Hi Ashley. If you want to take a look at the most serious case of road rage i've ever seen in the UK, take a look at "Grand theft auto Bridgend". It's a miracle somebody wasn't killed in this prolonged incident. Thankfully the culprit was arrested eventually.
7:39 is my clip, and you're right I did soil myself there. What it doesn't show is me stopping a little touch further in a safe place until the adrenaline subsided. I was in the car with my wife who was pregnant at the time, and it shook me up. I actually did send the footage to Northumbria police and they issued the van driver an FPN. Great video as always, Ash!
Well done for recognising the need to pull over and regain composure. Something that is often overlooked in these situations Glad to hear all three of you are OK (I am going to assume single baby pregnancy, apologies if incorrect)
I'm not sure the road rage incidents are getting worse, there have always been plenty of nutters out there. There just so many more cameras to capture them.
Alexa tells me fifteen percent of the population regularly use illicit drugs. Drive as if all around you are druggies, drug dealers on urgent deliveries, blind, blind drunk, homicidal maniacs, nutters who hate everyone. Many driving cars they can’t afford and have to get ahead to show they’re better than you. Leave more braking distance (but some one will fill the space).
That's what I thought when he said that. This type of stuff was probably happening 10/20/30 years ago but you just wouldn't see it unless you were actually there in person
It's similar to the widely held perception that violent crimes are worse now than ever before. The statistics don't bear this out, but our easy access to global news skews our perception of how frequent these events are. Add to that, the global population has gone from 3 billion to over 8 billion in my lifetime (50yrs) and the number of people living in cities is a far greater percentage than ever before. So there ARE more such events, just the number per head of population is - thankfully - lower.
Not condoning it but to punch through that window takes some serious force. A ban from driving is needed for people who can't control their anger, even if a fault happens.
It looks like a lucky shot more than anything. Maybe a weakened window or just hitting the right spot. Or maybe he had something equipped. I knocked on a window once and it shattered. Total freak accident.
I don't care what people say, if someone flashes me I still look all around to make sure things are clear, I don't just pull out That first clip is shocking, would really like to know what happened beforehand for that driver to do that Totally agree with what you said, things are getting worse but when there is a lack of police these incidents will keep rising
A funny thing happened in my driving test, I was waiting to turn right and a driver approaching from the opposite direction stopped and flashed me. I didn't move, he kept flashing and the examiner kind of cleared his throat and suggested I go. I said to him after I thought someone flashing wasn't a safe indiction to go. I think he said it was down to individual judgement. Maybe I could have got a black mark for hesitancy. This was back in 1992.
i will not flash and let someone else out if there is someone else around that might think its for them, or might cause a situation like in the clip. if they are the only car and it'll help traffic then sure i'll let someone out, but if not i'll just keep going, in my opinion just safer that way
@@jondrummer1989 I agree on that one. Nobody else coming the other way? I'll slow, stop, maybe give them a flash out. Someone coming the other way and they won't make it? I'll keep going for traffic flow. No point me stopping of others don't. Just holds everyone up.
That thing about people merging onto dual carriageways poorly. There's actually a pretty good reason for it, and it's down to insurance black boxes. At least that's what I assume is the case for a majority of people who join dual carriageways and motorways at 30mph. If you accelerate up to appropriate speed on the slip road, you'll get a poor rating and your insurance prices will increase. They only give you good ratings if you accelerate once you're actually on the dual carriageway/motorway. This has been a known issue with blackboxes for years and insurance companies aren't doing anything to fix it.
Just want to say I love these compilations in a large part because they remind me of the old Police Stop VHS tapes I had a kid. Calm commentary letting the action do the talking unless there’s something to be learned.
The fact that the guy punched out the window leads me to the conclusion that trying to tip-toe out of such a situation is not sufficiently safe. Clearly, if one ever finds oneself under duress in such a situation, one should be much more positive in escaping it.
That punch was frustration and I'm surprised it smashed tbh. The guy looks like a limp wristed gobshite and it could have been solved by simply waiting him out.
Exactly, if someone’s trying to break into my car I’m getting out of there and if the idiot goes under my car fine, I’ll chat about it in the safety of the police station.
You've got to wonder if the Golf at 5:33 had been nicked or involved in some other sort of criminal activity. Either way that driving is absolutely lethal.
That is not normal driving, it was being driven like it had been stolen, or had just done a robbery, quite why it was on the hard shoulder ? there seemed like plenty of lane space was available.
As I was watching clip 2, I thought to myself that trying to open a car door to gain offensive access to anyone inside the vehicle should be considered a crime (not sure if it is or isn't) but punching out the window most certainly is. I hope that bloke was reported and dealt with accordingly. Personally, I would likely have been dialling 999 at the point he was attempting to gain access to the car having TPACed it. It may have been that the person in the Fiesta had kidnapped a child (to add some balance) but either way, plod needs to be dealing with that, firmly. I have no idea what you were referring to with the police car on the roundabout and the radio, cough. 😆 There's a fair few of those that could/should have gone to the police - and may well have done. As for the pedestrians crossing the road in the dark, the cammer was late on the main beam lights, but if someone flashes like that, it can be both a warning or a complaint about being dazzled, so useful or distracting. Tricky.
Highway code says you're not allowed to flash lights for anything other than making yourself known. Everything else is "too ambiguous" and I fully agree, the amount of times I've had someone flash lights at me and their message hasn't been clear enough is too high.
@@venum4k Exactly. Flashing lights as intended is meant to signal to the other drivers to show caution and any other meaning is ambiguous, which should really mean that you should show caution. Unfortunately, many people don't seem to show basic caution on the roads.
Trying to gain access in that manner is a crime - it's called assault. Punching out the window should add one of criminal damage, and if any injury was caused, assault occasioning actual bodily harm or possibly wounding.
Clip two is certainly likely to lead that guy to some time in prison if the dash cam footage is reviewed by the police. Regardless of what kicked it off it's criminal damage and possible aggrevated assault.
I agree but learners have only been allowed on motorways recently. Cant remember when the rules changed but it was roughly 7-8 years ago when I took my test. Back then my instructor would only take drivers on a motorway after theyd past their test. To this day I dont see many learners being taken onto motorways.
Not every driving test centre has a Motorway nearby, my nearest motorway is 2 hours away, but could be done on a dual carriageway if suitable slip roads are available but arguably i find DCs more dangerous
I was lucky that I learned next to a large dual carriageway, and my instructor took me on it a lot to practise onramps and lane discipline. It's much worse in the US though, my NY test was 100% on quiet residential streets.
All I know is that if someone gets out of their car and tries opening my car door I’m in fear for my life and any consequent actions will be because of that.
Before seeing that clip, I genuinely didn't consider that anyone would actually manage to break the window without obvious tools, so - when I've aggravated someone in the past, I've literally just sat inside with the doors locked and laughed until they've gone away. Now, I try not to aggravate them, but in the situation where I have I will definitely be having a think about departing the situation a bit sooner.
@@williamstrachan If a window is partially open, even by just a bit, it's fairly easy to smash it in, so if approached by a road rager, make sure the window is wound right up; you can get security window film or even just ordinary window tint film that adds strength to glass.
@@petesmitt True. Seen some clips of cops using the weakness in an open window to just shatter it while pulling without seeming to exert themselves. If the window is properly up, it's got the entire frame to take some of the strain of a beating. Not perfect, but better than nothing. As you say, some window films that act like gorilla glass can really help and would help if they DID break it by keeping the glass together better and not shattering all over you.
I've noticed since the covid lockdown driving standards have dropped massively. Everyone is in a hurry and they seem to expect other people to react to ensure their stupid actions don't cause accidents. My biggest bugbear is the panic people have when they see sirens. Rather than think 'how can I best get out the way safely', most people just freeze and block roads. The best I saw was someone effectively did an emergency stop in front of a police car on a dual carriageway. The other lane was free but instead of moving over broke so hard the police car ended up having to do an emergency stop too.
that's amateur stuff. I once saw a guy slew so he was blocking both the (us) left travel lane, and the left turn lane, forging the police car to cross into oncoming traffic to get past. that's part of the reason most US states hammer hard on "pull to the right and stop"" standard and why modern UK traffic safety videos say to pull to the left and stop. the more people behave consistently, the less bad the emergency driver's job is.
@@kenbrown2808 The problem with pulling to the left and stopping is there very often isn't a place to pull into. Go into a bus lane and you'll be up for a ticket and a fine, emergency vehicle or not. Crazy, but that's UK traffic law for you.
@@TestGearJunkie.A surprisingly large number of people also don't realise that it's not a legally valid excuse for jumping a red. And rightly so, just this week a car hit a pedestrian by doing just this 😞. Thankfully they weren't too badly hurt but it could easily have ended much worse.
@@TestGearJunkie. yes, I saw an article during my research into the inner workings of your highway code that they were considering writing an allowance fr yielding to emergency vehicles into your highway code. - basically a minor violation done safely, to facilitate an emergency vehicle, would not be punishable. and yes, if you physically can't pull over, you need to get to where you can; or in a worst case scenario, you may need to get creative - but the more randomness from the civilian traffic, the higher the stress and risk for the emergency driver. but the first question a person should ask themselves when there is an emergency vehicle behind them is "can I pull over to let them do a proper overtake?" and if there is one approaching on a two way road, the driver should also be looking to pull over to give room.
That first clip, even after all of that, It looked like the focus driver drove after the guy again... Probably absolutely crapping himself now that he isn't just outed as a road rager, But committing criminal damage on camera too.
Had one like that today. I was flashing and weaving on my bike oncoming a double wagon overtake of a learner on a long 60. I had to stop so they didn’t hit me. I wasn’t in danger due to spotting it a ‘mile off’. Ruined my fun bit 😂
Concerning the clip of the car flashing and the pedestrian crossing the road, when I was much younger and living in Scotland, I was driving up a hill one dark evening. There was a car coming the other way which had stopped and had full headlights on. Fortunately, I slowed down as I was blinded only to find that the driver had stopped beside a cow on the road and he was trying to push it back into a field. I saw them at the very last moment and avoided both.
I met JV once many years ago on a visit to the Radio 2 studios. He was fine and very polite, but I don't think he was such an avid cycling nutter as he is now.
5:58 I really still struggle with UK roundabouts. We just don't have those here, if there's a different direction for every lane there's almost always a very clear sign before the roundabout showing which lane to pick and there's almost always a hard divider in the middle of the roundabout to keep the lanes separate. I've had to do some extra circles on roundabouts in the UK before just to be able to safely get into the right lane, and I don't think I ever caused any serious hazards, but it definitely isn't easy when you don't know for sure which lane you have to be in for the direction you're going.
if the roundabout is a more complex one, there's usually a large sign before it showing the different exits and there are (usually; in some places they may have worn away) clear markings on the road showing which lane goes to which destination and where the lanes flow to.
@@lowcostfish It's definitely marked, and if you're used to those markings and know which road you need to be on it's a lot better. The last time I was in the UK was the first time I've been after I started watching Ashley and the videos where he explains the markings made things significantly easier, I now look at which A-road Waze wants me to be on and just stick to that lane. It's just a lot of information to process in a short period while other cars are also on the road you're on, so you really need to know where you're going before you get to the roundabout. I can imagine even in-country (when the road numbers don't look as alien as they do to me) it'd be difficult if you're just not from that area.
@@lowcostfish "clear markings on the road"? In my experience it's 50/50 whether they're legible or totally rubbed out by years of traffic. it would be ok if all UK roundabouts followed a common design that is logical, but you can have some where the lane layouts will be totally contrary to what you'd expect, and if the signage is poor along with rubbed out road markings its no wonder people make mistakes.
