.

Varboy

I probably would have acted in a similar fashion to you myself, however my advice would have been to let it go.

It would be nice one day to be driving a car you didn't particularly care about and when someone does something similar to you just switch off the automatic accident avoidance and crash into them safe in the knowledge that the accident was there fault and that they are going to be seriously inconvenienced and sorry that they acted such a way in the first place.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Further down the M11 by J7 I come up behind this chap again. He's again in the outside lane and I'm in the middle behind an Audi. I decide to take a pic of his car just in case someone reported the incident further up the road. As it happens, video is easier, so I point my cam in his direction. Traffic once again slows suddenly in the outside lane and I'm beside him. He immediately swerves towards me violently and I heard myself on the vid saying "F*** not again!!" I avoid obviously and into the inside lane, boot it, go past him then back across to the outside lane, where I sit beside a merc doing 60 and keep pace with him. Idiot is up my backside again gesticulating like mad. Eventually he undertakes the merc, I don't do anything and he swings back into the outside lane and puts his brakes on. Me? I tuck in close behind the merc and he swerves in towards me again! Obviously I move away and try to keep out of his way but every time I do, he tries to either brake in front of me or to swerve towards me. Again, no reaction from me in terms of braking manoeuvres or hand signals or lights or any other. We've reached the top of the hill just before the M11 splits off to the M25. I dodge in and out of the traffic avoiding this idiot but I have a choice to make - M11 and then get stuck in the usual traffic with a maniac which would involve driving down the hard shoulder and to the cop shop there - not a great choice or M25 one way or the other and hope idiot was going another. Again risk of traffic etc.

However, traffic is not too heavy and he flips between M11/M25 as I do. It was obvious that whatever I did, he would. My best bet was a sucker option at the last minute when he was committed but it got to the stage where he stopped on the chevrons when the M11/M25 divides and I stop behind him (but like 100 ft behind!). He opens his door and sits there. I sit there. A minute passes...

( )

Now its not exactly a safe place & I still have the 2 options M11/M25 with what I reckoned (bearing in mind his sitting there) dead certainty that he would follow me. I do not want to get into a confrontation situation with this tit as it would surely end in violence.

I decide to outrun him and get away as I am in a scoob and the road onto the M25 counterclockwise is a sharp bend etc. I check the road is clear behind me and without indication or anything floor it. The traffic is light and I'm round that bend as fast as the car can go, slight 4-wheel drift as the road straightens onto the M25 and its foot to the floor in/out the traffic. Idea is that the next junction is a roundabout and I can either go Epping or into Herts or back the same way if he's not in sight. I can't see him but I am motoring. Up ahead, I see a police car on the hard shoulder having pulled someone over. I decide that was going to be the best place to be, so I pull over onto the hard shoulder and back up to the car that was stopped.

As I'm doing that, I see idiot screaming past in the outside lane, he sees me and pulls over onto hard shoulder as well. I get out and walk up to the Police car. Copper looks at me and I just say "bit of road-rage - ask that bloke". Idiot is walking up the hard shoulder, whats straight past one copper and up to me and the other one and he starts shouting at the top of his voice. Copper is straight in his face and pushing him away. He does that, telling him to stay put and comes back to me to ask what occured. Idiot just walks off, looks at my registration plate for a few seconds, gets back in his car and bogs off.

I get a mild bollocking from the copper and told not to react in future. Fair enough. He's right but it is so hard when someone deliberately forces you off the road and could have injured you or killed you or someone else. Imagine if there had been an artic stationary on the inside or maybe someone getting a tyre out of his boot

I'm no angel by any means but this was scary.

rasheedn

not really!

he was forced to use it otherwise he would have crashed


i was recently in the uk for 10 days and the country is getting worse!! used 2 live there for 3 years and then left as i found its shi!

too much tax, too much congestion charge! too many chavs, too many dumb asses all over the place! i just got fed up
oh and dont get me started on the damn weather! hehe
and to make things worse the police is just useless!! they are really crap! had a few incidents and reported them and never heard from them again!

i prefer to live in jerusalem where its not stable at all! with the war and all that crap that in london!


rant over

MattW

From Puff's post:

This idiot decides that having forced me off the road, he'd better bog off quick as I was drawing up on him, as traffic was heavy, he shoots off down the hard shoulder. Like a prat I follow - red mist still there.

