Driving Fail Viewers Edition #43 | Repeat Offenders 

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I hope some of these were submitted to the police. The white Audi on the crossing was especially bad

9:16 Should be getting a police visit, that is shocking.

I’m really appalled by the overtakes of cyclists in these clips. It’s like some people absolutely refuse to be slowed down by a cyclist by even a few seconds and will even overtake on a blind corner with solid whites. They don’t seem to have any care for the cyclist, oncoming traffic, or even themselves. Obviously the cyclist is most vulnerable

The horn is interesting. Whilst I agree it's not really for 'telling off', I've had 1 or 2 situations where I've driven sillier than I should and a well earned horn from another car has really drilled in the lesson and slight embarrassment on my end.

1:23 whether or not that was the intent, use of horn may have deterred the next car from also attempting to overtake without looking.

I got caught out at a roundabout several years ago. I was the second car on the approach, there was a gap in the traffic on the roundabout and the car in front moved off. I switched my attention to the right, saw there was still a gap and moved forward, only to find that, for some inexplicable reason, the driver in front had decided to stop again, halfway across the line, and I nudged their back bumper before I could stop. I learned a valuable lesson that day, and now I take nothing for granted.

For me, the situations in some of these clips warrant a lifetime ban. People drive like this because they know they can get away with it but it eventually only ends one way. If people knew that they categorically will never ever drive again if caught doing such a dangerous manoeuvre they might think twice before they do it. And I'm not talking about people that do a bad emerge or jump a red light, these are all things we can do accidentally and obviously don't warrant a lifetime ban. But you don't accidentally overtake whilst passing a junction in a 30mph zone at 5:02, you don't accidentally overtake a huge queue of traffic through traffic lights like the idiot at 7:45 and you most certainly don't accidentally overtake a car at a zebra crossing and nearly wipe out a pedestrian at 8:10. All these (especially the last one) deserve lifetime bans, there is simply no place on our roads for people that drive like this and the sooner they are removed the better.

Incidents like the one at 1:38 seem to happen all the time in my school vehicle, even when I'm the one driving it. It's so easy to get stuck in a loop of holding back when the way isn't clear (as you should), only for other drivers to pass you and enter the space, leaving you with the choice to keep being obstructed or becoming the obstruction yourself in order to end the cycle.

Having recently ridden (on a bicycle) several hundred km through Spain one thing I noticed is that the recent 1.5m clearance rule is very well signed on many roads, the understanding, patience and consideration shown by motorists towards cyclists is far better than in the UK, as a result I felt far safer than when I cycle on main roads in the UK.

1:25 I think the use of the horn was appropriate (though didn't need to be held for that long) and not just a retaliation here since it draws the attention of *others* to the situation. Anecdotally it's very common to see other cars blindly follow in cyclist overtakes, and the cyclist might have been too focused on the vehicles overtaking to see the approaching dangerous situation.

Good mention about repeat offenders. I've been in cars where someone has cursed another driver for an error a few times and called them terrible drivers and so on and I try to say to them it's one error, even if it is a bad error. If we were to see them make more mistakes while they were in our view we could then start to believe they are a bad driver rather than a good one who is only human.

@9:04, reprimand or not, there was plenty of time for the cammer to stop when the amber light came on, especially as it was at a slow speed. He only just cleared the stop line when the light turned red. nb. there seems to be one particular car brand that appears disproportionately in the most egregious examples of bad driving.

