Last month an 18 year old girl decided to ram her Metro into the back of my IS200 Sport. I was fuming. Picture the scene I was sitting in the back with my 4 month baby boy, he was sleeping, the wife was driving. We were on a side road, turning into another side road, and bang..... masses of damage, huge jolt etc etc. I'll tell you all now, that girl came within a whisker of getting a few slaps from me. Especially when she got out of the car and started to giggle.

Ok damaging the car was bad enough, but putting the lives of others into danger was unforgivable. If my little boy had been hurt, then I would NOT of let this countries laws take over...............

Anyway, 6 weeks later, just under 4k's worth of damage has been repaired. I get to pick it up tomorrow.

Answer this if you can. I notice that driving standards seem to have dropped recently. Even with the loan car, and no less than 2 baby on board signs people still tailgate. And when I look at the cars, they are always bangers, no abs, no drivers aids etc. How on earth do they expect to stop in time ???

I now look forward to paying my excess And probably a good hike in premium later this year when my insurance runs out. And as for the giggling 18 year old, imagine asking for insurance, and then stating that she caused 4k of damage to another car, and wrote her Metro off. I persume she won't say a thing ?!?!

I feel really bad for you, just glad you and your family wern't hurt.

I agree, in recent years it seems the standard of driving has gone rapidly downhill, nowadays I don't seem to be able to drive down a motorway without passing a shunt!

sorry to hear your mis fortune

best thing to do to tailgaters is to slow down even more until your crawling....then drive off.. they soon get the message.

nothing worse when you have children in the car and some pratt behind you is so close you cannot even see their bonnet!

[quote name='baby_lexus' date='May 19 2003, 09:27 PM']Especially when she got out of the car and started to giggle.[/quote]
Same thing happened to me when someone drove into the back of me whilst I was stationary (with enough force to write my car off) she got out and start laughing. I was absolutely fumming at that!

Your insurance shouldn't be effected if you claimed off hers.

I've been pranged twice now from behind, both times with cars without ABS, with morons that have no inclination of their stopping distance.

I've even been on the M4 travelling home in the rain with a packed motorway at dusk, with low visibility, and a carpet of traffic all cruising slowly at about 50 mph being sensible and leaving enough room to allow for braking, and had idiot drivers get so close I can't see their number plates over the lip of my boot.

They're trying to get past, when there are literally hundreds of cars patiently driving safely in the rain, taking it easy in the wet. Idiots.

If anyone tailgates me these days, especially in the wet, I'll deliberately slow down til they get the message, or brake for a second and put my hazards on and scare them. Works a treat. Obviously then I shift down to 3rd/4th and floor it to make the point that I can go faster, then ease off again til they realise that the sensible thing to do is to drive within the conditions that the road allows and not try to force people out of the way on busy motorways.

Asam

I can sympathize with you there, I was ready to punch someone out when I got my door dented in the local supermarket carpark, so £4K's worth of damage.... I can understand why you were fuming

It's been suggested (possibly elsewhere in this forum) that a good way to make tail-gaters back off is to use your windscreen washers. The surplus spray blowing over and on to them may get the message across.

[quote name='baby_lexus' date='May 19 2003, 09:27 PM']Even with the loan car, and no less than 2 baby on board signs people still tailgate....[/quote]
Teenager on board, adult on board, pensioner on board, 3 bags of shopping on board ...

Baby on board is different how exactly ??
9 times out of 10 there's no baby and why should it matter anyway ?

Bad driving is bad driving ... and i'm sure we're all guilty of it occasionally.
Maybe the tailgater closed up trying to read the stupid signs

I'm sure we're all relieved nobody (adult or child) was seriously hurt in the smash ...

[quote name='UKPulse' date='May 19 2003, 10:15 PM']It's been suggested (possibly elsewhere in this forum) that a good way to make tail-gaters back off is to use your windscreen washers. The surplus spray blowing over and on to them may get the message across.[/quote]
Yes yes ...

