I would like to know how many of you professional drivers have phoned 999, to report dangerous drivers? Not just dangerous but pretty much anything.
For example, I almost flattened a car that pulled out of a side road (no slip) right in front of me, car to the right and no where to go. Called the police, informed them of dash cam footage. They came out, viewed the footage, took a statement and a copy of the video for evidence.
If they’re anything like the police around here, you’re wasting your time… on the other hand, camera or not, you’d have probably been found at least partly to blame for just being there.
So did you hit the car?
twice. both in the last two month. one in Swansea where a car with a male n female couple in the front and a child in the back, not wearing a seatbelt jumping around. then I spotted the most craziest thing I could imagine. the car had a smashed windscreen, bits of tape holding it together. it was doing about 50mph on the m4 I had to ask my porter to look again as I thought I was seeing things.
the other was last week when a moron with a dog was walking along side the a1 near little Ponton. the man was drunk and staggering I had to swerve to avoid him
Bit of a non event if you didn’t hit them isn’t it? so why ring 999, If I had a dashcam fitted I would do 1 of 2 things, hit them or miss them then just forget about it and carry on, believe me you will get used to these types of daily events eventually without making a drama out of it, that’s just another step to becoming a professional driver!
Will add, somebody pulling out on me when out on the bike, would be a totally different matter!
Yer crack on its part of the job and the boss will not like you wasting time phoning plod 
bobdebouwer:
…Not just dangerous but pretty much anything.
…Called the police, informed them of dash cam footage. They came out, viewed the footage, took a statement and a copy of the video for evidence.
Marvellous. It’s not like we have enough pretend constables posting boring dash cam footage on here and Youtube, we’ve now got drivers peering around their velvet tassled curtains like some mobile Neighbourhood Watch member.
Not had to ring them about a driver.
But rang the boys in blue a few months ago on the way out of Crewe, pitch black single carriageway road, national limit, no pavement. All of a sudden, drunk person wearing black just appears in front of me, staggers further into the road. Thankfully nothing was coming the other way because I swerved around him and probably missed him by an inch. Rang the police and they said they’d get someone out. Road was a few miles long so I don’t reckon the guy knew where he was going or what he was doing.
Second time was earlier this week. Driving down the A1 from Mansfeild at 7:30am, pretty busy with traffic. Just pulled in from overtaking a truck when suddenly, 2 Lycra clad cyclists are in front of me, 2 abreast in lane 1. Managed to get into lane 2 thanks to some top notch observation from the car next to me but it was chaos behind me with trucks having to use lane 2 to get around those idiots.
Rang the rozzers and the guy said they’d already had 2 calls about it and that it was a priority although technically they’re doing nothing wrong! I pointed out that although they might be in the right, they’ll be a stain on the Tarmac if they don’t come and sort it out soon.
Really can’t believe they were doing it. Riding in the A1 is stupid at any time, but doing it at rush hour/peak usage time and riding 2 abreast was just suicide.
A few times in my driving career and all have been responded to very quickly
Only once i can recall, many years ago in thick blanket fog on the AI at Elkesley when it still had a cross roads of some sort, i’m going north slowly and out the corner of my eye i see and hear the impact on the southbound side, followed by the sounds of softened by fog multiple crashes seconds later.
edit…ah forgot the young lad running around the M69 like a headless chicken in the dead of night, i stopped cos i nearly cleaned the lad up, he’d cooked the cyl head gasket on his brothers Rover (unusual that) and was on the way to pick him up from the airport, the car was buggered but this lad had lost it and panic has set in…i rang the old bill cos this lad was going to get himself wiped out.
I’ve called 999 three times over the years. The first was for a car broke down in lane 2 of the M42 at about 2am some years back. The second was for a woman stepping out into lane 1 of the M1 trying to flag down someone because she had a puncture and the most recent was around Christmas time at about 23:00hrs on the a358 heading to Taunton for a car that seemed unable to keep a constant speed and was all over the road, I thought it could have been a drink driver. To be fair to the police they said I had done the right thing because even if it wasn’t a case of drink driving the driver could have been having a medical episode and could have needed medical attention. Within 5 minutes of my call there was a police car there with lights and sirens and pulled them so they definitely took it seriously.
