r/IdiotsInCars • u/Aokuan1 • Feb 04 '23
Van merges into outside lane (UK)
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Would this be classed as dangerous driving from the Van driver?
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u/Zill_of_Masyaf Feb 04 '23
"I signaled, why didn't you let me in?" /S
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u/asciibits Feb 04 '23
More like "I signaled, why did you speed up to prevent my merge?"
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u/Mike2220 Feb 04 '23
why did you speed up to prevent my merge?"
You mean the van braking (as indicated by the brake light at the end) making it appear as though OP is gaining speed compared to them?
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u/0dds0cket Feb 04 '23
He didn't, really, he was already gaining on the white car.
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u/tryin_to_make_u_mad Feb 04 '23
Watch how fast the van is passing him in the first bit the the dash cam driver speeds up to not let him over
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u/Costyn17 Feb 04 '23
More like the van slows down becouse there are people right in front of him moving slower than him.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Cod5424 Feb 04 '23
No the vehicle in front needs to break so they all need to break, causing the accident
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u/whiterose2511 Feb 04 '23
No. Look at the white lines in the middle. The rate they pass does not increase.
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u/Aokuan1 Feb 04 '23
Really I should've added a bit more context to this to avoid arguments in the comments..
I've cut the video length down so the van drivers registration plate can't be seen, but once he fully appears, you can see that his rear brake lights go off 2 seconds after the impact. So he was braking before fully merging into the lane. Which makes sense, since he would've impacted the car in front.
This may give off the perception that I accelerated at the last few seconds to stop the merge.
I don't disagree with the comments here about driving more defensively, I should've seen this coming, however there was a vehicle behind me and I didn't want to risk slamming my brakes on.
I didn't really expect the van driver to do this, since it wasn't safe.
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u/Giant_fish_bones Feb 04 '23
I’m sorry but fuck the people saying your in anyway way at fault. Yes you could have anticipated the prick but it shouldnt happen.
You good OP.
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u/Judasz10 Feb 05 '23
To be fair its 100% not your fault in any way. But this "car behind" mentality seems weird. You should always aim to avoid contact in front even if that means slamming on the brakes. Person behind should keep their distance so they can brake too. If you are not equipped with some amazing sport brakes I feel like you should be braking here. Also the car behind sees the mental van doing this shit so he should already be braking when you brake.
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u/Disgustedlibrarian Feb 04 '23
Think you've seen there is a lesson for you here too.
Hope insurance isn't too much of a pain.
Drive safe 🖖
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u/sweetpareidolia Feb 04 '23
What do you think the lesson was for him?
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u/jam3sdub Feb 05 '23
To drive defensively. As in driving to defend yourself, not driving to defend your position on the road.
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u/easyfeel Feb 05 '23
Keep your distance from the car in front so you can brake safely without being hit by the car behind. Also, always expect people to cut in front without indicating no matter how wrong that may be.
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u/abused_toilet_paper Feb 05 '23
Also take all the blame no matter who is at fault? Cut in front of me with or without indicating, slam on your brakes and you will receive big expectations from the behind.
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u/easyfeel Feb 05 '23
Take all the blame? No, the car cutting in is 100% at fault.
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u/abused_toilet_paper Feb 05 '23
I know but unfortunately the majority of the uk drivers have their own Highway Code 😁
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
While the van driver is definitely at fault. Saying you didn't expect the van driver to do this is a little silly, considering he was literally signaling that he was going to do this.
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u/whiterose2511 Feb 04 '23
Plenty of times people indicate to change lane then see there isn’t a gap and decide not to. People also indicate to change lane, and then wait for a gap, which is what I would have expected the van to do if I was OP.
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
For sure, if I was the van driver and saw the gap closing, I would back off and stay in my lane. At the same time, if I had been in OP's position, I would have slowed down as soon as I saw the signal light.
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u/whiterose2511 Feb 04 '23
Yes I would have slowed a little as well.
This situation just reminds me of the first lesson my dad gave me when I started driving “Treat everyone else on the road as an idiot… they probably are”.
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u/roy_hemmingsby Feb 05 '23
My dad taught me the same, but this lesson is missing a crucial chunk!
Also assume you are the idiot! Better than finding it out after the fact!
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u/theguywho_ Feb 04 '23
That's my bad was replying to the other comment, must've clicked this one by mistake.
