Here's the scenario that happened to me tonight, that ended in me being pulled and breathalised by the police. It all worked out ok and I got let off with a warning for going slightly too fast, and driving a little bit eratically after the test came back negative... but the whole situation did my head in a bit, and I'm not sure realistically how I could have avoided getting pulled over.
so the script is I've gone over to York to see this lass, then on the spur of the moment we've driven to whitby for fish and chips (whitby fish and chips are the best like), and we've had a mooch about, stopped in a few pubs where I'd mixed the odd half of lowish alcohol ale with coffees and coke, so thought I should be under the limit but only like 99% sure... anyway driving back about 11.30pm, we went over the moors seeing virtually no traffic at all, driving fairly fast, but still with a decent margin for error in case of ice or something. I'm a bit tired and could have done with another coffee before setting off but the coffee machine in the bar was switched off, so I figured I'd be ok to get to york and have a coffee there before driving back to leeds...
er right, so anyway, as I go to pull onto the A64 to leeds, I'm heading up the sliproad, look in my mirror and see there's a car coming up the A64 behind me but with enough room for me to pull out as it's a very long straight sliproad, so I was upto 60 or so anyway, and it's a dual carriageway so the car should be able to pull into the empty second carriageway anyway if it's a problem... so far so good, but then instead of just overtaking me, the car which I realise had probably been doing around 80 before I appeared, doesn't overtake on the empty carriageway, and instead just slows down and sits on my tail.
er, ok thinks me,that's odd... distinct possibility it's the rozzers, but i'm not sure it's the rozzers as all I've got to go on is their behaviour and the shape of the headlights... now I know that when I pulled onto the road I may well have ended up breaking the speed limit a bit, but this was only so that I could accelerate out of the way of the other car (later found out it was the police) that must have been doing at least 80, and didn't pull out onto the empty carriageway to overtake me like any normal driver would... so I'm now fairly sure it's the coppers and that they've decided they're going to just follow me for a bit and see if I do anything they can pull me for, but then at the same time I'm also kinda thinking that maybe it's not, and I'm just holding some other driver up who maybe's just wanting to go a bit quicker than the speed limit, but not over take me as the road is now single carriageway again.
so I'm trying to hold the car at the speed limit in case it is a cop car (which I think it probably is), but not drive too slow as I'm tired and want to get home, and also don't want to piss off whoever's behind me if it ain't the police... problem is this car has got it's headlights set so that from the position they've taken behind me the beams shine directly into my mirrors, and from there into my eyes... a combination of beam set too high (not full beam, but prob right at the least dipped setting), and the position behind me they'd taken presumably to allow them to monitor my speed accurately, essentially meaning they were fucking up my nightvision, properly blinding me every time they went over a bump, making my eyes go really tired, and basically pissing me off.
so after 9 miles of this, I'm still not clear if it's the rozzers or what, and we hit another 70mph dual carriageway bit going up a hill, so I stay at 60 to allow the car behind to accelerate past up the hill and stop tailgating me, as even if it's the coppers I'm thinking they should pull me or fuck off after 9 miles... but no, the fucker stays behind me, and continues to blind me... so once it's clear he's not going to overtake I think I'll accelerate to 70 or so and try to pull away a bit to stop him dazzling me, so I do, then go over the hill and have just got a comfortable amount of space between us when I realised I've nearly hit 80... so I slow back to 70 and as I do sure enough the frigging flashing lights go on, and I pull over.
As the copper comes over I start to say something about him following me too closely, but he reacts badly to this so I retreat into er yeah sorry officer was I going slightly too fast, all my fault mode, and he does the spiel, gets me into his car for a breathaliser, tells me I was doing 80 down the hill, and it's all nice and tense, then the breathaliser goes green...
*phew*
and they start to relax a bit, but still ask me why as was driving a bit eratically, and wobbling over the line a bit, to which I want to reply 'because I was being tailgated by some twat for 10 miles who was blinding me, and wouldn't overtake me or back off no matter what I did, and the going over the line bit would have been when I was checking my mirrors to try and see if you were a fucking police car or just some dickhead playing silly buggers with me, or what, and you finally clocked me for speeding because I was so fucked off with you that I figured I'd risk it just to get the fuck away from you...'
but instead I pampered their egos, stayed calm, played it cool and apologetic etc. and on this basis they let me off with a warning and a receipt detailing why I'd been stopped.
***
right, so that's what happened, and no harm done, but ffs is this standard police practice to essentially tailgate someone with your headlights on as high as possible without being full beam for as long as it takes until they finally do something you can stop them for?
and should I just have put up with them tailgating me and partially blinding me for as long as they liked, or like what should I have done about it that would have not resulted in me getting pulled over? Bearing in mind that whatever I did that was abnormal (eg slowing right down) apparently would have seemed erratic behaviour to them, pretty much the only action I can see I could have taken to get them off my backs would have been to pull over voluntarily and ask them to breathalyse me if they wanted, but please could they stop tailgating me.
erm, more background info being that when my eyes are tired I've noticed that it really bugs me when people sit behind me with their lights not tipped properly and their lights reflecting in my eyes from the mirrors and wrecking my night vision, and I end up getting proper eye strain and wanting to do whatever it takes to get the fucker behind me to stop it.
also, yeah I'll admit having the coppers behind me always makes me nervous, particularly when I've had a drink as I know it's difficult to know for 100% I'm definately under the limit or not, and I know how much hastle even a minor drink driving thing would cause... but still, I don't think it's that irrational to ask that they either pull you over or don't, not tailgate you for 9 miles in potentially icey weather and then pull you over because you're driving erratically in trying to get them to stop tailgating you.
Why didn't you ask the rozzers all these questions in a stern voice you big girls blouse?
Treat them with the regard they treat you.What they gonna do eh?
