Tailgating
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Living in Cornwall, the spinal A30 locally known as the Cornish motorway as it is the only fast trunk road in the county is a nightmare for victims of tailgating like myself.
On a 70' stretch (central barrier) of the A30 I was approaching a smaller car doing around 55mph in the inside lane so I indicated out to overtake. Very soon a much more powerful car came up behind me in the outside lane and was tailgating quite agressively.
As I was already at the top of the national speed limit for the section of road I was on I could only remain in a very dangerous place as the car I was overtaking had increased speed to keep up so I couldnt pull over. I became obsessed with the image of the agressive driver in my rear view mirror and struggled to control a panic situation.
My partner, who was riding passenger at the time, said that I should not consider speeding up to create enough space to complete the overtake, but what can I legally do to ensure road safety in this situation? Is it acceptable to speed up to 80-85mph in order to complete an overtake and avoid a tailgater by being able to move over, or should I sit it out and hope I dont get a shunt?
I would appreciate other peoples' responses to how to deal legally/technically with tailgaters and hear other experiences of the same.
On a 70' stretch (central barrier) of the A30 I was approaching a smaller car doing around 55mph in the inside lane so I indicated out to overtake. Very soon a much more powerful car came up behind me in the outside lane and was tailgating quite agressively.
As I was already at the top of the national speed limit for the section of road I was on I could only remain in a very dangerous place as the car I was overtaking had increased speed to keep up so I couldnt pull over. I became obsessed with the image of the agressive driver in my rear view mirror and struggled to control a panic situation.
My partner, who was riding passenger at the time, said that I should not consider speeding up to create enough space to complete the overtake, but what can I legally do to ensure road safety in this situation? Is it acceptable to speed up to 80-85mph in order to complete an overtake and avoid a tailgater by being able to move over, or should I sit it out and hope I dont get a shunt?
I would appreciate other peoples' responses to how to deal legally/technically with tailgaters and hear other experiences of the same.