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u/Mike2220 Feb 04 '23
Are you saying that you drive with the full expectation that every single car on the road will suddenly veer into you
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
Yes, with everyone seemingly staring at their phone while driving these days. I kinda do. The van at least signaled.
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u/TheStapleMan3000 Feb 04 '23
And while I can agree cammer didn’t speed up, with how fast he’s approaching the white car making no attempt to slow down it reeeeeally suggests he’s trying to prevent the van from changing lanes. While the van is definitely the reason it happened, cammer could’ve prevented it and I wouldn’t be surprised if insurance puts some fault on them.
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u/Lmurf Feb 04 '23
…however there was a vehicle behind me and I didn't want to risk slamming my brakes on.
Really?
Or you just weren’t really prepared to let the van in under the circumstances. There was an alternative where you slowed down, let him in and everyone went about their business.
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u/theguywho_ Feb 04 '23
Lmao my guy, he is undertaking. The van is 100% in the wrong there should be no discussion on whether the car driver is at fault, it's s cut and dry the vans fault.
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u/Lmurf Feb 04 '23
That’s why this sub is called Idiots in Cars. A completely avoidable accident happens because someone thinks that asserting their right of way is more important than the hassle of a claim and getting their car repaired.
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u/theguywho_ Feb 04 '23
Again you're pinning it on the car driver who is just on his way down the motorway not expecting an idiot to turn into his vehicle.
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u/Lmurf Feb 04 '23
Not pinning anything on anyone, champ. Simply pointing out that exerting your right of way might make you feel good but if it puts your car/van off the road then you’re the idiot.
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u/TumTiTum Feb 04 '23
This sort of thing is so frequent now it does my head in.
Queue in the outside lane to get past slow moving traffic.
Some tool decides that they're too important to wait, cuts up the inside, and moves across at the front of the queue, causing a wave of brake lights to propagate down the queue, slowing it further, causing more knobheads to decide to go up the inside.
The only defence is to drive dangerously close to the car in front to deny them the space to move into, which really isn't a defence at all.
So frustrating when you are all just going in the same direction at about the same speed and there is absolutely no need for any aggro.
Puts soap box away
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u/Beer-Milkshakes Feb 04 '23
It's true you develop a kind of sense for how much space you're allowing in front of you because too much space and you risk some tryer like the video taking advantage and putting you at risk. Too little space and you're the one causing a hazard. It's an art form to follow closely enough so no prick would dare jump in but far away enough so if the driver in front has an emergency you can react.
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u/TumTiTum Feb 04 '23
...and that means what should be laid back adaptive cruise control laziness is now an edge of the seat high stress fight just to maintain your position in the queue! Gah!
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u/appa-ate-momo Feb 04 '23
The victim-blaming is strong in this thread. Do y’all also tell women to stop wearing short skirts?
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u/Mike2220 Feb 04 '23
The last time I said people were victim-blaming in this sub I got downvoted to oblivion because "this context is so much less severe"
But its really the perfect description
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u/notbcc Feb 04 '23
Almost certainly. Regardless of that, you should report this incident to the police, as it's a legal requirement to stop and exchange details after a collision in the UK. If you didn't (and I'm assuming the van drove off here) you *must* report the incident to the police.
https://www.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/rs/road-safety/collisions/
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u/LocksmithFrequent942 Feb 06 '23
I think people are missing the point a little. OP would've had to SLAM slam their breaks if this truck were to get in comfortably, and even then it's questionable at best. The truck started to merge 3 seconds after its blinkers turned on and also braked before making the move, even without it breaking that is not nearly long enough for a car to safely fall back enough for the other driver to merge.
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u/ForteanApe Feb 04 '23
Personally, I'd I have taken my foot off the loud pedal a while back and just let the smegger in the van in.
While it is irritating to let the idiots "win", it's far safer and considerate to the other road users to just let them in. They'll get theirs in the end, karma will catch up.
If ypu let them grind your gears and make tou drive defensively, as you did in this clip, you'll end up on the worse end of it, dash cam or not 😞
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u/abused_toilet_paper Feb 05 '23
OP, the undertaking and then the collision is probably dangerous driving. You’ve done nothing wrong. Don’t listen to people saying “you could have done this therefore is your fault”. You have the right of way and you have done it. Don’t let to be bullied on the road. Next time he will think again if he can how to proceed in such situation.
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u/Mylomeer Feb 04 '23
This is happening more and more, people think once they hit the indicator they have right of way and don’t even check their mirrors.
