Drivers who ought to be shot.

The BBQ Pit
1

On a Sunday jaunt yesterday, we decided to come home via the Great Ocean Road in Victoria (Australia). Now the GOR is world renowned as a Must See place, with stunning views on the sea-side, and massive cliffs on the other. It’s also a treacherous road, with lots of twists, turns and hair-pin bends, as the road follows the contours of the coast. Mostly the actual speed ‘limit’ is 80kmh, but every bend recommends a lower limit of between 35-55kmh. It’s also a single lane road for all of its length with DOUBLE LINES.

Now it’s school holidays here at the moment, so there’s lots of tourists doing the trek down the GOR. I expected this when doing our home run yesterday…and the traffic was constant but moving along nicely.

EXCEPT FOR ONE PARTICULAR FUCKER.

To the arsehole in the SUV yesterday:

Did you really think overtaking two cars across double lines on a blind bend was a good idea?

Did you really think doing it AGAIN two minutes later was a better idea?

And again?

Fuck…you managed to get six cars ahead on a road full of cars, but in the meantime threatened the lives of MANY MORE. You were so bloody lucky that there was no other car/s coming around those bends when you planted your foot…I hope the testosterone rush you got was worth it you fucking bastard.

Because my heart plummeted into my guts as I watched you, waiting for the (almost) inevitable BOOM as you collided head first into some unsuspecting punter coming around the bend, possibly sending him careering down the precipice into the ocean, and the expected fallout as cars (including me, my daughter and grandies) on the cliff side all went askew trying to avoid the collision.

I didn’t get your number-plate, but I hope that someone else in the line of cars did.

You were an accident just waiting to happen…except it wouldn’t have been an accident at all would it, you fucking idiot.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

2

This part of your account really resonates with me. Just over a year ago my father was killed by another driver who took his attention from the road to put a CD in his player. His truck hit my father on his motorcycle.

Everyone else seems to think it was an accident, but it wasn’t, any more than the carnage you might have witnessed would have been. I agree with the title of your thread.

3

I cycled along the Great Ocean Road (Lorne to Apollo Bay and back) the weekend before last - closed road one way but open on the way back. All but one car was beautifully well behaved and considerate - but yep, there are some assholes on the road who don’t care who they nearly run off in their haste to get to their destination a minute or two earlier.

4

I’m sorry Baker. Trite words, but they’re all I have for your loss. :frowning:

But seriously, how many ‘accidents’ are fucking ACCIDENTS?? When I hear of what your dad experienced, and what I saw yesterday, I’m tiring of the term ‘accident’ to describe what mostly happens on our roads. Collisions, sometimes fatal, but nobody hears much about the people permanently disabled, or losing their livelihoods, their families or their sanity…and for the vast majority, they’re the result of speeding, drunk, drug affected or otherwise moronic fucktards behind the wheel.

Fuck 'em. If they’re convicted, lock them up forever and throw away the key.

:frowning:

5

When you’re trying to turn out onto a road and you’re waiting for some asshole to pass so that you can, and he ends up slowing down and turning into the same road you are on but never uses his turn signal, so you end up having to wait to see what he’s doing even though you could have just gone if he had signaled. I would shoot such people immediately if I could get away with it.

6

If they put on the turn signal long enough in advance so that I would be able to pull out without causing an accident if they were not really turning, then that would be practical advice, but as it is, even when drivers do use their turn signal it is usually as they are slowing down, and the percentage of people who put on the turn signal and slow down and then don’t turn anyway are high enough (read: non-zero) that I can’t pull out even when the car starts to slow down. In those late-signalers, I only pull out after they’ve actually started the turn.

7

Really? Someone who makes you wait a few seconds to be sure he is turning so that you can get onto the road deserves the same level of scorn as the self-absorbed idiot on a dangerous road who takes his own and other lives into his hands by unsafe passing, as in the OP? This thread didn’t start out as the typical “other drivers are annoying” thread, but you sure are trying to make it into one.

To the OP, I do sympathize. We always hated driving with my father, although he was not so bad as to pass on blind turns, but he couldn’t bear to follow other people unless they were going as fast as he wanted to go. The constant passing other cars was very stressful to me when I was a child; I got to the point where I often closed my eyes for large parts of any trip because I couldn’t bear to watch.

To everyone else: lighten up about other drivers who are only annoying. Everyone has these stories, they’re not new or interesting. After all, it’s only driving, it’s only supposed to get you from here to there. If you store up all that frustration and anger you’re only damaging yourself. Zen out a little. Thanks from me, another driver who tries but who isn’t perfect.

8

No one deserves to be shot – USA has too many homicides already.

9

What does that have to do with shooting Australian drivers?

10

Yes. Both are needlessly endangering the lives of others.

11

Thank you for confirming that you’re an idiot. User names are not always predictive of behavior, so yours is a treat.

12

Thread title “Drivers who ought to be shot”. I think people who do that ought to be shot. Not comparing it to the case of the OP.

13

Regarding the use of the term accident — as I understand it, any event that isn’t entirely intentional can be called an accident.

14

So you think someone who fails to signal his/her intent to turn should be shot? You sound a little intense…

15

Yup. If you’re too self-absorbed to realize or care how your lazy/shitty behavior affects other drivers, then you’re probably like that in other areas of life as well. I never said fatally shot, maybe a good slug to the calf would do. :stuck_out_tongue:

16

Well, it’s nice to know we have a perfect person on the Board. I’m sure you have never failed to do something that would earn you a slug in the calf for your efforts.

Or perhaps you’re just one of those internet people who casually wish excruciating violence on random strangers because they pissed you off.

17

But when one’s actions (as per my OP) are not actually negligent but intentionally dangerous, then in my opinion the accident descriptor is wrong. It may be a useful catch-all, especially when applied to motor vehicle incidents, but it’s wrong.

Perhaps if we started using more appropriate language when describing what happens on our roads, then people might start taking safety more seriously. Yeah, wishful thinking, I know, yada yada.

:frowning:

18

I disagree. The behavior you’re describing is extremely reckless, but presumably the driver did not intend to crash the car. If he had, therefore, it would have been an accident.

19

Thanks. I like to think a little of both!

20

My biggest pet peeve is the people who try to change lanes right into another car sometimes they know full well what they’re doing and just try to muscle their way in , other times they are just completely oblivious either way, you know you can’t just pass through a solid 3,000+ object right? A lot of people also don’t know how to use their mirrors, If you can see any part of your own car in the side-view mirror you’re doing it wrong!