@thecentralscrutinizer1758I mean.. how many people still to this day think it's acceptable to cut across 3 lanes at the very last second to take their exit off a highway, or even move to the shoulder and back up *on a highway* to still take it if they've missed it. I'm personally of the opinion that if I miss an exit or take a wrong one I'll figure out a different route, but not everyone thinks that way
@@lowcostfish The problem with road markings , if you're in an unfamiliar area , is that preceding traffic often covers them up , so that by the time you find out , you're already in the wrong lane . Lane direction markings are just advisory , though , so it is not an offence to find yourself in the wrong lane and , unless the dividing lines are solid it isn't an offence to cross them , as long as you check around you and do so safely . Otherwise , just do another circuit ; you can go round a roundabout three times before it would be considered DWDCA .
It's always great fun when someone gestures or flashes at me to go then stares at me like I have twelve heads while I finish my observations. Saved myself from a bad situation many times.
And in that split second when you’re making sure that it actually IS safe to go, they bloody go. If I’ve taken the lead and stopped and indicated someone else can move. I’ll stop there till they do.
Re the campervan with the car in its blind spot, I used to set my driver's door mirror so I could just see the bodywork on the left, to give me some perspective. I commuted by motorway and have to admit the occasional late spots of cars in the blind spot as I started to change lane. The mirror doesn't have that curve around the right edge that some do. Then, following advice in a UA-cam video, I set the mirror further out (so I had to move my head to see my bodywork) and never had another near miss. Be interested in your view on this. It seems a simple way to make driving safer.
Guy in the second clip needs some jail time, or at least a healthy fine and an anger management course as that is probably considered assault and criminal damage. It may be the older Fiesta sparked the confrontation initially but that is absolutely NO excuse for the behaviour of that bell end. Hopefully it got sent to the police and he got dealt with.
Oh not _probably_ but definitely assault and criminal damage and probably causing an affray (if the cammer or other people in the vicinity feared for their safety). Also dangerous driving, running a red light, wilfully obstructing the highway, and sundry other offences under the Public Order Act.
My worry , given that he seemed to speed of after the other driver , was that he caught up and committed a further attack further down the road - I'd have called 999 if I'd witnessed that .
@@ianmason. Overtaking the lead vehicle at a pedestrian crossing , endangering anyone who might have been using the crossing ; and who knows what else happened if he caught up with that poor driver again ...
6:45 I did the exact same thing just the other day, driving whilst a bit tired in an unfamiliar area. The van driver reacted to the next set which were exactly where you would expect to find the repeater light. Whereas yours is actually way off to the right. Further, usually these lights have louvres on, so if you can see a green very close, you expect it to be for you.
The clip at 10:30 is from the B3349 near Alton, Hampshire. That can be quite a fast road to cross and you do have to keep your wits about you, and not hang around when you do cross. Like any flash of someone's lights, you have to take your own care & due diligence when you perform your manoeuvre. Looking right at that junction isn't so bad as it's quite a wide open bend, but traffic from the left will have less time to react.
Oh yeah, I didn't recognise it until you pointed it out but I've driven it quite a few times. A pretty dangerous junction unfortunately. But the Volvo driver clearly didn't look properly in this case, could have easily been avoided
The problem with drivers such as at 2:40 and 6:20 is that the drivers know what they are intending to do is wrong, so they try to do it as quickly as possible. That makes their actions more dangerous.
Drivers have definitely got considerably more unhinged, not to mention standards have dropped. People have become more lax since 2020/21 when they realised - thanks to lots of draconian laws and no enforcement - that the Police do not have eyes everywhere. On the contrary in fact. Unfortunately what we're seeing with road rage and the fatal 5 is people's true nature without law enforcement. There is a lack of respect for the value of having laws.
The clip at 7:00 shows how important it is for pedestrians to be visible, usually I would put most of the responsibility on the driver to look out for them, but in this case it was almost impossible. When I was a kid in the 80s we learned to wear safety reflectors, nowadays it seems like very few are wearing them, had these kids used them, there wouldn't have been a situation.
I think this only applies to urban (or urban-adjacent) areas. Out in the sticks especially over here in Ireland, you'll RARELY see people without a hi-vis on. Christ, what a scary clip
@@Xenro66 I see a lot of older, my age (45) and up wearing hi-vis and reflectors, but not as many young people. I live in a small town surrounded by rural areas, so I've seen youngsters walking by those dark roads.
I'd rather people flashed their headlights as a warning in these situations as my reaction to that is to immediately slow down even if I can't see clearly. I do a lot of night shifts and rarely see people wearing hi-vis at night, even a fair few cyclists in all dark clothing and poor or non-existent lights - one of the reasons I have a dashcam as I've had a couple of close calls with pedestrians or cyclists in the dark who've taken no responsibility for their own safety and totally invisible until you are right on them.
@Rroff2 only issue you're gonna have is, the temporarily increased light will reduce what is visible to you in the dark, for a short time, making it harder to see what they're warming you about
@@flatturdphd2066 You talk about flashing the lights, right? I agree it's not the best, and on top of what you say about blinding. It's also used for so many reasons, that the receiver can't be sure what was meant by the flashing, and so might waste time being confused about the message, rather than concentrating on driving.
Great video Ashley! In terms of cars, I would steer away from VAG cars at the moment, especially as they are all just the same car in essence. Otherwise, I would have said the Seat/Cupra Leon, but its no different to your Golf really! I would suggest a new shape A Class, but I assume you'll need a manual. So really, I would look at a Mazda 3, Mazda's are really great cars. I also think you'd like the 'infotainment' system in the Mazda! Definitely worth a look and cheeky video on one, I think!
Dealership garages are also getting worse. A small vibration on mine has resulted in changing the brakes, changing a solenoid for the turbo charger, and an engine recalibration. Guess what… it’s still there. Too much reliance on a machine that gets plugged in to give you the suggested fault codes which they then pass on to you at a monumental cost with basically a “guess” of a fix. They’re getting worse at this.
Caravan thing happened to me yesterday except it was a young lady in a mini countryman. As I was travelling positively past her in the 4th lane she then moved across. I think it was absolutely no situational awareness due to distractions as she was tailgating the car Infront of her for a while before moving out.
That camper/motorhome was left-hand drive, a lot of them are. So the driver would have a lot more difficulty seeing if anyone was attempting an overtake. There are a lot of blind spots on those things.
Ashley, the clip at 8:09 looks to be the stretch of the M4 leaving Swansea eastbound that is a 50mph average speed limit with active average speed cameras. I imagine the viewer was already driving at ~50mph so perhaps didn't want to be too much more positive, as their overtake would then break the speed limit.
I think the skill here is to accept that you either just need to be driving a bit slower, if you cant overtake in a good space of time. Its sometimes however misleading with campervans (and large vans) and how fast they go as they have a slower national speed limit but they often choose to break the speed limits.
Having to deal with a lot of average speed sections in the last year on the M20 and now the M25, I have definitely seen this situation a couple of times myself now. It doesn't help that you get people doing two different versions of what they think is the same speed. Those that go by their speedo, which may be under-reading and so they are actually going maybe 47mph, and then there are those that have cars that can have speed set by GPS, or they have GPS speed visible so use that as a guide instead, meaning you end up with two different speeds of cars both thinking they are going 50. It leads to some slow overtakes, that could have someone sat in someone's blind spot for slightly too long.
There are indeed 50mph limit signs on the lamp posts. But whatever the limit, try to be aware of others blind spots & do not stay in them for any longer than necessary. If you do not want to drive fast enough to get back into view as quickly as possible, reducing speed is an acceptable option.
This is why speed cameras on motorways and dual carriageways are, in my opinion, dangerous. They cause these sort of incidents all the time, with vehicles barely overtaking others, with cars sitting in the wrong lane, etc. From a relaxed drive, going into a speed camera section makes everything a lot more stressful.
It's truly amazing how many people are confused by roundabouts. Just the other day I saw a clip of some minibus that did a U-turn at a junction to a roundabout rather than just using the roundabout. Saves 10 seconds, earns points.
Got my Viofo A129 Plus Duo installed the other day, which was good because on the drive home yesterday I saw two awful bits of driving and some kids throwing stuff at cars from an overhead bridge. Thanks Ash!
I've heard, anecdotally, that the "kids throwing things off bridges" thing is making a bit of a comeback. There seems to be a bit of a fresh epidemic of it at the moment.
@@ianmason. They scored a hit on the car in front of me which left a whole bunch of debris on the road. It appeared to only be cake but not something you want hitting your windscreen at 60+.
The clip with the campervan, that section of the M4 is under average speed cameras set at 50mph - so I'm not surprised the driver with the camera was only slightly faster than the campervan - I sometimes find those average speed check zones actually make some stretches of road more dangerous as the relative speeds of the lanes are often very close, so drivers can find themselves sitting in blind spots for miles (unless of course they have the sense to ease off and drop back slightly!)
Fitting a very loud horn if not already fitted can be helpful in those situations but of course, it doesn't make solid matter disappear, so braking is also still necessary. Was the camper one of those left-hookers?
I guess that could also be a reflection of their pessimistic view of where they think the bar is for 'average', as much as it is a reflection of what they think their actual abilities are like.
8:58 - the white van sped up when it was being overtaken. He was a decent distance from the learner that's why the lorry overtook him first and then the learner. There's no other way to do it. Also, the van driver definitely got pissed off with what the lorry did as he overtook the learner as well, but only AFTER the lorry did it first.
7:05 Any oncoming driver flashing at me, I reduce speed a in a steady manner and increase observation for a mile or so. Could be anything unusual ahead. Police speed trap, cow in the road accident, fallen tree etc.
I do the same but the problem at night is that it might also mean your main beams are on and that split second it takes to think and check (even if you're sure they're not) can have you on the obstruction, which may have been what happened there. The problem was, the obstruction was so close to the flasher.
@@PedroConejo1939 In the US, if you have left your high (undipped) beams on, we will flash a steady 2 second single light, otherwise that kind of flash indicates caution ahead (or the reason OP stated).
Don't let other people try to dictate when and where you go on the road. I had a cyclist yesterday I had followed for a while because there was nowhere safe to overtake, he seemed to be getting frustrated by me not overtaking and waved me past on a stretch where he could see the road ahead, but I couldn't so I stayed back until I could confirm the road was clear. At some roadworks a little way on he pulled up beside me at the red light and was shouting about how I was ignorant when he was trying to keep traffic flowing, a funny mix of the road rage clip and the flashing light clip. It's my life and I'll decide when there's minimum risk to it not some impatient cyclist.
I can't imagine what it's like to deal with impatience from the perspective of a driving instructor. My daughter's had 7 lessons so far, so we've been doing some supervised practice in my 2002 Focus, which due to its age has a minor problem with throttle response when setting off from stationary. Hence, she kept stalling it at a set of traffic lights. What do the cars behind do? Beep the horn repeatedly. Which at best achieves nothing at all - luckily my daughter's not bothered by it - or at worst, would make the learner driver panic. Beeping a horn does not magically improve a nearby driver's clutch control. Why are people such idiots?
Started with a real psycho moment and still cannot get how drivers get like this and are prepared to commit assaults openly in public as if the red mist switches all logic off. I also I agree it is getting worse on the roads but cannot get where it is coming from. Maybe impatience and people scoring others driving constantly getting wound up. Had it this only yesterday. Came to a roundabout left lane straight on, a woman in front on a bike, a busy little roundabout she looked slow and cautious stayed behind with a reasonable distance so as not to intimidate her so we went around really slow someone wanting to come on from my left began to come out at me across the line like he was forcing me to speed up despite there was nobody behind me? Maybe I was overcautious but she got across a busy roundabout safe and I managed to get past her quickly after and I got home 10-15 seconds later that day! Those cutting through a red light at roadworks were a perfect example of this.
