My first 'hang on there on my side' moment.

[snotrag]

Driving back through Shorpe yesterday night - poor visbility due to fog/sleet, but on a very well lit urban type dual carriageway littered with roundabouts and junctions.

Came off roundabout, Lane 1. At this point I usually move into lane 2 in anticpation of where im going at the next roundabout a few yards down the road - spot faint headlights lights through the fog in distance. All normal. Then WOAH fk they are on my side - young lady in small car, very slowly meandering wrong way up lane 2 - quick (not quite a swerve but forceful!) lane change and pulled right over into a layby while they passed - had a look behind me to see them seeming turning right (ie going round the wrong way) onto the RAB I'd just left - another car behind me had also stopped.

What the hell can you do!? Pretty scary, thank God it was the dead of night with hardly any traffic.

How do people get into these situations?

This section of DC is only about 500 yds long with roundabotus at either end, and no T-junctions (the common place where people end up on the wrong side I imagine, a Tjunction onto a DC with no hole through the barrier onto the other side - they ignore the blue one way arrow and turn right onto lane 2).

What on earth can you do? If it had been at home in Leeds I'd have rang the local non emergency number, if it was motroway i would definitely have called 999.

[Martin A]

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though. It may save someone's life.

Hope this helps

Martin A

[Dyl]

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though. It may save someone's life.

Hope this helps

Martin A

A little off topic, but is calling 999 the same procedure for when one spots something on, for example, the carriageway of the motorway. The reason I ask was I was travelling home last week and spotted a large strap in the middle of the two lanes, with a large metal buckle(?) at the end. Luckily traffic was slow, but it would definitely have done some damage as the speed increased.

[Magic919]

I think "hang on, they're on my side" would make more sense. Unless you actually wanted someone to hang on your side for a moment.

[CommanderJameson]

Dyl said:

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though. It may save someone's life.

Hope this helps

Martin A

A little off topic, but is calling 999 the same procedure for when one spots something on, for example, the carriageway of the motorway. The reason I ask was I was travelling home last week and spotted a large strap in the middle of the two lanes, with a large metal buckle(?) at the end. Luckily traffic was slow, but it would definitely have done some damage as the speed increased.

A big bit of debris counts as an emergency, I think, and would merit pulling over onto the HS and using the emergency telephone there - this has the advantage of letting the operator know exactly where you are.

[reggie82]

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though.

It's not a case of 'ideally' pulling over somewhere safe - you must do this. You cannot call 999 whilst driving (without hands free of course) if you could have safely pulled over to make the call.

I don't want to take it off topic as this has been done before. Just wanted to clarify the point so anyone reading this doesnt end up with 3 points on their license for dialling 999 whilst driving.

[mrmr96]

reggie82 said:

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though.

It's not a case of 'ideally' pulling over somewhere safe - you must do this. You cannot call 999 whilst driving (without hands free of course) if you could have safely pulled over to make the call.

I don't want to take it off topic as this has been done before. Just wanted to clarify the point so anyone reading this doesnt end up with 3 points on their license for dialling 999 whilst driving.

Prove it.

[reggie82]

mrmr96 said:

reggie82 said:

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though.

It's not a case of 'ideally' pulling over somewhere safe - you must do this. You cannot call 999 whilst driving (without hands free of course) if you could have safely pulled over to make the call.

I don't want to take it off topic as this has been done before. Just wanted to clarify the point so anyone reading this doesnt end up with 3 points on their license for dialling 999 whilst driving.

Prove it.

Mate, I really dont want to take this thread off topic, it's not fair on the OP. It's been covered before, do a search or google it.

[maurauth]

mrmr96 said:

reggie82 said:

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though.

It's not a case of 'ideally' pulling over somewhere safe - you must do this. You cannot call 999 whilst driving (without hands free of course) if you could have safely pulled over to make the call.

I don't want to take it off topic as this has been done before. Just wanted to clarify the point so anyone reading this doesnt end up with 3 points on their license for dialling 999 whilst driving.

Prove it.

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually. As it's commonly regarded as illegal, you are challenging the norm and you should provide some evidence. You don't want someone sueing you for misinforming them and them losing their license, right?

[maurauth]

mrmr96 said:

reggie82 said:

Martin A said:

Call 999/911/112, even if you are driving as it is legal to make emergency calls. Ideally pull over somewhere safe though.

It's not a case of 'ideally' pulling over somewhere safe - you must do this. You cannot call 999 whilst driving (without hands free of course) if you could have safely pulled over to make the call.

