Dangerous driving

S

STEINER

Registered User
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I see a lot of dangerous driving around. Do some people not care or realise that they endanger other road users?

Speeding is crazy. Mobile phone usage whilst driving is endemic. Lane changers don't use their mirrors.

On Friday the car in front of myself and wife just did a u-turn without warning at 50km/h.

On Friday an artic driver had a mobile welded to his ear whilst negotiating a busy roundabout on a busy street. After the roundabout, he switched the mobile to the right hand!

Also on Friday, a car overtook a cyclist on an 80km/h road with oncoming traffic dangerously close having to brake and flash.

I travelled on a Bus Eireann bus recently before their strike. The driver drove with one hand for about 12 km, through 3 villages, mobile phone pressed to his head without fail. He was discussing the coming strike and union/croke park stuff! Passengers paid their fares and he kept yapping away on it as they stated their destination etc! Sadly we passed the spot where a fatal RTA had happened just a fews days earlier, wreath tied to a pole.

I think these drivers need to cop themselves on. I also think that traffic policing in general needs to get real and start enforcing rules.
 
STEINER said:
I travelled on a Bus Eireann bus recently before their strike. The driver drove with one hand for about 12 km, through 3 villages, mobile phone pressed to his head without fail. He was discussing the coming strike and union/croke park stuff! Passengers paid their fares and he kept yapping away on it as they stated their destination etc! Sadly we passed the spot where a fatal RTA had happened just a fews days earlier, wreath tied to a pole.
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Did you.......

A. Report the driver to Gardai?

B. Report the driver to Bus Eireann?

C. Ask driver to stop talking on phone while driving?
 
STEINER said:
I see a lot of dangerous driving around. Do some people not care or realise that they endanger other road users?

Speeding is crazy. Mobile phone usage whilst driving is endemic. Lane changers don't use their mirrors.

On Friday the car in front of myself and wife just did a u-turn without warning at 50km/h.

On Friday an artic driver had a mobile welded to his ear whilst negotiating a busy roundabout on a busy street. After the roundabout, he switched the mobile to the right hand!

Also on Friday, a car overtook a cyclist on an 80km/h road with oncoming traffic dangerously close having to brake and flash.

I travelled on a Bus Eireann bus recently before their strike. The driver drove with one hand for about 12 km, through 3 villages, mobile phone pressed to his head without fail. He was discussing the coming strike and union/croke park stuff! Passengers paid their fares and he kept yapping away on it as they stated their destination etc! Sadly we passed the spot where a fatal RTA had happened just a fews days earlier, wreath tied to a pole.

I think these drivers need to cop themselves on. I also think that traffic policing in general needs to get real and start enforcing rules.
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In fairness you're posting on the wrong forum. On this forum we like to ignore dangerous driving from vehicle operators and instead state that the most heinous criminals on the road right now are cyclists. Just so you know for next time.

However, on your Bus Driver and mobile phone tale. I can top that with a recent event where the Bin Lorry driver was driving using his feet around the estate while talking on the phone. Even more unfortunate was that it was during the school holidays so plenty of kids were out playing. Even more unfortunate was that at least twenty parents immediately phoned the waste company to complain and the the gardai. Even more unfortunate was the waste company denied even being in the estate at that time (pictures were sent to them) and the gardai never turned up.

But good job he wasn't a cyclist going through an empty pedestrian crossing, then I'd have been really mad.
 
Wow, that's unbelievable Latrade. Is there anyway you can take that any further?


What really irritates me is when you pull into the overtaking lane on the motorway to pass someone out and a car coming behind you, obviously convinced it's a 'fast lane' speeds right up behind you only stopping when they've practically touched your bumper (and given you a heart attack) and then sits on your tail until you pull back in. Had an absolute wagon do this to me on the M50 a couple of weeks ago and then the arrogant cow had the cheek to angrily blare her horn at me when I pulled back in and she sped past at way over the speed limit.
 
while we may have some bad drivers on the road our overall driving is very good, think i read somewhere we are the third safest drivers in europe. having been to countries like spain and italy. ect....we are way safer drivers!
 
A complaint to Bus Eireann may get ignored or you'd probably get a bla bla looking into it letter reply

Recording the driver yapping and driving with one hand and then putting it up on youtube would get Bus Eireann's attention ;)


And +1 to the post from blueband.
Drivers in Rome are flamin lunatics :eek:
 
Recently started to bring a learner driver out on the road. Had not really realised the ignorance of a significant number of drivers until I had L plates on the car. If a learner stalls a car at lights, he doesn't deserve to get beeped to hell out of it. I had cars overtake on dangerous roads, drive up our This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language even if we were going the speed limit. I was actually driving the car one day with the plates on and still witnessed aggressive driving towards me simply because they thought I was a learner.
 
liaconn said:
Wow, that's unbelievable Latrade. Is there anyway you can take that any further?
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I wasn't there unfortunately, but I was a bit annoyed that there were a couple of fathers there who just recorded the driver. I hate that kind of passive agressive stuff anyway, I would have stopped him driving and called the guards. But at the moment, the company is denying being there at all.

Sunny said:
Recently started to bring a learner driver out on the road. Had not really realised the ignorance of a significant number of drivers until I had L plates on the car. If a learner stalls a car at lights, he doesn't deserve to get beeped to hell out of it. I had cars overtake on dangerous roads, drive up our This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language even if we were going the speed limit. I was actually driving the car one day with the plates on and still witnessed aggressive driving towards me simply because they thought I was a learner.
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I see that all the time and had experiences when accompanying a learner driver. The thing is I remember well from when I was learning just how intimidating it was and vowed to have patience with a learner driver, I would have thought everyone else would have the same memories and sympathies.

