Stupid Driver - Help!!

C

Cahir

Guest
I am seriously p*ssed off.
This morning when I was driving into work I met a complete a*sehole.
I was waiting at lights for a right arrow (there was a straight arrow but the right turn was red). A jeep was behind me and start flashing the lights for me to turn so I pointed at the red light. He flashed again so I again pointed at the red light.

The arrow came on so I turned right, then he pulled up beside me rolled down his window and said "That was a hand signal - I've got you're number and I'm reporting you" - I said "Did you see the red light - I don't break red lights" and he just kept saying "I'm reporting you".
What should I do - report him first for dangerous driving???
What's likely to happen?
Would he report me if I did break the lights - I can't win :-(

I feel sick!!
 
re

forget about it. Just get over it. He was an asshole.
 
:-D

Should have just laughed at him.

I always find that doing funny faces provokes quite a satisfying response.
 
Bully.

Cahir, A lot of people seem to think that it is o.k. to turn right on a red light if there is a green light for going straight. It's not o.k. He was provoking you by flashing his lights at you and you responded out of frustration. You tried to point to the red light. If you had done nothing he might have "bumped" you out of anger. You weren't to know. You were helpless. He was behind you also. Supposing you had been a nervous learner driver you might have driven in to oncoming traffic out of sheer fright. He is the one who should be reported. You will find that he is well known for his aggressiveness.
Don't worry nothing will come of it, even if you did give him two fingers.
 
Re: Bully.

After talking to a few people in work I decided to call the garda station to see what could happen.

Told the girl on the phone what happened. She was nice enough and asked for my contact details and his reg number. She said it sounded like he was too aggressive and asked if I wanted her to contact him to have a word.

I said I didn't want to take it any further but just wanted my side of the story on record in case he decided he would report me for allegedly "making a rude hand gesture". She said that even if I had made a gesture, nothing could be done about that.

People break the red light there every day (turning right from Clontarf Road onto Alfie Byrne Road) but that doesn't mean that it's ok to do it. The light is a green straight arrow not just a green light so it's illeagal to turn without the green right turn arrow- I'm so frustrated!!!!
 
re

Although you did nothing wrong you're letting this guy win. You're letting this get to you. You've probably been thinking about this all morning. Ringing the gardai was taking it too far. This guy probably didn't give it a second thought when he was 100 yards past you...forget about it - he's an asshole.
 
Re: re

This morning when I was driving into work I met a complete a*sehole.
Click to expand...

..could be worse because this morning when I arrived into work I met a complete a*sehole....

....You met that a*sehole just as a once off. I get to work with this a*sehole every friggin day of the week!


Now hopefully that will have cheered you up on this wonderful day!

ninsaga (Up the Rebels!)
 
Head On Near Miss

Holy Hell People in this country need to slow down and think about what they are doing, was driving to Limerick on Friday and about 5 miles outside Roscrea was met by a Green Primera overtaking 2 cars coming over the brow of a hill on my side of the road........move into my hard shoulder I hear you say ....... there was roadworks there !!!!! This fool ended up heading straight for me and took me on my hard shoulder hitting the cones .....leaving me to contend with fitting between him and the cars he just overtook.........Im still in shock from it, and the idiot just drove off .....not a care in the world .......what can I do.?????
I didnt see his reg no. and the cars near me didnt stop......
 
.

voodoo... - yeah, and I wonder how many penalty points that driver has (NONE). Meanwhile, Ethel Lightdrive get 6 for doing 42 on the Belgard road.
 
View it from a different level ( above the red fog )

See if you can find a copy of

RCN: 0113408587
Class number: 629.283
Author: Coyne, Philip
Title: Roadcraft, The police driver's handbook

in your local library

It will help you cope with people like this and many other driving related issues
 
Incident

Forget it!
Noticed you said it was a jeep. Those effers driving those things should be castrated along with white van drivers!
 