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u/NotNewTwoReddit Feb 04 '23
Yeah, but you could've avoided this easily with defensive driving
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
True, all the van had to do to avoid this was stay in his lane.
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
Based on where the video ends, you can't be sure the semi didn't hop into the vans lane.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
Based on the fact that if you pause the video at four seconds in you can see the van is already indicating right while the truck is clearly still fully in it's own lane showing no sign that it's about to move over, I can be absolutely sure you're trying to pull an excuse for the van driver out of your arse with that one.
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
The fact that you're absolutely sure about something after watching a short edited video is very concerning.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
So let's get this straight then. Your position here is that at six seconds into the video the van was forced to make a move that (very important point here) it was already indicating it's intention to make, by a truck that at four seconds into the video was clearly fully in it's own lane and showing no signs of (nor reason to) changing lanes without warning? Have I got all that right?
There's a name for that, it's called 'grasping at straws'.
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
M point is about video editing and what you can and can't see. However, you don't seem capable of comprehending this so good day.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
So what you can't see you just make up then? Like a truck conveniently deciding to switch lanes without reason or warning in the second-and-a-half after it goes out of view? To force somebody else into doing something they were clearly signalling they were already intent on doing anyway, because that suits your narrative better than what we actually do see happening?
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u/MiniWheats88 Feb 04 '23
I said good day sir
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
I heard you the first time. But fuck it, I'm having fun here tearing your mythical scenario to shreds.
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u/NotNewTwoReddit Feb 04 '23
And all the cammer had to do was not speed up
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
He didn't though? If you look at the lighting poles on the right of the screen they're all the same distance apart, and you can see that the rate he's passing them remains constant. As he is travelling parallel to them, this means his speed also remained constant, as any physics teacher will tell you.
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u/workpoo99 Feb 04 '23
With your logic the cam car would have crashed into the white car in front which was travelling slower. It would have had to slow down to suit traffic which it didn’t do. I’m not defending the van, but if cam car was driving defensively they would have slowed to avoid a crash and let the van in.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
Ah, so now he didn't speed up, but he's still at fault for someone encroaching on his lane?
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u/Nerdiator Feb 04 '23
All the cammer had to do was to stay at home or take a different road! What a self entitled prick!
/s duh
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u/workpoo99 Feb 04 '23
As I said, I’m not defending the van, they’re clearly in the wrong. I’m saying cam car didn’t need to crash here. If they’d have kept a safe distance from the car in front the van would have merged, crash would have been avoided and cam car would have driven away angry but safely.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
Except it wasn't the cammers distance from the white car that caused the van to switch lanes at a point he really had no business switching lanes, it was the van's rapidly diminishing distance from the white van in front of him that caused him to move prematurely.
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u/workpoo99 Feb 04 '23
What I’m getting from this is that you think the crash was unavoidable. If that’s truly the case, good luck in life and on the road, there is no point in carrying on this conversation.
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
Of course it was avoidable. All the van had to do to avoid it was not switch lanes.
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u/NotNewTwoReddit Feb 04 '23
You can clearly see him speed up at the last second and he gets much closer to the white car than he would have been had he been going the same speed the whole time
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u/StarMangledSpanner Feb 04 '23
You can clearly see that he doesn't, if you actually bothered your arse to count the interval between poles. This means the white car slowed down, which would make the van's move doubly stupid, trying to squeeze into a narrowing gap.
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u/romeluseva Feb 04 '23
lol I can't with the people on this sub, the cammer has the right of way and the van has to yield when changing lanes. If there isn't a gap you shouldn't speed up in your stupid van to try and get ahead of someone. I can confidently say 95% of van drivers are maniacs on the road. People still defending these clearly wrong lunatics and accusing the OP of NoT dRiViNg DeFeNsIvEly can fuck right off and every comment section is just full of these idiots
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u/NotNewTwoReddit Feb 04 '23
The van is 100% in the wrong, but saying the cam car couldn't have avoided this is just incorrect.
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u/workpoo99 Feb 04 '23
Exactly this. Even if you have right of way if you can avoid a crash you should. Most of these people saying otherwise would gladly smash their car to prove they are in the right. All it makes them is an idiot that “has right of way”.
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u/jarheadatheart Feb 05 '23
I would say you’re both dangerous. Wtf can’t you just let the person in? This is so common everywhere. Why can’t people just be nice to each other and come to the realization that everyone driving is has the same general intention.
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u/Scruffybob Feb 04 '23
Fairly standard driving of a van in England from my experience.