Try to remember it's a collision, not an accident - when poor driving leads to conflict it's usually someone's fault, and not something that couldn't be foreseen.
Bit surprised you didn't catch your viewer's speed in the punchy video, much as it did give us the opportunity to see some top quality psychopathy. Accelerating to 50 past a 30 sign 🤔 tbh, if you're seeing an altercation evolving, might be worth holding further back, in case the Fiesta driver (in this case) is more positive about their escape and reverses too fast...
Another great video 👍 someone needs to make a compilation of your wise quotes, todays one: "Driving is a form of transportation, not competition." Keep safe Ashley
Quality driving instructors always have the best quotes and sayings. Even simple ones for when you're learning are worth keeping in mind like "scan and plan", "creep and peep", etc, as it's easy to get so comfortable driving that you become complacent and forget the basics. A lot of fails seen on this channel wouldn't have happened if people kept just those two simple phrases in mind.
8:07 I strongly suspect the cammer intended a quick, positive overtake- but only then realised it's a 50mph limit. They should have 'admitted their mistake' at that point and gone back to lane 1. Overtake decisions should be based on relative speed (& overall limit)- not the type of vehicle you intend to overtake.
As a professional driver i have definitely noticed that people are way more aggressive on the roads and the driving standards have dropped very noticeably over the last few years. For me i dont know why but it seems to be since covid and lockdowns ended. I dont remember it being as bad before then.
Agreed. Professional driver as well. I live in an area where most of the driving is fine, even after the lockdowns. But there HAS been an increase of poor and bad driving.
Main character syndrome, I think. Lockdowns made some gain an “every man for himself” mentality. It’s not just driving: I’ve seen complaints about people not saying “please” and “thank you” to strangers or “Excuse me” when they pass people in the street
At 2:00 It must be something about the A24 at Horsham. A couple of years ago I was going the other way at about a mile further south (the clip is heading north) when somebody pulled out in front of me and I had to brake sharply. They had a sticker on the back of their car saying "speed kills". I was reminded of the words of an instructor who said that it is not speed that is the danger but inappropriate speed.
So the flash from the oncoming at night was clearly a warning of a hazard, and hazard they clearly were! When I see a flash like this I slow and look out for a hazard, probably would expect a large animal in the road or stationary vehicle.
I was exiting a roundabout on the outside lane of 2 lanes, so the outside lane you can go right and carry on round the roundabout or go straight on, left lane, straight on only. A driver in the left lane, who was right next to me but back a little, cut my tail off as they intended to go right onto the roundabout and decided to slam his anchors on and scream out the car as if it was my fault. You're right people don't seem to understand roundabouts!
Impatience combined with busier roads designed in the 60's and 70's leads to so many incidents, the amount of people doing crazy overtakes of my HGV amazes me... just how people are willing to joust their life against an oncoming HGV just to get a few minutes from their journey.
In incident I had in central London that pushes me closer to getting a dashcam of my own occurred on Monday. My light went green to cross Oxford street from Hanover square. As I proceeded I saw that I would come into conflict with a large group of youths on bikes riding down Oxford street having gone through the red light. I decided that stopping was the safer option, but foolishly did a “what are playing at shrug” having caught one’s eye which led to him leaning on my bonnet for a few seconds. By this time the lights had changed and I was caught in the middle of a yellow box with a bus approaching from my left and pedestrians now crossing with the green man in front. Very frustrating! I hope there’s not a fine coming in the post.
Hi Ashley. You keep saying that driving standards are poor and you are right, but IMO this has a lot to do with driving instuctors just teaching pupils to pass a 25 minute test and little to nothing to do with teaching actual driving skills. I have had two daughters that have both passed tests in the last couple of years, one’s driving skills can only be described as poor and with 4 minor fender benders in her first year of driving the facts would appear to back my description. The other’s driving is mildly terrifying and i spend all the time she is out worrying that I will be getting THAT knock on the door. I feel that insurance backed dash cams and black boxes should become mandatory with insurance companies cancelling and refusing insurance based on evidence gathered from these devices not just on accident history.
Agree completely and why do they teach people to pull across on coming traffic to park the wrong way complete madness...... And then people pull out and expect you to give way.
Is it that the standard of what people are being taught is coming down, or the attitude of many drivers that they are the best in the world is increasing? I've known many new drivers that thought they were a Prost or a Schumacher, when they were actually closer to Maureen from Driving School... Then we also have the relatively easy method of acquiring cars that learners of old wouldn't have had a hope in hell of being in unless as a passenger...or having nicked it.
I passed my test many years ago my first instructor was an ex-tank driver in the war. He sometimes used to have targets and a pistol in the back (air-pistol I assume it was a long time ago). I remember one day before we set off him giving me a lecture on being in this metal box that could kill so he got the gun out and pointed it in my direction to reminded me the car could kill just as easily as the gun and you and have to be responsible. That was real old school instruction. I was 17 at the time and to be honest not ready for it so failed (not his fault).
One of the main failings is that I see a lot of young drivers , and a few not-so-young , and including driving school cars , who now adopt the practice of trafficking right when approaching a roundabout to go straight ahead , then giving the breakaway signal after passing the penultimate exit . That is quite simply wrong and someone so doing will fail a test . If I am behind someone who is trafficating right , I may start to pass on the left , and if they then 'change their mind' I will leave them in no doubt that I am there , although I won't let them hit me . If approaching from the opposite direction where someone tells me they are turning right and I have to stop needlessly to let them pass in front of me ; I will get their attention with the horn and give a 'what are you doing' gesture ( upturned hands , shrug of the shoulders ) , but most are just oblivious .
In Portugal and many other countries, if you exit a roundabout on the second lane, going straight across, it is illegal to take the left lane. The left lane is to be left alone for traffic coming from the left. It's a brilliant rule and keeps traffic flowing.
06:02 do a right turn from the left lane on a roundabout is something that has increased in Norfolk. The left lane is marked to go left, ahead or right and my wife, my sister-in-law they absolutely hate it. We now have the NDR on the outside of Norwich and there's plenty like that. What really annoys me is when a driver comes from the 3rd lane across the middle lane and exit cutting across two lanes because they just don't know how to change lanes and get ready to exit. There’s such a roundabout here where I live and there’s often accidents because of it. There was one today, again.
There was a similar incident to that second clip where I am. Even if the guy had no points on his licence, it probably would have been suspended or even cancelled from all of his actions within a 3 minute time span.
Yes, both drivers AND pedestrians ARE getting worse. Yesterday, going slowly round a mini-roundabout, a woman in a large SUV-type vehicle shouted "eff off" after she'd absolutely NOT looked before emerging from a Give Way - all because I DARED to blow the horn at her to warn her of my presence. Pedestrians - just crossing the road "on a diagonal", exposing themselves for longer to danger, within 10 metres of a pedestrian crossing, which was RED for them, GREEN for me. Again, got foul abuse because I DARED to use the horn to warn them of my presence. (I believe the latest changes to the Highway Code seem to have given pedestrians the "Green Light" to cross on crossings irrespective of whether they have a red or green light, and think "It's ok, I can cross ANYWHERE at ANYTIME" the cars have to avoid me. As Mr. T. would have said "Dang Fools" !!! Oh, and that guy that attacked the Fiesta driver should have been reported and taken to court. He has NO business being on the road, his behaviour was bordering on psychotic.
I can agree about poor driving from slipways, something I've been tearing my hair out at the past 2 weeks as I've been travelling to view houses going into areas unknown to me. People doing 30mpg, 40mph or 50mph, heading onto a national speed limit motorway. I'm stuck behind them having to keep a safe distance for my integration manoeuvrer but it just causes so much unneeded danger going so slow unless warranted by heavy traffic, but all these recent issues have been off-peak or at the weekend.
I was wondering that too. When I first bought a dash camera - 2012(ish) people would laugh when they found out, now people don't. I bought a dash camera after nearly getting caught out for a crash for cash in Bradford. Incidentally in one of the areas that ASKMid had marked as one of the top 10 insurance blackspots.
Its also quite possible that drivers are well aware of others in their blind spots but fed up with them not making progress baulking them from changing lanes.
I’ll never understand someone’s that goes out there way to physically threaten another driver and then break there window. Okey the Ford probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place but it doesn’t seem to take much to wind people up on the road now or days. Nice to see a lot of viewers doing the correct thing in situations though 😃👍. As always ash great video and have a great weekend 😃👍.
Thing is, they're probably perfectly friendly and reasonable people when they're not in a car. For many individuals, there's something about having a steering wheel in front of them that makes them the angriest human beings alive.
@@bestintheworld568 yeah, this. It's fucking weird. They would be perfectly innocuous people walking around and whatever, but inside a car... it's really weird.
@@bestintheworld568I don't know, I think you get to see what people are really like when driving, I suspect it doesn't take much for this guy to fly off the handle when he's not driving.
Hi Ashley, my answer to your first question is no!, given the enormous increase in road traffic and the delays people are having to deal with combined with the amount of time I spend driving around I am sure I used to witness a larger number of road rage incidents years ago as a percentage of total road use. In part this is because in many locations road layouts and traffic management has been vastly improved while those specific bottlenecks where problems arise are still just as bad as they ever were they are fewer and further apart. These incidents are still exactly the same type of behaviour that is embedded in some demographics, sub-cultures where aggressive violent behaviour is the established traditional 'norm', these isolated cells of cultural aberration cross all demographic and socoi-economic boundaries but can usually be identified as some form of ghetto and less common in relatively wealthy communities, there appears to be a correlation between economic and spiritual poverty. One other significant factor has to be the almost total absence of police street patrols, when I started driving the chances of not getting stopped if I broke a road rule were much lower than they are now, bad behaviour is better regulated on the spot at the time than at some later date in an anonymous law court. Cheers, Richard.
Right turning in a left hand only lane (with specific markings). They recently added this to eliminate confusion on a roundabout near me….good idea. Was waiting to see how long before I saw someone turn right from the left only lane….saw someone ahead of me do it Friday evening.
With the clip with the campervan, it looks like it's just outside of Swansea, it's a section covered by 50 limit average speed cameras. Overtakes do tend to be slower if someone is going 5 miles an hour under the speed limit. I would be interested to hear Ashley's thoughts on the best way to navigate that scenario.
think of it this way. Let's say that 50mph secion is 1 mile long. If we drive at an average of 50mph through the whole section it will take 72 seconds. If we drive through the whole section at 45 it will take 80 seconds. So even if you stayed behind a vehicle doing 45 in a 50 for a whole mile you're still only losing 8 seconds! So just stay back or go back to school and learn maths again
I thought the same as well - the speed limit being the reason for the low speed differential when overtaking. I would probably have held back in that exact scenario given that a low speed differential means there was always little advantage to the overtake, but also importantly the campervan was already too close to the vehicle in front and was always likely to pull out.
As it is an average you can have a small burst of speed above the limit as long as it is cancelled out by being below the limit, and if you have been stuck behind someone doing 45 in a 50, that is the case. I imagine Ashley's response will be that it doesn't matter if you overtake or not, as long as you are in the correct lane for your action and are safe.
I would have thought that if the speed differential is so low as to make overtaking awkward then it's probably not worth overtaking. I see this all the time in London where cars overtake a cyclist then sit right in front of them because of traffic or the 20mph speed limit. Everyone catches up at the next light making the overtake pointless.
Interestingly, the HC in 1977 when I passed my test said it was a perfectly valid choice to go all the way round a roundabout in the nearside lane. Admittedly few or no roundabouts had spiral lane markings then. I *have* noticed that the rules have changed in the intervening half-century!
The Campervan clip is in the 50 mph average speed camera zone in Port Talbot on the M4, so it's quite common to see passing based on who know the error in their Speedo and who doesn't!