Bad driver

Cahir, you have my sympathy. I am not making little of the aggravation that this caused you, but I want you to consider this:

Is stress mainly caused by the situations that we come across each day, or is it mainly caused by the way we respond to them?

This may seem like a facile question, but the fact is that you can do very little to control other people's actions. You can however, do a lot (one step at a time, and it is a never-ending process) to alter the way that you allow things to affect you. If this incident bothered you so much, is there a danger that you are inclined to let things get to you generally? You are entitled to live a life free of worries such as this.

And by the way, in case you think I am being smug, I am every bit as bad - I often wake up remembering something I need to get done at work and unable to get back to sleep. But I try to change; and you should too.
 
Re: Bad driver

good post MOB,
A friend of my grandfather's once told me that life was 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.
 
Re: Life's too short

MOB,

Purple is right. Excellent post - one of the best I've seen on AAM. Life's too short to let people like the wally described in Cahir's post annoy/upset us and its only as you get older that you realise this.

My outlook on life now is 'if the doctor tells me tomorrow that I/my family/friends have cancer/serious illness then I worry, most other things pale into insignificance.
 
Re: Life's too short

Memorise his reg and when you see his car again. Key it!!
 
The Wally

That's all well and good, but it is eejits like this that cause head on collisions that kill people, usually the other occupants driving along at the legal pace.
 
dangerous wallies

I agree with the above, about a year ago I stopped at a green light at the top of Constitution Hill in Dublin because the traffic was backed up and I didn't want to block the junction, despite the absence of an orange box as far as I know it is illegal to block a junction like this. The guy behind me was not pleased and having tooted his horn to no avail then bumped me. He did no damage (I got out nice and slowly and walked around to check) but I have to say I don't know which upset me more, what he did or the fact that the Garda I rang the next morning was not interested (I did have the reg number) based on the fact that there was no damage and that it was a road rage incident (his words). I decided to let it go but I do wonder what the repercussions of the guys actions might have been the next time he got pissed off behind the wheel.
 
Seeing RED!

Cahir
You did the best thing you could have done! Frustrated his attempts to persuade you to break the lights and obviously made him see red in more ways than one.
Easily said, but you have to ignore these individuals. Hopefully one day he will get his come-uppance either by getting charged by the Gardai.
Trixie: In that situation I would have insisted in getting the other drivers details since it was in effect a Road Traffic Accident. I don't know what qualifications you have in car engineering, spinal injuries or post traumatic stress. Any bump can crack, bend or distort parts of your car and your body. The time spent taking his details would / could have been well spent. A bill / claim for checking out your vehicle and your body may soften his cough, next time!
 
a**h*le

Hi Cahir,
I am very familiar with the junction you were hassled on.
I used to trun right there and always waited for the filter light to go green. A few times I have been flashed in exactly the same circumstances as you. It was ALWAYS a truck or van behind me - what is it about these guys ??

Like you, I point to the red light, and usually there is no response from them.
I have also seen other people, usually cars, being intimidated into turning right against the red-light. On some occasions, the vehicles have gone around the law-abiding one and proceeded to break the red-light.
I don't use that junction anymore because it is rubbish - the filter light sequence seems to be designed for traffic volumes of 50 years ago and stays red even when there is no oncoming traffic. Try the Malahide road-EastWall road instead.

Also, there is NEVER a garda at that junction, even though the garda station is right beside it.
 
The wrong people are getting the points.

You know, the wrong people are getting the points. Some poor sod doing 43 in a 40 M.P.H. zone but these other tossers are getting away with it. Like the old phart driving his Almera on the Stillorgan Dual Carriageway. Made 3 turns no indicators, drove on the bus lane to overtake two large juggernauts, no consideration when turning right into traffic that the rest of us behind him would also like to get around the corner before the lights changed. Or the idiot who lives next door to me who parks his 4 wheel drive full on the footpath outside his house, leaving pedestrians to walk on the road.
 
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