French maniac camper van on Greek road. I almost understand road rage now!
By katerina
@thea09 (18305)
Greece
July 16, 2009 2:46pm CST
This afternoon I was heading up to town, an hour's drive away. To get there the road traverses a mountain with the sea on one side. The road is has very sharp bends and us local drivers know where the best places are to overtake if we get stuck beind something going slow. There is only a short window of opportunity to overtake as the next bend will be close by. Greek drivers are maniacs and overtake with much more daring than I would. Today I was stuck behind a French camper van going at the usual tourist speed of 30 kms an hour and admiring the view. With oncoming traffic I was stuck there for a while till the chance came to overtake. I indicated and speeded up to 70 to pass it. So did he. He speeded up to 70 going uphill before the bend when for the last 15 minutes he'd been quite content to amble along at 30. This situation was VERY dangerous as he was beside me and the next bend was coming up. My language was choice. No matter how bad Greek driving can be NO ONE does this on our roads, the number of accidents make this no laughing matter. For the first time ever I understand what can provoke road rage.
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1 response
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
16 Jul 09
Hello Thea - you don't seem to be having a very good day today, mate! Spanish drivers are also maniacs, and they have this 'macho' attitude that they have to get in front of women drivers, even when you have the right of way.
When I'm driving my UK registered camper, it's different, because it's right hand drive, and at a quick glance, they think Tony's driving. BTW, when I drive the camper, I'm neither too fast nor too slow, and if there's a queue of traffic behind me, I'll pull over if necessary. In Spain, we have a lot of 'crawler lanes' for lorries and slow moving vehicles, but I think we've got a lot more land available for roads here.
All you can do is drive to the lowest common denominator, and allow for the fact that almost every other driver on the road is an accident waiting to happen.
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