On Apr 12, 8:22 am, nick_ped...@hotmail.com wrote:
> I was away in Wales with my girlfriend last weekend and happened to be
> travelling past a toll road.
Unclear what you mean. Were you waiting in line to pay your toll and enter the toll road, or just passing by on an adjecent free road? If the latter, how if at all did the presence of the toll road have anything to do with your situation?
> It was a narrow section of road, so we
> had to wait for cars on the otherside to pass before we were let
> through.
What, a one-lane, 2-way road, as in a construction zone, with flagmen sending through batches of traffic, first one way, then another? I can't picture what you're talking about other than this, which seems pretty improbable, so I'm at a loss to understand the relationship of all the involved vehicles.
> We had mountain bikes on the back of the car and they were
> jutting out slighltly
To the side, or to the rear? The former would be more of a problem, especially on a narrow road -- maybe there are local ordinances prohibiting loads that protrude from the side of your vehicle.
>. A number of drivers were clipping them and we
> were worried about damage....
If we're talking about a sideswipe situation, I'm deeply puzzled that you didn't just pull over farther to the curb side of the roadway to make more clearance, even partly onto the shoulder if that was necessary to make room; I don't see how pulling forward would have helped, unless your situation was with cross traffic, rather than opposing traffic on the same road. In that case, if you had moved up in line too soon so that your car's tail was still sticking out and exposed in a lane of through traffic crossing your path, that would be your fault, since the other traffic had the right of way. But I'm still unclear on your exact situation.
Whether or not your car's stopped rear was protruding into moving traffic, these passing cars were COLLIDING with your bikes. Didn't they stop? Did you take their tag numbers down and report them as a hit-and-run? Something isn't quite matching up in your story -- there's a lot of holes where I would expect to hear a different reaction than what you did.
> We thought the solution would be to pull in as far as possible, but
> were too close to the driver ahead to do so enough.
That means (ahem) you were _already_ pulled forward as far as reasonably possible and, as you said, any closer would be too close.
> The driver in
> front of us had approximately 3m of space to move forward,
That's really not very much room. From the driver's seat, the other driver probably couldn't see ground between his front end and the car in front of him, and many drivers are reluctant -- rightly -- to get any closer to other cars in line than that. You are _not_ supposed to get right up within a millimeter or so of the next guy's bumper; that's how accidents, and/or road rage incidents, happen.
> so as we
> were unable to get out of the car and ask him to do so due to the
> traffic on the other side,
What about on your curb side? Wasn't it safe for your passenger to get out and walk along the shoulder to go talk politely to the fellow in front, with the line of stopped cars being between her and the moving cars as a buffer?
> I used the horn together with hand
> gestures to signal him to move forward.
There is no universally recognized "signal" in that situation. You're not on a steamer at sea, where the captain ahead of you could ask the first mate, "now, there's that otgher boat overtaking us and she just sent a signal. What did two short blasts of the ship's horn followed by one long one mean, according to the Manual of Rules of the Road?" and the mate would look it up in the book and say, "Sir, that means they have lepers aboard and are requesting quarantine" or whatever. All the other driver "interprets" youro honking and gesturing to mean is, that you are impatient, and are angry at _him_, when he's in the same, stationary and becalmed boat as you are.
> He didn't. So after a few more
> bashes to the bikes, we tried the horn again as I tried slowly pulling
> in as far as I could.
Which probably alarmed the guy in front of you a good deal, since (as you said above) you were already in just about as far as you could without risk of hitting him.
> Again, no response. A few more beeps to the horn
> later, he emerged angry and shouting a fair number of threatening
> obscenities to which we responded in the manner any normal person
> would.
And what manner would that be? Were you apologetic, or did you curse back?
> He claimed that we had bumped into his car, which as far as we
> could tell was not the case.
"As far as we could tell" isn't legally enough to overcome an assertion by the other party that you DID hit his car. All that means is, you didn't hvae the opportunity to observe well enough, so that your testimony on that issue would be worthless in finding out what really happened.
> Needless to say, there was certainly no
> damage.
That's not the issue. Invading his safety cushion of space around his vehicle, to the point you maike any contact with it at all, is the issue. Why weren't you directing your efforts more at stopping the folks who kept doing that to YOU, by hitting your bikes, than to forcing the innocent guy in front of you to move when he obviously already felt he had pulled up as far as he normally would go?
> After some abusive and obnoxious behaviour on his behalf,
What was the behaviour on _your_ behalf, other than the honking and gestures? What exactly did each of you say to each other? That is what the magistrate is going to want to know, when this comes to trial.
> he then
> exclaimed he was going to take my number plate, and I assumed he was
> doing this to make a false insurance claim. But I've since received a
> letter from the Welsh police today informing me that they intend to
> procecute me for careless driving...
I don't know what the elements of that offense are under Welsh law, but around here, localities are passing laws against "aggressive driving" that often criminalize excessive honking and/or gestures even if there is no other offense. If, in conjuction with that, the facts show that you pulled forward too soon so that your rear was still sticking out into traffic, and/or that you pulled too close to the one in front so that your cars made contact, that may well be enough to support the charge. You will have to ask a local solicitor about the peculiarities of local law, to be sure.
> Does he have a leg to stand on?
Yes. It's not the other guy, it's the Crown, that is concerned about your behaviour under the circumstances. Two wrongs do not make a right, so regardless of the reason, the Bobbies don't want you honking and making gestures at a fellow motorist in a way that is quite likely to lead to a breach of the peace.
> And what steps should I take next?!
Either pay the ticket fine, if that is an option, or find a good barrister to go to court with you, or go by yourself, explain the situation WITHOUT casting any blame or aspersions on the other fellow, and throw yourself on the mercy of the Court.
--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
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Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300
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