Crazy drivers

To the drivers of the two cars who tried to drive straight through mine last night, why??? It’s not as if I was invisible or giving conflicting signals!

[American/Canadian readers, please remember that we drive on the opposite side of the road, so substitute left for right and vice-versa in the rest of this post.]

It’s a major intersection: a tributary road crossing a dual carriageway at a traffic light controlled roundabout (“traffic circle”?) near the motorway. I stopped at a red light, in the left hand lane. Cars can turn left from there or go straight across. My intention was to drive straight across the roundabout and up to the supermarket petrol station 400 yards away. It’s 9.30 at night, my lights are on full and I’m not indicating.

A car pulls up on my right side, with another behind it. Its bonnet is projecting about a foot ahead of mine. The lights change. I drive off, but it pulls away faster. I’m following the road markings, staying firmly in my lane. But I’m watching that car, half expecting it to nip into my lane on the far side of the roundabout so that it can pull into the supermarket.

It cuts straight across me, tires squealing, turning left onto the main road from the wrong lane! My hand hits the horn, my foot hits the brake, then out of the corner of my right eye I see an amber light. It’s the left indicator of the second car, about a foot from my driver’s door! They flinch to the right and brake, before turning behind me. It was as if they hadn’t seen me until I hit the horn!

I pulled into the petrol station with my hands shaking.

- Pam