Not sure 999 is the best course of action really. There was no accident so it is not really an emergency.
However I do agree that incidents like these should be reported as if these drivers are not informed how close they have come to being wiped out they will probably do the same again and cause a serious accident.
Rather than calling 999 go to your local police station and report the incident. The police cannot turn you away although they may not really be interested although most will if they realise the potential danger of the situation.
I know from experience that a lot of the time the police will visit the culprit at their home and not only get their side of the story but warn them of their bad driving and tell them to be more careful in future.
Just ignoring the situation because there was no accident leaves these idiots to repeat their stupidity and potentially injure or kill someone.
Ideally though far more police on the roads to spot all the bad driving.
Reported a few RTAs that I have seen on the way down the road to 999 but mainly Ill use 101 for debris on motorway/dual carriageway roads.
albion1971:
Ideally though far more police on the roads to spot all the bad driving.
Therein lies the crux of the problem. I’ve banged on about this before and I make no apologies for repeating it; an unmarked police car only affects one vehicle at a time, and that is invariably AFTER an offence has been committed, whereas a highly visible marked up traffic car affects the driving of hundreds of motorists around it. After all, crime prevention has to be better than crime detection surely?
Doesn’t look quite so good for their targets though does it?
I stopped on the M4 just off the elevated section westbound cos a cyclist was heading in the same direction towards the M4,called the police on the motorway phone only to hear the bloody highways agency asking me if I had broke down when I explained they didn’t even know where the elevated section was and asked me to tell them.they then said to call the police,as far as I am aware that’s what I did stop for but apparently they have taken over the motorway phones as well now taking responsibility from the police
3 times in the past month! Once to report fuel pouring out from fuel tank from car parked on hard shoulder, 2 times RTA’s (Not involving myself!)
Last year m6 North very quiet night. I caught up with a car driving erratically between 20-60 mph. Next thing he bounced off central reservation but kept driving. I rang 999 then some traffic cops rang me back for more info. I thought that was that until 30 mins later they rang me back to thank me. Turns out he was diabetic and having an episode. They said I may of just saved his life.
I thought it was very good of them to tell me the outcome.
Rang 999 about 6 months ago was on the Welshpool road heading towards Shrewsbury,guy in a car in front was all over the place bouncing off the embankment one side drifting over the opposite side of the road the other doing less than 20 mins was behind him for 30 mins phoned 999 twice after a couple of near misses with incoming traffic…police never appeared though must of been on dinner break,car eventually turned off down a side lane.
Rang 101 Friday morning around 5ish was heading down the motorway just before Hilton park where there is no hard shoulder due to roadworks was a Land Rover in lane one stationary with the occupants sat on the embankment,Land Rover had no lights or hazards on,just sat there in lane one,highways agency rang me back about 30 mins later to thank me for the call apparently the occupants never thought to put the hazards on 
albion1971:
Not sure 999 is the best course of action really. There was no accident so it is not really an emergency.
However I do agree that incidents like these should be reported as if these drivers are not informed how close they have come to being wiped out they will probably do the same again and cause a serious accident.
Rather than calling 999 go to your local police station and report the incident. The police cannot turn you away although they may not really be interested although most will if they realise the potential danger of the situation.
I know from experience that a lot of the time the police will visit the culprit at their home and not only get their side of the story but warn them of their bad driving and tell them to be more careful in future.
Just ignoring the situation because there was no accident leaves these idiots to repeat their stupidity and potentially injure or kill someone.
Ideally though far more police on the roads to spot all the bad driving.
a small flaw in your reasoning Albion , our local police stain only opens from 9 until 5 and the traffic unit in now run from central headquarters 35 miles away .
Once. I was driving In my car along the A47 into Leicester in the daytime and the car in front was all over the road. Mounted the pavement and everything. He wasn’t just slightly over the drink drive limit, he was totally plastered.