2:30m… as soon as you see someone driving like this you know that they are in a hurry, the safest thing to do is stay back keep out of their way

1:24 I do it like this too, but it's more for my own anger management than telling the other driver "you done goofed", since I already know that they either don't care, or are oblivious enough that they wouldn't even know why they hear the horn. Granted, I only do this once my patience is over, as in several drivers putting me in danger by cutting in etc. one after another, here I'd just gesticulate 🤷

The one at the pedestrian crossing... 😱

I’ll be on one of these driving fails after my mistake yesterday. Was approaching a roundabout and there was at least 20 cars queuing and for some reason I thought everyone was going left. I went on the hatching which I thought was the beginning of the right turn lane and overtook most of the cars then realised the everyone was queuing for the right hand lane. Wanted the road to swallow me up. Please rid me of this shame 😂

0:33 There are countless videos on RU-vid where a car takes the wrong line through a roundabout. In this case, as in most cases, the cammer could have avoided trouble by staggered driving, keeping a safe distance behind the blue car, then there is no danger wherever they go.

7:15 I've definitely almost done this a few times, I've gone to move up to the front of the queue for the roundabout only to realise the car in front never actually took that obvious gap in traffic for some reason. The fact I leave a big gap between myself and the car in front means I have plenty of time to react but still, I can see how it happens.

Re: repeat offenders. I had an appointment in town just after I watched this video earlier this morning. Driving up to the roundabout on the bypass, I saw a Merc suddenly swap lanes out of the right turning lane into the middle, straight ahead, lane right in front of us. I said to my wife, 'This Merc's going to do something stupid,' so I held back. And lo, after a couple of false starts, nearly getting hit by vehicles on the roundabout, he then took off squealy-squealy, right the way around to the right, thus getting two car places ahead. I don't think I've ever had a lesson delivered and the practical application put into practice so soon afterwards.

1:33 was great use of the horn in my opinion. He let everyone know he is there and took premptive action to shop the follow the leader of the chain of cars behind the guilty driver.

9:20 - I'm gobsmacked at that overtake from the ford... such little respect for the life of the cyclist.

There truly are some dreadful drivers about. As you say, it's amazing when people have passed their test how much of what they've learnt gets thrown out the window? How often do we hear people say to someone who's just passed, 'well, now you can start to learn properly'? That oft-repeated statement is giving the newly qualified driver permission to dispose of the good driving habits required to pass the test. This compilation is the result. The overtake of the cyclist at 9:24 was by far the worst I've ever seen, potentially murderous - and I don't like using that word facetiously. That single act should have been enough for a ban and a mega-fine.

I have a similar dashcam clip of someone overtaking a cyclist on a bend, which I will send you later on. But I made the decision to send it to the police, who have sent the driver a notice to prosecute. So when they are done with it, I will pass it on to you. Edit: Similar in the fact of me being well under the speed limit and having to stop abruptly to avoid a head-on collision.

Some truly shocking driving in these clips

A few days ago I had a similar experience to the cyclist towards the end of the video. I reached a heavily potholed section of road, checked behind me, signalled right, pulled into the middle of the road for about 10 seconds. The alternatives were falling off my bike or coming to a dead stop. The driver behind, who had had plenty of warning, drove uncomfortably close with her horn pressed down before overtaking on a bend. I think some cyclists overuse primary position but this war that seems to be fuelled by the self righteous Cycling Mikey types on one side and the motorists who can think only of their own progress on the other helps no one.

0:33 The lengths some people will go to to avoid ending up in Skipton.

With reference to the "drivers" that make mistakes; an old 🎥 quote (Goldfinger) springs to mind....... Once is happenstance; Twice is coincidence; Three times is emnity action. Stay safe out there.

I toot my horn couple of short ones, I think sometimes it wakes people up makes them concentrate a bit more, especially pedestrians on phone crossing road, do belive it could safe lives. Toot at a junction when someone waiting a while to get out and has gone in a trance is better than just flashing, it's there to aid driving not for reprimands. But that's just me.

On the horn use - it can depend on what's behind the camera. No, I don't mean the driver, I mean the roadway. I habitually use the horn if I have to perform an emergency brake maneuver and there is someone behind me - not to school the fool who caused me to have to brake suddenly, but rather, to make damned sure that the person behind me is alerted to the fact that something weird is going on up ahead, because they aren't always paying attention.

