Safe Speed Forums

Gentlemen,

I am not an aggressive driver, and have never ever had any points on my licence, or endorsements as it was in the days when I started driving, in 1971. Please bear that in mind as I regale you with this tale. I wasn't going to bother telling you about this - it happened a week ago, and in light of some of the injustices I read about in the press and on this board, I thought I would share it. It's only a small matter, but an irritating one.

Last week I was passing through Woodlands Park near Maidenhead, Berks. I had to make a left turn at a small three-way roundabout, and was able to do so without stopping, continuing in third gear. For whatever reason, I checked the speedo as I came away from the roundabout - 26mph. The limit is 30. About 30 yards ahead, a middle aged woman pedestrian stepped off the kerb into the road, crossing from my left to right, but she was looking to her left and didn't see me. No problem, I didn't speed up, I did not honk, I just let her cross. Half way across, she looked the other way towards me and was clearly startled to see me, and scurried to the other side. There was no danger. But...

... as I passed by, she shouted at me angrily "Slow down!!", and waved her arm at me. I feel somewhat aggrieved that she should point the finger of blame at me in this way. When I was young, we were taught to look right, left and right again. This woman didn't look right before she left the kerb. If she had, she would have seen me coming.

But of course, in this day and age when there's no such thing as an accident and it's always someone else's fault, it's always the driver who must shoulder the blame.

As I finished the journey, I could imagine this woman telling all her friends about the reckless maniacs who pass through the village (at 26mph!) and that there needs to be a camera or speed hump at that spot.

you're clearly not fit to hold a licence. You should go to the dvla and hand it in before you kill someone!

Where I live the carpark is shared by 4 separate blocks of flats. 2 of the blocks have rear entrances with about a metre of pavement and then onto the driveway. Most of the idiots that live there drive in and out of the place at totally inappropriate speeds. I think the lady that walked out of the door looking left while I was approaching from the right is glad that I don't, although had I hit her I'm sure it would have been completely my fault.

Hello,
Same as me and the wife driving along with a horse trailer on the back mare and foal in the back so only going slow,
woman on a bike crosse's from right to left did not see me,am turning left have my light on(to turn left) she stop's at the turnin point blocking the way.
we drive around her,as we do this she starts giving it large.
My wife has her window down so she can here the mare and foal in the back of the trailer.tells me to stop,she gets out and has a right go at the woman on the bike,she did not see me and it was my speeding she was shouting at.
I had to get the wife back in the car she was going to kill her.
as we drove off the woman fell over her bike
I was speeding NOT

Yes but no-one accepts any blame for anything anymore. No-one says, sorry, I made a mistake....EVER

I gues we have the arrogant politicians to blame for providing the role model that is copied ...through govt departments, govt services and agencies right down to MoP's

And where did it all start --?? Not exactly certain , but always seem to remember seeing advice in my insurance policy "never say sorry, or admit blame or liability" .

Could this be the starting point and the free for all in the "no win no fee" area (sometimes called the American disease ) has exaserbated this to the point that you cannot defuse the situation with "i'm sorry( when yopu know you were in the wrong) for fear of your insurance company might either accuse you of undermining their rights or deny you your rights .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Maybe you are right botach, this has contributed to it.

I think it is more endemic in today's society than simply a fear of litigation. But I find this a huge problem amongst colleagues, younger co-workers etc. In engineering design litigation can be a problem. But unless you can recognise a mistake, individuals and corporations can never improve

I agree with this to a certain extent. Saying that 3 weeks ago someone reversed into my son's car and wrote it off. No independent witnesses but this guy was big enough to admit it was his fault (not say son ran into back of him ) and the claim is now being settled. Makes you actually want to THANK TP for being so decent and honest about it when really this is behaviour we should expect !

Well I probably will suggest to son to ring him when it's settled!

I had the same crap off of some moronic gobby "chav" woman who turned up AFTER the accident had occured.

We live in a cul-de-sac with Give Way lines at the top of the road.
I had left the house and made my way to the top of the road (noticing that a group of very young children were playing on the corner with a highly excited Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy).

I stopped at the top of the road, did the usual look right, look left, etc, and then proceeded to pull out. As soon as I pulled out, I felt the rear end of the car lift upwards slightly and at the same moment the kids that had been playing all started shouting.
I immediately slapped the anchors on, and jumped out to see what had happened. My first thought was that I had somehow managed to run one of the children over, however as soon as I started looking in the general direction of the nearside rear quarter, this Staffordshire Bull terrier puppy emerged looking a bit shaken but otherwise apparently unharmed.

The children tried to catch the dog, but it decided to leg it somewhere else.

At this point, someone must have phoned the childrens auntie because she turned up 5 minutes later. She got up my nose immediately as the first words out of her mouth to the numerous witnesses were "How fast was he going?"

She continued to be a trappy bitch until 2 things were pointed out:

1. The vehicle was just pulling out from stationary when the dog decided to run underneath the car, there was no way anybody could have done anything at that point but it certainly could have been avoided altogether if the dog had been on a lead to start with (as it should have been).

