As the tourist season is once again upon us I, and other HGV drivers across the Country, are going to be faced with Numpty holidayers.
I drive the 160 odd mile round trip from Fort William to Inverness practically every day. The normal journey time is approximately 2 ½ hours each way… but in the tourist season it all goes ■■■■ up.
Why do tourists insist on driving along at 20mph whilst admiring the view?
Why are tourists incapable of using passing places to let following traffic clear?
Why do (almost universally) the same tourists — when you reach one of the few straights where you CAN safely overtake the idiots — immediately floor the accelerator and slam along at 70+ thereby ensuring that you can’t get past at all?
You can flash your lights; you can (or could) drive 3 feet off their back bumper — nothing ever works. They blithely carry on in their own little world, totally oblivious to the frustration, angst, stress and annoyance that they are causing.
Of course, alongside the stress etc, is the fact that when people — cars and lorries — start getting frustrated they start taking chances and risks. The A82 is NOT the road to do either and I’ve been witness to several accidents as a result.
And it’s because of these numpties that drivers lose their rag hence the HGV1 driver who, a few years ago, rammed a driver who insisted at driving along at 10mph (on a 60mph limit road!); the driver who reached into the stopped car (they had stopped at one of the bridges crossing the Caledonian Canal which was open at the time) of a tourist said something along the lines of “You’re an idiot who shouldn’t be driving”, grabbed the keys out of the ignition and threw them into the canal!
I’d never condone those gents — but I can perfectly understand why they did what they did!
Allied to all that - and in some cases worst of all - are the rented campers; so many of them haven’t the vaguest idea of how big the ■■■■ this is (they always, but always, over-estimate) and as a result manage to cause you to slam the anchors on because they’re on, or sometimes over, the white line and using far more room than they need.
As an aside, my personal - summer - record for the journey is 6 hours 15!!
So, obvious question:- which is your least favourite road in summer - and how do you cope with the Lemmings?