'Do other road users need telling they've done something wrong, even after the event?' Well you seem to think so, as you demonstrated 30 seconds into your 'me me me' video last year 👍

Overtaking at corners and junctions is so incredibly stupid it boggles the mind that people actually do it.

Cheers Ashley! Followed your instructions at 6:37 and got rear ended after just stopping!! Clip coming soon! 🤣😜

In reply to your question at 1:35 regarding the use of the horn, usually I would agree and say no. However, in my experience sometimes a horn like this one allows the other driver to appreciate they’ve done something wrong, which may prevent it happening again in the future. If i’ve ever been told off by horn usage for a mistake that ive genuinely made I think about why they horned me and go (for example) “yeah maybe I was a bit too close to that bike”… I definitely don’t just go around beeping my horn at every mistake I see, but i think in this clip it could’ve benefited the other driver. 🤷‍♂️

About ringing the police if it’s not safe to stop and you don’t have hands free it is legal to use a handheld phone to ring the police when driving

Being generous I could be argued that the horn is warning any following vehicles (being very generous). Also, perception and response times means a decision to use the horn is at the moment of perception and then response means although the dirver has committed to using it by the time they do it feels late and hence appears to be used to admonish the other driver.

The onus is on the government for driving test examiners to allow candidates to make up to 15 SERIOUS mistakes and still get a pass.

I do think that beeping after a close pass could alert people that they’ve done something wrong, but if they’re oblivious to the danger, they might be shocked, swerve away (thinking they are doing something to oncoming traffic) and into the path of the cyclist…However I do think most people who close pass me don’t even realise how much they have scared me or the danger they pose.

1:03 Honest question: so does straight arrow mean "leave the roundabout"? The blue car literally goes where the arrow is pointing.

According to the highway code, no, other road users shouldn't be told by use of horn that they have done something wrong. But you asked if they should be, and I say hell, yes.

Thanks for another great selection of clips. The more of these I watch, the better prepared for these scenarios occurring on my journeys. I'm starting to be able to predict what you are going to say. Was half expecting a UK numberplate on that vehicle driving the wrong way down a motorway in Europe

I believe use of the horn is only for stress relief. If someone honks at me for driving carefully when I've spotted a potential hazard, or if I honk at someone for using a turn lane to pass through an intersection, in either case it will be ignored.

The one swerving earlier no doubt dropped his mobile phone and was reaching down to get it. Does no one use their brakes? cause the horn is not going to stop you.

9:28 Honestly, that clip, I actually said "Jesus..." out loud, through gritted teeth. That was *crzy.*

some years back there was a fatal crash in my town where the driver of a car leaned across to grab something out of the footwell, and drifted into the guardrail. the driver and the other two of his passengers survived with severe injuries. the people in the car he bounced into were also severely hurt/

most of these clips are a great example of the mentality of must get infront, when in fact this gets you pretty much no where on the roads today apart from possibly getting to your destination two seconds quicker or actually never!

In response to your punitive honking to bad behaviour inquiry I feel differently about it. I've never seen it as punishment but more as calling out bad behaviour, as I've mentioned before I'm Canadian and in North America as you may have noticed we have a more relaxed enforcement and education (in comparison) and entitled culture with drivers behaving as though they can do as they like. I see it as drivers knowing what they're doing as theoretically wrong and incorrect but without anyone calling them out they assume it's ok to do certain things are definitely not and unsafe and illegal

Hi Ashley, since you ask I will answer your first question, in my opinion there was no other reason than to express irritation, the proper use of the horn is to offer a warning to another road user while there is a chance they an alter their behaviour after hearing your horn, when the whole thing has happened and is basically over there is no good reason for hooting. This compilation is of course a series of episodes of bad driving none of them can fairly be described as un-intended and put together two things are clear, one that such bad driving is far too common and he second is that most times the potential crash does not happen, high risk indeed but not such high danger. Cheers, Richard.

