Was I in the wrong?

[gaz]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpmFfrKKhg


I've been getting some comments saying I should have moved over or expected it due to the police car. But for me, because he passed me with his indicator on and pulled in on me before he had finished passing then he is in the wrong. Police car or not, I was forced to slow down because he didn't want to pull in behind.

Yay or nay?

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Van driver in the wrong - if he had to move for the Plod it's his responsibility to ensure he does so safely... i.e. without risking others!

 

[magnatom]

Mmmm. 50/50. He could have pulled in behind, but you could have also slowed to let him in.

 

[DrSquirrel]

He was in the wrong.

You could have slowed behind a bit earlier though imo.

 

[dondare]

To be absolutely honest, (and as far as I can tell from just watching the film and not actually being there in person at the time) that is the sort of run-of-the-mill stuff that you should be able to take in your stride.

 

[lesley_x]

Van driver in the wrong. If he's going to pull into a lane, whether there are cars, buses, cyclists or whatever in it, and whether the police need past or not, he needs to do it safely.

Although, perhaps it could have been anticipated if you knew the police car was coming. I'm not saying he was right, just that maybe you need to account for his idiocy

 

[ianrauk]

Agree with the others Van was in the wrong but you didn't help yourself there Gaz. On hearing the siren I would have moved over to left in anticipation that what ever traffic to the right of me would have done the same.

A copper friend of mine said that when the sirens are blazing a lot car drivers loose all sense of sensibility, having no idea what to do and if, where and when to pull over if at all.

The guy in the van was looking out for the cop car and wanting to move over asap rather then paying attention to what/who is on his left hand side.

50/50 in this case.

 

[HLaB]

The van driver was wrong to pull into the inside lane with you there, perhaps he should have gave way but perhaps in the circumstances you could have facilitated it (after all the plod had an important date with a doughnut shop ;-) )

 

[gaz]

I did slow down to let him in as soon as I saw him. It's just annoying that he knew I was there and he still did it as if it is ok.

 

[clarion]

Standard-issue London driver. Not looking at all, and he'd forgotten you existed because you weren't in his forward vision. Arse.

 

[Eoin Rua]

He was just trying to move over, as we would all would do, regardless of vehicle, when letting emergency services past...I feel you should have anticipated this earlier - given that such a large gap was opening up behind the lorry he was bound to go for that gap.

Get over it - as with most of your incidents it's just normal human error, no big deal, we all put up with it every day!

 

[Martok]

Maybe the driver should have pulled in behind you rather than in front. However, you should also have slowed down more as it was clear that the police were on the way.

What surprises me is that you don't appear to check behind you in this clip, I'd have thought that you should have done this to confirm the police car was on the way and to check the surrounding traffic as they would need to move over to let the police past.

So as others have said, 50/50 in this case.

 

[Ben1982]

Do you have the rear cam footage for this one Gaz? i.e was there actually something stopping him from getting in behind you? And maybe he felt that it was easier to get past a cyclist to get out of the way of the cop car. Good to see he didn't do what i find most people do round here when there is a siren going.. they just stop where they are - usually making it a darn site worse for the emergency services vehicle

 

[Jezston]

I dunno, if he was being a real knob he would have pulled a lot further in. Looks like he found himself having to pull in when he did, but did attempt to be considerate to yourself by giving you a reasonable amount of room.

Maybe he should have stayed back, but I don't think what he did was too bad. I don't think it would have bothered me to be honest.

 

[gaz]

Cheers for the input everyone.

There was a space behind where he could have comfortably fitted. That's what got me annoyed