2. What the hell were several children all aged under 10 doing "home alone" anyway?

The dog was found 24 hours later, and aside from a bit of bruising & singed fur, it was otherwise unharmed (which was amazing considering the back wheel went right over it).

We have heard since then that the dog has now developed a penchant for attacking moving vehicles, and has narrowly avoided being run over twice since then....something tells me that dog is not long for this world if the owners persistently fail to keep it under proper control.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

See my reply here:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7925

Gixxer's point makes a lot of sense ,and raises the question i continually ask - why are kids this age (and younger ) allowed out on their own ( and often in charge of younger kids) - and in this case why Social Services do not get involved - SS - seem to want to get involved with kids when any other sort of injury occurs. Are we looking at yet more Social Services Double standards??

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Botach,

Our street (fortunately) is one of the very few where you can let the young children run around with gay abandon to a moderate degree.

The children in question weren't just playing out alone, they were actually "home alone" as in there was no responsible person of legal age to look after their welfare.

Q. As you rightfully point out, where the f**k are Social Services when they are really needed?

A. Probably berating some poor single parent for not buying enough toys for their offspring....or buying the "wrong" sort of toys

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

I can't believe it. Only a week after the original incident, there has been another. This time, I was following a WVM (white van man) less than half a mile from my home. I had caught up to him, and he was crawling along at about 10mph. I sat there wondering what he was going to do next. He began to turn left into a side road - definitely no left turn signal. I prepared to edge past as his turn was completed when, as WVM's van was at a 45° angle with the road from which he was in the process of turning, he swung round to the right to enter a driveway on the right of the road he'd turned from, and which I was still on. I was so startled that I sounded the horn - twice - thinking that this van was going to do what so many other vehicles do in this area, which is to make a U-turn in the opening of a side road. (Round here they don't seem to care which side the side road is on, or whether or not they mount the kerb) Had he done that, he would have been on a collision course with my car.

After he'd lined up his van with the driveway he planned to enter, he got out of his van to come and remonstrate with me for honking. Right away, his tone was one of "you f***ing ****", with f***ing this and f***ing that. Right away I told him sternly that there was no need for swearing. I consciously refrained from using any expletives of my own because 1) it would have inflamed the situation, and 2) if the police were to get involved for any reason, they would want to know the exact conversation that had taken place, including swearing, which is likely to count against the person who said it.

WVM claimed that he'd been indicating his right turn, and pointed at his right indicator which was now on. But I distinctly remember wondering what he was going to do right before that initial left turn. I would not have been wondering if he'd been signalling, and that makes me think he turned on his signal as he swung round to the right. After all, it could well have self cancelled had he turned it on before that left turn. Why the hell did he need to turn left anyway to widen his turn? It was only a little van, and he should have been able to make a normal right turn into the driveway, as he would have to have done if that side turning on the left was not there.

After he'd calmed down again, guess what this plonker tried to blame it on? He implied that I'd been driving too fast over the hill, which was now some 150 yards behind me. I pointed out that my speed was matched with his for about 10 seconds before his double turn. He ended up walking away, advising me to "think about it". No point in continuing this conversation, so we went our separate ways.

Any more stories like this? What with this, soon after that woman the week before, I was beginning to think I might be in need of some form of remedial training...

The phrase "thug-bitch" has been recently invented to describe the above

Tell me about it, Dieselmoment. I was doing less than 15mph in the car park of my local supermarket today when a middle aged lady stepped right out in front of me from between two parked vans.

I stopped and waved her across. I even managed a smile.

And for this I got a dirty look and a fist waved at me.

The thing is, the law backs up people like this. If I had made even the slightest contact with her, I would have had her claiming off my insurance company for whiplash, pschological trauma and whatever else her solicitor could dream up. And in the absence of any honest witnesses, she would have won.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

Gix - didn'y properly read your post - only saw bit about kids in street - reminded me of not so long ago bit about estate where mothers were shouting about "cars going too fast" past two/three year old kids --big bit in local paper about it. ( no mention of age of kids/ or "where were parents")

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

I was pulling out of a car park in birmingham (The one above the indoor markets). AsI moved myself in to the right hand lane. At the Some people started crossing the road at the time and tried to pull this one lad out of the way(as he had not seen me). Instead he just stood there with in "WANNA FIGHT" pose. Had to drive round him .

WHO TRIES TO START A FIGHT WITH A CAR ?

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

I blame the teachers.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

the guy who kicked crap out of my car last year did, and he won - I had to lose my no claims to get the car repaired, at a cost of £600, despite him being caught and charged and convicted of criminal damage, the court would not release his details to the insurance company so they can reclaim costs.

All of the other cars he damaged (the ones that weren't occupied at the time) didn't claim, didn't go to court. Little shit.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Bastards. Look on the bright side, though. They'd be happy to release your details to the thugs, so they could find you, even without a conviction for any offence.

Yeah the bunch of lazy good for nothings, always on hoilday
I ONLY HAVE 4 and 1/2 WEEKS LEFT NIGHTMARE!!!!



That is sickening

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor