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From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 07:07
Friday afternoon, I towed home through the mid Wales over the
mountains, past Devils Bridge. It was a very pleasant day and there was
little traffic about. With patience and reasonable competence, there
are plenty of long straight stretches to overtake if necessary.

For 15 miles I was tail-gated by a P reg 16v Escort, the driver of
which obviously didn't have a clue how to set himself up to see the
road ahead of me to find an opportunity to overtake. Despite him, three
drivers did manage to get past both me and the Escort in one maneuver.
I was towing mostly at 45 to 60 (not much slower than most cars would
be doing, if at all) and several times I eased off on the straight bits
to give him a good opportunity to get past, but he seemed perfectly
content with the view of the rear end of my van.

Eventually, with an bend fast approaching and on double white lines he
decided to overtake and had not completed his maneuver before the bend,
so started pulling back in to the left, level with my tow car causing
me to bang all on to let him back in.

Half a mile further on I caught up with him, tail gating another car
about a yard from its rear bumper, which was itself tail gating a third
car, but not to quite such an extent - about a cars length space, but
still far too close.

The lead car was doing around 30 to 40 mph, much slower than the road
would dictate, in fact had I not had the other two cars ahead of me and
despite towing a caravan - I would have no doubt found a safe place to
get past it. Both drivers were continuously on and off the brakes all
the way. In anticipation of something nasty happening, I was keeping a
good space ahead and for the most part needing to use no brakes at all.

This state of affairs continued for another ten miles, almost to the
England border, where some traffic lights brought the four of us to a
stop and I was able to get a good look at the drivers. My Escort driver
who had so badly cut me up on the bend was a middle aged man, as was
the driver just ahead of him.

I must admit I was expecting both of those drivers to be teenagers,
trying hard to write off their first cars. I felt sorry for the lead
car driver with those two lunatics sat so close in his mirror.

Not much further on and having got past all three, on a dead straight
mile long stretch of empty road, me doing about 60, another car driver
pulled out at at about the half mile point to overtake, after peeping
out from behind the back of the van several times. He then very slowly
crept up the side of the van at a snails pace and failed to clear me
before the end of the straight, when a car appeared coming round the
next bend. As he was nearer my front end than my rear I braked to get
him past, rather than accelerate. Now if this driver had only thought
to change down a gear, before trying to get past me....

Is this a Welsh thing?





--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk


From: Nick Finnigan on 11 Jul 2010 07:17
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
>
> Not much further on and having got past all three, on a dead straight
> mile long stretch of empty road, me doing about 60, another car driver
> pulled out at at about the half mile point to overtake, after peeping
> out from behind the back of the van several times. He then very slowly
> crept up the side of the van at a snails pace and failed to clear me
> before the end of the straight, when a car appeared coming round the
> next bend. As he was nearer my front end than my rear I braked to get
> him past, rather than accelerate. Now if this driver had only thought to
> change down a gear, before trying to get past me....
>
> Is this a Welsh thing?

No, towing or passing at 60mph happens on single carriageways everywhere.
From: Harry Bloomfield on 11 Jul 2010 17:50
Peter Johnson laid this down on his screen :
> They were probably tourists unfamiliar with twisty roads on changing
> gradients.

If you refer to the lead cars driver, quite possibly - but not the two
drivers in cars 2 and 3 were definitely NOT tourists.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk


From: Mortimer on 11 Jul 2010 18:12
"Harry Bloomfield" <harry.m1byt(a)NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk> wrote in message
news:mn.5ad77da73c77851e.106911(a)NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk...
> For 15 miles I was tail-gated by a P reg 16v Escort, the driver of which
> obviously didn't have a clue how to set himself up to see the road ahead
> of me to find an opportunity to overtake.

The other day I was following a slowish HGV (a big but non-articulated
lorry) and I kept well back and positioned myself on the inside of bends (ie
slightly left of centre on a left bend, and slightly right on right bends)
to give me best visibility of the road ahead to decide whether it was safe
to overtake.

A young woman in a Vauxhall came up behind me and started tailgating me and
flashing me (maybe she wanted me to go closer to the slow vehicle rather
than hanging back). Eventually, with a blare of her horn and a long flash of
her lights, she overtook and pulled in sharply between me and the lorry. She
then sat about 3" from his back bumper, flashing her lights furiously, which
he probably couldn't even see because of the old "if you can't see my
mirrors, I can't see you".

Several times she pulled out to overtake but had to abort because of an
oncoming car which I was well aware of because I was far enough back to see
the road ahead of the lorry.

Eventually I saw that there was a good long gap so I overtook both her and
the lorry, as did the car behind me. I felt almost sorry for her that by the
time she pulled out, a car was coming and she had to abort again - I saw it
all in my door mirror.

From: Albert T Cone on 12 Jul 2010 06:59
Harry Bloomfield wrote:
> Friday afternoon, I towed home through the mid Wales over the mountains..
>snip<
> The lead car was doing around 30 to 40 mph, much slower than the road
> would dictate....
>
> Is this a Welsh thing?

I'm not sure. When I went to wales last year I was suprised at how
slowly everyone drove - moreso because I went there regularly until a
couple of years previously and things seemed to have changed quite rapidly.

I put it down to it perhaps being tourist season, or my distinctly
imperfect memory, but perhaps it's a real effect. Odd, 'cos they have
some fantastic roads all across the country, when they aren't blocked by
dawdlers (and caravans...)
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