Safe Speed Forums

Oddly enough, another close encounter on the same stretch of road but this was on my way home this evening, so in the other direction.

I was up to speed - 70-75 mph on the d/c in lane 1 and coming up on a van ahead. Another car in L2 a bit faster than me so I had to wait for him to overtake me before moving into L2. From L1, I could see a car some way ahead of the van turning off the d/c into a turning on the left. I pulled into L2 about 2s behind the car which had just overtaken me and saw that the turning car ahead of the van had extraordinarily failed to clear the main c/way and was half blocking L1. Van could have braked but instead started to move into L2, without any indication, just as the car ahead committed to the overtake (not sure if the van may have been obscuring the blockage ahead). Anyway, overtaking car keeps going and van keeps moving across into L2. I'm watching somewhat dumbstruck as overtaking car is forced to put o/side wheels onto the central reservation in order to avoid the van (fortunately there's no raised kerb). I'm braking hard by now, in case overtaking car is flipped sideways across my path. Fortunately, the car squeezes through and carries on.

I've noted reg. no. of van and consider reporting to police for careless driving - truly awful and could have been very nasty. However, overtaking car is probably not blameless and I'm not sure if I can be bothered.