Emerging onto carriageways is an interesting one. Firstly, the clip from the irate woman does not show her speed but what it does show is that they kept closing the gap rather than lifting off. The poor driving is not constrained to the driver trying to join and is in my view compounded by the cammer. I am surprised that you made no comment on that aspect Ashley.
You do understand that the person entering the carriageway is the one who has to make the necessary corrections to ensure they do so safely, right? If you're already on the carriageway you have priority, you are expected to maintain a steady and legal speed but that's it. I see it all too often where people hesitantly emerge onto a 70mph road at 30 while refusing to stop before merging or speed up making it the problem of the person in lane 1 to avoid them.
the gap was only closing because both cars were braking, it didn't seem intentional. I've seen it happen myself, and for that reason I usually accelerate into gaps. If the car over my shoulder does the same by fluke I can then brake to fit in behind them. Unless you have a very fast car it's easier and safer to do it that way round rather than braking down almost to a stop and accelerating again.
I'm the cammer here, not the irate person in the passenger seat. I was doing just under the limit. I had already seen this car that was going to join several seconds before the clip in the video starts, I felt there was no reason for me to need to slow down at that point and I continued to leave plenty of space for the Fiesta. I did not anticipate the Fiesta applying their brakes so early and then keep riding on them, needlessly, all the way to the end of the slip road when they clearly had space to move across, especially as I also had flashed at them several times to signal I was letting them join. During this whole “event” I was also aware that there were vehicles in the right hand lane that would soon overtake, so I made the choice to stay in the lane to not needlessly hinder those overtaking. I did question for a while who was at "fault" here, and while I accept I was lighter on the brakes than I could have been, I feel I gave them every opportunity and signal and plenty of time to join the dual carriageway seamlessly. Perhaps some will disagree with me, I’m happy to learn what I could have done better. Luckily there was nothing anywhere nearby behind me in the lane, so I had the luxury of being able to slow down as much as I needed to in order to allow them to join. It’s interesting to read other’s points of view on this and appreciate the different perspectives to help learn and improve as a driver. Perhaps I could have just abused the power of the 335d and just shot passed them, but then at that point while I was already seeing so much hesitation they may have just pulled across right in front. Crash for cash? Who knows :D
7:04 This is really scary. Pedestrians had absolutely no reflection clothing. Crossings the road whilst obviously they could see headlights coming from both directions. This could have easily been fatal.
5:53 , the roundabout could be better marked . The advance direction sign does indicate that the A1(M) was the same road as the one they were on , so arguably straight ahead , even if it is further round the roundabout . Also all three lanes are marked for straight ahead ; so someone unfamiliar with the area can be forgiven for getting it wrong . Also do remember , lane markings are only advisory , not mandatory , and overtaking through a roundabout is ill advised : if someone enters ahead of you , even in another lane , it is wise to remain behind them to avoid potential conflicts ; overtaking through roundabouts is one of the main causes of crashes .
Its worth keeping in the back of your mind that a lot of those wide-body campervans are left hand drive. The mirrors on them are normally pretty poor, just flat glass not a convex mirror that gives a wider angle.
The clip at 8:06 is on the M4 East bound at Port Talbot. It’s a “clean air” 50 average speed check zone. It’s notoriously hard to make positive overtakes as drivers’ speeds fluctuate often. You’ll start overtaking a driver who’s doing 45mph who will then speed up to do 50.
8:13 best thing my motorbike instructor told me was, if youre doing 70 and still cant get the over take done, speed up, get out of danger. i actually did 80mph on my test and still passed so it was drffo acceptable in 2008. (to be fair, id been driving lorries and coaches since 2002 before that so the rest of the test was spot on)
Last clip advice: You are the captain aboard your own ship.. or car. Nobody else but you decides when it is safe to go anywhere. Check and check again people. As for the lorry overtaking... that guy needs his licence revoked. Even if a learner is slow these roads aren't fit for lorry overtaking. Honestly.. hardly any 2-lane bidirectional roads are. Have to be patient. It is what it is.
Dear Asley, I have never been an enthust for VAG group cars.I had a Golf Mark One A[with the slightly larger rear lights], and without any question it not just the most unreliable and expensive car to run I ever had. The next car was an EX BT Maestro van with the tiny 1275 engine. Not only was it one per cent reliable over Sven years, but more economical that the VW which had a 1600 diesel. I thought that might be a one off and got a 1900 non-turbo diesel Skoda Fabia. Just as rubbish as the Golf. And hugely expensive to maintain and all too frequently repair. The Fabia was replaced with a Toyota Aygo, which was excellent in every way till rust caused its demise. Just a thought. Best wishes from George
"People's inability to merge onto a faster carriageway is also getting worse..." You are not wrong there, my friend. A junction local to me (A383/A38) causes me nightmares. It's a short merge to be sure, but almost every time I am joining the A38 there you can guarantee that there will be someone in front completely failing to match speed or select an appropriate vehicle to merge behind.
People seriously need to calm down their road rage, some people shouldn't be on the roads if they can't control themselves. My partner is new to UK driving (he's from the US), he was doing some lessons recently and during one lesson he accidently cut someone off. He was in a driving school car, apologised instantly but the person he did cut off got out of their car at the lights like this bloke in the video did and was shouting all sorts at him. There's just no need for it, accidents happen, apologise and get on with your day. His instructor told him what he did wasn't even that bad just a minor whoopsy. They ended up cutting the lesson there because he was so shaken up
In the States , and South Africa , people get shot over such minor altercations . Some states certainly used to have an offence of 'vehicular assault with a deadly weapon' to deal with some aspects of bad driving .
Life on the road and how people react is a direct reflection of how insecure and helpless people find themselves in today's living. if you make good with your life, have a good wife/relationship, basically happy with your self as a person, then what happens on the road is so low on the list or even does not make it on any list that you just don't react like the young person at the start.
I've had it driving on a slip road (or other circumstances) where I've adjusted my speed to slot in behind a car, only for them to slow down to allow me to go in ahead of them 😂
Just ordered a front and rear viofo dash cam after viewing your channel, Ashley. I see some surprising driving on my daily 80 mile commute. I use a go pro when I ride my motorbike, yet I don't have one in the car. Till now !
With regards to the slowing up driver emerging on the slip road, I can see what the cammer was trying to do but sometimes you can be too nice. As a general rule if I see someone slowing down at the same rate as me on a slip road then I will speed up and continue as the slower we go on the main carriageway the risk increases. No excuses from the brown / orange mixed colour car and before anyone comments, I have done the same as the cammer is the past
add a short blast of the horn as well to let them know you are there and will continue past them. it's safer for all as you're less likely to get rammed from behind and you're getting out of their way...
I'm the cammer here. I was doing just under the limit. I had already seen this car that was going to join several seconds before the clip in the video starts, I felt there was no reason for me to need to slow down at that point and I continued to leave plenty of space for the Fiesta. I did not anticipate the Fiesta applying their brakes so early and then keep riding on them, needlessly, all the way to the end of the slip road when they clearly had space to move across, especially as I also had flashed at them several times to signal I was letting them join. During this whole “event” I was also aware that there were vehicles in the right hand lane that would soon overtake, so I made the choice to stay in the lane to not needlessly hinder those overtaking. I did question for a while who was at "fault" here, and while I accept I was lighter on the brakes than I could have been, I feel I gave them every opportunity and signal and plenty of time to join the dual carriageway seamlessly. Perhaps some will disagree with me, I’m happy to learn what I could have done better. Luckily there was nothing anywhere nearby behind me in the lane, so I had the luxury of being able to slow down as much as I needed to in order to allow them to join. It’s interesting to read other’s points of view on this and appreciate the different perspectives to help learn and improve as a driver. Perhaps I could have just abused the power of the 335d and just shot passed them, but then at that point while I was already seeing so much hesitation they may have just pulled across right in front. Crash for cash? Who knows :D
@@UnknownUser-bt4gk Appreciate the update and we have all been there 👍 Sounds like one of those where you was fully aware of your surroundings and able to manage the risk suitably. I have recently sent Ashley one where I moved over for vehicles merging from a short slip road but there was some confusion with a learner that stayed in lane 1. Similar to you, I was aware of vehicles behind and was able to manage the risk but hindsight and review of the footage said to me to carry on and remove myself from the situation. Every situation is different though and each one needs to be assessed upon its own merits but as Ashley once told me, make sure whatever you do is safe is the risk is kept as low as it can be 👍 Take care out there
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Hi Ashley. If you want to take a look at the most serious case of road rage i've ever seen in the UK, take a look at "Grand theft auto Bridgend". It's a miracle somebody wasn't killed in this prolonged incident. Thankfully the culprit was arrested eventually.
Go for a Volvo V40 D4 or T4. Got about the same power as the GTI
Shame that the first reg I type in is apparently not valid, tried it with and without the space.
7:39 is my clip, and you're right I did soil myself there. What it doesn't show is me stopping a little touch further in a safe place until the adrenaline subsided.
I was in the car with my wife who was pregnant at the time, and it shook me up. I actually did send the footage to Northumbria police and they issued the van driver an FPN.
Great video as always, Ash!
Glad you both came out unscathed, if a little shaken!!
Think I'd be a little scared too😅 I would have taken a few minutes to get my heart back 😂
Both your actions are spot on - pulling over to regain composure and reporting it.
This exact kind of experience was the final trigger for me getting a dash cam. My van driver was filming the scenery with his mobile!
Well done for recognising the need to pull over and regain composure. Something that is often overlooked in these situations
Glad to hear all three of you are OK (I am going to assume single baby pregnancy, apologies if incorrect)
If Ashley drops the dashcam promo after your video, you know you’re being roasted 😢
That’ll be the next base blend if I’m not mistaken ☕️
I hope mr. road rage gets prosecution for smashing the fiesta window, no excuse for that . Going that far in blocking him in too.
That's Torquay, down near me, not a good reputation for people unfortunately.
Punched the window in one go😅😂
What would be the legal position, if frightened for your life, you ran over the guy to escepe?
@@amazer747 As long as you didn’t reverse over him afterwards, I’m sure it’ll be ok
@@amazer747 involuntary manslaughter
I'm not sure the road rage incidents are getting worse, there have always been plenty of nutters out there. There just so many more cameras to capture them.
Alexa tells me fifteen percent of the population regularly use illicit drugs. Drive as if all around you are druggies, drug dealers on urgent deliveries, blind, blind drunk, homicidal maniacs, nutters who hate everyone. Many driving cars they can’t afford and have to get ahead to show they’re better than you. Leave more braking distance (but some one will fill the space).
True.
That's what I thought when he said that. This type of stuff was probably happening 10/20/30 years ago but you just wouldn't see it unless you were actually there in person
That is the reason I never want to get into an argument with anyone because you never know what crazy nutter is in the other car.
It's similar to the widely held perception that violent crimes are worse now than ever before. The statistics don't bear this out, but our easy access to global news skews our perception of how frequent these events are. Add to that, the global population has gone from 3 billion to over 8 billion in my lifetime (50yrs) and the number of people living in cities is a far greater percentage than ever before. So there ARE more such events, just the number per head of population is - thankfully - lower.
Not condoning it but to punch through that window takes some serious force. A ban from driving is needed for people who can't control their anger, even if a fault happens.
It’s Torquay, he’s probably got super-strength from the cocktail of drugs in his system 😂🤣
Criminals use a very small stone in corner of glass,thrown at full pelt glass breaks very easy
It looks like a lucky shot more than anything. Maybe a weakened window or just hitting the right spot. Or maybe he had something equipped.
I knocked on a window once and it shattered. Total freak accident.
Being Torquay the rager probably made contact with his Elizabeth Duke sovereign ring.
