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:D, Twice in the last 6 weeks or so I've had women pick up their mobiles whilst driving behind me and make out they're taking a pic of me because I've not done what they wanted me to do on the road, both these incidents being within a mile of each other and heading in the same direction. This afternoon I was on my way home from a friends place at Tanilba Bay and had just come through the Fullerton Cove roundabout (limit 70km/h which I was doing) when a young girl in a Commodore came up on my tail. I hand signalled to her to back off and she came even closer. I then tapped the brake pedal gently to light up the brake lights but not apply the brakes and she came closer again. At this point she was too close for my liking so I took my foot off the power and started to coast. She kept coming closer and closer and I again hand signalled for her to back off when she flipped me the bird so I just kept slowing down knowing there was no traffic behind her and she couldn't over take because of traffic coming the other way. We got down to about 30 km/h when she picked up her mobile and made out she was taking a pic of me. Did she think she was scaring me with the threat of police action? I don't know what she thought she was going to do with it because if she took it to the police she would be charged with not being in proper control of her vehicle. When we got onto the dual lane section did she overtake me? Nup, just sat behind and then turned left towards Stockton. I'm going to buy a dash cam with GPS tracking and a rear camera and if this ever happens again the video footage will be taken to the police then a copy put up on You Tube for all to see their stupidity and perhaps sent to the local and ABC tv stations. Oh, and the rear camera gets their number plate (even if they're too close for me to see it in my mirrors) and a good video of their face so they can't say it wasn't them.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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Soooo, it's not just here in Ye Olde Countrye that complete strangers want to drive inside your trunk! I've often pondered the reason for this bizarre interest in my spare wheel, a few dodgy GM tools and half a dozen supermarket 'Bag For Life' carriers that I've totally forgotten about.

My response is exactly as per yours (anyway, why do the partially-sighted need to be somewhere quicker than the rest of us?). BUT...I find it ever more difficult to restrain myself from following 'Mr Eddy's (Robert Loggia) example in Lost Highway:

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:D, Hi majortomski,

The hand signal for "back off" around here is hold the left hand up vertical where the following driver can see it with the palm facing rearwards and then motion back and forth. Mikeyc5usaf, putting a carrying concealed weapon sticker on the back of the car would have no effect on the a..holes around here because they know it's illegal to carry a pistol. Pistol club members have to lock their pistols in an armoured safe at the range here in NSW. There's a pistol club within half a mile of where I live and some years ago an attempt was made on the safe, fortunately an unsuccessful attempt but it led to gunsafes at pistol clubs having to be strengthened even more to comply with new laws in NSW. Putting such a sticker on the back of your car would however bring you to the attention of the boys and girls in blue and they would stop you and search your car for drugs, contraband, cash and/or any mechanical defects they might be able to find or all four and this could take well over an hour if they wanted to be really nasty so no point in doing that here. And if you backchat them you're just guaranteeing an even longer wait while they carry out the search. The more you backchat them the more meticulous they're likely to be.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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:D, ChippyWho, I don't have a 1,400 hp Mercedes but my car that I was driving yesterday has a 250 hp engine, is constant AWD with traction control, ABS and electronic stability program and it weighs 2 tonnes so I'd probably be able throw my weight around like that if I wanted to and believe me sometimes I'm sorely tempted to.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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Put a concealed carry sticker on the back of your vehicle, it magically makes the @ssholes of the road vanish... :D/>/>

while browsing /k/ I do have read some really bogus stories regarding CC and whatnot,guess from time to time a soccer mom tale still pops

Edited by Mizar
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:D, I think the police answer to her would be along the lines of "well young lady, for the trouble of bringing this in to us here's a charge sheet for driving in a manner dangerous to the public." I can't se what she'd gain from taking a photo either and when I told my friend about it yesterday she just looked at me and asked the same question.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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I hate tailgatters as much as the next person, but may i ask why you slowed down to 30km/h? It isn't gonna solve anything, if anything it only makes it worse. My reaction is to ignore them, drive my drive and if they hit me because they can't stop in time, they pay the damages.

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I hate tailgatters as much as the next person, but may i ask why you slowed down to 30km/h? It isn't gonna solve anything, if anything it only makes it worse. My reaction is to ignore them, drive my drive and if they hit me because they can't stop in time, they pay the damages.

Except here in the wonderful state of Michigan where insurance is all no-fault. They hit me tailgating? They might get a ticket, but I have to pay all my own damages.

Genius.

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Except here in the wonderful state of Michigan where insurance is all no-fault. They hit me tailgating? They might get a ticket, but I have to pay all my own damages.

Genius.

What? That's BS. Why isn't anyone protesting that law?

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What on earth would a still (or even a moving) picture of your car prove, even if you'd done something egregiously wrong? That's just dumb.

Perhaps they weren't going to go to the police, but rather post on a social networking about the "jerk" in front of them. (Note the quotation marks.) I also agree with streetstream - although it is tempting, slowing down doesn't help anyone, especially if there is no place for them to pass.

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:D, Slowing down is actually one of the methods reccomended by the police here. If they hit you there's less damage at 30 km/h than at 70 km/h and less chance of whiplash injury for you. It's simple maths actually. And do I care about being called a "jerk" on social media? Don't think so but the when I get the dash cam they'll worry about not only being a "jerk" and being splashed all over social media but also getting a dangerous driving charge against them. Or will they? But when it happens they will.

