A brush with the law......

On my way to meet some mates to head of to Alton, I got a tug on the A4. At first I was really angry about it and the coppers attitude, but after having time to reflect on the incident, I'm feeling OK about it now.

A4 at Hounslow, just turned off of the 312 and heading for the petrol station at the A30 junction. A guy in a Nissan Primera decides he wants the inside lane, but I'm already there. I hit my horn - no response, I bounce it off the limiter - no response, he just keeps coming, by which time I'm getting rather close the the 4 inch kerb...

By this time my right knee is touching his passenger door, so I result in giving his mirror a whack, which wakes him up and has the desired effect. He quickly moves back over to the right. I'm obviously gesticulating at him quite a bit at this point....

I then hear a a two tone, look in my mirror and I have an unmarked car up my backside telling me to pull over. I signal that I'll pull into the garage up the road (where it's safe) and he follows me in.

"What was the point of that ?" (referring to me knocking the mirror back)

"I had to get the guy to stop some how.... And it worked" was my response.

He then asked to see my documents etc. I hit the roof, he let the bloke in the car drive off and pulled me in !! We discuss the finer points of my attitude for a few minutes, when he says:

"I wanted to stop you and get you away from the other vehicle, it was obvious you were wound up and I thought you'd be safer after you had time to calm down."

"What about the **** in the car ?"

"Don't worry, we have it all on video......" "We've done a check and we'll pay the owner a visit now, he doesn't live far away."

At first I was still upset, but after thinking about it over night, he probably did the best thing. So while I may have been peeved at the time, I have to say he actually dealt with it in the best way.

My only worry was that the bloke may have caused another accident, but I guess if he only lived down the road, then the copper was happy that he was going home.

.

I wish we had more coppers behaving like this!

Glad you saw the positive side of things and nothing happened to you! I would have been praising the copper all day long if I was in your sits

Yeah, I think I would have been well miffed too, but it does seem like they had your best interests in mind. I think the key thing here is that when they pull you over, it seems at first like they are punishing you; you had no idea that they had it on video and would be pursuing the car driver afterwards. But then again, if they would have pulled the car instead of you, your attitude would have presumably calmed down a lot instantly and a feeling of smugness and justice would have prevailed.

Eeep! I know I'd feel the same way, but yeah, reading with hindsight or as a third party it does make sense. Doubtless he could have handled it a bit better but I know that sometimes I get so wound up that the safest thing anyone could do would be to drag me off the bike and get me to sit down with a fag for a bit.

Lucky escape anyway (I mean narrowly avoiding death, not escape from teh Law).

Originally Posted by Warthog

Yeah, I think I would have been well miffed too, but it does seem like they had your best interests in mind. I think the key thing here is that when they pull you over, it seems at first like they are punishing you; you had no idea that they had it on video and would be pursuing the car driver afterwards. But then again, if they would have pulled the car instead of you, your attitude would have presumably calmed down a lot instantly and a feeling of smugness and justice would have prevailed.

Well, I did ask "why didn't you pull us both"

"What, so you could give him a whack too ?" was the reply (he was smiling though....)

He was concentrating on keeping us apart, it's true, I may well have given him a Glasgow kiss with my lid on

[Shellywoozle]

The copper acted correctly but what if the driver of the car wasn't the owner ? Me personally would have like to see the offending car stopped. It's all very well saying it's on video, what he if was drunk - he'd got home and could have said he'r drank it after the incident.

I see where the copper was coming from but I think he stopped the wrong vehicle.

p.s hope you damaged the wingmirror LOL

Hope the guy gets a good talking to about his observation

But what worries me is the fact that you didn't pull out of the game of chicken and let him in front. It seems you had plenty of time to slow down. What if he hadn't swerved away?

I am in no way condoning his driving, it's just that in a contest between a bike and a car the car will always usually win.

I see exactly where you're coming from. Initally, my attitude would be "why the hell did he pull me over?", but the copper's explanation was sound IMO. So long as they followed it up and had a strong word with the driver in question, I'd be happy with the result.

[husky03]

If the driver of the car wasn't the owner-the police have powers to require the owner/reg keeper to identify who was driving the vehicle at that particular time,failure to do so is an offence in itself and can lead to prosecution.
the cop done the right thing-heat of the moment and all that-i've saw many a normal person become a raving lunatic when the've been involved in a road rage type incident -remove them from the scene and a few mins later all is calm .Least your ok and no damge to your bike

husky

nissan + bad observations = old person!