He was a big guy with a bit of weight behind him. I wouldn’t want to be hit like that !
@1:31 Correction Ashley, that guy needs some serious jail time!
Needs a dirt nap.
Prison time and mandatory anger management training.
conceal carry could have prevented that
@@DonariPrevented any damage to the guy's knuckles by allowing him to shoot the window? Mmm yes good point.
So the lorry driver at 9:00 was like "well my first overtake went so well, I must do it a second time". Unreal.
I don't care what people say, if someone flashes me I still look all around to make sure things are clear, I don't just pull out
That first clip is shocking, would really like to know what happened beforehand for that driver to do that
Totally agree with what you said, things are getting worse but when there is a lack of police these incidents will keep rising
Indeed, the vehicle that flashes is only indicating for themselves, not anyone else.
It says I'm the Highway Code that you shouldn't flash your lights.
A funny thing happened in my driving test, I was waiting to turn right and a driver approaching from the opposite direction stopped and flashed me. I didn't move, he kept flashing and the examiner kind of cleared his throat and suggested I go. I said to him after I thought someone flashing wasn't a safe indiction to go. I think he said it was down to individual judgement. Maybe I could have got a black mark for hesitancy. This was back in 1992.
i will not flash and let someone else out if there is someone else around that might think its for them, or might cause a situation like in the clip. if they are the only car and it'll help traffic then sure i'll let someone out, but if not i'll just keep going, in my opinion just safer that way
@@jondrummer1989 I agree on that one. Nobody else coming the other way? I'll slow, stop, maybe give them a flash out. Someone coming the other way and they won't make it? I'll keep going for traffic flow. No point me stopping of others don't. Just holds everyone up.
That thing about people merging onto dual carriageways poorly. There's actually a pretty good reason for it, and it's down to insurance black boxes. At least that's what I assume is the case for a majority of people who join dual carriageways and motorways at 30mph. If you accelerate up to appropriate speed on the slip road, you'll get a poor rating and your insurance prices will increase. They only give you good ratings if you accelerate once you're actually on the dual carriageway/motorway. This has been a known issue with blackboxes for years and insurance companies aren't doing anything to fix it.
Just want to say I love these compilations in a large part because they remind me of the old Police Stop VHS tapes I had a kid. Calm commentary letting the action do the talking unless there’s something to be learned.
The fact that the guy punched out the window leads me to the conclusion that trying to tip-toe out of such a situation is not sufficiently safe.
Clearly, if one ever finds oneself under duress in such a situation, one should be much more positive in escaping it.
Absolutely. Most people are inherently cautious and reasonable, though. It's sometimes hard to override this.
I would have just ran him over if he didn't move, the guy is clearly a threat to my well-being.
I would have ran the C over
That punch was frustration and I'm surprised it smashed tbh. The guy looks like a limp wristed gobshite and it could have been solved by simply waiting him out.
Exactly, if someone’s trying to break into my car I’m getting out of there and if the idiot goes under my car fine, I’ll chat about it in the safety of the police station.
You've got to wonder if the Golf at 5:33 had been nicked or involved in some other sort of criminal activity. Either way that driving is absolutely lethal.
That is not normal driving, it was being driven like it had been stolen, or had just done a robbery, quite why it was on the hard shoulder ? there seemed like plenty of lane space was available.
No that was just me getting to McDonalds before they stop serving breakfast.
@matt821 Golf County drug line gangs had a porch do this on the M40.
As I was watching clip 2, I thought to myself that trying to open a car door to gain offensive access to anyone inside the vehicle should be considered a crime (not sure if it is or isn't) but punching out the window most certainly is. I hope that bloke was reported and dealt with accordingly. Personally, I would likely have been dialling 999 at the point he was attempting to gain access to the car having TPACed it. It may have been that the person in the Fiesta had kidnapped a child (to add some balance) but either way, plod needs to be dealing with that, firmly.
I have no idea what you were referring to with the police car on the roundabout and the radio, cough. 😆
There's a fair few of those that could/should have gone to the police - and may well have done. As for the pedestrians crossing the road in the dark, the cammer was late on the main beam lights, but if someone flashes like that, it can be both a warning or a complaint about being dazzled, so useful or distracting. Tricky.
Flashing lights in town can even be a unintended result of going over a speed bump, so you definitely need to take them with a pinch of salt!
Highway code says you're not allowed to flash lights for anything other than making yourself known. Everything else is "too ambiguous" and I fully agree, the amount of times I've had someone flash lights at me and their message hasn't been clear enough is too high.
@@venum4k Exactly. Flashing lights as intended is meant to signal to the other drivers to show caution and any other meaning is ambiguous, which should really mean that you should show caution. Unfortunately, many people don't seem to show basic caution on the roads.
Trying to gain access in that manner is a crime - it's called assault. Punching out the window should add one of criminal damage, and if any injury was caused, assault occasioning actual bodily harm or possibly wounding.
Clip two is certainly likely to lead that guy to some time in prison if the dash cam footage is reviewed by the police. Regardless of what kicked it off it's criminal damage and possible aggrevated assault.
I find it amazing that motorway merging still isnt a vital part of passing your test.
I agree but learners have only been allowed on motorways recently. Cant remember when the rules changed but it was roughly 7-8 years ago when I took my test. Back then my instructor would only take drivers on a motorway after theyd past their test. To this day I dont see many learners being taken onto motorways.
Let’s be honest, drivers often fail at a lot of the things that are on the test.
Not every driving test centre has a Motorway nearby, my nearest motorway is 2 hours away, but could be done on a dual carriageway if suitable slip roads are available but arguably i find DCs more dangerous
That would be a problem for us. Nearest Motorway about 150 miles away!
I was lucky that I learned next to a large dual carriageway, and my instructor took me on it a lot to practise onramps and lane discipline. It's much worse in the US though, my NY test was 100% on quiet residential streets.
All I know is that if someone gets out of their car and tries opening my car door I’m in fear for my life and any consequent actions will be because of that.
Before seeing that clip, I genuinely didn't consider that anyone would actually manage to break the window without obvious tools, so - when I've aggravated someone in the past, I've literally just sat inside with the doors locked and laughed until they've gone away. Now, I try not to aggravate them, but in the situation where I have I will definitely be having a think about departing the situation a bit sooner.
@@williamstrachanlaughing may make worse lol
@@williamstrachan If a window is partially open, even by just a bit, it's fairly easy to smash it in, so if approached by a road rager, make sure the window is wound right up; you can get security window film or even just ordinary window tint film that adds strength to glass.
@@petesmitt True. Seen some clips of cops using the weakness in an open window to just shatter it while pulling without seeming to exert themselves. If the window is properly up, it's got the entire frame to take some of the strain of a beating. Not perfect, but better than nothing. As you say, some window films that act like gorilla glass can really help and would help if they DID break it by keeping the glass together better and not shattering all over you.
I've noticed since the covid lockdown driving standards have dropped massively. Everyone is in a hurry and they seem to expect other people to react to ensure their stupid actions don't cause accidents.
My biggest bugbear is the panic people have when they see sirens. Rather than think 'how can I best get out the way safely', most people just freeze and block roads. The best I saw was someone effectively did an emergency stop in front of a police car on a dual carriageway. The other lane was free but instead of moving over broke so hard the police car ended up having to do an emergency stop too.
that's amateur stuff. I once saw a guy slew so he was blocking both the (us) left travel lane, and the left turn lane, forging the police car to cross into oncoming traffic to get past. that's part of the reason most US states hammer hard on "pull to the right and stop"" standard and why modern UK traffic safety videos say to pull to the left and stop. the more people behave consistently, the less bad the emergency driver's job is.
@@kenbrown2808 The problem with pulling to the left and stopping is there very often isn't a place to pull into. Go into a bus lane and you'll be up for a ticket and a fine, emergency vehicle or not. Crazy, but that's UK traffic law for you.
@@TestGearJunkie.A surprisingly large number of people also don't realise that it's not a legally valid excuse for jumping a red. And rightly so, just this week a car hit a pedestrian by doing just this 😞. Thankfully they weren't too badly hurt but it could easily have ended much worse.
@@TestGearJunkie. yes, I saw an article during my research into the inner workings of your highway code that they were considering writing an allowance fr yielding to emergency vehicles into your highway code. - basically a minor violation done safely, to facilitate an emergency vehicle, would not be punishable. and yes, if you physically can't pull over, you need to get to where you can; or in a worst case scenario, you may need to get creative - but the more randomness from the civilian traffic, the higher the stress and risk for the emergency driver. but the first question a person should ask themselves when there is an emergency vehicle behind them is "can I pull over to let them do a proper overtake?" and if there is one approaching on a two way road, the driver should also be looking to pull over to give room.
A friend of mine was thanked by police once for pulling out of their way on a motorway, even though he had to exceed the speed limit to do so.
That first clip, even after all of that, It looked like the focus driver drove after the guy again... Probably absolutely crapping himself now that he isn't just outed as a road rager, But committing criminal damage on camera too.
The lorry overtake is the stuff of some of my nightmares. I ride a motorcycle regularly.
Had one like that today. I was flashing and weaving on my bike oncoming a double wagon overtake of a learner on a long 60.
I had to stop so they didn’t hit me.
I wasn’t in danger due to spotting it a ‘mile off’.
Ruined my fun bit 😂
Concerning the clip of the car flashing and the pedestrian crossing the road, when I was much younger and living in Scotland, I was driving up a hill one dark evening. There was a car coming the other way which had stopped and had full headlights on. Fortunately, I slowed down as I was blinded only to find that the driver had stopped beside a cow on the road and he was trying to push it back into a field. I saw them at the very last moment and avoided both.
2:26 I know what you mean Ashley, your viewer is listen to the wrong radio station 😂
I met JV once many years ago on a visit to the Radio 2 studios. He was fine and very polite, but I don't think he was such an avid cycling nutter as he is now.
Radio Peugeot!
5:58 I really still struggle with UK roundabouts. We just don't have those here, if there's a different direction for every lane there's almost always a very clear sign before the roundabout showing which lane to pick and there's almost always a hard divider in the middle of the roundabout to keep the lanes separate.
I've had to do some extra circles on roundabouts in the UK before just to be able to safely get into the right lane, and I don't think I ever caused any serious hazards, but it definitely isn't easy when you don't know for sure which lane you have to be in for the direction you're going.
if the roundabout is a more complex one, there's usually a large sign before it showing the different exits and there are (usually; in some places they may have worn away) clear markings on the road showing which lane goes to which destination and where the lanes flow to.
@@lowcostfish It's definitely marked, and if you're used to those markings and know which road you need to be on it's a lot better. The last time I was in the UK was the first time I've been after I started watching Ashley and the videos where he explains the markings made things significantly easier, I now look at which A-road Waze wants me to be on and just stick to that lane.
It's just a lot of information to process in a short period while other cars are also on the road you're on, so you really need to know where you're going before you get to the roundabout. I can imagine even in-country (when the road numbers don't look as alien as they do to me) it'd be difficult if you're just not from that area.
@@lowcostfish "clear markings on the road"? In my experience it's 50/50 whether they're legible or totally rubbed out by years of traffic. it would be ok if all UK roundabouts followed a common design that is logical, but you can have some where the lane layouts will be totally contrary to what you'd expect, and if the signage is poor along with rubbed out road markings its no wonder people make mistakes.
@thecentralscrutinizer1758I mean.. how many people still to this day think it's acceptable to cut across 3 lanes at the very last second to take their exit off a highway, or even move to the shoulder and back up *on a highway* to still take it if they've missed it. I'm personally of the opinion that if I miss an exit or take a wrong one I'll figure out a different route, but not everyone thinks that way
@@lowcostfish The problem with road markings , if you're in an unfamiliar area , is that preceding traffic often covers them up , so that by the time you find out , you're already in the wrong lane . Lane direction markings are just advisory , though , so it is not an offence to find yourself in the wrong lane and , unless the dividing lines are solid it isn't an offence to cross them , as long as you check around you and do so safely . Otherwise , just do another circuit ; you can go round a roundabout three times before it would be considered DWDCA .
