Travelling down the M6/M5 early on Monday morning this week, I was quite astonished to be overtaken by a Nissan or Mitsubishi pick-up towing a loaded trailer in lane 3. I was doing 70 and he came past relatively easily, at I would guess at least 80+.
Amongst other things, it was dark, pouring with rain and there was a howling gale, but even better, he never made any attempt to use any other lane. On and off, I followed him for at least 20 minutes and he never left lane 3 at all.
My question is, is it possible he does not know the law, or he just realises that his chances of getting caught are almost nil, (or just get a ticking-off rather than summonsed)?
Crazy drivers!
|
|
you never said he was also on his mobile? i thought it was the law if you drove one of those and aged over 30
|
|
I hope the pick-up was black with dark-smoked windows and drug-dealer alloys. He'd have been letting the side down otherwise.
|
|
I have heard the East Europeans, amongst others are ignorant of many of our laws (especially drink-drive). Either that or he's a traveller. Both would be virtually immune from prosecution
|
>>>>>>>I have heard the East Europeans, amongst others are ignorant of many of our laws (especially drink-drive). Either that or he's a traveller. Both would be virtually immune from prosecution
How true that is. On the radio today they were talking about the immigrants in Cambridgeshire and the fact that they plead ignorance to the fact that in this country cars need an MOT (not required in some Eastern European countries) and the drink-drive laws are totally disregarded.
This is DESPITE the fact that the local authorities have gone to the time and expense of the good old British taxpayer to provide 'welcome packs', printed in their language, informing them of such laws.
IMO if these people cannot abide by our laws they should be immediately returned to their country of origin and barred from re-entering the UK for at least 10 years.
That is of course assuming that they were here legally to start with.............
and dont get me started on 'travellers', please.............................................
|
|
|
|
I've seen this a number of times.
I could may be understand it if it was someone unused to towing who didnt realise lane 3 is not allowed , but several times I have seen ( for example) car delivery/ rescue vehicles doing it who probably tow every day .
One of the very good reasons for the ban is the risk of jack-knife and the increased impact when the tow can move across all three lanes.
|
|
|
......... I was quite astonished to be overtaken by a Nissan or Mitsubishi pick-up towing a loaded trailer in lane 3.
Once something has overtaken me I forget about it. I'm concerned about what's alongside and what's behind ~ they're the vehicles that could cause you problems, not those that have disappeared into the distance.
--
L\'escargot.
|
Coming back one night near Bristol on the M5 I was catching up to a Nissan Navara in the inside lane, and we were both catching up to a slower car ahead. I pulled out to overtake, but as I drew level with him he flicked on his indicator to overtake the car in front. I suppose it would have been polite to move over to lane 3, but didn't and instead continued past. The moment I was clear he swung out behind, tailgated me and gave a long dose of full beam and the horn.
I learnt two things from the experience:
1) All Navara drivers are pricks.
2) The Navara will not do 130mph, but a chipped Rover 75 diesel will. It also layed down an extremely helpful smoke screen. :)
|
Why didn't you move over? Would have saved him getting wound up and you getting (probably) a little stressed by his reaction.
I do get terribly annoyed by people who don't move over into vacant lanes when they could do so with hardly any effort or inconvenience to themselves.
Right, rant over. Where's my pill?
|
|
Jackie Stewart has a term for it - it's called Driving Finesse. Anticipation and car control is the name of the game. I expect David H would be pointing the finger of blame if the Navaro driver hadn't waited and simply driven into him as David was half-way past. It's all very well being right but if you end up in hospital or dead, is it worth it?
|
|
|
|
1) All Navara drivers are pricks.
2) The Navara will not do 130mph, but a chipped Rover 75 diesel will. It also layed down an extremely helpful smoke screen. :)
It was wrong of him to tailgate you, but you really should of moved over and been courtious, what is the point of provoking someone were you envious.
also how can you say all navarra drivers are pricks, i could say all rover 75 drivers are incontinent old men, which they are not of cause.
yes there are bad drivers around, but it sounds like you could fit into that category.
And yes i do drive a navarra, but i'm courtious to everyone on the road.
|
|
|
|
you need an auto-dip rear view mirror!! makes a dose of full-beam rather pointless
|
Why ask the OP why he didn't move over? Where in his post did it mention anything to give you that impression? Why did you say that "He shouldn't have tailgated you, but...?"
Were you guys reading the same post as me?
V
|
Ah, just worked out which post you were reading. As you were.
V
|
The reason vehicles towing trailers are banned from the outside lane of dual carriageways with 3 or more lanes is that they're limited to 60mph - like HGVs they're banned from that lane to reduce congestion.
As a regular caravanner, I have far more concern about the safety aspects of towing a loaded trailer at "80+" but I suppose that exceeding the 60 limit by 1/3 is no worse than car drivers doing 94.
|
|
it's not the speed that is the issue per se, it's what happens if something goes wrong (blow-out, emergency stop, loss of control etc ) when towing a trailer at speed, much less agile and containable than a car on its own.
|
|
|
|
......... as I drew level with him he flicked on his indicator to overtake the car in front.
This supports my opinion that a large percentage of drivers switch on their indicators purely out of subconcious habit and without knowing what (or whether) other road users will benefit from the signal.
--
L\'escargot.
|
|
|
|
|
