Driving home this evening a minicab cross the the traffic at a junction in front of me from my right to my left requiring me to brake. Since I had a green light and hadn't jumped the amber I am happy I didn't do much to cause it. However, as he passed in front of me he slowed down very sharply. his reversing light came on briefly which I though was odd. He didn't brake for anything in front of him as traffic was getting away from his car. What can I say? I'm a little bemused, he saw me as we had eye contact out of his side window as I moved off. It was close but no contact thankfully.Did he try to cause an accident and what should I do? Report it to the police?

probably better reporting it even if it helps some other poor sod that he tries it on with.

REPORT IT…LITTLE WILL HAPPEN THOUGH…

damn caps lock

His employer (if you got the cab company) might be interested to hear they have a dodgy driver.

The reverse light coming on like that is probably because he has an automatic gearbox and to shift from Drive to Park (or vice versa) it goes through the Reverse gear. So he wasn't trying to reverse back, probably.

Why he braked like that is another matter though…

Hunt him down and make sure he won't drive again.

Mini cab driver in poor driving shocker….Report him. He'll probably get more shifts.

Yeh reverse light will be him shifting to park and having to pass reverse, or overshooting the shifter slightly.

But you still have to ask, an supposedly professional driver would normally have the sense/basic reactions to accelerate out of trouble rather than brake and stay in the way, unless there was some other reason he couldn't follow the traffic in front which you say was still moving.

Only other possibility is he is driving on knackered brakes and was using park to stop?! I'm not familiar with autos so don't know if that would just work like pulling on the handbrake, or would lock the transmission resulting in pulling up amid screeching tyres and a cloud of smoke?!

Dunno why somebody why try and cause an accident like that. The usual way for insurance jobs is waiting until somebody is driving too close behind, then slamming on the anchors. Hit-in-rear = virtually guaranteed non-fault

Report it asap. Ask for a traffic officer at your local station. The driver could be given a Section59(?) order. Two of those in a year and his car can be seized/large fine for return.

Of course nobody on here ever made a mistake whilst driving! He probably didn't notice the red light and paniced.

mikey-simmo

in my old stomping ground, west of Glasgow, the main cab and bus firm was, allegedly (covering my ass big time!), something of a group of crooks with massively questionable moral approach to business.

One of their favourite insurance wheezes was to send some extremely intimidating cabbies out in knackered old taxis, who would stop suddenly when going round a roundabout, esp if followed by women. esp older, perhaps frail looking. They would then ensure the ladies accepted it was their fault and so process insurance that way. If the women were sure of their rights they would resort to some extremely intimidating behaviour. As the companty are large employers with many, scary, local connections it was a while before it was knocked on the head. Sounds like that could be a possiblity of what was happening, or as others suggested perhaps he was just a flaming idiot!

This companies ploy worked with most people, until they did it with my mum, who whilst older and a bit wee and wizzened looking, is a head teacher in a very rough local school. 😈 Goan yersel Mum! She had also taught the thug in question years ago and was in no mood to be intimidated. Brilliant!

Kev

Will be chatting to the local traffic Officers later today. thanks
Apparantly thats what those black ribbons or cloths on the rear of card indicate, a willingness to be involved in an insurance claim.

You might as well ask them for a whole pad of forms whilst you're there as this kind of thing (or very similar) will happen at least once a week if you're commuting. I'd just save it up for properly disturbing driving.