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I really fucked up
Dr Sanchez
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
On my way to see watchmen with a couple of friends.
I was driving, it was about a 15-20 minute journey.
On a roundabout I pull out, didn't see a car coming round on my right.
The car had to swerve to avoid me, if they didn't I would've rammed straight into it.
You guessed it. It was a police car.
It's all pretty standard from here. They pull me over when I exit the junction and I'm pretty calm at this point because I just don't believe what is happening. Policeman pulls the door open, he's pissed off, I didn't expect that. Tells me to switch the engine off and step out of the car. The reason I didn't see him was because there was three of us in the car, the windows steamed up pretty quick. I looked when I hit that roundabout I just didn't see the car until it swerved out the way.
He tells me off, I'm overly apologetic and explain to him that I just didn't see the car because of the steamed up windows. He tells me to sit in the police car, where the driver then also explains how close the collision was. They take my details, tell me my rights and tell me the three counts of what I did wrong.
-Driving without due care and attention
-Wreck less driving (I think)
-Something else
I was so spaced out and shaken I just wasn't taking in what they were saying, just agreed, apologized and apologized more. They said they were going to give me a 3 for 1 deal and record one of the counts. Can't think which one it was, they may as well have been speaking Latin by this point, my brain just wasn't taking in information.
They then tell me they're not going to arrest me, I heard that part. I'll get a letter at some point, might be a summons. They then told me to go. Got back in the car and left.
My first experience with the Police. I passed my driving test December 1st last year so I'm new. I'm not making excuses but I looked, and I definitely didn't see that car. This whole thing is a combo of massive stupidity on my part and unbelievably bad luck.
I've just finally got over my years of depression, now this. I feel crushed. Not just by what happened and what may happen. If I lose my license, fine. That will suck but I'll get over it. But the fact that I could have just crashed into a police car? That will haunt me forever.
Thoughts? On not just what will come of this but I think of myself as a relatively intelligent person. I don't know how I'm going to stop beating myself up over what happened and what could have happened thanks to how I fucked up so badly.
TL;DR, I almost hit a police car.
I was driving, it was about a 15-20 minute journey.
On a roundabout I pull out, didn't see a car coming round on my right.
The car had to swerve to avoid me, if they didn't I would've rammed straight into it.
You guessed it. It was a police car.
It's all pretty standard from here. They pull me over when I exit the junction and I'm pretty calm at this point because I just don't believe what is happening. Policeman pulls the door open, he's pissed off, I didn't expect that. Tells me to switch the engine off and step out of the car. The reason I didn't see him was because there was three of us in the car, the windows steamed up pretty quick. I looked when I hit that roundabout I just didn't see the car until it swerved out the way.
He tells me off, I'm overly apologetic and explain to him that I just didn't see the car because of the steamed up windows. He tells me to sit in the police car, where the driver then also explains how close the collision was. They take my details, tell me my rights and tell me the three counts of what I did wrong.
-Driving without due care and attention
-Wreck less driving (I think)
-Something else
I was so spaced out and shaken I just wasn't taking in what they were saying, just agreed, apologized and apologized more. They said they were going to give me a 3 for 1 deal and record one of the counts. Can't think which one it was, they may as well have been speaking Latin by this point, my brain just wasn't taking in information.
They then tell me they're not going to arrest me, I heard that part. I'll get a letter at some point, might be a summons. They then told me to go. Got back in the car and left.
My first experience with the Police. I passed my driving test December 1st last year so I'm new. I'm not making excuses but I looked, and I definitely didn't see that car. This whole thing is a combo of massive stupidity on my part and unbelievably bad luck.
I've just finally got over my years of depression, now this. I feel crushed. Not just by what happened and what may happen. If I lose my license, fine. That will suck but I'll get over it. But the fact that I could have just crashed into a police car? That will haunt me forever.
Thoughts? On not just what will come of this but I think of myself as a relatively intelligent person. I don't know how I'm going to stop beating myself up over what happened and what could have happened thanks to how I fucked up so badly.
TL;DR, I almost hit a police car.
Dr Sanchez on
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By roundabout, do you mean a rotary?
And if I am reading this correctly, you were exiting the roundabout/rotary and the cop was entering it, correct?
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My first thought is to tell you to get the right fuck over this promptly. There's no reason to get hung up on hypotheticals to they point it haunts you forever! You made a mistake most likely due to your inexperience as a driver, and it sounds like the cop may have have been an overreacting dick, but it's certainly not worth busting your own balls over for the rest of your days.
Learn from your mistake and do your best not to repeat it. Don't let it get on top of you to the point you're upsetting yourself over things that didn't actually happen.
Yeah we're gonna need some super awesome MSPaint diagram here. I was a little confused too, but if the cop was coming INTO the rotary and you were trying to EXIT....this could get interesting.
I can practically guarantee those officers were purposely trying to scare and berate you as much as they possibly could so that they etch this into your memory and you'll never forget to be more careful.
Take care of the court thing, and try to see the positive that you will probably be a much more aware driver in and around roundabouts now.
If that's what you got hit with, you'll probably need to go to court, and you'll want a lawyer to represent you
I got one in NJ as a teenager, and i got assigned a public defender due to the severity of the ticket
This is my guess of what happened. See diagram.
Oh good call. In that case shouldn't the cop car have been in the inside lane, until coming towards the outside to exit the roundabout?
I hit several cars learning how to drive before I got became safe...
Possibly was a single lane roundabout? OP can clarify. it's beside the point though.
I spent ages doing a four part MS paint diagram, saint2e's beat me and got it right.
Regardless, they're letting you off easy and making it sound more serious than it is so that you'll never do it again. It's the "Scared Straight" method, and you'll be fine.
He yanked open the door?