Those reckless drivers, they'll get away with it once, or maybe a hundred times. When it goes bad. It'll be really bad

I'm ambivalent about beeping people - if they aren't told then how will they know but do they even know?😅

2:30 I cycle through this junction in Oxford almost daily and it's always problematic

I think the horn in the second clip was appropriate, it was initiated as people were still violating right of way, and still in the process of nearly causing an accident, especially for the second car. To me it says "I'm here, don't hit me". They hit the horn at the same time they hit the brakes to avoid a collision. Had your viewer not reacted, that would have been a collision. Some people are truly oblivious. If that wasn't a time to use the horn to avoid a collision, I dunno what would be.

5:48 has to be on his phone.

The thing I don’t get about punitive horn use is that when I get into those kinds of situations, there’s no instinct for me at all to use the horn; my mind is totally focussed on braking. I’d have to consciously override the instinct to brake and use my horn instead, so it seems like people who use the horn in those situations have less of a natural inclination to brake or something, they’d rather tell off the other driver instead.

Ashley, we have what we call speed-roundabouts over here in the Netherlands. Over here in the city i live in, 's-Hertogenbosch, we have one very nice example. It is at the junction of the Bruistensingel and the Empelseweg. (tried a link but seems RU-vid doesn't allow that. Not even a googlemaps link.) This roundabout makes life much easier. People have to choose the correct lane in order to end up taking the correct exit. You cant switch lanes on the roundabout, unless you want to hop over a barrier that probably will damage your vehicle if you try it. When you approach this roundabout, you can easily see if you can keep going or need to stop or what have you. The only downside to this roundabout is that they changed the entire layout or the surroundings. The channel was dug a few years ago, it used to go through city center but they decided to alter the route a bit to lessen the congestion of the center of the city. And that worked. BUT they had to bridge over the channel, and connect it to the highway on the other side. And that results in a very steep bridge. When you try to go up it in a fully loaded truck, it will go very very slow. Anyways, that is off topic entirely. But have a look at that roundabout (if the link functions, that is). I haven't seen any of em in Britain on your videos, or anywhere else. And i think, personally, that this is one of the best roundabouts we have in our country. I could give another example: Keizer Karelplein in Nijmegen. You only have to type in Keizer Karelplein into google, hit enter, and you will see the most horrible roundabout there is.

I regularly report traffic incidents such as the ones shown in this video - and pleased to say I’ve got 6 out of 6 reports for red light running leading to punishment for the offender. One good the Met police do well with the dashcam footage submission service.

Sounding the horn has a correct use. Chastising other drivers isn't it.

On using the horn for a poor overtake of a cyclist: while I understand why you would want to use your horn, as a cyclist, you're already frightened and distracted by having to deal with a poor overtake, adding a horn blast into the mix can cause a sudden shock and be the thing that causes the accident. Please don't use your horn like that.

2:18 I'm sure he mounted the kerb, which is a fail on the test.

1:10 Looks to me like a badly marked roundabout of which there are many which can catch you out if unfamiliar - there's one near me which I know well but a few people who I've been in the car with that don't know it as well have noted the same thing about poor road markings putting you in the wrong lane

It looks like the van was loaded heavy. @5:53 after the swerve now seems to be slightly listing to the left.

I REALLY dont like the use of the horn other then when its absolutely required. it makes me jump sometimes & in MOST circumstances I hear a horn, its more about the driver letting someone know they've been slighted, than anything else. a real pet hate. it grinds my gears

Some people have no clue how to drive..i'm not perfect and i do mistakes but come one, there are limits

The (1st) cycle rider is too close to the kerb edge, ride primarily until it is safe to go secondary position. Riding like this can indicate to car drivers that it's okay to overtake when it is clearly not safe to do so. Cycle riders should keep at least 0.5m (approx 1.5 feet) away from the kerb edge and further where it is safer when riding on busy roads with faster-moving vehicles, this is the distance from the rider and kerb, not the wheels and kerb.

