so your driving towards a petrol station, go to turn in but then captain asshattery is sat there in the entrance, with a football field space clear between him and the pumps, only one car at each pump but this twit thinks its absolutely fine to make me sit with my backside exposed to all and sundry approaching, oh but thats not good enough, now another victim, someone's now sat in the central reservation wanting to turn right into the petrol station, so now there is only one clear lane (the opposite side of the road) so I'm now amassing a gurt big queue of impatient people just so this dickwatted wrist spanner can have his pick of the pumps!! WELL NOT ANYMORE!! I'm fitting bull bars to the front of the volvo and I shall approach this behavior with gusto, vigor and a furious anger! consider this a public service!!

oh and at any time in history has a petrol station ever spontaneously combusted due to the use of a mobile phone?

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!

Seems your living up to your name 😉

it was you wasn't it!! just pull up to any of the pumps!! AAARRGGHH!

Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion

is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.

Captain Asshattery (lol) is sadly just one of the many selfish pricks that inhabit our roads.

Volvo driver in "i own the road" shocker!

😆

Car users are such pleasant reasonable people aren't they – either driving like a twerp, acting like a twerp or ranting like a twerp…….

Did you get out of the car and go and give him some constructive advice on the situation, or just impotently sit there fuming and counting the seconds till you could get on the PC and share? 🙂

Horn?
Blow?

Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion

is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.

Indeed, in my uni years I worked at a petrol station – we had a mobile phone mast built into the price display tower thing (correct terminology escapes me at the moment…)

Generally it's preferable for people to be concentrating on filling up their car. I have fond memories of the chap who insisted that our pumps were faulty, because the fuel had backed up and spilt over his coat, shoes and trousers. He said we'd have to pay for dry cleaning, and that he was outraged, etc, etc. Turned out he was trying to put diesel into his unleaded hire car – the nozzle was physically too big to be inserted properly, hence the fuel going everywhere.

Given the inability of some people to mono-task, multi-tasking is to be discouraged…especially around flammable materials! 😛

Mobile phones + petrol station = explosion
is a rather random urban myth that, for a truly inexplicable reason, as become part of forecourt law.

It's a myth that a mobile by itself will cause an explosion but have you ever watched anyone try and hold a mobile phone conversation and do anything else at the same time? Crossing a road, driving, you name it, they can't do it.
It makes sense therefore to ban it on forecourts and allow people to concentrate on dispensing fuel.

Please let me know when you're driving as I can leave work later!

Yeah people do silly things, it's a cwazy world.

Drive to another petrol station if that was so dangerous?

Petrol forecourts leave me in a hot sweat. I have been in the same situation as the OP many times. You just know it will be you caught in the middle.

I have tried speaking to people and beeping the horn but in the end you just sit there. Ignorant fools imo

Some might say that you were in the wrong for try to pull into the forecourt when you could see that there was an obstruction.

Or just pull round him and wait at a specific pump, maybe.
That's what I'd've done, but I am bit of a bolshy cow these days…

Surely the entrance to most petrol stations is big enough that you could have driven round him and picked a pump? I've never seen one that is a single car width.

what gets my goat is the ppl who will only go to pump on the same side as the fuel cap (and so cause blockages as the OP), the fricken hose will reach across you car ****! (observed, whilst I fill up at the pump the 'couldn't use)

Go by motorbike – "queue jumping" winds the t**ts up something chronic, mind you I got my just deserts when a garage I went to recently wouldn't turn the pump on unless I removed my helmet, but got a good humoured response when I did so only to reveal thermal balaclava underneath…

I agree with the OP. It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Using a mobile on a forecourt is lethal, despite what the average STW online H+S expert might claim otherwise. I occasionally work on a petrol forecourt, as a result have been on various health and safety courses geared towards forecourt dangers. It has been repeated many a time using a mobile is a serious danger, mainly due the risk of a spark been created through increased static electricity (we even wear anti-static clothing/footwear when in close contact with fuel to minimise this risk)

An example of how a mobile phone exposed to fuel vapour can be shown here. Wait until the guy climbs on top of the tanker to lift the lid, whilst at the same time answers an incoming call… 😯

what gets my goat is the ppl who will only go to pump on the same side as the fuel cap (and so cause blockages as the OP),

Why does that cause a blockage? Surely you can just drive to any pump if someone is waiting at a specific one. Do you folks all go to fuel stations that only have space to fit one waiting car?

