So I just had a near miss while driving home from the shops and am not entirely sure where the fault lies.
Scenario is I was overtaking a slow moving car on a rural A road when a car further up the road merged onto the oncoming side from a farm track into my path. Luckily I was able to complete the overtake safely, but it was uncomfortably close and resulted in both myself and the other driver flashing each other vigorously.
My understanding of the Highway Code is that one should not enter a new road unless the way is clear and any vehicles currently in said road, whether on the correct side or not, have right of way. Therefore the other driver should have remained stationary until I completed my overtake.
167 DO NOT overtake where you might come into conflict with other road users. For example
approaching or at a road junction on either side of the road
Whether a farm track counts as a road junction could be a matter for debate.
But then again.
180
Wait until there is a safe gap between you and any oncoming vehicle.
Take great care when turning into a main road; you will need to watch for traffic in both directions and wait for a safe gap.
It’s not worth taking risks on rural roads. Take it slow. You don’t know what’s going on ahead most of the time.
I drive around rural roads on jobs for building work and cars and vans who are local often come out of nowhere bombing along coming too close, without a care.
The locals often drive like lunatics and act like they own those rural roads in East Sussex. Better still try to avoid rural roads! Nightmare.
Probably doesn’t matter just fortunate that both parties are ok. Something of an unpredictable event for both drivers and the other driver would likely have been concentrating on the road behind him being empty rather than monitoring the road ahead for a vehicle coming ‘the wrong way’ to expectation.
Oddly I had a near miss the other night - going downhill on a 20 mph road I needed to turn right saw an oncoming car in the distance, thought I had time but maybe took the turn slower than usual as I had things in the boot I didn’t want to tip over. Car coming uphill was probably speeding as it was quite close, or was my depth perception out in the dark and I’d assumed it was much further away? Kept thinking about it for the next 24 hours or so.
We live in a rural area and most roads are single lane with limited opportunities for any save overtaking. The amount of idiots we’ve seen overtaking over double yellow lines is staggering, no clear vision and nowhere to escape if it goes wrong.
We take photos and report them to the local highway patrol.
What’s the old saying, better to be late than dead on time.
I chose to take a drivers course for speeding, rather than points on my licence……first time in almost 50 years of driving.
It was a bit frightening listening to these people on the same course. My wife dropped me off, she could not get off the main road into the building……a lady on the course thought it was one way. Lots of shouting at my wife…l had to intervene and make her back up behind the other cars waiting to pull out.
We have a number of A roads nearby with speed average cameras, which are 70 mph. Most drivers on the course were van drivers caught out as they did not know that the limit is 10 mph lower for them.
Problem is that the way it’s run here it seems more about revenue than road safety. If they were so concerned they’d spend more money on the roads and driver education.
Glad you are ok . It’s also perfectly fine to abandon an overtake and slot back in behind the vehicle you were trying to pass. As long as another vehicle has not taken your space, of course.
I dont know if you ‘booted it’ to overtake, if you didn’t then you should have done.
Low gear with a manual or kickdown with an automatic. This reduces the time exposed to danger.
I prob should have slammed the anchors on when I saw the car pull out but was already more than half way past the other car. So yes I suppose I booted it (within the boundaries of the law of course)
Course gives no points. It’s a no brainer. I did mine via Zoom call from home. Learnt alot from it to be honest. Especially speeds different areas. If in doubt in uk drive at 30mph on local roads. They change from 30 to 40 to 50 to 60 to 70 on same road! And then van speeds are different again. I have car and van so have to be aware.
All you’re bothered about is whether you’re right or wrong? Whatever that means. You got away with it and so did the other driver. Both of you will learn something from the event. How long that lasts is personal.
We have the same problem you spend half your checking the ever changing speed limits. All built up zones here are now 40 or 50 kilometres which very few people observe.
Just about to go on a 2-3 hours drive with 3 grandkids and lots of traffic. I know it sounds like fun.
. It’s also perfectly fine to abandon an overtake and slot back in behind the vehicle you were trying to pass. As long as another vehicle has not taken your space, of course.
