Spare me the undertaker

Whether driving for business or pleasure I try to get any weekend motoring out of the way in the morning – the earlier the better.

Living in south west London means a high density of traffic. And aside from the increased journey times of a later departure I’m also only likely to find out what the car I’m driving is like at low speeds, a useful component of a road test but not the full picture.

And besides, for pure enjoyment clearer roads are better.

One need look no further than the voting in Auto Trader UK’s latest Facebook poll “Do you think motorists who drive too slowly should be treated the same as those who speed?” to identify one of the key frustrations of congested traffic.

However, there are times when necessity dictates a deviation from the weekend rule, my wife’s birthday for example. Something told me it would take some of the shine off the day’s celebrations if I demanded a pre-noon return.

65mph in the third lane

So it was with little surprise that myself, my wife and our 18-month-old daughter were greeted by a steady stream of two lane traffic as we reached the M25-bound A3 at 1pm on Saturday

A few miles on and it opened out a little into three lanes where progress improved a little until I found myself, in the third lane, behind a Ford Focus.

Beyond the Focus was a small, old hatchback labouring to overtake a couple of vehicles at around 65mph while laden with three passengers including two children in the rear.

The Focus driver’s view on motorists going “too slowly” soon became apparent.

Tailgating

First he tailgated aggressively, to little effect, quite possibly because the hatch’s reserves of acceleration were depleted.

Then the pursuing driver slowed and undertook via the first lane, to avoid the cars the hatch had been overtaking and appeared in the third lane with the original positions of the hatch and Focus reversed.

It’s a dangerous manoeuvre but one which is all too common. What happened next was more surprising.

With no visible cause the small hatchback driver started braking, and kept braking until I realised I was going to have to come to a complete stop – and quickly.

I checked the rear view mirror to see whether I was going to get rear-ended and looked to the side mirror and window.

Fortunately, the driver behind me shared my practice of leaving plenty of room for the vehicle in front, because the second lane offered no escape.

The hold-up was removed after the Focus driver accelerated away.

Driving stupidity

Maybe he had a legitimate reason for bringing the traffic in the third lane to a standstill but with no visible explanation it’s more likely it was a deliberate means of taking revenge on a slower driver.

And if that was the case there’s a reasonable chance that had myself and the driver behind me not left plenty of space it may have had a more serious and potentially fatal conclusion.

Slow drivers get under most people’s skin. But this response was one of the most dangerous examples of driving stupidity I have seen first-hand.

Have you witnessed a worse one?

Web Editor, Adrian Higgins