And, in fairness to the learners (and their instructors) when I'm cycling, they give loads of room and overtake very nicely unlike the qualified drivers behind them.
 
liaconn said:
What really irritates me is when you pull into the overtaking lane on the motorway to pass someone out and a car coming behind you, obviously convinced it's a 'fast lane' speeds right up behind you only stopping when they've practically touched your bumper (and given you a heart attack) and then sits on your tail until you pull back in. Had an absolute wagon do this to me on the M50 a couple of weeks ago and then the arrogant cow had the cheek to angrily blare her horn at me when I pulled back in and she sped past at way over the speed limit.
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What you've described there could equally be a case of someone pulling out to overtake without having due regard for a vehicle already in the overtaking lane - the rule of thumb I always use is that if a car already in the lane will have to slow substantuially to allow me to do my own overtaking manoeuvre then I should wait until they've overtaken me and I can use the lane without causing disruption to another driver's progress. Maybe you're inclined to impede other people's progress and this causes them to intentionally driver up your This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language to make sure that you actually know they were/are there - I'm not saying it's right, but I can understand the frustration of having someone dawdle out obliviously.
 
mandelbrot said:
What you've described there could equally be a case of someone pulling out to overtake without having due regard for a vehicle already in the overtaking lane - the rule of thumb I always use is that if a car already in the lane will have to slow substantuially to allow me to do my own overtaking manoeuvre then I should wait until they've overtaken me and I can use the lane without causing disruption to another driver's progress. Maybe you're inclined to impede other people's progress and this causes them to intentionally driver up your This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language to make sure that you actually know they were/are there - I'm not saying it's right, but I can understand the frustration of having someone dawdle out obliviously.
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Eh, no. I had made very sure that I had loads of room to move out and this car zoomed up suddenly from nowhere. I also only moved out to overtake a car and certainly wasn't doing so in order to sit in the lane dawdling up the M50. I agree that shooting out in front of someone and then tootling along is irritating, so it's something I don't do. It would also be very dangerous to do it on a motorway and the last thing I want is a car having to make a split second decision to avoid running into me.

This girl was not overtaking anyone, she was using the lane as a fast lane and continued to drive in it, well over the speed limit, after I had pulled back in. She was just rude and arrogant and heedless. If a garda car had been around she would have been pulled over, and rightly so.
 
I've never understood the instant aggression towards a car with L plates. Driving aggressively behind a learner driver is likely to make them even more nervous, so they'll go slower, and are more likely to stall. Back off and show a little patience, and you'll wind up getting where you want faster.
 
Seagull said:
I've never understood the instant aggression towards a car with L plates. Driving aggressively behind a learner driver is likely to make them even more nervous, so they'll go slower, and are more likely to stall. Back off and show a little patience, and you'll wind up getting where you want faster.
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Also, do those people not remember learning to drive themselves or realise how often they held up traffic or stalled at green lights. The only time impatience is understandable is if a total beginner is brought out into heavy rush hour traffic, particularly morning traffic when people are trying to get to work on time. And even then, driving angrily up their boot is hardly going to help the situation.
 
liaconn said:
This girl was not overtaking anyone, she was using the lane as a fast lane and continued to drive in it, well over the speed limit, after I had pulled back in. She was just rude and arrogant and heedless. If a garda car had been around she would have been pulled over, and rightly so.
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OK, so sounds like this person was driving like a lunatic. But if you pulled into the lane ahead of them, forcing them to brake, the Gardai might have stopped you too. You are supposed to assess the speed of approaching traffic before overtaking.
 
I dont find driving standards to be that bad of late- and I recently did a test (trailer) so it's been on my radar, so to speak - a few years back I recall more incidences of people indicating one way and turning another etc. One bugbear is slow moving traffic - people doing 50k on a 100k open road, big tail back of people gagging to overtake, slow driver hugging the white line. Either speed up or occasionally pull in and generally drive to the left of the lane.

I think part of the solution is recognising that there are ignorant people and bad drivers out there, you wont change them there any then by anything you might do, and certainly being aggressive will make it worse. So re the fast lane example- if I see someone 'bombing it' in the fast lane I let them off, even if I'm at the limit and want to overtake I wont pull out to "enforce the legal limit".

One thing that hasnt happened to me lately but did to someone I know is where queued behind slow car, obvious everyone want to overtake, someone from back the queue "gets the jump" on other would-be overtakers in front. They probably did this by starting their manouvre too early to be safe (e.g. at a brow, bend, before the full way ahead was clear) - but anyway there's a chance that someone in front wont check their mirrors/shoulder (the overtaking time can be short) - so a situation to be aware of.

What I do if I'm directly behind the slow guy and therefore "first in the queue" is a) put on my indicator just before anyone could possibly be overtaking (e.g. while the oncoming car is still approaching) so boy racer types know for a fact I'm about to pull out & b) get out there as quick as possible to claim my right to overtake. If I'm back the queue I tend to let everyone ahead off first, unless its v obvious that someone is happy to hang on behind.

What really shocks me with this thread is that no-one has been reprimanded for using the 'a' word - as a reformed offender in this regard I've become a zelous advocate of exceedingly high standards on AAM.......
 
Betsy Og said:
What really shocks me with this thread is that no-one has been reprimanded for using the 'a' word - as a reformed offender in this regard I've become a zelous advocate of exceedingly high standards on AAM.......
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What 'a' word?
 
Purple said:
What 'a' word?
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The only one I can see on the thread is 'This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language.'

We're not at the level of foul mouthed Ray D'Arcy yet, but it's a slippery slope! Fair play Betsy!:D
 
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