Nearly always the same story, the impatient drivers who are in a hurry often take silly risks to get no further ahead, then the slower patient driver who takes time to assess the road ahead and helping to increase flow for everyone makes the same (or better) progress than the impatient driver.

The lane markings in the roundabout at the beginning totally confused me as a German driver, but maybe the conventions are different in the UK in roundabouts? The lane markings say "straight arrow" which normally means "follow the current lane". The lane of the blue car continues inside the roundabout. So from what I'm used to (from German lane markings) I would think those lane markings are saying the blue car is not allowed to turn left to exit - which makes no sense, so I assume the conventions are different in the UK, and different in a somewhat misleading way.

0:38 since they put the traffic lights in, people have been getting into the wrong lane so many times at that roundabout. It’s arguably made it worse to navigate with there being so many lanes now

The clip at 0:33 with the 2 lanes heading towards Skipton is at Keighley. It was rebuilt in recent years and still seems to catch people out. The amount of cars you see in the left hand lane who suddenly dart out without looking because they’re in the wrong lane is unbelievable. I always approach it with extreme caution expecting someone to pull out in front of me. The usual indicate and move at the same time seems to be the favourite manoeuvre!

At 4:20 when presented with 4 windows, it really would help to tell us IN WORDS which window to look at - particularly when the action changes from window to window. No doubt you've seen each video multiple times, but it's the first time for us.

Ash,your shades killed me 😅😅

That's the thing about dashcams. You even said it, some repeat offenders need to be reprimanded and punished. Some drivers just make an honest mistake. Unfortunately, dashcam warriors can't differentiate between the two and think everyone on the road (other then themselves) shouldn't hold a licence. Self importance, the ugly face of modern society strikes again.

The overtake on the zebra won't warrant police attention unless they kill someone, you know, once somebody loses their life then the law will be interested. 🤷🙄

It needs to be much, much easier to lose your driver's licence and have to essentially sit through a 'rehab' course over a year or so in order to get it back. It's a joke that people need to die before drivers are appropriately punished for driving dangerously.

I had a sort of similar experience to the zebra crossing clip recently. I saw an ambulance with flashing lights in my mirror so I indicated, slowed down and moved to the left. The car behind me overtook me going right into the path of the ambulance which had to break. He'd obviously decided to overtake me without even looking in his mirror. I know he didn't do it on purpose because a few metres later he pulled over to let the ambulance past. Better late than never.

8:10 was a shocker almost ran the pedestrian over 😱 followed by the Ford almost hitting the cyclist at 9:24

The roundabout with the blue car not going to Skipton is in Keighley, and there are only three roads meeting at the roundabout. So the blue car did not take the first exit, and then not the second exit, so the only way it could be going is back along the road it entered the roundabout from (or, I suppose, possibly going around the roundabout again). This really is a simple roundabout when compared with some others.

5:48 that is truly terrifying, being in the back of a queue like that is one of the scariest places to be for that very reason, you should leave a big enough gap to give you an escape route where possible if the person coming up behind looks like they may not stop, that van driver is so lucky there was a gap in the next lane.

4:55 I treat _all_ oncoming cyclists as hazards - not because of their cycling, but because of overtaking idiots in cars like this who seem unable to use their brakes.

9.25 they should have their licence taken off them. Scared me that

@0:37 You can understand the mistake if you are not local and didn't know Skipton was second exit. Road markings say you can turn right from the middle lane when you in fact can't. Poor road markings really. Lane one should have left arrow for first exit, lane 2 straight on for second exit !and lane 3 straight on (Skipton) and right (Bradford).

First clip was near to me. It's a dangerous piece of road, some silly things happen up their. I was sat in traffic there once with temporary red lights, a motorbike filtered and a car decided to make a U-turn in front knocking the rider and his wife (pillion) off. Thankfully I had some dash cam footage and all was sorted.

