General Chat

Stupid idiot almost killed me today :( ... I was driving to work quite merrily. The sun was shining, and I was feeling ok with the day. I almost get to work and some stupid idiot pulls out in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and beeped at him, to let him know he almost hit me. So HE goes and slams on HIS brakes, so I almost crash into the back of him! I was stunned. I'm still shaking :( I sat in my works car park for ages in tears :(

Hope you are OK. There are a lot of these people about. Glad I don't drive. Germaine x

oh How awfull Tracy, I hope you are ok now xx

Yesterday, hubby was driving behind a woman. She went to overtake a parked delivery van and he followed her. Suddenly she slammed on her breaks - a car was coming, but hubby said well in the distance - hubby slammed on his so not to hit her in the rear and spun in his car. She drove off merrily without even looking back.

Glad your OK.

Oh, I almost forgot - after he'd braked, he waved at me through his rear view mirror, sticking his thumb up!! I'm a bit better now. It's almost 2 hours since it happened, but I'm not looking forward to driving home! lol

really sorry to hear that tracy, hope u feeling better now, so he decided to scare u did he, should be glad it wasn't me i would have slammed into the back of his car if he braked hard then would have asked car park owners for cctv video footage, and sued him for assault , mental stress, and taken my car to get fixed at most expensive car place i could find, ps don,t tell anyone would have got mates to key his car paintwork, while i had alibi. anyway hope the rest of your day goes better for u, and don,t let peeps like that spoil it for you, they got tunnel vision think they occupy the centre of the universe, but your better than that, as you showed with your emotions, hope you took a hot honey drink to bring your energy levels back up and soothe your nerves......jim...

This is why there is a need for more speed cameras and more traffic police.

lol Jim - I'm not as brave as you :) I couldn't even see his registration number, cos his car was so dirty! He doesn't work with me though, thankfully. If he did, I'd find the courage (from somewhere) to go up to him and punch him (or at least get hubby to lol)

If you see his car sometime, parked (if you would recognise it), try and make out the number and report him to the police for a dirty number plate. Glad you are OK anyway. Ann Glos

Glad you're ok Tracy, but you're right there are some idiots on the road. Have to admit I get amazed at what might be regarded as the slightest things. The A174 before you get to Redcar (heading towards M'bro) gets very busy in the mornings before you hit the dual carriageaway and some mornings, the traffic on the single carriageaway part of the A174 is backed up so you're crawling along at about 20mph, yet you always gets someone who insists on pushing in just to get two cars in front of where they were previously. I always keep thinking what's the point, we're all having to crawl, you're not going to realistically get there any quicker.

Eddie, I dont think speed cameras would have made a difference in this case or in the case of the woman slamming her breaks on in front of husband yesterday. These are really just misjudgements of the traffic/speed/conditons and when it comes down to it, I guess we all make mistakes sometimes. Luckily in this case it wasnt serious. I agree that there are some real idiots who just dont think and who dont care about any other drivers. I can never understand why people are in such a rush that they have to overtake even when you are in a line of traffic at red lights. I mean, at the next roundabout or whatever they are still just in front of you, what can be so urgent that you risk yours and other lives?

Andy, you're right. The roads round here get really bad at rush hour. I just sit on the inside, normally, waiting for everyone to move lol Oh - about the idiot - there wasn't even anyone behind me, so he had no need to pull out. Think I'll go get a cuppa :)

i agree heather about all make mistakes, but since he stuck thumb up 2 her think it was more deliberate, anyway glad to c u feeling bit better tracy

Very glad you're ok Tracy but not surprised you're shaken by the incident - there are some total lunatics out there. Daisy

I'm just glad my ABS works lol

Agree with Heather, speed cameras would have made no difference, but Eddie's right about needing more police on the roads. Trouble is, the traffic police have been replaced by speed cameras.

Perhaps I misinterpreted it, I thought the thumbs up was a sort of embarrassed, glad you are ok? And speed cameras! Day before yesterday (had a week of traffic probs!) we were driving into the city on a dual carriageway. Light traffic and as we came to about 2 miles out of the city, I noticed a row of bollards on one side of the road and then a sign '30 miles an hour, men working'. I said to hubby, better slow down, its 30 here. He was just under 40 mph - everyone passing us as its normally a fast road. He said to me, 'Well, theres no one working now, they must have just left the sign out'. As I said he was doing 38 mph ish and some traffic behind us, so he couldnt put on brakes. Just then I saw a mobile 'safety unit' parked up (were they the men working?) taking photos of every car. On the news that night it said 120 cars an hour had been caught at that point (no doubt including us) - so whats that, say 6 hours x 120 x £60 plus a ticket? And not one man working on the road.

I thought when he put his thumb up that he was signalling that he was in charge and could do anything he wanted :(

Oh, I didnt realise that. I thought it was just an embarrassment - I did the wrong thing, but you are ok? My husband has done that if he accidently cuts someone up. And I usually wave at them too so they get both our apologies! Soft old me, eh.