Encountering bad drivers from time to time.........

General Discussion
#1

…like…REALLY bad drivers.

Last summer I drove by this accident; a woman who managed to roll a Nissan Pathfinder while driving out of a car wash; found it in the paper the next day:

http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/4740444-woman-rescued-from-suv-rollover-in-burlington/

Today I drive into a grocery store parking lot and was confronted with a car that had…driven into it’s parking spot very quickly. So quickly in fact that it jumped the curb, drove across a walkway, and pushed a big Ford SUV about 6 feet out of the spot it was sitting in once it smashed into it.


http://i1173.photobucket.com/albums/r594/thenewbruno2/IMG_2139_zpsxjwoctyb.jpg

#2

It’s getting worse everyday it feels like.

A month or two ago I was backing out of a spot at the grocery store, some dude zoomed around the back of me when I was halfway out so I honked at him. He stopped and got out of his car like he was gonna fight me for honking at him cause he couldn’t wait 2 fucking seconds for me to get out. Like wtf.

Another time, cruising on the freeway coming home from work, some chick sitting on the shoulder decides she wants to get back on the freeway, so instead of getting up to speed and merging back on, she just turns right onto the freeway doing like 15mph! Slammed on the brakes and evacuated everything on the seats.

Had two people in 20mi almost merge into me on the freeway the other day also.

Soccer moms pulling out of the grocery store right in front of you.

I’m so glad I’m a good defensive driver.

#3

i agree gets worse and worse. its fucking scary driving out there. especially in NYC. AWFUL and i mean AWFUL drivers. I was driving my wifes SUV the other day and someone pulled out of a spot on my right then proceeded to wait parallel to the direction traffic was facing, so the car in front of me and i decided to continue on, well he decided to pull an illegal u turn as i pass by drive right into the rear passenger door. I dont know how the hell he didnt see me.

Luckily it wasnt my car and everyone was ok. It seems like everyday i dodge at least 2 accidents.

#4

lol where I live, folks are horrible with turning circles/roundabouts. I feel like every other day I almost get T-boned by someone entering it and not waiting for cars to exit (I use my turn signals too).

#5

aren’t you NOT supposed to use turn signals in a roundabout?

#6

I don’t know what the rules are in North America for roundabouts but in Europe, you’re supposed to signal once you’re on the roundabout to inform people that are coming to the roundabout whether you’re exiting or staying on.

Usually, for large roundabouts, if you enter and need to exit 1/4 through, you put your right signal on right away to let any car coming in at 1/4 know that you’re exiting and they can come on.
If you’re going 1/2 through (i.e. straight through) you put your right turn signal after the 1/4 street.
If you’re going 3/4 through, you put your left turn signal to indicate you’re staying on the roundabout (i.e. cars, don’t come in the roundabout yet as I’m staying on) and then switch to the right signal after you pass the 1/2 mark (as you’re now getting ready to exit at the 3/4 mark).

In small roundabouts though, most people don’t signal if they’re going straight through (1/2 exit) as that is the expectation (since it’s a small roundabout) but if it’s a small roundabout and you’re not going straight through (i.e. you’re exiting at 1/4 or 3/4), you should put your signal on (right for 1/4; left and then right for 3/4).

At least that’s the accepted norm for Western Europe like France, Belgium and Switzerland.

I do the same thing in Ontario for the 5 or so roundabouts I’ve been on in this province and people seem to understand what it means.

#7

He said he’s almost getting t-boned, while signalling. If you’re signalling, while staying in the roundabout past a turn off, and you almost get t-boned, that means you’re signalling (likely a right turn signal) and then the driver may think you’re exiting where he’s coming in. That seems like a recipe for how to get t-boned.

#8

[quote=“sakimano,post:7,topic:7532”]
Agreed. If you’re signalling right to say you’re about to turn off the roundabout but you stay on, that’s not good lol.

That said, he could be signalling left to say he’s staying on and cars coming onto the roundabout aren’t respecting the fact that they need to yield to cars already on the roundabout. I’ve seen dicks not care about yield signs or thinking they have plenty of time to get on before the car already on comes around.

#9

loads of people just blast through. The rule of thumb here in Canada seems to be that if you are on the bigger street at a roundabout intersection, you have the right of way, and can just blast right through. It’s infuriating. Happened the other day. I needed to blast my brakes and stop even though I was in the roundabout and had the right of way. I pulled up next to him at a light and honked. He rolled down his window.

I said

"See those big red triangles on the posts at the roundabout? Those are Y I E L D S I G N S. Those mean you need to yield the right of way to anyone you might encounter who is already in the roundabout’. He just nodded while his daughter laughed at her dad.

#10

Impressive!!! Normally, I run into the guy who gives you the finger and yells at you for having inconvenienced him for being in the right and them in the wrong (the more in the wrong they seem to be, the more infuriated they are with you). I’m impressed he listened and nodded. Wow.

#11

he seemed a bit of a mouth breather, so I’m not sure he was taking it all in. I’m sure his daughter would have ratted him out to his wife later on though.

He was actually going about 75-80 kmh in a 50 as he approached the roundabout. Cops should set up there…be like shooting fish in a barrel.

#12

I signal right to exit. I almost get t-boned by the folks who ignore the “Yield” sign. As I’m exiting (with right signal on), they slam on their brakes and I at times brace for impact. I keep my turn signal left as I’m staying on the round about and switch to the right turn signal when I want to exit (just before - to give cars trying to get on a heads up that I’m going across to exit). Makes sense?