It's always great fun when someone gestures or flashes at me to go then stares at me like I have twelve heads while I finish my observations.
Saved myself from a bad situation many times.
You often get a glare or hands in the air in despair as you don't accept their invite
@@frazermountford Show them the bird
@@jaskajokunen3716That would go against the ethos of good driving, be the better person
And in that split second when you’re making sure that it actually IS safe to go, they bloody go. If I’ve taken the lead and stopped and indicated someone else can move. I’ll stop there till they do.
Even more so if I decline to move and wait for them to go first . Very much the " After you ; no , after YOU , old chap" scenario .
Re the campervan with the car in its blind spot, I used to set my driver's door mirror so I could just see the bodywork on the left, to give me some perspective. I commuted by motorway and have to admit the occasional late spots of cars in the blind spot as I started to change lane. The mirror doesn't have that curve around the right edge that some do. Then, following advice in a UA-cam video, I set the mirror further out (so I had to move my head to see my bodywork) and never had another near miss. Be interested in your view on this. It seems a simple way to make driving safer.
Guy in the second clip needs some jail time, or at least a healthy fine and an anger management course as that is probably considered assault and criminal damage. It may be the older Fiesta sparked the confrontation initially but that is absolutely NO excuse for the behaviour of that bell end. Hopefully it got sent to the police and he got dealt with.
Oh not _probably_ but definitely assault and criminal damage and probably causing an affray (if the cammer or other people in the vicinity feared for their safety). Also dangerous driving, running a red light, wilfully obstructing the highway, and sundry other offences under the Public Order Act.
@@ianmason. He looked like the sort of thug that goes to the pub for a fight, not a drink..
My worry , given that he seemed to speed of after the other driver , was that he caught up and committed a further attack further down the road - I'd have called 999 if I'd witnessed that .
@@ianmason. Overtaking the lead vehicle at a pedestrian crossing , endangering anyone who might have been using the crossing ; and who knows what else happened if he caught up with that poor driver again ...
6:45 I did the exact same thing just the other day, driving whilst a bit tired in an unfamiliar area. The van driver reacted to the next set which were exactly where you would expect to find the repeater light. Whereas yours is actually way off to the right. Further, usually these lights have louvres on, so if you can see a green very close, you expect it to be for you.
The clip at 10:30 is from the B3349 near Alton, Hampshire. That can be quite a fast road to cross and you do have to keep your wits about you, and not hang around when you do cross. Like any flash of someone's lights, you have to take your own care & due diligence when you perform your manoeuvre. Looking right at that junction isn't so bad as it's quite a wide open bend, but traffic from the left will have less time to react.
Oh yeah, I didn't recognise it until you pointed it out but I've driven it quite a few times. A pretty dangerous junction unfortunately. But the Volvo driver clearly didn't look properly in this case, could have easily been avoided
The problem with drivers such as at 2:40 and 6:20 is that the drivers know what they are intending to do is wrong, so they try to do it as quickly as possible. That makes their actions more dangerous.
Drivers have definitely got considerably more unhinged, not to mention standards have dropped. People have become more lax since 2020/21 when they realised - thanks to lots of draconian laws and no enforcement - that the Police do not have eyes everywhere. On the contrary in fact. Unfortunately what we're seeing with road rage and the fatal 5 is people's true nature without law enforcement. There is a lack of respect for the value of having laws.
The clip at 7:00 shows how important it is for pedestrians to be visible, usually I would put most of the responsibility on the driver to look out for them, but in this case it was almost impossible.
When I was a kid in the 80s we learned to wear safety reflectors, nowadays it seems like very few are wearing them, had these kids used them, there wouldn't have been a situation.
I think this only applies to urban (or urban-adjacent) areas. Out in the sticks especially over here in Ireland, you'll RARELY see people without a hi-vis on. Christ, what a scary clip
@@Xenro66 I see a lot of older, my age (45) and up wearing hi-vis and reflectors, but not as many young people. I live in a small town surrounded by rural areas, so I've seen youngsters walking by those dark roads.
I'd rather people flashed their headlights as a warning in these situations as my reaction to that is to immediately slow down even if I can't see clearly.
I do a lot of night shifts and rarely see people wearing hi-vis at night, even a fair few cyclists in all dark clothing and poor or non-existent lights - one of the reasons I have a dashcam as I've had a couple of close calls with pedestrians or cyclists in the dark who've taken no responsibility for their own safety and totally invisible until you are right on them.
@Rroff2 only issue you're gonna have is, the temporarily increased light will reduce what is visible to you in the dark, for a short time, making it harder to see what they're warming you about
@@flatturdphd2066 You talk about flashing the lights, right?
I agree it's not the best, and on top of what you say about blinding. It's also used for so many reasons, that the receiver can't be sure what was meant by the flashing, and so might waste time being confused about the message, rather than concentrating on driving.
Great video Ashley! In terms of cars, I would steer away from VAG cars at the moment, especially as they are all just the same car in essence. Otherwise, I would have said the Seat/Cupra Leon, but its no different to your Golf really! I would suggest a new shape A Class, but I assume you'll need a manual. So really, I would look at a Mazda 3, Mazda's are really great cars. I also think you'd like the 'infotainment' system in the Mazda! Definitely worth a look and cheeky video on one, I think!
Dealership garages are also getting worse. A small vibration on mine has resulted in changing the brakes, changing a solenoid for the turbo charger, and an engine recalibration. Guess what… it’s still there. Too much reliance on a machine that gets plugged in to give you the suggested fault codes which they then pass on to you at a monumental cost with basically a “guess” of a fix.
They’re getting worse at this.
Caravan thing happened to me yesterday except it was a young lady in a mini countryman. As I was travelling positively past her in the 4th lane she then moved across. I think it was absolutely no situational awareness due to distractions as she was tailgating the car Infront of her for a while before moving out.
That camper/motorhome was left-hand drive, a lot of them are. So the driver would have a lot more difficulty seeing if anyone was attempting an overtake. There are a lot of blind spots on those things.
Ashley, the clip at 8:09 looks to be the stretch of the M4 leaving Swansea eastbound that is a 50mph average speed limit with active average speed cameras. I imagine the viewer was already driving at ~50mph so perhaps didn't want to be too much more positive, as their overtake would then break the speed limit.
I think the skill here is to accept that you either just need to be driving a bit slower, if you cant overtake in a good space of time. Its sometimes however misleading with campervans (and large vans) and how fast they go as they have a slower national speed limit but they often choose to break the speed limits.
Having to deal with a lot of average speed sections in the last year on the M20 and now the M25, I have definitely seen this situation a couple of times myself now. It doesn't help that you get people doing two different versions of what they think is the same speed. Those that go by their speedo, which may be under-reading and so they are actually going maybe 47mph, and then there are those that have cars that can have speed set by GPS, or they have GPS speed visible so use that as a guide instead, meaning you end up with two different speeds of cars both thinking they are going 50. It leads to some slow overtakes, that could have someone sat in someone's blind spot for slightly too long.
It would have been safer to pass them at say 54mph, than do what they did.
There are indeed 50mph limit signs on the lamp posts.
But whatever the limit, try to be aware of others blind spots & do not stay in them for any longer than necessary. If you do not want to drive fast enough to get back into view as quickly as possible, reducing speed is an acceptable option.
This is why speed cameras on motorways and dual carriageways are, in my opinion, dangerous. They cause these sort of incidents all the time, with vehicles barely overtaking others, with cars sitting in the wrong lane, etc. From a relaxed drive, going into a speed camera section makes everything a lot more stressful.
It's truly amazing how many people are confused by roundabouts. Just the other day I saw a clip of some minibus that did a U-turn at a junction to a roundabout rather than just using the roundabout. Saves 10 seconds, earns points.
Got my Viofo A129 Plus Duo installed the other day, which was good because on the drive home yesterday I saw two awful bits of driving and some kids throwing stuff at cars from an overhead bridge. Thanks Ash!
Thanks for your support!
I've heard, anecdotally, that the "kids throwing things off bridges" thing is making a bit of a comeback. There seems to be a bit of a fresh epidemic of it at the moment.
@@ianmason. They scored a hit on the car in front of me which left a whole bunch of debris on the road. It appeared to only be cake but not something you want hitting your windscreen at 60+.
The police on the roundabout, yes completely agree the worst part is someone listening to Jeremy Vine 😂😂
"For me though, the driving's not the worst piece about this clip..."
That was cheeky, Ash, very cheeky. Did make me laugh!
The clip with the campervan, that section of the M4 is under average speed cameras set at 50mph - so I'm not surprised the driver with the camera was only slightly faster than the campervan - I sometimes find those average speed check zones actually make some stretches of road more dangerous as the relative speeds of the lanes are often very close, so drivers can find themselves sitting in blind spots for miles (unless of course they have the sense to ease off and drop back slightly!)
Fitting a very loud horn if not already fitted can be helpful in those situations but of course, it doesn't make solid matter disappear, so braking is also still necessary. Was the camper one of those left-hookers?
You get the politicians (and speed cameras) that you vote for.
@@davidvanderklauw Nope. I always vote and not once have I got who I voted for !
@@dogmadogma5398 That's gonna happen if you vote Monster Raving Looney every time...
@@davidvanderklauw No, no matter who you vote for the politicians always get in.
Shocking levels of driving. And yet most drivers think they are above average.
I guess that could also be a reflection of their pessimistic view of where they think the bar is for 'average', as much as it is a reflection of what they think their actual abilities are like.
Most people think they are above average in most things.
“The driving’s not the worst thing about this clip” 👀 😂
1:44 This is the A24 just by Broadbridge Heath, that Ford had about half a mile (on a descent as well) to get up to 60
9:30 The viewer did well to stay back during the overtaking shenanigans.
2:14 “the driving’s not the worst part about this clip” … cue Jeremy Vine 😂
8:58 - the white van sped up when it was being overtaken. He was a decent distance from the learner that's why the lorry overtook him first and then the learner. There's no other way to do it.
Also, the van driver definitely got pissed off with what the lorry did as he overtook the learner as well, but only AFTER the lorry did it first.
7:05 Any oncoming driver flashing at me, I reduce speed a in a steady manner and increase observation for a mile or so. Could be anything unusual ahead. Police speed trap, cow in the road accident, fallen tree etc.
I do the same but the problem at night is that it might also mean your main beams are on and that split second it takes to think and check (even if you're sure they're not) can have you on the obstruction, which may have been what happened there. The problem was, the obstruction was so close to the flasher.
@@PedroConejo1939 In the US, if you have left your high (undipped) beams on, we will flash a steady 2 second single light, otherwise that kind of flash indicates caution ahead (or the reason OP stated).
Speed check - there is no such thing as a speed trap .
Don't let other people try to dictate when and where you go on the road. I had a cyclist yesterday I had followed for a while because there was nowhere safe to overtake, he seemed to be getting frustrated by me not overtaking and waved me past on a stretch where he could see the road ahead, but I couldn't so I stayed back until I could confirm the road was clear. At some roadworks a little way on he pulled up beside me at the red light and was shouting about how I was ignorant when he was trying to keep traffic flowing, a funny mix of the road rage clip and the flashing light clip. It's my life and I'll decide when there's minimum risk to it not some impatient cyclist.
Nice. If someone had hit you if you overtook on his say so, your the one that going to pay for it not the cyclist.
Bicyclists are often pumped up on adrenalin .