The headlamp sprayers are particularly good for that ...
More of a surprise coz it's not immediately obvious where it came from

Kavay your not one of these peeps are you this is exactly what baby-lex is on about
[quote]If anyone tailgates me these days, especially in the wet, I'll deliberately slow down til they get the message, or brake for a second and put my hazards on and scare them. Works a treat. Obviously then I shift down to 3rd/4th and floor it to make the point that I can go faster, then ease off again til they realise that the sensible thing to do is to drive within the conditions that the road allows and not try to force people out of the way on busy motorways[/quote]

I find the best way is to indicate to pull over and let them
pass this way you/they dont get wound up and you and your family arrive safely
come on peeps were better than this

[url="http://www.transtat.dft.gov.uk/roadsafe/index.htm"]UK R.T.A. stats[/url]

[quote name='pee.j' date='May 19 2003, 09:32 PM']Kavay your not one of these peeps are you   this is exactly what baby-lex is on about
[quote]If anyone tailgates me these days, especially in the wet, I'll deliberately slow down til they get the message, or brake for a second and put my hazards on and scare them. Works a treat. Obviously then I shift down to 3rd/4th and floor it to make the point that I can go faster, then ease off again til they realise that the sensible thing to do is to drive within the conditions that the road allows and not try to force people out of the way on busy motorways[/quote]

I find the best way is to indicate to pull over and let them
pass this way you/they dont get wound up and you and your family arrive safely
come on peeps were better than this [/quote]
Not at all - I think you missed the point. I never tailgate, and also make sure I drive within the road conditions - the point about slowing down then tearing away is to say:

'Hey look - I can go fast too, but it's wet and the road is packed, so drive properly instead of trying to push people out of the way.'

Too many drivers think that they have a right to get in front of you. I never hog the right hand lane on a motorway, and in fact make a point of getting as far left as possible whenever the road is clear, but when a motorway is busy, and the 'carpet' is all travelling the same speed, there is no point in trying to 'force' people out of the way.

I hate tailgaters, so a brief second on the brakes then pulling away, usually scares a driver behind into realising they are far too close, but also makes them realise you have a powerful enough car and can go faster, but are just being courteous to other road users in maintaining a steady cruising speed with a good stopping distance. I'm taking the moral high-ground, not trying to prove 'my car is better' or anything.

Then of course some idiots try to undertake you....

[quote name='Kavey' date='May 19 2003, 10:49 PM']I hate tailgaters, so a brief second on the brakes then pulling away, usually scares a driver behind into realising they are far too close, but also makes them realise you have a powerful enough car and can go faster, but are just being courteous to other road users in maintaining a steady cruising speed with a good stopping distance. I'm taking the moral high-ground, not trying to prove 'my car is better' or anything.[/quote]

Oh yes, i'm sure that's what it makes them think ...

[quote name='UKPulse' date='May 19 2003, 09:15 PM']It's been suggested (possibly elsewhere in this forum) that a good way to make tail-gaters back off is to use your windscreen washers. The surplus spray blowing over and on to them may get the message across.[/quote]
Erm in the rain ????

Sorry to hear the damage, but, more importantly glad to hear everyone was OK and the caris coming back repaired and in one piece...

I find that putting your rear fogs on when people are very close makes them back off a little. They imagine they are your brake lights, as they may not know the car that well (especially a lexus).

Only for a short while, just to make them think that you're slowing down when you're not.


I'll throw a bit of a spanner in the works here.......I think one of the most dangerous types of drivers (I'm not saying the ONLY.....just one of the more dangerous types) are.....

.......306 / 406 police drivers. Not the trained Motorway police, but the likes of those who drive the medium cars, and drive through towns like MANIACS.

Last night I was at a traffic light controlled T-junction. I was at the front with red, my lights went green, and started to pull away. I was turning left but looked right as you should do, and VROOOOOOOOOOM (check out sound effects ) a police 406 with lights BUT NO SIREN came storming through the red light. FECKIN IDIOT. He's lucky I'm one of the few that check before I pull out of lights. He then turned up the road I was to (just 50m down the road) and did 70mph up a 30mph road with cars either side and a school at the top - a road i barely do 20mph up ! He got to the top where there were 9 (yes.....NINE) other police cars. Why did he risk all that so he could get out slowly and say "right lads, everything ok?". TOTALLY unacceptable.