I don't want to take it off topic as this has been done before. Just wanted to clarify the point so anyone reading this doesnt end up with 3 points on their license for dialling 999 whilst driving.

Prove it.

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually. As it's commonly regarded as illegal, you are challenging the norm and you should provide some evidence. You don't want someone sueing you for misinforming them and them losing their license, right?

[7db]

"unsafe or impractical"

[7db]

(5) A person does not contravene a provision of this regulation if, at the time of the alleged contravention -

(a) he is using the telephone or other device to call the police, fire, ambulance or other emergency service on 112 or 999;

(b) he is acting in response to a genuine emergency; and

(c) it is unsafe or impracticable for him to cease driving in order to make the call (or, in the case of an alleged contravention of paragraph (3)(b), for the provisional licence holder to cease driving while the call was being made).

[mrmr96]

7db said:

(5) A person does not contravene a provision of this regulation if, at the time of the alleged contravention -

(a) he is using the telephone or other device to call the police, fire, ambulance or other emergency service on 112 or 999;

(b) he is acting in response to a genuine emergency; and

(c) it is unsafe or impracticable for him to cease driving in order to make the call (or, in the case of an alleged contravention of paragraph (3)(b), for the provisional licence holder to cease driving while the call was being made).

Thanks. Would stopping on the hard shoulder be considered unsafe? I know I'd feel safer driving and calling 999 than I would do stopped on the hard shoulder. Maybe that's not rational - hence asking for a 2nd opinion.

[mrmr96]

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

[reggie82]

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

You tried to put the burden on to me to prove that you can't automatically dial 999 whilst driving lol

wrt dialling 999 on the motorway - I agree that it is safer to call whilst driving than stop on the hard shoulder. I'm not a solicitor, but im sure no policeman would nick you for that. Even if they did, I'd hope the courts would agree.

Sorry OP this has gone way off topic because of me - I thought it was important to clear up the misleading info giving though.

[maurauth]

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

well yes there is, you can't just go and be a rude little tosser and say Prove It out of thin air and not expect to be challenged

[mrmr96]

maurauth said:

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

well yes there is, you can't just go and be a rude little tosser and say Prove It out of thin air and not expect to be challenged

Please don't call me a rude little tosser - there's no need for that. You must have added the arrogant attitude you percieved in my comment all on your own.

It was intended as a challenge to the comment, and one which I expected could be met as I love learning about different pieces of law. His interpretation is different from what I'd been led to believe so all I wanted was his 'proof' (of other evidence of a similar nature) to back up his comment.

Sorry you've misinterpreted what I said, it was not meant to be rude.

[reggie82]

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

well yes there is, you can't just go and be a rude little tosser and say Prove It out of thin air and not expect to be challenged

Please don't call me a rude little tosser - there's no need for that. You must have added the arrogant attitude you percieved in my comment all on your own.

It was intended as a challenge to the comment, and one which I expected could be met as I love learning about different pieces of law. His interpretation is different from what I'd been led to believe so all I wanted was his 'proof' (of other evidence of a similar nature) to back up his comment.

Sorry you've misinterpreted what I said, it was not meant to be rude.

To be fair, it did come across arrogant to me mate & that you only said it because you didn't think i'd be able to prove it. I'd already said it has been covered before, so if you were really that interested to learn about different pieces of law you could have just searched for it.

I think it came across that way as you were very short and blunt. If you'd asked me to back it up as you were interested in knowing more, it would have come across much nicer.

[mrmr96]

reggie82 said:

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

mrmr96 said:

maurauth said:

I think the burden of proof is on you to prove that you can call 999 whilst driving, actually.

There's no 'burden' on anyone!

well yes there is, you can't just go and be a rude little tosser and say Prove It out of thin air and not expect to be challenged

Please don't call me a rude little tosser - there's no need for that. You must have added the arrogant attitude you percieved in my comment all on your own.

It was intended as a challenge to the comment, and one which I expected could be met as I love learning about different pieces of law. His interpretation is different from what I'd been led to believe so all I wanted was his 'proof' (of other evidence of a similar nature) to back up his comment.

Sorry you've misinterpreted what I said, it was not meant to be rude.

To be fair, it did come across arrogant to me mate & that you only said it because you didn't think i'd be able to prove it. I'd already said it has been covered before, so if you were really that interested to learn about different pieces of law you could have just searched for it.

I think it came across that way as you were very short and blunt. If you'd asked me to back it up as you were interested in knowing more, it would have come across much nicer.

Please accept my apologies, I'll choose my turn of phrase more carefully next time.

[reggie82]

No worries mate, I know how you meant it now