Traffic incident

[OilSheikh]

I had an incident today and I am fairly peeved about it.

I am sitting at red lights on the left-hand side of a 2-lane road with a car in front of me.There's a car parallel to me on the right-hand side. I notice the guy eating a baguette with one hand and his other hand on the steering wheel.

The lights turn green and the car in front of me starts moving off and I follow suit. The baguette guy then sharply inserts his car in front of me and I have to brake sharply. I sound my horn at him. I was fortunate the guy behind me didn't hit me. Back to the baguette guy, he comes over to my car like a bull and starts yelling and swearing. I keep calm and raise my window and only tell him I am going to call the coppers.

He jumps in his car, crosses the lights, which have now turned red , and vanishes. After, I reached home, I checked on DVLA site and it seems his car does not have a valid road tax or a valid MOT since a month.

Is there something that I can do to get him off the streets or discplined ?

[Saracen]

Probably not much. Not directly, anyway.

If he's not got tax or MOT, it's very possible it's not even his plates. Maybe stolen car, maybe false plates. He may not be traceable. And if he is, for that incident it's your word versus his, and not being exactly crime of the century, I can't see police pouring over CCTV trying to find it, even if that spot is covered.

However .... just maybe, given the lack of docs, if you report the incident it might get added to the 'intellgence' info on that reg no, which MIGHT get him stopped if he twangs a traffic car's ANPR. Then, if his car isn't taxed, etc, he'll get fined even if it is his legit car. Best of all is IF he gets stopped, odds are good he'll have no insurance either. At that point, the car gets seized and at a minimum, he gets to walk home. He'll also get a fine, points, and get to pay storage fees until he reclaims his car, for which he'll need valid insurance on it .... or someone else with valid insurance on it.

But even if you do report it, and get lucky, and he gets done, you're not going to be told about it. At least, not by the police.

So, if you're irked enough, report it. It might cause him quite a lot of expense. But this kind of thing is pretty commonplace.

One thing, a hint for you .... if you report it, you sounded your horn as a warning, to alert him to your presence, not in anger or annoyance. Warning, remember.

[OilSheikh]

Saracen, surely this kind of behaviour is unacceptable and something can be done ?
Imagine if everytime you were out driving, everyone tried to deliberately ram their car into yours.

[Xlucine]

AIUI from watching trashy TV on channel 5, standard practice is to pull over everyone who pings the ANPR as without tax/mot/insurance. Definitely worth reporting though, if you're lucky they may even pop round to the registered keeper's address and tell them to be less of a prat

[kalniel]

Saracen, surely this kind of behaviour is unacceptable

You're right, it's unlawful in a number of ways as you describe.

and something can be done ?

In reality only if caught by the police or it results in an accident. There are numerous driving offences these days but the impression I get is there are fewer police around to enforce them. Possibly perception, but might be austerity biting.

But you've already reported it to 101 so you've done your bit.

[Guy]

Not defending the actions of the other driver in any way, however it'll just be your word against his. So would be hard/impossible to prove or be conclusive going forward, unless it was witnessed by the relevant authorities, captured fully on camera or he triggered any red light/junction cameras.

[Saracen]

Saracen, surely this kind of behaviour is unacceptable and something can be done ?
Imagine if everytime you were out driving, everyone tried to deliberately ram their car into yours.

Yes, it's unacceptable and in an ideal world something could be done. But we live in the real world, not that ideal one.

AIUI from watching trashy TV on channel 5, standard practice is to pull over everyone who pings the ANPR as without tax/mot/insurance. Definitely worth reporting though, if you're lucky they may even pop round to the registered keeper's address and tell them to be less of a prat

It's certainly possible they may pop to that address. It may even be that the ignorant oik actually lives there, but it may well be that he doesn't.

Assuming the police can find the car, and/or individual, then I'm sure they'll deal with any missing tax, MOT, etc, and if those two are missing, odds-on insurance is missing too. But then, he stands a decent chance, these days, of getting ANPR'd anyway, sooner or later.

The manner of his driving is another matter and as Guy said, evidence is missing. What can police do now?

Officer: "Good morning, sir. Mr OilSheikh says you cut him up and behaved like an idiot. "

Ignorant Oik: "Erm, wasn't me, didn't happen, Officer. "

Officer: "Oh, okay. Sorry to have troubled you, sir".

In theory, he's done several things wrong. If he was eating a baguette, he wasn't in proper control of the vehicle. When he carved you up, that's probably due care and attention. When he stormed over yelling and swearing, that's probably a breach of the peace and if he went far enough for you to feel afraid of physical attack, that's assault. BUT .... innocent until proven guilty, etc.

Were I you, I would draw two lessons from this about the real world. Lesson One - there are a lot of ignorant idiots on the road, doing numbskull and even dangerous things. If you continue to drive, you WILL get carved up from time to time by one.

Lesson Two - Sounding your horn at them, or other various hand gestures, might have unintended consequences.

Depending on where you are at a given point in time, the odds of both encountering an oik, and them going off like a firecracker, may be higher or lower but even quiet, sleepy villages have the occasional ignorant oik.

Ultimately, having been carved up, you can't undo it and reacting isn't going to much help. If you've already reported it there isn't much more you can do. Whether any police action occurs as a result you're not likely to find out, unless they find him, prosecute and call you as a witness. I would advise against holding your breath waiting for that.