Great video Ashley! Did you say that you were going to go and do some advanced driving instruction with RoSPA or IAM and make a video on it? It would be really informative for new and older drivers to see that they can take further training which helps so much with safety as well as improves skill.

Too bad the last clip didn't continue where it left off. Would have loved to see how long the Volvo was stuck behind the van.

Haha! Devi-road, Blackpool. Bandit country. Look out for the water tower on the right. (Last clip).

1:25 There should be penalties enforced for misuse of the horn. Due to its constant misuse, people think it is an instrument of aggression rather than warning.

The clip at 6:45 is common where I am at one particular junction which is why, if a car is waiting to pull out or turn in I an going slower than the speed limit (~23 mph for my junction which is in a 30) and for the one above I would be slowing to around 33 mph to get extra time and also when the inevitable happens it is a case of slowing then continuing not a full emergency stop. Keeps things safe (reduces risk of rear end) and keeps things flowing 👍

1:05 welcome to Bradford. Where no one knows how indicators or roundabouts work

Had a lovely example yesterday but sadly no footage as I'm in the market for a new dash camera and I need to be a little tight with my money. Nothing spectacular happened, Just a foreign camper van sailing right on out into the roundabout I was already on. Saw them coming a mile away though so was able to adjust my speed accordingly. Said van was coming off the Dornoch Firth on to the bypass that passes the town I was heading to. Always best to make these kind of incidents a non-issue on the road when possible.

The clip at 6:30 is scary, to think there’s a cycle lane there and a distracted driver who went into it whilst not paying attention. 😲

Morning all

I've become a fan of NYC's making using of horns largely illegal. Living in a city, the effect of someone using a horn can be pretty large, it stresses me out hearing them and 99% of the time it's just a way to 'yell' at someone for an error. Have to wonder how many people are effected by one person's disgruntelment - I'm on the 10th floor on a tower block so presumably that's a whole bunch of people having to hear that too.

If I beeped everytime an oncoming vehicle overtook a cyclist as I was passing it on the other side then my car would need a horn replacement at every MOT check! 5:38 - is that your viewer cutting the clip short before they creep into that cycle stop space? 😏 5:57 - I don't think some people understand that they are operating machinery that could kill someone. That's worse than phone driving (which is in itself terrible). 8:14 - never even thought to ask themselves why the car in front had stopped. It's terrifying that people like this are on the road

About horn usage to “tell people off”, one hand it’s seen as a form of aggression, the other hand if it’s not used then that overtake of the cyclist may not be perceived as dangerous to the driver who overtook.

1:22 I think this is an appropriate use of the horn, even if it is a little long. Some drivers just don't think that what they've done is wrong, they may not even notice that they caused an oncoming vehicle to perform an avoidance manoeuvre if this is something they do regularly. A horn in this situation isn't so much a telling off, but notifying that the overtaking driver did something dangerous enough to perform "evasive action". Hopefully with enough people beeping at them after doing something stupid like that overtake, they'll put 2+2 together and realise that it's dangerous. HOWEVER there is a potential consequence; the driver may just perform an extremely close pass on the cyclist to avoid going into the oncoming lane. That's even worse.

When a horn is blown all we know for certain is that a horn has been blown. Often we don't know who blew it, why, and who it was aimed at (if anyone). Don't take it as a personal reprimand, unless it's obvious that you are the intended target.

The 2nd clip (on the roundabout) is unfortunately standard roundabout practice in Spain. It's horrific.

Thanks for the info on roundabout lanes, I never knew about this.

The clip at 07:00 is actually at a junction but the same applies, people often only look to the right hand side. The junction joins a dual carriageway which is in a 30mph zone. Also a note, both vans are actually taking up two lanes (52.5005910, -2.0188129)

Do your road rules tell you to "Keep left unless overtaking" like ours here in Australia? I get frustrated seeing so many ignorant drivers who think they can drive in the right lane when they really don't need to or shouldn't be.....

Loved the reference to Mat Armstrong in the Car Vertical ad... bravo well done good sir!