I can't imagine what it's like to deal with impatience from the perspective of a driving instructor. My daughter's had 7 lessons so far, so we've been doing some supervised practice in my 2002 Focus, which due to its age has a minor problem with throttle response when setting off from stationary. Hence, she kept stalling it at a set of traffic lights. What do the cars behind do? Beep the horn repeatedly. Which at best achieves nothing at all - luckily my daughter's not bothered by it - or at worst, would make the learner driver panic. Beeping a horn does not magically improve a nearby driver's clutch control. Why are people such idiots?
Started with a real psycho moment and still cannot get how drivers get like this and are prepared to commit assaults openly in public as if the red mist switches all logic off. I also I agree it is getting worse on the roads but cannot get where it is coming from. Maybe impatience and people scoring others driving constantly getting wound up. Had it this only yesterday. Came to a roundabout left lane straight on, a woman in front on a bike, a busy little roundabout she looked slow and cautious stayed behind with a reasonable distance so as not to intimidate her so we went around really slow someone wanting to come on from my left began to come out at me across the line like he was forcing me to speed up despite there was nobody behind me? Maybe I was overcautious but she got across a busy roundabout safe and I managed to get past her quickly after and I got home 10-15 seconds later that day! Those cutting through a red light at roadworks were a perfect example of this.
Try to remember it's a collision, not an accident - when poor driving leads to conflict it's usually someone's fault, and not something that couldn't be foreseen.
Indeed. An accident can't be avoided. Most collisions can be.
Bit surprised you didn't catch your viewer's speed in the punchy video, much as it did give us the opportunity to see some top quality psychopathy. Accelerating to 50 past a 30 sign 🤔 tbh, if you're seeing an altercation evolving, might be worth holding further back, in case the Fiesta driver (in this case) is more positive about their escape and reverses too fast...
I'm surprised there's not been more comments about this.
He also cut cross the outside lane in front of another car to catch his left turn.
Another great video 👍 someone needs to make a compilation of your wise quotes, todays one: "Driving is a form of transportation, not competition."
Keep safe Ashley
Quality driving instructors always have the best quotes and sayings. Even simple ones for when you're learning are worth keeping in mind like "scan and plan", "creep and peep", etc, as it's easy to get so comfortable driving that you become complacent and forget the basics. A lot of fails seen on this channel wouldn't have happened if people kept just those two simple phrases in mind.
8:07 I strongly suspect the cammer intended a quick, positive overtake- but only then realised it's a 50mph limit. They should have 'admitted their mistake' at that point and gone back to lane 1. Overtake decisions should be based on relative speed (& overall limit)- not the type of vehicle you intend to overtake.
50 and average speed cameras, everyone driving with 5mph of each other
As a professional driver i have definitely noticed that people are way more aggressive on the roads and the driving standards have dropped very noticeably over the last few years. For me i dont know why but it seems to be since covid and lockdowns ended. I dont remember it being as bad before then.
Agreed. Professional driver as well. I live in an area where most of the driving is fine, even after the lockdowns. But there HAS been an increase of poor and bad driving.
Main character syndrome, I think. Lockdowns made some gain an “every man for himself” mentality. It’s not just driving: I’ve seen complaints about people not saying “please” and “thank you” to strangers or “Excuse me” when they pass people in the street
@@d_alistair-years 🤣 nah that's just stayed the same mate 🤣
At 2:00
It must be something about the A24 at Horsham. A couple of years ago I was going the other way at about a mile further south (the clip is heading north) when somebody pulled out in front of me and I had to brake sharply.
They had a sticker on the back of their car saying "speed kills". I was reminded of the words of an instructor who said that it is not speed that is the danger but inappropriate speed.
So the flash from the oncoming at night was clearly a warning of a hazard, and hazard they clearly were! When I see a flash like this I slow and look out for a hazard, probably would expect a large animal in the road or stationary vehicle.
I was exiting a roundabout on the outside lane of 2 lanes, so the outside lane you can go right and carry on round the roundabout or go straight on, left lane, straight on only. A driver in the left lane, who was right next to me but back a little, cut my tail off as they intended to go right onto the roundabout and decided to slam his anchors on and scream out the car as if it was my fault. You're right people don't seem to understand roundabouts!
The Golf hasn't earned it's reputation for reliability since the mid 1980's.
Impatience combined with busier roads designed in the 60's and 70's leads to so many incidents, the amount of people doing crazy overtakes of my HGV amazes me... just how people are willing to joust their life against an oncoming HGV just to get a few minutes from their journey.
In incident I had in central London that pushes me closer to getting a dashcam of my own occurred on Monday. My light went green to cross Oxford street from Hanover square. As I proceeded I saw that I would come into conflict with a large group of youths on bikes riding down Oxford street having gone through the red light. I decided that stopping was the safer option, but foolishly did a “what are playing at shrug” having caught one’s eye which led to him leaning on my bonnet for a few seconds. By this time the lights had changed and I was caught in the middle of a yellow box with a bus approaching from my left and pedestrians now crossing with the green man in front. Very frustrating! I hope there’s not a fine coming in the post.
9:06 The van needed to be on the brakes as soon as the lorry started to overtake.
In th first clip I thought the guy with the green prime bottle was going to get involved 😂
Hi Ashley. You keep saying that driving standards are poor and you are right, but IMO this has a lot to do with driving instuctors just teaching pupils to pass a 25 minute test and little to nothing to do with teaching actual driving skills. I have had two daughters that have both passed tests in the last couple of years, one’s driving skills can only be described as poor and with 4 minor fender benders in her first year of driving the facts would appear to back my description. The other’s driving is mildly terrifying and i spend all the time she is out worrying that I will be getting THAT knock on the door.
I feel that insurance backed dash cams and black boxes should become mandatory with insurance companies cancelling and refusing insurance based on evidence gathered from these devices not just on accident history.
Agree completely and why do they teach people to pull across on coming traffic to park the wrong way complete madness...... And then people pull out and expect you to give way.
Is it that the standard of what people are being taught is coming down, or the attitude of many drivers that they are the best in the world is increasing?
I've known many new drivers that thought they were a Prost or a Schumacher, when they were actually closer to Maureen from Driving School...
Then we also have the relatively easy method of acquiring cars that learners of old wouldn't have had a hope in hell of being in unless as a passenger...or having nicked it.
I passed my test many years ago my first instructor was an ex-tank driver in the war. He sometimes used to have targets and a pistol in the back (air-pistol I assume it was a long time ago). I remember one day before we set off him giving me a lecture on being in this metal box that could kill so he got the gun out and pointed it in my direction to reminded me the car could kill just as easily as the gun and you and have to be responsible. That was real old school instruction. I was 17 at the time and to be honest not ready for it so failed (not his fault).
@@mcdon2401 Maureen, wow that takes me back 🤣
One of the main failings is that I see a lot of young drivers , and a few not-so-young , and including driving school cars , who now adopt the practice of trafficking right when approaching a roundabout to go straight ahead , then giving the breakaway signal after passing the penultimate exit . That is quite simply wrong and someone so doing will fail a test .
If I am behind someone who is trafficating right , I may start to pass on the left , and if they then 'change their mind' I will leave them in no doubt that I am there , although I won't let them hit me . If approaching from the opposite direction where someone tells me they are turning right and I have to stop needlessly to let them pass in front of me ; I will get their attention with the horn and give a 'what are you doing' gesture ( upturned hands , shrug of the shoulders ) , but most are just oblivious .
In Portugal and many other countries, if you exit a roundabout on the second lane, going straight across, it is illegal to take the left lane. The left lane is to be left alone for traffic coming from the left. It's a brilliant rule and keeps traffic flowing.
06:02 do a right turn from the left lane on a roundabout is something that has increased in Norfolk. The left lane is marked to go left, ahead or right and my wife, my sister-in-law they absolutely hate it. We now have the NDR on the outside of Norwich and there's plenty like that. What really annoys me is when a driver comes from the 3rd lane across the middle lane and exit cutting across two lanes because they just don't know how to change lanes and get ready to exit. There’s such a roundabout here where I live and there’s often accidents because of it. There was one today, again.
There was a similar incident to that second clip where I am. Even if the guy had no points on his licence, it probably would have been suspended or even cancelled from all of his actions within a 3 minute time span.
Yes, both drivers AND pedestrians ARE getting worse.
Yesterday, going slowly round a mini-roundabout, a woman in a large SUV-type vehicle shouted "eff off" after she'd absolutely NOT looked before emerging from a Give Way - all because I DARED to blow the horn at her to warn her of my presence.
Pedestrians - just crossing the road "on a diagonal", exposing themselves for longer to danger, within 10 metres of a pedestrian crossing, which was RED for them, GREEN for me. Again, got foul abuse because I DARED to use the horn to warn them of my presence.
(I believe the latest changes to the Highway Code seem to have given pedestrians the "Green Light" to cross on crossings irrespective of whether they have a red or green light, and think "It's ok, I can cross ANYWHERE at ANYTIME" the cars have to avoid me.
As Mr. T. would have said "Dang Fools" !!!
Oh, and that guy that attacked the Fiesta driver should have been reported and taken to court. He has NO business being on the road, his behaviour was bordering on psychotic.
I can agree about poor driving from slipways, something I've been tearing my hair out at the past 2 weeks as I've been travelling to view houses going into areas unknown to me. People doing 30mpg, 40mph or 50mph, heading onto a national speed limit motorway. I'm stuck behind them having to keep a safe distance for my integration manoeuvrer but it just causes so much unneeded danger going so slow unless warranted by heavy traffic, but all these recent issues have been off-peak or at the weekend.
It's not so much getting worse as being recorded more, as the number of vehicles with dashcams increases.
I was wondering that too. When I first bought a dash camera - 2012(ish) people would laugh when they found out, now people don't.
I bought a dash camera after nearly getting caught out for a crash for cash in Bradford. Incidentally in one of the areas that ASKMid had marked as one of the top 10 insurance blackspots.
Its also quite possible that drivers are well aware of others in their blind spots but fed up with them not making progress baulking them from changing lanes.
I’ll never understand someone’s that goes out there way to physically threaten another driver and then break there window. Okey the Ford probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place but it doesn’t seem to take much to wind people up on the road now or days. Nice to see a lot of viewers doing the correct thing in situations though 😃👍. As always ash great video and have a great weekend 😃👍.
Thing is, they're probably perfectly friendly and reasonable people when they're not in a car. For many individuals, there's something about having a steering wheel in front of them that makes them the angriest human beings alive.
@@bestintheworld568 yeah, this. It's fucking weird. They would be perfectly innocuous people walking around and whatever, but inside a car... it's really weird.
@@bestintheworld568I don't know, I think you get to see what people are really like when driving, I suspect it doesn't take much for this guy to fly off the handle when he's not driving.
Hi Ashley, my answer to your first question is no!, given the enormous increase in road traffic and the delays people are having to deal with combined with the amount of time I spend driving around I am sure I used to witness a larger number of road rage incidents years ago as a percentage of total road use. In part this is because in many locations road layouts and traffic management has been vastly improved while those specific bottlenecks where problems arise are still just as bad as they ever were they are fewer and further apart.
These incidents are still exactly the same type of behaviour that is embedded in some demographics, sub-cultures where aggressive violent behaviour is the established traditional 'norm', these isolated cells of cultural aberration cross all demographic and socoi-economic boundaries but can usually be identified as some form of ghetto and less common in relatively wealthy communities, there appears to be a correlation between economic and spiritual poverty.
One other significant factor has to be the almost total absence of police street patrols, when I started driving the chances of not getting stopped if I broke a road rule were much lower than they are now, bad behaviour is better regulated on the spot at the time than at some later date in an anonymous law court.
Cheers, Richard.
Right turning in a left hand only lane (with specific markings).