Just accept that there's a proportion, thankfully fairly small, of ignorant oiks driving cars, doing ignorant oikish things, and periodically, the laws of probability mean they'll do it to you.

[Ttaskmaster]

Just accept that there's a proportion, thankfully fairly small, of ignorant oiks driving cars, doing ignorant oikish things, and periodically, the laws of probability mean they'll do it to you.

Not small enough, as I get that at least once a week on my commutes.
It also tends to happen on certain stretches of road, more often than not when the car is level with me - If they don't react to the horn and get too close when entering my lane, they get a boot to the door. That usually wakes them up, as they tend to hear that over their radio.

From subsequent altercations with some of them, the general opinion is that they are the bigger vehicle so have right of way and I shouldn't have been there.
That's fine, since them actually hitting me would likely result in my bike flipping and them getting 266kg of metal through their window into their faces (or more likely the faces of their children in the back), while I'll be dead and won't have to care...

[scaryjim]

... them actually hitting me would likely result in my bike flipping and them getting 266kg of metal through their window into their faces ...

Last car driver who "didn't see" me ended up losing her windscreen. I got strapped to a backboard at the scene (just in case), but walked away with a 1" scar on my right elbow, and a new bike courtesy of her insurance.

tbh, I suspect the whole incident was far more traumatic to her than to me: can't be nice watching > 14st of cyclist destroy your windscreen then get strapped to a backboard and whisked away in an ambulance...

[OilSheikh]

In conclusion,

1. Invest in a dashcam
2. If someone wants to drive into you, just let them and claim repair costs from their insurance company
3. Note down steps to take when confronted with an oik :
- Switch on hazard lights
- Start recording on phone and record the oik
- Activate central locking
- Raise windows to a sufficient level to prevent any punches/strangulation
- If oik attacks your vehicle, call the Police
- Carry a baseball bat or something similar to make oik back down (?)

[Saracen]

On point 1), I'd suggest a bootcam too, just in case the oik clobbers you in the rear. That happened to me, Basically, red traffic lights, three cars in front stopped. Several people crossing road. So I stopped. The oik in question happened to be so busy oggling a couple of girls wearing short skirts that he failed entirely to notice any of the above, with the predictable result.

BANG!!!

We both got out and the oik actually asked me why I stopped? Seriously, he did. Independent witnesses reported that I called him a rather rude name at that point. I certainly did, but even so, I thought I was remarkably restrained. After all, he still had all his teeth.

For this reason, I seriously advocate caution over the last part of your step 3). Had I had a baseball bat, I would have been far too tempted to relocate it somewhere dark and unpleasant sufficiently firmly he would have lost teeth.

About a year after that, I witnessed one oik carve another oik up. Oik #2, apparently unimpressed with oik #1's driving competence, made a suggestive hand gesture at oik #1 and mouthed something I couldn't hear but assume was not dissimilar ftom what I had told the oik that ran into my stationary car at those red lights.

Oik #1 certainly seemed to think so, and took offence, and next thing I know, we have a two-oik dust-up going on in the middle of the Finchley Road, North London, about 8am one weekday morning. As anybody that knows the area will be aware, this is a commuter superhighway, and police attention, never far away, arrived to find a couple of middle-aged oiks rolling around in the road. Upon grabbing oik #1, oik planted a piledriver on PC Plod's hooter, probably mistaking it for oik #2's, which earned both of them a trip in a police car and what I'm assured was a thoroughly unedifying experience in front of a magistrate. Oik #2 got away with a fine, but oik #1 got a fine for the scrapping in the road, and a fine and 12-month suspended sentence for rearranging a constable's proboscis. I know the details because the Plod in question happened to be a family friend.

The serious point is that a baseball bat, even if not used could have resulted in further charges if carried without good reason, and FAR more serious charges if used. Tempting though it is, not really a good idea.

The rest of it? More or less, yeah. I wouldn't "let" them drive into me if a sensible alternative was available, but be aware, if you cause an accident trying to avoid an idiot, the odds are the idiot will simply drive off, unscathed, and you're left to sort out the mess they caused, but weren't involved in.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to drive very defensively, assume everybody else is an idiot because all too often they are, and even when carved up, do your best to let it wash over you because getting wound up won't help, won't achieve anything and won't impress the idiots, but it might end up causing you trouble.

Oh, and decent dashcam's ought to be recording sound too. And the better ones, vehicle metadata as well, like GPS location and your current speed.

[Splash]

Worth considering (and if you've reported it to 101 then they'll potentially check this, assuming you gave them a time) - is the junction covered by CCTV?

[GoNz0]

In conclusion,


- Carry a baseball bat or something similar to make oik back down (?)

Carry something that you have a reason to carry that can double as a weapon otherwise you can find yourself in front of a magistrate and possibly a judge.

[abaxas]

Just remember that dash cams increase your chance of conviction!

[Smudger]

Carry something that you have a reason to carry that can double as a weapon otherwise you can find yourself in front of a magistrate and possibly a judge.

Big heavy torches, like those big Mag-Lites, help you see in the dark. You should always have one in the car, in case you get stuck out in the country.

[OilSheikh]

Big heavy torches, like those big Mag-Lites, help you see in the dark. You should always have one in the car, in case you get stuck out in the country.

While I agree that the usage of a baseball bat is impractical and nonsensical, I was actually considering keeping something very simple - like a foghorn! Anything in our vicinity can be turned into a weapon, even a pen