Getting back to the point at hand though, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. Good job nobody was hurt - hope it all comes back like you remember it !

Tony

i must admit to seeing some bad driving by the police usually the local untrained ones in astras etc:
i cant see why they have to risk peoples lives with the speeds they do, how many incidents are they needed that badly, and as said there is usually a crowd of them when they get there

ambulances i can understand they are saving lives and every minute counts

[quote name='bazza' date='May 20 2003, 10:19 AM']ambulances i can understand they are saving lives and every minute counts[/quote]
and the irony is, I dont think I've ever seen bad ridiculous driving by an Ambulance !

(that's not to say they dont....just to say that I've never seen it to the extent that I do the police cars!)

[quote name='bazza' date='May 20 2003, 09:19 AM']i must admit to seeing some bad driving by the police usually the local untrained ones in astras etc[/quote]
aren't the number of accidents caused by this sort of untrained plod up by some ridiculous figure - 75% or something huge like that?

Mate, very sorry to hear about the damage....but at the end of the day no matter how much you love it, it's just a peace of metal....it's great that you and your family are all safe!!

As for the stupid giggling girl...she wont be laughing when she tries to get her next quote!! Is that a Bus I hear....

I do like tapping the brake lights if someone is tailgating me...they do get the point then.....but if they carry on I just pull over and let them through....that just pisses them off even more!

The other day I was driving down this long two lane road near my house. Its great for speeding, which people quite often do. It was really late and the roads were empty, this little prat in a Vauxhall Nova was racing up the side of me as he had been checking out the Lex on the lights, so dropped it down a gear and just kept up with him. He was pushing and pushing to get past me as he needed to be in my lane.....but the Lex had so much more in reserve so I just stayed with him. We were now approaching this roundabout really quickly....we were doing about 80mph. Anyway I left it to the last minute and broke hard entered the roundabout perfectly...he broke hard locked his brakes, slid and turned sideways and smacked into the roundabout...I looked back to see him on top of it! I know it's not cleaver or funny...but some people just have to be tought a lesson in driving.....bet he'll think twice from now on before being a ******* and driving like a prat!!!

He nearly had me.....ha!! He never even had his car

Hard luck with the damage. I also hate being tailgated. Probably guilty of it myself in my younger days, fast cars etc. Now have a baby and priorities have changed, better to arrive in one piece than get there with time to spare. Little trick I use during the day is to switch my headlights on while they are right behind me. Rear lights come on and they think I am braking and slam on their brakes. Gets them every time !

I'm really glad that you are all safe. I hope you got the girl's insurance details ok - she won't be laughing when she sees her next premium.

A slight aside, I know that a baby on board sticker shouldn't make a difference to how people drive (they should just be sensible anyway), but the real purpose to these stickers/notices is in case of accident - if your car is in an accident, it's to notify the emergency services that there's a nipper in the vehicle, it may not be immediately obvious.

[quote]Anyway I left it to the last minute and broke hard entered the roundabout perfectly...he broke hard locked his brakes, slid and turned sideways and smacked into the roundabout...I looked back to see him on top of it![/quote]

that is absolute genius mate, i bet he learnt his lesson

yeah i hate tailgaters too, find that turning on fogs usually irritates them enough to back off, or otherwise could let them pass and then ride their bumper till they learn that it aint fun to be tailgated

(that isnt a very good idea though and i wouldnt recommend it )

Thanks all. I have read all of your comments. I will be switching on my fogs next time some fool tailgates.

Car came back looking good.

Looks like they've done a good job.

Got to sort out the paperwork to get the excess back now

[quote][url="http://www.transtat.dft.gov.uk/roadsafe/index.htm"]http://www.transtat.dft.gov.uk/roadsafe/index.htm[/url][/quote]

so if your in a car
on an A road
aged between 26 and 30
in november
at 5 o`clock
and in portugal

be careful , be very careful



interesting stats