was driving my daughter and her friends home last night when a Taxi came up fast behind me. I was traveling at 50KPH. He stayed so close to me that at times I could not see his lights. I intentionally slowed down for two reasons;
1. I won’t be bullied into driving over the speed limit, and
2. I feared if he rear ended me, better to do it at a slower speed.
My daughter eventually got his licence plate number. This took along time as he was driving so near.
My question is, Who can/should I complain this type of aggressive dangerous driving to?
14 Comments
Eh, yeah - just a wild thought, but hey, I’ll put it out there… surely the gardaà would be the appropriate ones to report dangerous drivers to.
Oh and possibly the taxi company he works for. I presume you got their name.
50kmph is really fucking slow.
I’m a taxi driver. I know how to drive safely at reasonable speeds, and I excersise safe driving because it obviously makes sense.
If I’ve been given a job to collect person A and bring them to point B, slow drivers are the biggest spanner in my works. I have base bleating in my ear for being late, with only the driver in front to thank for my loss of earnings.
I hope that was me behind you. Slow driving is just as dangerous as speeding. The temptation for the driver behind you to overtake into potentially dangerous oncoming traffic shouldn’t be there in the first place! When they tell you to heed the speedlimit, please take it literally.
I’m not normally this belligerent, but I’ve just skulled a few glasses of wine. I’ll be all apologetic tomorrow, even though I shouldn’t be.
Slow driving is just as dangerous as speeding. The temptation for the driver behind you to overtake into potentially dangerous oncoming traffic shouldn’t be there in the first place!
Yeah, your right, only taxi’s should be allowed to drive the nations highway.
Overtaking isn’t dangerous when you’re patient and driving in a fit mental state, and not in an aggressive bullying manner!
I hope you run up the back me sometime - you’ll be moaning about your loss of earnings then!
If you had of been doing a decent speed he wouldn’t have to drive up your arse! Its retired citizens like yourself that cause accidents brummin along with nowhere to go!!!!
I appreciate hearing Taxi drivers points of view. I myself drive a car, van, truck, and I also cycle and like everyone am a pedestrian. I too crack up when people don’t show consideration and let me pass, or cut in front of me when I’m hauling a heavy load up a hill etc.
In this case however, I was driving at the speed limit in a built up area with cars parked both sides of a church. Even if I was on a wide road with clear visibility I tend to keep the speed limit. Any driver who tries to bully me into driving faster is only going to make me stubborn. I could have jammed on the brakes and had a nice insurance claim for whiplash. Tail gating is one of my pet hates and in this case it was extreme.
FYI I have not reported it.
K8 “the GR8″ (ref linked website) - the alcohol just served to show the true colours of a taxi driver.
You should lobby the government to change the speed limit or exempt taxi drivers from it. Some langer you are. Whether “50kmph is really ****ing slow” or really ***ing fast, if it’s the limit you don’t have a say in persistently breaking the speed limit because it’ll lose you earnings.
Someone driving at that speed in an 80 or 100 limit is a potential danger but driving at 50 in a 50 zone and you’re the archetypal taxi driver. What made you think that the original poster was driving really ***ing slow in a higher speed limit? I took it as him driving at the limit, which he subsequently confirmed in another post.
Regardless, the taxi was driving irresponsibly - end of. Tailgating if I’m not mistaken is an offence. You’re going to tell me that it’s not dangerous at all.
Roll down the window of your car and whistle dixey. Just look at the antics of the taxi industry every weekend night in our cities and nothing is done to stop the madness. Stopping in and at box junctions, at traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, outside schools, at bus stops, U turns in the middle of the street, reversing up one way streets, parking with their tails out onto the road, the list goes on and on. Hazard lights have a new meaning and function- turn them on and stop where you like. The RSA is more concerned about glossy advertisements, with Gaybo taking bows and glory laps at the Gardai stopping people at 2,30am in the mornings for driving 10KPH over the speed limit on an empty dual carriageway. Everywhere you look there is a taxi making shit of the rules of the road and nobody gives a f***. But dont blame the taxi people , our mupet politicians gave the industry a right over all other tax paying motorists- the ability to use bus lanes without giving anything back in return.
