Monday 10 April 2006

Distraction leads to AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!

Last Thursday I was I was on the West side of the Oxford Ring Road in the 50mph section doing a bit over 50 in the outside lane of the dual carriageway overtaking some slower vehicles.

In my mirrors I noticed someone coming up fairly quickly behind me and though it was just some agressive git in a hurry. I knew we were coming up to the NSL section, so I just thought I would hold my speed and make sure I dominated the lane with my positioning, then open the throttle at the NSL and speed away.

The car got very close, then vanished from my mirrors - it was overtaking me even though I was in the outside lane! I didn't think there was anyway the car could get past but she was right over near the central crash barrier!

I put my thumb on the horn and kept it there for a good long while. I was kind of in disbelief so kept up with her just sounding the horn. I then went alongside her and kept sounding the horn (just got the horn fixed!)

It wasn't some male git though - it was a bloody pensioner - must have been in her 60s!

I kept sounding the horn and she paid absolutely no attention to me. I think she might have mouth 'oh go away', but there was absolutely no acknowledgement. I think I would have been happier if she'd given me the finger!

I looked in the car to see if there was a dying child in there or something as that was the only excuse that I could think of for that sort of driving, but she was alone.

So on Thursday night I phoned Thames Valley Police to report it. They told me I would have to go to a police station in person to report it, then the woman would at least get a letter warning her about her dangerous driving.

Well, I went to the station tonight and it turns out that I can't report it without an independent witness!

I was somewhat... annoyed and went back to ride my bike home... whereupon I tried to ride off without removing the disc-lock! End result - me dropping the bike and now my caliper bracket is snapped. The brakes still seemed to work so I rode the bike the 1.5 miles 30mph journey home, but there's no way I'm riding it at 70mph+ to get to work.

So time to get on the phone to the breakers to get a new part. My bike has had nothing but bad luck since I moved to Oxford.

It's a shame as I was in such a good mood after winning an Ebay auction for an Autocom intercom unit for the motorbike.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's just one of these days, mate.. Only today I had an accident, and when waiting for a recovery, A 50 year old courier stopped by and told me he had a first incident since 15 years.

Yeah, spring is coming.