And on the cars I own if I use the pump on 'the wrong side' the hose generally drags across the body work. Which isn't really a good idea unless you drive a car you couldn't give a shit about.

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

Those fwits usually work in my favour as they sit waiting for a pump on their filler cap side therefore leaving me free to pull up to an unfavoured side, stretch the hose over, fill up , pay and go before they've got out of the car 😀

Using a mobile on a forecourt is lethal, despite what the average STW online H+S expert might claim otherwise

Here's an article from a US government agency

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wirelessgas.html

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

I know the hose will reach I just dont want too drag it over the top of my car. I would rather wait a couple of minutes which leaves a pump free for you.
What gets me are people who park at a pump not to buy petrol but to do their shopping in the miny supermarket :evil:.

Here's another article for you boz

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4366337.stm

What did you say your qualifications were again?

Boz – how does a mobile phone cause a spark? Seriously, unless it's quite, quite faulty. Why don't all customers have to be earthed when pumping fuel?

And that video is inconclusive: he gets something out of his pocket but it doesn't look like he's answering a phone.

I once parked on the 'wrong' side of the fuel pump and attempted to drag the hose out to reach around my car. Couldn't do it! I couldn't make it stretch at all, so had to reverse back and go find a space on the side I normally use… 😳

People like me is why you're having to wait those precious extra few minutes… 😉 (though I'd never sit in the middle of the forecourt)

multi-tasking is to be discouraged

allow people to concentrate on dispensing fuel

Now these are more sensible ideas. Turns out it's not inexplicable after all 😳

Uplink – there are numerous articles/evidence that says otherwise to those reports. Dont ask me to find them as i am not a H+S expert, just someone who has heard it first hand on a training course. Better to be safe that sorry though and just not use a phone when filled up eh, you know, just incase…?

What did you say your qualifications were again?

Sorry, i didnt realise i had to be a University lecturer to post an opinion on a MTB forum….

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up – make sure it's on a still hot summers day…. 😉

Is that like wearing a helmet when cycling "just in case" you fall off…?

(runs away, giggling)

while I'm willing to accept that 'sparks' can cause ignition, what I can never quite get my head around is why people think mobile phones are more likely to cause a 'spark' than anything else…

like all the electrics in a car when you start the engine for example…

or a Nintendo DS, PSP, Ipod etc, what exactly is it that makes Mobile phones so much more risky eh, surely that was covered in the training?

I'd be more concerned about that kid in the back of the BMW X5 waving a birthday balloon dangerously close to his new nylon jumper if it were me 😉

now, commence (no pun intended) flaming….

Sorry, i didnt realise i had to be a University lecturer to post an opinion on a MTB forum.

You certainly don't but you gave the impression that it was fact not an opinion
It's OK I won't ask you to find any evidence – I'll take your youtube clip that you described as how a mobile phone can cause a fire/explosion as irrefutable 😉

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up – make sure it's on a still hot summers day….

I don't own a mobile phone

You go ahead and make a call whilst filling up – make sure it's on a still hot summers day….

And I don't own a car.

LOL, ok lads you win 😆

It's amazing how many people don't realise that the hose will reach the fuel tank regardless of which side it's on.

It's NOT always possible. A lot of stations I've come across have the hose coming out at waist level and don't extend enough to reach over the car.

So, unless you pull the car right up past the pump and bring the hose around the back of the car they DO NOT always reach. You can't always position yourself like that if someone is using the pump in front of you.

And I don't own a filling station.

I've been told off (over the tannoy) for using my mobile while parked inside my car at one of the parking spaces on the forecourt, at least 10 metres away from the pumps 😳

Couldn't help thinking that if the risk was that great then nylon should be banned, everyone should be grounded and they shouldn't really use electric signs and giant strip lights 🙄

leaving me free to pull up to an unfavoured side, stretch the hose over, fill up , pay and go before they've got out of the car

Wow, you won the fuel pump race – I'm sure you feel you’ve achieved something but no one else gives a shit. Bet you only stuck a tenner in when you really wanted to fill the tank up, just so you could 'win'. You must have a very mediocre life.

Fuel station angst is highly amusing though, please keep it up.

leaving me free to pull up to an unfavoured side, stretch the hose over, fill up , pay and go before they've got out of the car

Back of the net.

re mobile phones

it was on mythbusters – they couldn't cause an explosion (and they tried really, really hard)

I always thought the reason for the mobile ban was incase you dropped the phone and the battery fell out which could cause ignition with fuel?