Here we have "no fault" insurance but by the condition of this car I doubt it was insured at all (except for 3rd party injury insurance which is compulsory, which it may or may not have had because it had Victorian plates on it, we call it CTP here and it's part of the registration fee. It may or not have even been registered in any state.) By the condition of the car I doubt the young girl driving it would have even had the money to replace my rear bumper let alone any repair structural damage if she wsn't insured. And if she was in such a big hurry to get past me why didn't she when she had the chance a kilometer or so down the road? I think she was just trying to be a smart alec, which backfired on her big time. Been driving too long to worry about things like that from my own point of view, however if there had been some kind of emergency situation while she was taking that pic (if that's actually what she was doing) she wouldn't have been able to deal with it. If I'd been doing that I wouldn't be able to deal with it either and I've been driving 45 years last month and have never lost my licence for anything. I have lost points but never enough to lose my licence. These days it seeems to be a competition among the young ones to see who'll be the first to lose their licence and how many times they can do so before they turn 25. This young girl was on a provisional licence (by the P plate on the bonnet of the car) and she looked about 18 or 19 at the most, so she obviously had heaps of experience. Not.

Unfortunately the dash cam is going to have to wait another month. My dog got into a packet of snail bate at my friend's place yesterday and the total bill will be something around $2,200 for his vet treatment. Oh well, a funeral and burial or cremation for a pet can cost more than that these days so when it's his time I'm going to do what I did for my last dog. Dig a hole and bury him in the back yard. That costs nothing.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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Hope your dog is OK Ross.

Not sure about other countries, but young females have become increasingly aggressive here is Oz. I once went to the aid of a pedestrian who has nearly clipped by a young male driver who had taken a corner at a stupid speed while the pedestrian was half way across the road. Pedestrian and driver were having words in a nearby carpark, so I stepped in to give pedestrian some backup in case it got ugly. But then the drivers young female girlfriend stepped in and went ballistic, screaming at us she would kill us. We just ignored her, and spoke with the driver who was being somewhat more rational.....and clearly embarrassed by his nutter girlfriend.

In the end we let it be, deciding if he had to live with her, that was punishment enough :wacko:

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Tailgaters were becoming more and more prevalent in Wisconsin before we finally moved away from there. I honestly think some of them thought it was great sport to see how close they could get behind you. I found it very rude and annoying. I had words with a couple of my co-workers who tailgated me on the way to work, and they responded by saying it was none of my business how they drove, and that if I was going to drive below the speed limit that's what I deserved. Nevermind that I was driving nearly 10 mph over the limit...

At the time I was driving an old beater car, getting ready to buy something newer. I didn't really care if the beater got wrecked, and one day on my way home from work someone tucked in close behind me. Really close, as in I couldn't see his headlights in the rear view. So I slowed down to below the speed limit. There was room for him to pass but he just stayed there. Finally I was angry enough that I brake-checked him, hitting my brakes hard just for a split second. As I watched in the rear view, I saw the driver slow rapidly, then throw up his hands in obvious frustration. Then he and the two cars behind him pulled over to the side. I kept going, wondering what the heck was going on. Took me a minute to realize what had happened. The drivers behind him were also tailgating, and while he avoided hitting me, the other two didn't fare so well and all three cars ended up hitting one another.

At the time I was still working on my flight instructor certificate, and during my next lesson I told this story to my instructor. He asked me if it happened at such and such time and place. Yeah, but how did he know? Turns out he knew the driver behind me, they worked at the same place. Oh shoot! I thought I was in trouble... But then he told me the man was an accident waiting to happen and he was glad that it happened that way, maybe it might slow him down and make him change his ways. Whew.

Thankfully there aren't nearly as many tailgaters here in Hawaii. But there are some, and I'd sure love to find a way to make them back off that wasn't dangerous. I saw a bumper sticker on a car the other day that I'd like to get. It said "Excuse me for driving so close in front of you."

Edited by Scott R Wilson
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:D, Good one Scott, I like that. I'm thinking of getting a sticker made up that says "Smile, You're on Candid Camera." Thommo, thank you for your thoughts for Jack. He was not too bad this morning when I saw him but the vet rang me just after I'd typed my last post and said he'd detected a cardiac arythmia and reccomended taking him from where he is at Medowie near the Williamtown RAAF base to an emergency animal hospital in town here. I did that last night as the vets at Medowie aren't open 24 hours and the emergency hospital isn't open during the day so it was go home from work this morning, have some breakfast, go pick Jack up and drive him back to Medowie. I told the vet that another 40 minute car ride each way would stress him out even more and if he passes away during the night then it's meant to be. I'll be upset of course if that happens but I can't keep throwing money at the situation. I'm just hoping and praying he makes it through the night and beyond.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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:D, One good reason Smokey, cars parked on the side of the road. But when I did speed up back to the limit she didn't follow at the same speed and made no attempt to overtake me when the road widened into a four lane divided road so as I said what was the big hurry in the first place, she had to be exceeding the limit to catch me up in the first place, but then when she had a chance to overtake she was quite happy to sit behind me after the incident with the mobile phone. Who knows what her resoning was but it didn't make much sense to me. And besides that it's a well known place for police to sit with a radar trap or one of the new private radar traps contracted by the police. They just sit there and take pics of speeding motorists and they can be parked in a line of parked cars with just a couple of very small signs which are sometimes placed in somewhat obscure positions despite the laws regulating these private traps. These traps can also take pics of cars going the other way to what they are facing as they have dual radar heads that read speeds in both directions and multiple cameras facing both directions.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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:D, Hi Pep, I'd thought of something like that but bigger, much bigger with a keyboard to say exactly what you want. No, I'm being bit silly now but that's a good idea. Scott, how do you guys go with rear facing cameras then? Just wondering.

:cheers:,

Ross.

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