The Irish Mitsubishi FTO Owners Club

Basically I keep encountering the same problem driver on the way home. Usually twice a week or so. He is driving a white Levin and insists on driving flat out less than 1 car space from my rear bumper and other similar carry on. weaving etc. All this when I have no where to go. cannot accelerate cause of traffic, cannot go into left lane cause of traffic etc. Then he will find his moment and do something outrageously!!! dangerous to undertake me and pull in 1 or 2 or 3 cars in front. I am so angry with this plank I feel like following him and smashing him up. Seriously. Yes I normally try and 100% blank him and pull over at the first opportunity, but today they got a reaction. I am ashamed to say. I did angrily accelerate (totally unnecessary) passed them as I exited the M50 and they were in the fast lane restrained by heavy traffic. I wasn't thinking and I suppose I thought(hoped) it might be annoy them. I'm seriously p1ssed off with myself for being goaded by this gimp, but its going on weeks, and its tantamount to road intimidation. Now, before you all start saying "ah forget, your soft" etc, this prick is driving dangerously and dragging me into it by driving so close to me and pulling in front of me. I really wish he wrapped his car (and was uninjured). It might wake him up. Im very very seriously considering calling the guards next time and asking them to have a word with him. He should not be driving and will kill someone, probably himself. I need to get his reg first. Its a 99 or 00. anyway, I'm thinking of tapping the brakes next time he does this, or putting on the hazards, or slowing right down, or beeping the horn or something. then again Im as bad as him if I do that. might just ring the cops instead. Was seriously feeling the rage today when I got out of car. It's not good that someone puts you in that frame of mind on your way home. I guess I could just sit in the left lane at all times and might avoid it. Then again he has driven up my ar$e in the left lane before and then pulled out like a maniac and accelerated in the right lane only to have to hit his brakes heavily etc.
anyone ever been targeted specifically like this. I drive passed (or am passed out) by 10s of nice cars each day. Nice civics, skylines, integras, whatever, and nobody feels the need to drive like this. Except this tool.
ARGH!

My advice is:

1. Get his reg and report him to Garda Traffic Watch => 1890 205 805

2. Don't engage him in any way and definetly don't do the stamping on brakes thing in traffic - theres a risk you could be hurt or injured in the process. Ignore him as much as is possible.

CJ

yeah I 100% agree. Went for a run and I feel much calmer/relaxed now. Was really wound up when I came home. Very annoyed I reacted at all, but its just built up over weeks. The only solution is to totally blank him while trying to get out of his way at the same time. No way I'm risking my car (or more importantly my life) for some jumped up git. That number is in my phone now, thanks CJ.

I think we've all been in that situation at some stage, but more so in a one off incident. Relatively speaking, that's not at bad as what you are talking about, i.e. that this plank does it day in day out, that its his standard way of driving, it'd get you raging to just read about!
I think CJ is right though, as is your (usual) manor with him, ignore him. Its a dangerous game he's playing, and as frustrating as it is to be the nice person all the time, you have to be the bigger man.
I think you should also use that number CJ gave (have it in my phone now too), and just pray that your call is acted on. It'd be a favour to everyone on the road.

That would drive me nuts. And I do suffer from road rage. That does sound like the best option but personally id have lost it before now. Call it immaturity or whatever but if some fella was driving around me like that id have no bothers jumping out of the car. Just want id do, but I know that will be frowned upen here!
Saying that, I did hear a story where a motorbike was driving past a certain building every morning doing about 140mph. The occupant called this traffic unit as above and the FOLLOWING day the had a speed gun there and a guard on a bike further up the road to pull him in. Did the trick...

fatboyfat7 wrote:...Call it immaturity or whatever but if some fella was driving around me like that id have no bothers jumping out of the car. Just want id do, but I know that will be frowned upen here!..

Don't think it'd be frowned upon, nobody here is claiming to be angelic by any means. I'd say most of us will admit to driving too fast or too close to people at times, but when you see the kind of behaviour described above, we all need to vent.
Great to hear that story about the guy on the bike, fair play to the person who made the call and the garda in this case.

Same as all other comments, report him to the guards. I had to do this one night, it was actually coming back from the NI meet, Bernard you might remember me hooting nonstop for about 30 seconds, a Passat tried stepping in between me and bernard, though there was no room, he had overtaken 2 other cars behind to get there, and there was a car coming from the other direction, i had to pull into the hard shoulder at the last second as he totally pushed me over it to avoid getting hit himself by the oncoming car, if there was no hard shoulder either him or us would have been serioulsy hurt. Cops were rang and said if they could they'd intercept him, they did and rang back later for a statement. To cut a long story short, didnt progress with statement cause he would have been put off the road for a year due to dangerous driving and negligence, I wanted to give him a scare but didnt want someone to lose their licence over it even though it was highly dangerous.
So ring the cops, report the number, cause it'll be on the records then, and god forbid anything does happen, or he gets reported by someone else, they'll have your call as evidence to back up another statement.

Dragonheart wrote:Bernard you might remember me hooting nonstop for about 30 seconds

How'd I miss that one?

You didnt hear it?? Was around claremorris I think, I was behind you one second the next I wasnt.

Ring the guards. I raised this recently on another forum and you'd be surprised that every person who reported a car got them intercepted in the next town. A good scare can go a long way.

Tailgaiting is one of my pet hates and I swear some day i'll get out of the car with a hurley...

Dragonheart wrote:Cops were rang and said if they could they'd intercept him, they did....

Hope you used your hands free kit for the call...

optical illusion wrote:.. you'd be surprised that every person who reported a car got them intercepted in the next town...

I was gonna ask that very question, if anybody had used this number and if there was any response. Very happy to hear that. The garda get a lot of abuse, so I think its only fair they get acknowlegded for this.

optical illusion wrote:Tailgaiting is one of my pet hates and I swear some day i'll get out of the car with a hurley...

Know what you mean... probably a bad habit I have, but if someone is tailgating me I'll gently and slowly slow right down. If they give out about it I can justify it as lack of braking space for them to stop if I did need to stop quickly, and I'd be bringing it down to a speed it was more safe for them to travel so close behind me.

fatboyfat7 wrote:

Dragonheart wrote:Cops were rang and said if they could they'd intercept him, they did....

Hope you used your hands free kit for the call...

I did ya, she's called Grace.....

Dragonheart wrote:I did ya, she's called Grace.....

I've got one of those too