So getting back to the taxi driver literally climbing up your rear end, I.m afraid you will just have to acceot this sort of reckless driving as the Gardai are told to turn a blind eye to the commercial interests of Ireland Inc on most weekend nights. Dont even think of approaching the taxi regulator or even the carriage office, they are as dense and as lax as the people who laugh at anybody who points out to them that they are breaking the rules of the road. As a taxi driver said to me last week in Westmoreland Street as he pulled his car out in front of mine. ” Ye F***in idiot did ye not see me indicating to get out” I did said I, but indicating does not mean you have the right to pull out in front of me thereby causing me to swerve to avoid you. ” learn the rules of the road” he screamed from the car as he tried to impress his passenger with his unquestionable knowledge of the rules, while at the same time giving the two fingers with his hand stretched down below the door panel of his car.
And it goes on and on, city centre is like a traffic jam at 17.00 hours in the evening, only the hour is 1.30 am in the morning . Taxis stopping everywhere and anywhere and the RSA attacks everything else except what they really should be attacking. Elderly people wishing to board a bus as a taxi pulls up and turns on the hazard lights at the stop. F*** the aged there,s no money to be got from social welfare recipiants, let them struggle to board a bus. We stop where we please, and the minister turns a blind eye.
A minister brings in rules and regulation that are being broken within yards of the House the same rules were brought into law.Dawson Street is nothing more than a scandal that must be borne by the RSA’s inability and unwillingness to address the ongoing driving standards of the taxi industry. There are decent, hard working law abiding taxi people who unfortunately happen to be in the minority of yhose who play fully by the rules. We may listen and read many stories about taxi drivers but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the evidence is out there for all to see every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in all our cities and towns around the country.
Where else would you find a group of self employed people who demand the state restrict entry into their market, guarantee an income, provide facilities for them, turn a blind eye to their blatant disregard of the rules of the road and then have the gall to go on strike?
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, since Taxi drivers are self employed, don’t they hurt nobody but themselves with this action? I hope they do it more often, because general manners on the road in Limerick improved dramatically after that.
As a group they seem to think they’re owed something by society as a whole, along with teachers, medical consultants, traindrivers, civil servants and other assorted greedy bastards who are out for themselves and screw the rest.
Some of us have to work for our money and if we don’t deliver, we’re out the door.
Maybe I should apply for a Taxi licence, sitting in my office all day and looking out the window can’t be too hard.
The full insanity and delusion can be found here:
http://irishtaxi.org/?page_id=2
You should report him to the gardai and your local council-this is where he get his taxi license from. If he receives too many complaints then he won’t be able to renew his license. hope this helps.
Thanks for the link John, ain’t no such thing as bad publicity!
I,m not too sure who was the dangerous driver in the original post, driving excessively slowly is dangerous and slowing down further to spite driver behind is aggressive behavior
The best thing to do if someone behind is acting aggressively regardless of what type of car it is, the fact it was a taxi is irrelevant, you should pull in and let the idiot pass
“50kmph is really ****ing slow”
He said he was at 50 and did not want to break the limit and you don’t know what of road he was on so you’re spouting out a load of bull shit there.
We’re protesting again
http://irishtaxi.org/?p=624
Time to dump on us?
Hang on a minute a taxi driver drove up fast behind you and drove close to you. Whats your point? Where are you living down some shit holed bog in rural Ireland, This happens to the rest of us every day, if its not a guy in a suit and tie picking his nose as he chats on his mobile, its a guy in a crap toyota barely 18 and barely able to see over the steering wheel. My uncle is a taxi driver and has been wrote of twice this year, once by a drunk driver and the other time a women on her phone. Why don’t you ask him who the bad drivers are?