I mean, that seems really excessive. As in "holy shit, a cop in the U.S. would be in deep shit" excessive. Is this normal protocol in the UK? Did the cop knock on the window, and you not open it? That seems like it would panic someone more than the accident, and could have led to worse problems.
Maybe I'm going on a tangent here, but can you clarify this part?
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Don't freak out too much, but live and learn from this. You did something dumb but got away with a relatively minor consequence so far, considering the things that could have happened. So, from here on its all about how you handle this.
Firstly, you should probably find out exactly what you're being charged with, that should be on the ticket the cop gave you (I don't know what UK driving laws are like, but I assume the cop gives you a ticket or something), but if you don't understand it or its not clear, there should be a number on there you can call for more information. If you don't have anything, whatever the Brit equivalent of the Department of Motor Vehicles is should have a website that explains who to contact and get more information.
Secondly, instead of freaking out over what happened, focus on the positives here. You made a mistake, but you didn't kill yourself, your friends, or the police officer. Count your blessings, as it were, and commit to being more responsible in the future.
Ummmmm.
To be honest with you, I'd be surprised if you even get a letter. And if you do, you won't actually have anything serious happen to you.
You will definitely not lose your license and you may at the very most get three points and a £60 fine. The cop is being an arse, the chance of someone being hurt there is minimal and when accidents happen someone is liable and the insurance companies sort payment. Here you didn't even hit him, and the fact that this was a first time incident for you will also count.
Seriously don't worry, cops are absolute dicks too sometimes.
this will not haunt you
Limed. In a few months you won't even remember it beyond the point of minor inconvienance. It was an accident, and not even that costly of one.
The cop was being a dick, but they do that to young drivers on purpose. Don't take it personally.
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In all honesty, despite how fucked up it feels now, it'll probably be an amusing anecdote you tell for years to come once everything is sorted out and you stop feeling so terrible. Someone will mention how unlucky they are and you'll be able to top them with "Oh you won't believe this shit that happened! The first time I fucked up and it was a police officer who I did it to!"
I had a similar situation happen to me back in the day.
Luck would have it that he didn't actually see me strike the semi, a trick of the perspective he was viewing at. He however was not impressed with the way I was driving before that. So I get a ticket, and go about my day knowing that I've got to explain to a judge why I was driving like a moron.
The next day, the principal pokes his head into choir class asking to see me down in the office. He mentions that there are two fucking detectives here to see me. It was a small town, I didn't know we even had detectives, and I guess if we did they wouldn't have much to do. They might as well go razzle the kid who hit a semi.
So I'm visibally fucking nervous, I think I was probably shaking. I know I was sweating. They show me their badges and say "We assume you know what this is about?"
"What happened yesterday?"
"... what happened yesterday?"
They lean forward with interest.
I, as calmly as possible, state the exact thing I was cited for. "Clear view to the front"
They start laughing like it was the funniest joke they'd ever heard. "Oh no you're not in any trouble. We're here about that [Person] Homicide case."
A dude in my town had allegedly killed his parents 4 months earlier. I do not know this person. If he was sitting beside me right now, I wouldn't know it was him. They had just gotten my name from someone else who knew someone else and my name was mentioned at some point in their testimony, so they wanted to see if I had any further info for their case, and could confirm any details of other's testimony.
It was a fucked up couple of days.
The cop actually ended up being the cop who responded when someone tried to mug me a year later, after I gave my name he knew it sounded familiar and I recognized him. That actually made that situation pretty funny too.
Seriously, who the fuck came up with those.
Learn from your near-accident, and be glad you don't have to learn from a REAL accident.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Try and push the court date as far back as you can so that the cop has cooled down a bit.
Shake it off and just be more attentive when driving.
Long story short, I came to a stop light at the top of a very small hill....pushed on the gas just lightly enough to get the car over the crest....and then applied the brakes, which started going into anti-lock mode, and did absolutely nothing to slow me down. Guess what vehicle was at the bottom of this hill, sitting at a red light?
I swerved at the last second, and coasted smoothly onto the sidewalk, missing his car and a lamppost by inches in either side.
It was incredibly nerve-racking (especially from being such a close call, as was yours, apparently)...luckily the cop didn't think anything of it, and just left once the light turned green...but I couldn't get over it for a few days.
In the end, though, you didn't cause any damage whatsoever, and it doesn't look like your punishment is going to be too severe. Relax! It was a small incident. Sorry the cop was such a jerk. That's probably a good part of why you're worrying about the situation so much, I'd guess. If it was just a civilian car, and nobody screamed at you about it, I would guess you'd be thinking about this a little more calmly.
a) he was being an arse and;
b) if you'd ever been seriously in danger of hitting each other you'd be writing after a night in a cell.
I wouldn't be surprised if the police car was driving too fast anyway.
Roundabouts are fucking awful because they are reliant on people indicating left and right properly. Whoever designed them seemed to have a lot of faith in their fellow kind.
You're a very inexperienced driver and things like this are to be expected. I still remember the (many) retarded things that I did when I first passed my driving test. But as MuddBudd and a lot of other people in this thread said, you learn from it and get better.
I would like to think that this was just scare tactics. And even if you are brought before a court, they would be pretty lenient as this is small time compared to the seriousness of other traffic offenses.
1) did it more egregiously that usual, it seems, and
2) you had the misfortune to cut off a cop.
Unless you were entering the roundabout at high speed or something, I don't see how this is reckless driving (unless the UK has a radically different definition of reckless driving than the US does.) Probably you will get a ticket in the mail and will have to pay a fine and/or appear in court to tell a judge how sorry you are about the whole thing.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
wait, saint2e's diagram is right?
IMHO then it's the cops fault... the drivers on the circle ALWAYS have right of way in the US... check the laws for the UK