They recently added this to eliminate confusion on a roundabout near me….good idea.
Was waiting to see how long before I saw someone turn right from the left only lane….saw someone ahead of me do it Friday evening.
With the clip with the campervan, it looks like it's just outside of Swansea, it's a section covered by 50 limit average speed cameras. Overtakes do tend to be slower if someone is going 5 miles an hour under the speed limit. I would be interested to hear Ashley's thoughts on the best way to navigate that scenario.
think of it this way. Let's say that 50mph secion is 1 mile long. If we drive at an average of 50mph through the whole section it will take 72 seconds. If we drive through the whole section at 45 it will take 80 seconds. So even if you stayed behind a vehicle doing 45 in a 50 for a whole mile you're still only losing 8 seconds! So just stay back or go back to school and learn maths again
It also appears the video was slowed down as well.
I thought the same as well - the speed limit being the reason for the low speed differential when overtaking. I would probably have held back in that exact scenario given that a low speed differential means there was always little advantage to the overtake, but also importantly the campervan was already too close to the vehicle in front and was always likely to pull out.
As it is an average you can have a small burst of speed above the limit as long as it is cancelled out by being below the limit, and if you have been stuck behind someone doing 45 in a 50, that is the case. I imagine Ashley's response will be that it doesn't matter if you overtake or not, as long as you are in the correct lane for your action and are safe.
I would have thought that if the speed differential is so low as to make overtaking awkward then it's probably not worth overtaking. I see this all the time in London where cars overtake a cyclist then sit right in front of them because of traffic or the 20mph speed limit. Everyone catches up at the next light making the overtake pointless.
Interestingly, the HC in 1977 when I passed my test said it was a perfectly valid choice to go all the way round a roundabout in the nearside lane. Admittedly few or no roundabouts had spiral lane markings then. I *have* noticed that the rules have changed in the intervening half-century!
6:37 ahh, the Thinford roundabout. A favourite amongst learners in the Durham area! ;) nice to see some footage from near home
10:30, that many coming the other way had impressive observations to see that coming and stop where they did!
0:09 "My viewer made it a non event, perfect". By sending the clip into Ashley Neal to put on UA-cam x-D
A bicycle was never going to catch the car anyway , and he was gone quickly enough , although I might have waited .
Thanks for the links for Car Vertical. Used it a couple days ago to do a bit of research on a new car for me.
Same here. Very useful site, worth the money.
Theres a lot to be said for folk that make matters imto a "non event", these people show class and integrity
The Campervan clip is in the 50 mph average speed camera zone in Port Talbot on the M4, so it's quite common to see passing based on who know the error in their Speedo and who doesn't!
Emerging onto carriageways is an interesting one. Firstly, the clip from the irate woman does not show her speed but what it does show is that they kept closing the gap rather than lifting off. The poor driving is not constrained to the driver trying to join and is in my view compounded by the cammer.
I am surprised that you made no comment on that aspect Ashley.
This is a very good point and wouldn't be surprised if the 1st party started to become unsure.
You do understand that the person entering the carriageway is the one who has to make the necessary corrections to ensure they do so safely, right? If you're already on the carriageway you have priority, you are expected to maintain a steady and legal speed but that's it. I see it all too often where people hesitantly emerge onto a 70mph road at 30 while refusing to stop before merging or speed up making it the problem of the person in lane 1 to avoid them.
That doesn't mean that the person on the carriageway shouldn't help make plenty of space rather than closing the gap.
the gap was only closing because both cars were braking, it didn't seem intentional. I've seen it happen myself, and for that reason I usually accelerate into gaps. If the car over my shoulder does the same by fluke I can then brake to fit in behind them. Unless you have a very fast car it's easier and safer to do it that way round rather than braking down almost to a stop and accelerating again.
I'm the cammer here, not the irate person in the passenger seat. I was doing just under the limit. I had already seen this car that was going to join several seconds before the clip in the video starts, I felt there was no reason for me to need to slow down at that point and I continued to leave plenty of space for the Fiesta. I did not anticipate the Fiesta applying their brakes so early and then keep riding on them, needlessly, all the way to the end of the slip road when they clearly had space to move across, especially as I also had flashed at them several times to signal I was letting them join. During this whole “event” I was also aware that there were vehicles in the right hand lane that would soon overtake, so I made the choice to stay in the lane to not needlessly hinder those overtaking. I did question for a while who was at "fault" here, and while I accept I was lighter on the brakes than I could have been, I feel I gave them every opportunity and signal and plenty of time to join the dual carriageway seamlessly. Perhaps some will disagree with me, I’m happy to learn what I could have done better. Luckily there was nothing anywhere nearby behind me in the lane, so I had the luxury of being able to slow down as much as I needed to in order to allow them to join. It’s interesting to read other’s points of view on this and appreciate the different perspectives to help learn and improve as a driver. Perhaps I could have just abused the power of the 335d and just shot passed them, but then at that point while I was already seeing so much hesitation they may have just pulled across right in front. Crash for cash? Who knows :D
These videos are a great advert for public transport
7:04 This is really scary. Pedestrians had absolutely no reflection clothing. Crossings the road whilst obviously they could see headlights coming from both directions.
This could have easily been fatal.
5:53 , the roundabout could be better marked .
The advance direction sign does indicate that the A1(M) was the same road as the one they were on , so arguably straight ahead , even if it is further round the roundabout . Also all three lanes are marked for straight ahead ; so someone unfamiliar with the area can be forgiven for getting it wrong .
Also do remember , lane markings are only advisory , not mandatory , and overtaking through a roundabout is ill advised : if someone enters ahead of you , even in another lane , it is wise to remain behind them to avoid potential conflicts ; overtaking through roundabouts is one of the main causes of crashes .
Its worth keeping in the back of your mind that a lot of those wide-body campervans are left hand drive. The mirrors on them are normally pretty poor, just flat glass not a convex mirror that gives a wider angle.
Bloke who punched the window out doesn't need help, he needs prison.
The clip at 8:06 is on the M4 East bound at Port Talbot. It’s a “clean air” 50 average speed check zone. It’s notoriously hard to make positive overtakes as drivers’ speeds fluctuate often. You’ll start overtaking a driver who’s doing 45mph who will then speed up to do 50.
8:13 best thing my motorbike instructor told me was, if youre doing 70 and still cant get the over take done, speed up, get out of danger. i actually did 80mph on my test and still passed so it was drffo acceptable in 2008. (to be fair, id been driving lorries and coaches since 2002 before that so the rest of the test was spot on)
Last clip advice:
You are the captain aboard your own ship.. or car. Nobody else but you decides when it is safe to go anywhere. Check and check again people. As for the lorry overtaking... that guy needs his licence revoked. Even if a learner is slow these roads aren't fit for lorry overtaking. Honestly.. hardly any 2-lane bidirectional roads are. Have to be patient. It is what it is.
Dear Asley,
I have never been an enthust for VAG group cars.I had a Golf Mark One A[with the slightly larger rear lights], and without any question it not just the most unreliable and expensive car to run I ever had. The next car was an EX BT Maestro van with the tiny 1275 engine. Not only was it one per cent reliable over Sven years, but more economical that the VW which had a 1600 diesel.
I thought that might be a one off and got a 1900 non-turbo diesel Skoda Fabia. Just as rubbish as the Golf. And hugely expensive to maintain and all too frequently repair. The Fabia was replaced with a Toyota Aygo, which was excellent in every way till rust caused its demise.
Just a thought.
Best wishes from George
Clip at 5:53 is typical and allowed/taught driving in Spain. Inside lane is only used if you want to keep going around the roundabout 🤣
You can always spot the British drivers, they're the ones using the otherwise completely empty inside lane.
Notice neither lane is designated for turning right 😕
0:45 - That's Torquay for you Ashley 🤣
"People's inability to merge onto a faster carriageway is also getting worse..." You are not wrong there, my friend. A junction local to me (A383/A38) causes me nightmares. It's a short merge to be sure, but almost every time I am joining the A38 there you can guarantee that there will be someone in front completely failing to match speed or select an appropriate vehicle to merge behind.
Ain't that the truth. Ashburton, the place where no driving standards exist.
2:16 - Typical driving at Hornbridge roundabout 😂
People seriously need to calm down their road rage, some people shouldn't be on the roads if they can't control themselves. My partner is new to UK driving (he's from the US), he was doing some lessons recently and during one lesson he accidently cut someone off. He was in a driving school car, apologised instantly but the person he did cut off got out of their car at the lights like this bloke in the video did and was shouting all sorts at him. There's just no need for it, accidents happen, apologise and get on with your day. His instructor told him what he did wasn't even that bad just a minor whoopsy. They ended up cutting the lesson there because he was so shaken up
In the States , and South Africa , people get shot over such minor altercations .
Some states certainly used to have an offence of 'vehicular assault with a deadly weapon' to deal with some aspects of bad driving .
Life on the road and how people react is a direct reflection of how insecure and helpless people find themselves in today's living. if you make good with your life, have a good wife/relationship, basically happy with your self as a person, then what happens on the road is so low on the list or even does not make it on any list that you just don't react like the young person at the start.
I've had it driving on a slip road (or other circumstances) where I've adjusted my speed to slot in behind a car, only for them to slow down to allow me to go in ahead of them 😂
Just ordered a front and rear viofo dash cam after viewing your channel, Ashley. I see some surprising driving on my daily 80 mile commute. I use a go pro when I ride my motorbike, yet I don't have one in the car. Till now !
With regards to the slowing up driver emerging on the slip road, I can see what the cammer was trying to do but sometimes you can be too nice.
As a general rule if I see someone slowing down at the same rate as me on a slip road then I will speed up and continue as the slower we go on the main carriageway the risk increases. No excuses from the brown / orange mixed colour car and before anyone comments, I have done the same as the cammer is the past
add a short blast of the horn as well to let them know you are there and will continue past them. it's safer for all as you're less likely to get rammed from behind and you're getting out of their way...
I'm the cammer here. I was doing just under the limit. I had already seen this car that was going to join several seconds before the clip in the video starts, I felt there was no reason for me to need to slow down at that point and I continued to leave plenty of space for the Fiesta. I did not anticipate the Fiesta applying their brakes so early and then keep riding on them, needlessly, all the way to the end of the slip road when they clearly had space to move across, especially as I also had flashed at them several times to signal I was letting them join. During this whole “event” I was also aware that there were vehicles in the right hand lane that would soon overtake, so I made the choice to stay in the lane to not needlessly hinder those overtaking. I did question for a while who was at "fault" here, and while I accept I was lighter on the brakes than I could have been, I feel I gave them every opportunity and signal and plenty of time to join the dual carriageway seamlessly. Perhaps some will disagree with me, I’m happy to learn what I could have done better. Luckily there was nothing anywhere nearby behind me in the lane, so I had the luxury of being able to slow down as much as I needed to in order to allow them to join. It’s interesting to read other’s points of view on this and appreciate the different perspectives to help learn and improve as a driver. Perhaps I could have just abused the power of the 335d and just shot passed them, but then at that point while I was already seeing so much hesitation they may have just pulled across right in front. Crash for cash? Who knows :D
@@UnknownUser-bt4gk Appreciate the update and we have all been there 👍
Sounds like one of those where you was fully aware of your surroundings and able to manage the risk suitably.
I have recently sent Ashley one where I moved over for vehicles merging from a short slip road but there was some confusion with a learner that stayed in lane 1. Similar to you, I was aware of vehicles behind and was able to manage the risk but hindsight and review of the footage said to me to carry on and remove myself from the situation.
Every situation is different though and each one needs to be assessed upon its own merits but as Ashley once told me, make sure whatever you do is safe is the risk is kept as low as it can be 👍
Take care out there