Speeding police (not on duty)

20 Mar, 2010  Annoyances, Driving

Yesterday was an usual day. While driving from the underpass that leads onto Rainbow roundabout, a car came speeding behind me (I was already going 87 and at the rate he was going I had decided to accelerate to move to the right).

I hit 100 and he was still coming up behind me. By now I could see it was some tiny hatch-back. He got so close to me (bumper to bumper) that I breaked to get him to back off. When he did, I moved over to the right hand lane and looked into his car.

He was a police man. In fact, he looked like a traffic police man. ‘Oh reeeeeeaally?’ I thought. So I opened my window and he did too (we were both driving around 60 now and talking).

‘What do you think you’re doing putting my life at risk?’

‘What?’ he says.

‘Why are you speeding! It’s dangerous.’, I scream back.

‘YOU were speeding’, he replies. It’s obvious he’s trying to cover himself now.

‘Only to avoid being rammed into by you!’

He grins and by then I take it he’s just another idiot on the road, (except sadly he’s also shaming his uniform), so I raise the window and he shoots off.

*sighs*

update: just to be clear, this road was an 80km road and the person coming up behind me had just passed a camera.

  • http://eye-kare.blogspot.com Ahmad

    the same thing happened to me!!

    except, when it happened to me, he pretended writing me a ticket which turned to be fake.

  • John

    Why werent you driving in the right hand lane in the first place at that speed?

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    Why should I have been on the right hand lane?
    (awaiting logic)

  • Gemballa

    Mr. Q, I do believe you were in the wrong lane. The left lane really is for those who want to get somewhere fast. The unspoken rule is if you want to go below the speed limit, you should be in the far right lane, if you want to cruise on or around the limit, the middle lane is yours, if you want to go above the speed limit (and we’re not talking a mere 6km above) then the left lane is yours. It’s very annoying when we want to zoom down the left lane and there’s a little old car hogging the lane going nowhere. Please get out of the way – you’ve got two other lanes :)

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    Lol are you serious?

    1) legally I’m following the law
    2) police are supposed to enforce the law
    3) if you want to talk about unspoken rules, then it’s usually a flash to move.
    4) unspoken Qatari rule is also if someone is on your bumper then they deserve no respect on the road
    5) I was driving 20 over the limit (albeit to avoid disaster). It was an 80km road.
    6) he was driving the old rickity car

    Point simply is, and I think you fail to see the point of the blog post, I’m a lawyer and i follow the law. He was a police man and his duty is to enforce the law. :)

  • Gemballa

    Lol. Well, at first you were going 87kmh so that’s slow for some people and unless you’re going pretty fast, it’s likely that there’s always someone who wants to go faster than you, which is why many people use that lane as an overtaking lane and then move back into the middle lane. I happen to agree with almost all of your points. However, some people don’t like to be flashed, so the option sometimes is to wait and hope they get the point – tailgating is very idiotic, although i wouldn’t necessarily blame someone for tailgating a car going say 80 in a 100 zone and refusing to move into an empty middle lane. Having said that, I don’t agree that you should speed up or swerve out of the lane in response to a car coming up fast behind you – you will cause an accident – move over when there is a space and they will just have to wait. But you can avoid all of this if you choose the correct lane in the first place ;)
    I agree that as a police officer he should be “following the law” but do remember that they are human too.
    Ideally we all should follow the law when it comes to speed limits, BUT SOMETIMES we have to let our hair down a bit!

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    You’re right, there ‘might’ be someone that wants to go faster than me.

    Qatari rule is if you want someone to move you give them a double flash.
    So as a Qatari in Qatar, I’ll follow these unspoken rules.

    We also have a rule that when someone comes up to your bumper then they are being rude and can get lost.

    What I’m saying is that whether people like to be flashed or not, it’s much more polite than honking, that’s why we do it.

    The guy didn’t wait at all and at the speed he was going, could have rammed into me.

    Finally, he’s not a citizen, he’s an officer of the law, the people we hope will follow the law to protect us and to lead by example.

    Similarly, I’d get annoyed if a police man wasn’t wearing his seat belt and texting while driving.

    The point of this post is just that.

    I agree, if someone is going 80 in a 100 zone, then they’re asking for trouble, however in this case I was driving 87 in an 80 zone, and sped up to a 100 in an 80 zone and he was near bumper to bumper.

    I agree that they are human, however what that individual did wasn’t trying to get from point A to point B quickly, he wasn’t following road rules (spoken or unspoken), and he was putting lives at risk.

  • Gemballa

    So all he had to do was give you a double flash and you would have happily budged over – lovely :)

    P.S. It’s his problem if he’s not wearing his seat belt. Why would you let that ruin your day?

  • Mr. Q

    Yes, because that’s the rule. Double flash means move please.

    As for wearing a seat belt. Just as children learn from parents and it’s important for them to lead by example, it’s important for police to lead by example as well.

    Who wants to listen to police who enforce a law that they don’t follow?

  • Gemballa

    Who wants to listen to them at all?

    i still don’t understand why you don’t choose the appropriate lane in the first place…

    I’m just playing Devil’s advocate, thanks for the nice discussion and your admirable view of life.

  • Anon

    Totally right Kei.
    But I have to say, no hard feelings, that you should have been driving on the right lane.

    Its a simple rule I follow. Keep on the right as long as you can. By that I mean that I usually go at exactly the speed limit of the road I am on and keep at that. If the right lane is empty or mostly unused, like Air Force road for example, and if a car happens to be there cruising at 5KM (!!) then I passover to the left and back to the right.

    Because I personally hate it just as everyone else when some hog is doing what he/she does best specially on the far-left lane. I hate that to no limits.

    But the bumper thing? right on, bro.

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