I wrote about idiots on the roads before (and got some nasty comments, most of which I had to delete). I believe I’m a pretty good driver – not perfect, granted – nobody is – but pretty good, and pretty safe. Some days, however, I feel lucky to get the car home in one piece, – albeit not through my own fault, but through that of the really especially idiotic people I’m still encountering on the roads – and while their idiocy continues to annoy me certainly, I’m afraid it no longer continues to surprise me;- even here in a relatively small town such as Dundalk.
I’m not a big fan of sounding the horn on my car (partially because I think the Punto has a fairly wussy sounding horn, partially because, well – y’know – I don’t like to complain…) – but today I had to do it. FOUR TIMES. A knowledge of Dundalk roads would help in understanding the following completely.
- Driving into town, woman in front of me driving slowly and slightly erratically so I’m naturally keeping my distance. Her dog has it’s head out the window of the PASSENGER seat (in the front!) having a great old time. While she’s stopped, waiting to get onto the roundabout (where the bypass meets Avenue Road), the dog jumps out the window and runs over to the path (- this would be the path at the corner of Dundalk Retail Park – at the Atlantic Homecare end). I honked my horn and flashed my headlights (once) to get her attention, while pointing at the dog, hoping she’ll notice in her rear-view mirror – but no, she actually failed to notice that the dog which had been sitting next to her was gone and she proceeded to drive on where, a moment later, she then noticed and STOPPED her car suddenly – in the middle of the roundabout, almost causing a collision, got out – ran across the road to collect her stupid mangy mutt, which had stayed put on the path and ran back again. I couldn’t resist yelling at her – all I said was “you STUPID woman!” – which I was glad to see she heard quite clearly.
- Coming home from town, heading back from the same roundabout (after leaving Avenue Road) I was indicating left to turn onto Red Barns Road with traffic waiting, coming from the Blackrock direction (I had right of way) to turn onto the same road after me. Only at the last second did the leading car decide to turn onto the Red Barns Road ahead of me. If I hadn’t braked as quickly, he’d have driven right into the right-hand-side of the front of my car. I honked my horn again and he blinked his hazard lights as if to say “sorry”.
- Headed back into town later to return some videos to Xtravision (Long Walk). When leaving, after waiting ages for a clearing in the traffic, I pulled out and was in the lane marked “North” heading to the traffic lights at the Earl St/Clanbrassil Street crossing. Must have been doing 30-40km/h. Idiot No. 3 cycles across the road directly in front of me missing being knocked down by barely 2 feet. Honked my horn in disgust. Idiot lost his balance and fell off his bike when he hit the kerb at the other side. Good enough for him.
- Returning from the radio station, coming along the lower Point road, guy in front of me driving at a decent pace decides to turn right onto another road. Of course, he doesn’t indicate this straight away,- he slows down suddenly (within less than 10 yards of the turn) comes to a stop without moving to the right hand side of the lane and THEN decides to indicate, forcing me to brake suddenly and leaving me with little or no space to maneuvre around him. Was I wrong to hit the horn then? Nope, don’t think so.
Months ago, the thought hit me, “why not bring my camera with me in the car, so that when I encounter such idiocy on the road, I can take a photo, upload it, and name and shame them online?” – I was even thinking of registering a witty domain name for it and everything… and seriously – all the practical and safety issues associated with taking photos while driving (yes, I know…) aside, sometimes I think that wasn’t a completely terrible idea after all!
Transposed from blog.niallok.com
9 Comments
sorry to be picky but,honking your horn in most or all of those situations is illegal.It is only to warn of your approach…not a means of conveying your disgust.
In most or all of those situations, I WAS warning them of my approach, or – more accurately – alerting them to my presence – AS WELL AS conveying my disgust.
I think Horns should be sounded a lot more, then people might actually suffer a bit of shame as everyone stares at the car when an angry horn is sounded!
When I come across someone blocking the road, double parked, or just simply coming to a halt to ogle young girls in short skirts, I sound my horn & KEEP it going until they move. It always works because the commotion means everyone in the street stops to see what’s going on, causing the offender much embarrassment. If I didn’t do it I know they’d leave me sitting there all day because these people have no regard for other road-users.
There you go again Niall
“Months ago, the thought hit me, “why not bring my camera with me in the car, so that when I encounter such idiocy on the road, I can take a photo, upload it, and name and shame them online?â€
No mention of your “friend” there! Go on and admit it. You break the law about as much as everyone else except no one has broken the law by photographing you in the process.
Did the thought not enter your head to tell the Guards and make a statement and have these people taken to court?
This is all about you is it not? Talk about an ego trip!
Niall,
“all the practical and safety issues associated with taking photos while driving
”
Your words and not mine. No mention of legal considerations at all.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO USE A MOBILE PHONE WHILE DRIVING. Get around that one mate without the use of your “friend”.
There are no practical or safety issues only legal ones as any Guard will tell you.
Miaowww, if you read right to the end of the article, you’ll see that this entry was taken from my own personal blog, “blog.niallok.com” which (in all fairness) IS all about me. It’s my personal blog. This entry was written before shitedrivers.com was created.
The ‘practical and safety issues’ are more-or-less the same as the legal issues. Taking a photograph while driving is unsafe and plain stupid. However, there were no photos in this article, so exactly what you’ve got issue with, I’m not sure – unless it was my “idea” at the time about having a camera with me in order to photograph bad driving/drivers with the intention of uploading the photo to a web site and shaming them online – which HAS happened since – look where we are…
I never condoned taking photos WHILE DRIVING. If I’d even taken any for this article (and there were plenty of opportunities, I just didn’t have a camera with me at the time), I’d have done so when I was stopped at the lights or when I’d pulled over.
Nevertheless, I’m sure you won’t be the last one to lecture me on using a camera while in my car… but you can guess just how much notice I’ll take of that.
What is all this bs about using a camera while driving. Surely to god if you are alert enough to spot the lunatics, holding up a camera, pointing it in the general direction and pressing a button is not going to distract your driving. Its not like you have to focus it and so on.
Im sick of all these fools saying “oh, you bad boy, using a camera while you drive”. Personally I dont care if you have a friend or not, taking the photos. I dont think it matters. There’s so much more fools on the roads than someone who is aware enough to use a camera. It takes more of your attention to change a CD than it does to hold up a little box with a lens and press a button.
So sod the wankers who say you’re breaking the law if taking photos.
A car travelling at 100k/mh covers about 28 mtrs in a second. The advised total stopping distance for a car travelling at 100k/mh is 78 mtrs approx. That equates to over 100m before your car will come to a stop assuming you are even slightly distracted, when the time comes that you may need to brake in an emergency. It is not legal to use a car horn while you are stationary, unless it is to warn a vehicle that is about to hit you. If a cyclist hits a car the likely outcome is that the car will be dented, if a car hits a cyclist the outcome is likely to be injury or death. The motorist has a legal obligation to drive in a manner that will allow him stop safely, without damage or injury. When people queue at an atm machine for instance, the person who is second or third doesn’t roar abuse at the person in front to hurry up or get out of their way. If you are driving on any road and you consider the driver in front to be impeding your progress… tough. It is the prevailing condition on the road at the time and drivers that can’t deal with it should leave that road until such time as their tempers settle down.