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

Sounds - you should of wrapped your disklock around his head

MattW

Bloody hell Puff, thought it was bad enough on your first post.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I agree with the sentiments above that sometimes its hard not to snap. I too have had a fair few red midst incidents...but its best not too.

If you were alongside him just after traffic had braked, the relative positions of cars could have changed a fair bit. If you are directly alongside it is possible for you to be out of sight, and he may have simply wanted to change lanes.

But if it really was deliberate......then I would not have gone onto the hard shoulder. Just hit the brakes, and let your front right gently tap his rear left as he pulled over into your lane. You'd spin him out onto the hard shoulder, and then get the pleasure of sueing him

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

That guy sounds like a candidate for anger management classes: an accident waiting to happen!!

He will do that to someone one day who will simply pull over, get out of their car and proceed beat the living s**t out of him!

I, for one, won't have much sympathy!

Ns04

PaulC72

Well although it is an all too regular occurance on the roads these days, it should have gone something like this....

'handsfree' 999, police please..... someone who is driving dangerously on X road reg number X think he may be drunk or a stolen vehicle tried to run me and other drivers off the road.....thank you sir we will attend straight away

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Glad you're ok

And for the record I would have chased him too if I was on my own.

DaveD

iTrader: (2)

I think in the kind of situation where you have almost been run off the road, the sudden rush of adrenalin could get the better of you. Not sure if I would have carried on for the next 10 - 15 miles though?!

I also admit to keeping to the left hand lane on the M11 in a similar style, but am aware that some people can percieve this as queue jumping, even if your intention is to just run parallel to the traffic in the outside lane. Never had anyone deliberatelly swerve in front of me there though!

However, the other week I did come across two cars that tried to brake test me. One, because I beeped my horn as he cut across in front of me - he then sharply braked and turned left without indicating at the next junciton. The other had to accelerate past me over hatched lines (I was following another car) to cut in front of me, and then braked sharply (almost spinning in the process!). I only realised what he was trying to do when he again braked sharply for no reason on the exit of the next roundabout. Although in all cases I was too far back to be caught out by any of these actions, the final very obvious brake test did really take me by surprise. And for what?

rabskyline

glad i live in the scottish countryside and not down in busy road land ! i would have lost the plot ! but i would have probably stopped in front of him when the roads got tighter and set about the **** !

StickyMicky

Same sort of thing has happened to me puff about 5 years back , although it was dual carriageway and at the end there is traffic lights, i can see this bloke in a van all over the road up ahead, what looks like deliberately swerving around to hit people, so i kept out his way.

near the end of the dual carriageway traffic was slowing for the lights, i figure it would be safe to stay in the outside lane while "loony-bin" is up ahead in the inside.

****er swerved out at the last minute into my lane while i was half alongside him, i hit the brakes and skidded into a kerb, i look over and the ****er is laughing????
then he takes a sharp left at the lights cutting people up.

you reacted much better then me TBH

i was going mad

i new there was a quick left up ahead, although i had never took the exit before, figured it would be a good bet, so i did, ended up in a housing estate, few more streets and lo and behold, Mr van man is coming towards me

he panicked, tried to turn around, and got stuck at the junction

it ended up with him having a sore face and somehow the side panels of his van battered in, and somehow i had to go to work with a smashed in wrist and fist

happy days

i enjoyed the sounds he made at the time, squealing like a pig



not the most sensible thing to do, but i was angry in them days

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

I'm guessing he didn't do it again!!


I recall the wise words of Jeremy Clarkson in a piece he called: "Road Rage - you know it makes sense"

He recalled an incident where a piece of careless driving on his part (careless you'll note i.e. a mistake, not deliberate or malacious, as with the examples above) nearly caused a bad accident. The other gentleman involved got out of his car and proceeded to try and throttle Jeremy. Did he blame the chap? No, he conceeded that his carelessness could well have caused the bloke serious injury or worse and that he felt that he probably deserved a stronger retaliation!

If you try and use your car as a weapon against other road users and deliberately behave in such a way that could cause them -and maybe innocent bystanders- injury and damage to their property, then if all you get is a good kicking you can consider yourself lucky!!

Ns04

Varboy

personally I don't road rage people for mistakes (everyone makes them) I just beep/flash people or gesticulate if they drive deliberately inconsiderately or they don't get out of may when there is ample chance to do so (hence inconsiderate)

tmo

just bide your time, chances are you may happen upon this vehicle again.

