Looking for a different point of view on a near miss.

[clf]

In this LINK there is a video of a near miss, posted on a bad drivers page on Facebook. There is a lady there, who is convinced the cam car is at fault, and I have asked as politely as possible (without becoming patronising), how she arrived at her thought. She believes the cam car was travelling too fast (and she would have been able to stop) as well as travelling close to the centre of the road.

I am open to have my point of view changed, but to me, the speed (which I believe was a 60 limit - although it was a wet road) is irrelevant, as the Ford Focus pulls out, in my view onto oncoming traffic. It is this point that I cannot get past. You force a car to either swerved or to brake suddenly, by pulling across your lane, means you are at fault (due car and attention - to reckless driving!)

I would be interested in your thoughts, especially from those who believe the cam car is in the wrong but explain to me why you think so please.

[keithst24]

Originally Posted by clf

In this LINK there is a video of a near miss, posted on a bad drivers page on Facebook. There is a lady there, who is convinced the cam car is at fault, and I have asked as politely as possible (without becoming patronising), how she arrived at her thought. She believes the cam car was travelling too fast (and she would have been able to stop) as well as travelling close to the centre of the road.

I am open to have my point of view changed, but to me, the speed (which I believe was a 60 limit - although it was a wet road) is irrelevant, as the Ford Focus pulls out, in my view onto oncoming traffic. It is this point that I cannot get past. You force a car to either swerved or to brake suddenly, by pulling across your lane, means you are at fault (due car and attention - to reckless driving!)

I would be interested in your thoughts, especially from those who believe the cam car is in the wrong but explain to me why you think so please.

I can only point blame to the driver that pulled out at junction...and very slowly at that

[Rooney]

That's the problem with facebook, they'll let anybody have an account. the lady is mistaken

The focus driver is in the wrong - they obviously didn't even look

[clf]

thanks guys, I cannot, no matter how I look at it, see her point of view and I AM trying to lol.

To me, the focus pulls out when the cam car is roughly 20-25 metres away likely closer to 50, but even at that, in my view it shouldnt have moved at all. lol

[Rooney]

The focus driver has looked right, looked left, then not looked right again before pulling out.

Interesting name for a group, will have to have a look see if there's any (or many lol) of my kin being named and shamed

[bl52krz]

Question one:- Why was the driver just about out over the White line. Answer:- looks like a country type road, rain puddles in side of road trying to miss them.Question two:- why did the other car pull out into a road from the left, because there is another useless idiot who thinks he can just pull out regardless of other traffic on the other road. Wonder whether he had been drinking/drugs/ not wearing their glasses, or just a complete numpty who should not be on the road.

[clf]

Originally Posted by bl52krz

Question one:- Why was the driver just about out over the White line. Answer:- looks like a country type road, rain puddles in side of road trying to miss them.Question two:- why did the other car pull out into a road from the left, because there is another useless idiot who thinks he can just pull out regardless of other traffic on the other road. Wonder whether he had been drinking/drugs/ not wearing their glasses, or just a complete numpty who should not be on the road.

question 1. they were at fault because they are driving in the middle of the road and were not in control of their car (camera car), waht if a cow or a child unexpectedly appeared in front of them.

question 2. We do not know what was behind the cam car, there may have been a mile long tail of traffic, so the Focus was trying to get out. Beisdes, the cam car should have slowed down and therefore would have been able to stop (this lady claims she would have been able to stop)



These are the arguments used to counter what you have said, which is basically what I commented with on Facebook.

I am genuinely trying to see it from her point of view, but I just cannot. Normally on these kinds of sites, it is just boy racers etc that respond with contradictory statements, which I tend to ignore. But this lady is convinced that the cam car has been at fault. I cannot get her logic at all. Although a comment she made later perhaps explains her logic.

she referred to another comment she made about a red car on her husband's post, which she said would explain her thoughts. I responded with 'I dont know who her husband was' , her reply? It was a previous comment and there was a link to youtube. A link to the comment, or even her husbands name would have helped lol.

Originally Posted by g.mc.g

The focus driver has looked right, looked left, then not looked right again before pulling out.

Interesting name for a group, will have to have a look see if there's any (or many lol) of my kin being named and shamed

That's my thinking, looking right, left and then pulling out without confirming right again. Nothing malicious, or illegal, just simply a blank moment.

I initially looked through the group looking for myself or anyone I knew too lol.

[Graham E]

My Opinion

The car waiting in the junction is clearly in view of the camera car, Does the camera car have headlights on (I would have considering the weather) Regardless of the camera cars speed the driver of the camera car does not appear to anticipate the car in the junction doing what they did as there does not appear to be any reduction in speed prior to the car pulling out.

The car in the junction clearly has not seen the camera car until the last moment.

I guess at least the stopped.

However in my opinion the car in the junction is in the wrong for pulling out. No if's no buts.

The camera car driver can only really be at fault for maybe not having lights on making themselves more visible and not anticipating the danger.

However the camera car driver does appear to be driving near the middle of the road which is something I would do to make myself more visible on roads like this.

[clf]

Originally Posted by Graham E

My Opinion

The car waiting in the junction is clearly in view of the camera car, Does the camera car have headlights on (I would have considering the weather) Regardless of the camera cars speed the driver of the camera car does not appear to anticipate the car in the junction doing what they did as there does not appear to be any reduction in speed prior to the car pulling out.

The car in the junction clearly has not seen the camera car until the last moment.

I guess at least the stopped.

However in my opinion the car in the junction is in the wrong for pulling out. No if's no buts.

The camera car driver can only really be at fault for maybe not having lights on making themselves more visible and not anticipating the danger.

However the camera car driver does appear to be driving near the middle of the road which is something I would do to make myself more visible on roads like this.

thanks for that Graham. Any reduction in speed may not be visible with the field of view, although if there was on the approach, it would have been minimal, also, the camera has a higher viewpoint than the driver too, so the cam car driver may not even have seen the focus (although they should have).

At 5 seconds in, there is a reflection of headlights on the focus as the cam car swerves, so I would suggest the cam car did indeed have its lights on.

I would tend to drive (I call it leaning) to the centre of the road, more to avoid the puddles catching on the wheels, pulling me towards the ditch. It does have the benefit of making you more visible too.

[macafee2]

I don't think you can always discount speed. In this case I don't think the speed of the camera car is reason enough for the focus driver not to be blamed. I would say the camera car was visible early enough before the focus pulled out. It may also have been as well the camera car was over to the right as it increased their chance of missing the focus, I also feel it is good practice where safe to move off to one side for that very reason. Blame the Focus driver

macafee2