I normally laugh at the people who come on here looking for basic life advice, but thought I would try it myself today!
Yesterday I was travelling on business with my boss / owner of the company. We flew to an airport elsewhere in the UK, he hired a car and drove about an 1h20min to a meeting and then did the same in reverse.
In that 2h40min in the car with him we had several near misses. Somehow we survived them all unscathed.
I accept that some factors would have contributed to his shocking driving although I don't think any of them really excuses it:
- Hire car so not familiar with it properly; mirrors may not have been set up right to minimise blindspots etc
- Dark and raining at some points which do make driving harder
- Unfamiliar roads with many lane changes to be in the right place, and a sat nav that tells you too little too late.
- In a rush to get to the meeting, and to get back to airport
- Busier traffic than we get round here normally
- He doesn't own a car so drives less often than most people
- He spent a long time overseas in the developing world and seems to have picked up some of their driving style
He did seem to be aware of most of the near misses he had but a couple of them he clearly felt were the other persons fault (when they weren't). I am talking here about 4 blindspot checks missed which resulted in other drivers having to take immediate avoiding action (and as soon as he became aware him swerving back into the original lane), pulling out in front of a cyclist at a junction, pulling out in front of a car at another junction, and twice breaking very hard to avoid hitting the guy in front despite it being obvious that the traffic was starting to slow/queue.
He does have eyesight problems and is regularly at the eye hospital, I assume he meets the minimum standard for driving though.
If it was a friend or loved one I'd be having a serious word with them. If it was one of my team I'd be looking at getting everyone on the team some advanced driving coaching or something. But he is the one person I can't tell/suggest is at fault (I frequently tell him he is at fault on business related / technical matters - but I don't feel I can tell him he needs to fix his driving).
I gently vocalised my concerns yesterday, e.g. when our hosts asked how the journey was I jokingly said "Well we survived it, which given the way he was driving was a major achievement" and on the way back pointed out "I'd rather get there alive but miss the flight".
What more can I do? He has a company credit card but I don't so when we go together he will normally be driving. I've travelled with him before and its never been great but all the above factors seemed to exacerbate the risks. Even if I can find a way to always be the driver (I am far from perfect and no driving miss daisy - but on my "worst days" am safer than he is on his best) - it won't remove the risk for everyone else the rest of the time.