StickyMicky

Doubt it


the bloke was a complete tool.

or a mental patient on the run

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

I hope no-one on here would consider themselves justified in thumpng someone for a genuine mistake. As you pointed out, we all make em!! Sometimes, silly ones, but they're not intended to cause harm or motivated by malice or petulance.

However, when you get people trying to do you and your vehicle harm for no other reason than you're in their way, or may have made a genuine mistake, that's a different story.

Of course, the problem with condoning giving people like that a thump is that the very people who will be most inclined to use their fists are not reasonable like PYMW, but yobs who will use any opportunity to lamp someone, which is unfortunate.

Like I said though, I would personally have no sympathy for someone who tried to ram someone off the road or deliberately cause an accident should they subsequently get a good kicking for their efforts!

You live by the sword, you die by the sword!

Ns04

donnas roo

I think part of the trouble is the reputation that Subarus and their drivers get branded with. Almost eveyone you speak to wants to know how fast they go and assume you automatically drive to the cars potential, which is ver often not the case.
Glad to hear you came out of it unscared from the ordeal.Don't some folk really pi$$ you off, it happens to me regular, but i often get "whats a female doing driving a mans car, i bet you can't handle it"
Seriously though ! glad your ok

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

My 'funniest' moment was when a transvestite suffered road rage on the
M1 a few years back.

He overtook me, swerved and the braked - I braked hard enough to lock the front wheels at 70mph (in a fiesta), but still hit him. I pulled into the inside lane and the ****** pulled along side and tried to side swipe me . He then took off at a rate of knots......

....... me following with g/f screaming blue murder at me! So I took his registration and reported it to the police, insurance company etc.

Eventually, I recovered the money for the damage from his insurance company, but it was a lot of hassle that I could have done without.

The moral of the story - don't **** with transvestites

Abdabz

18 months ago, my boss was driving me to Leeds (a place of scum and deprivation in Yorkshire) for a business meeting in his Citroen Xsara Picasso.
As we come over the Pennines past the mad farmers house, he notices a silver nissan almera stuck right up his bumper, ludicrously close.
Despite the fairly heavy traffic, which my boss is keeping up with at a safe distance, we were doing a pleasant 80mph.
My boss, big bloke, 20 stone, shaved head etc keeps in his lane down the hill but there is a gap just big enough for the almera to undertake.
He swerves into the middle lane, then as he passes and I notice the two kids strapped up in the back, he finishes his undertaking manouvre and swerves back out in front of the boss.
Now I am amazed at the driving so I saracastically applaud the manouvre and so the numpty slams on his brakes... We anchor on, cars wiggling and he then pulls back into the middle lane...
He starts using sign language to question my personal habits and implies he will punch me and cut my throad... He started swerving at our car, throthing at the mouth screaming all kinds with the window down, spitting at our car etc... I couldnt make out the numbers 666 on his head, but they must have been there.

He then pulls into the inside lane and invites us over to the hard shoulder to discuss things face to face but the traffic as we approach the Calder valley means he gets stuck in that lane and we carry on...

A few mins later, were in the usual rush hour middle lane crawl, when he appears in the outside lane next to us, beeping his horn, shaking his fist, throthing at the mouth and screaming.

The boss suggests we ignore him...

Then the traffic stops. He gets out and marches over to the bosses door and starts trying to rip the handle off... He then starts punching the drivers side front window, screaming for us to get out because he "wants to effing kill us"
I ask the boss if I can claim expenses if my suit gets damaged as I would quite like for us to accept his kind invitation and stove his head in but my boss tells me I would need a VAT receipt, so we ignore the mentalist.

As the traffic starts moving we drive away, he runs back to his car and comes after us.
The boss, cool as a cucumber, calls the police and has noted down the reg plates of cars around us who witnessed the assault...

The police keep us on the phone as the guy is back after us and we keep a commentary going for them: where we are, whats happening etc.
Next thing the helicopter is up and theyre following us, recording his actions while they get a traffic car from Halifax over to arrest him.

He bailed off the motorway on the M621 and was arrested a few days later.

It went to court, and he pleaded guilty to being a mentalist and was done for dangerous driving, affray and criminal damage. He had a record for violence which was taken into account, but only fined and bound over...

Scary though when it happens....

micared-prodrive

just say you saw him do a movement with his hands,you seem to think he was waving a gun...............