(I learned how to drive in South East Asia where roundabouts are the norm - in fact, I follow the rules that Axel posted)

#13

Here I get a lot of people that weave out of their lane and into mine by about a tail light or so. Usually when I blow the horn they get back over but still if they are that close then it is better to let them get in front of me a bit or get in front of them.

Then there are a lot of intersections around here where two lanes turn left on to a road that is three or four lanes wide. So usually I am in the right lane of the two lanes turning left and the person in the other lane turns into my lane forcing me into a lane to right of where I should be or they will hit my car. One intersection in particular is really bad about that so if I am the first car then I haul ass to get through it really fast and in the correct lane since it matters with the heavy traffic during rush hour.

Also the Washington DC area is mostly transplant people from other places because of the government, military, and big business jobs so we get all sorts of drivers with different styles of driving. That doesn’t even include the diplomats that can’t drive for shit!

#14

I think that a lot of people are taking for granted driving a car and forgetting that they are in a 2 ton death machine that could kill someone or yourself very easily.

I have always thought that people should have to retake some sort of written exam when they go into renew their licenses. Just a refresher of the basic rules of the road and some situational questions. If you can’t pass it then you have to take the “drive test” again.
Times have changed, there are a lot more cars on the road and some people have developed some very bad habits.

#15

If you really want people to recognize the dangers of driving, make them all ride motorcycles on the streets. I have been riding on the streets for a little over 20 years, in that time, I have had hundreds of close calls, and 2 total wrecks, 1 my fault (new at riding and went to pull into the gas station, someone blasted out of the entrance forcing me to hit my brakes, which caused the front end to wash out on me, not sure how, but it did) the other being some idiot that pulled out in front of me as I was driving down a 2 way road, it was close enough that my only option was to go around him or run into the back of him, as I went to go around, he crossed into my lane, forcing me off the road, through barb wire, a covert pipe, and finally coming to rest about 200 feet from my bike, fractured all my lumbar in the process. The driver was charged with reckless driving and assault with a deadly weapon (after the police arrived, they determined that he intentionally ran me off the road). Only thing that saved my life was my helmet and my riding gear. People just don’t think anymore, as illustrated by this picture in my work parking lot (not a bad driver, but moronic to not think that they have projectiles more damaging than a bullet in their back window)

http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww254/m-tre/dumbass.jpg

#16

LOL my wife and i were just talking about that over the weekend. How people put shit in the back near the window. They become projectiles and hazardous.

#17

Yeah that shit is dangerous as fuck. I heard a story about a husband and wife in a cab. They had so much luggage that the guy put his briefcase or something in front of the back window like those bricks. The cab had to slam on the brakes at one point and the briefcase ended up killing his wife after it bounced off her head.

HighPsi, that’s a crazy story. Glad you lived to tell the tale. How badly did the barb wire cut you up? How about your back, any permanent damage? I herniated my L2-L5 discs and at this point my options are: fusion, 4 disc replacements, or wait for the technology to improve. Fusion isn’t even an option to me and the disc replacement, from what my doctor told me, isn’t quite good enough for me to lead a normal life. It can be done he just doesn’t think I’ll be happy with the lifestyle. So I’m waiting until that tech improves, hopefully soon, before I jump into surgery.

As for bad drivers, something that normally only happened to me on 2 wheels happened in my Audi. I’m coming down a 4 lane street with a 50mph speed limit. I’m doing about 55mph and I see pretty far up a car waiting to pull out of a parking lot. She was a good 1/8 mile up but there were no cars in between me and where she was pulling out. As I get closer, the woman doesn’t move so I assume she’s going to wait for me to pass. Almost as if she purposely timed it, she pulls out to turn left at the perfect time for me the t-bone her. I was in the second lane from the right. I punched the horn, jammed on the brakes, and had to swerve two lanes to the left to avoid her. It looked like she never even hit the brakes. Luckily I wasn’t driving next to anybody or it would have been a bad accident and the woman probably wouldn’t have lived. She looked about 90 years old.

#18

I can’t understand the bricks. I just can’t.

Similarly dumb is the license plate in the front windshield on the dash

  1. if you live where there’s a front plate law, you should read it. It says, in almost every place on earth, that the plate has to be on the front of the vehicle, aka the leading edge of the vehicle. Not fore of centre…on the actual front. So you may as well not have the plate there on your dash, as it’s the same as having no plate. Get this…officers know this! They also like pulling over pothead kids with stickers, camber, tint and fartcans, and those are usually the same people with their plate in their window (not all, but many).

  2. if you should get rear ended, that license plate will take someone’s face and give them a new smile, either on the forehead, the throat, or across the cheek.

#19

I was so extremely lucky in that the fractures were located on the “wings” of the lower lumbar, so aside from having to take it easy for 6 weeks or so, I have had little to no aliments since (it was the most painful broken bone(s) I have had). The barb wire ripped the front fairing, twisted the forks and scalped the front of my helmet off. The idiot that I am, fixed the bike and still ride it to this day.

#20

It’s crazy that folks would want to drive folks off the road (especially those on two wheels).

lol I remember this one time when two lifted pick up trucks were having a bout of road “rage”. I think one cut the other off, both flew by past me (two lanes in one direction and I was to the right). and then they would both speed up, want to cut off the other, but both slam on the brakes (tires screeching) and repeat (floor the gas, screech the tires). But neither getting any closer than each other than by two feet or so. Must be passive aggressive road rage or something. :smiley: This went on for a bit until one of the trucks turned off of the main road.