The savage at the wheel of 90-L-1944 came within a hair’s breadth of killing me, all my children, my mother in law, all of those in an oncoming vehicle and everyone in his own vehicle 10 minutes ago.
This cretin who clearly rates his own life as worthless carried out a suicidal overtaking manouvre of my car just before Bandon with a stream of cars bearing down on us. If I hadn’t seen him in my side mirror and swerved into the road margin at the last second, there would have been a fatal three car collision.
This imbecile then immediately got stuck in 20 MPH town traffic.
If you spot this old grey Honda Prelude in West Cork, give it a wide berth, he may try to kill you too.
You may ask why I didn’t call the police. Do you think they would have done anything?
December 9, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Sounds like a boy scumbag. You should ring the guards, they usually ring the registered owner, yer man probably still lives at home and he’ll get a bolocking off the parents maybe
December 9, 2007 at 7:28 pm
OMG, you’re lucky! We had an almost brush with a suicidal SUV 2 weeks ago. On a blind bend in a 60km/h back road this huge vehicle overtook a cyclist and went halfway into our lane. If (like everyone else) I was driving over the speed limit we’d certainly have collided.
Anyway, I’m *very* glad I work from home. Every time I drive there are so many maniacs speeding and crossing white lines that I wish I was at home again ..
December 9, 2007 at 8:02 pm
There were 4 or 5 in the car. Looked middle aged. Probably late for the pub.
December 9, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Ring the guards, they will give him a warning for dangerous driving, and if he gives them stick they will usually be pretty good at handing out fines or points!
December 9, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Conor – the advice is dead right. Ring the cops. If I could remember the number of the fuckwit who overtook me out of nowhere on the backroad between the Bandon road and Carrigaline, in the rain and the dark, around a curve, and barely got his ass back in time, then I would have been making that call.
The stereotype of the boy racer is too easy. There are men and women out there in their 30s 40s and beyond who drive with criminal neglect every day of the week. It wouldn’t be so bad if the only corpses they left behind were their own.
December 10, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Jebus, you were lucky.
Ring the guards, how are driving standards supposed to improve when dicks like this are allowed behind the wheel?
My guess would be that he had a flat cap on, and was about 90.
(I commute to work….say no more).
December 10, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Close one. If I had a euro for every idiot driver I’ve witnessed in the past month in Bandon I’d be a rich bloke.
FYI the pedistrian crossing on main street is invisible to most drivers in my experience.
December 10, 2007 at 9:47 pm
I’m sorry to to say, but you are probably correct, the Garda won’t life a finger. They are most likely drinking buddies, and don’t want to rock the boat.
December 11, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Report it! I did before and it goes on file incase the gobshit is involved in another accident at a later date.
December 16, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Do ring the guards. They do act on it.
Last Christmas we were behind a MiniBus on the way into Charleville and it seemed to be swaying and driving erratically. Herself rang the guards , they sent out a car to intercept it in Charleville (we saw him being stopped) and they rang back shortly afterwards to let us know that the driver was in full control of his senses etc.
December 28, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I rang and reported an arse who overtook me on a blind bend, when he was alongside me another car came round the corner. I have no idea how we all survived but I was shook up (2 kids in the back luckily belted in as always). He sped off, I caught up with him round the next bend, stuck behind a string of traffic and a tractor. I got his reg number, rang the guards, they called me in to give a statement. They said he would go to court and would I testify. In the end I said I’d be happy if they called to his house and let him know he’d been reported. We are in a rural area, everyone knows eachother, but the guards were more than willing to act on my information.
December 30, 2007 at 8:36 pm
We all make mistakes where we attempt an overtake which is too risky but there is a line you cross where you go from “mistake” to “default behaviour” and I just cannot understand how these people have so little regard for their own lives.
As a side-note, there was a complete lack of police presence on the roads from Cork->Kilkenny on 25th, Kilkenny->Dublin on 27th and Dublin->Cork today. On the upside, only saw two future suicides on the roads in those trips.
February 1, 2008 at 8:51 am
Thats funny, I only found your blog yesterday afternoon and was reading this post by chance. What car did i pass stuck behind the school busses this morning but Prelude 90 L! Was a woman driving it today.
February 1, 2008 at 10:27 am
Wow, they’ve survived this long? I’m surprised. Did they manage to wing a few kids on the way past the bus?
March 1, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Repeating the advice to call if something like this happens again. We called after being dangerously overtaken and seeing the SUV do the same again. We continued on at the speed limit, and half an hour later or so, caught up with them driving normally. They must have been caught or warned and changed their behaviour.