27/08/2026
Today I experienced something really unpleasant and, if Iām honest, quite scary. And no, not the rainā¦ that post will come next šš
Today I made a driving error. Without going into too much detail, in the hope that the vile human being involved happens to see this, if heās local and follows my page: it was at the top of Cromford Avenue at around 1:30ā2pm.
It was an honest mistake. Someone literally did the same thing to me yesterday. The road is really congested at the moment with huge machinery and vehicles parked up, and mistakes happen.
Anyway, a man driving a small silver van beeped his horn aggressively and then proceeded to follow me, practically bumper to bumper.
I wasnāt in my van (still not fixed š¢), which has actually left me wonderingā¦ would it have been better if I had been?
Would he have named and shamed me? Given me the opportunity to say all of this to his face? Taken my number from the van and contacted me afterwards? Or was I actually safer because I wasnāt in my sign-written van?
He continued following me so closely that I genuinely started to feel uncomfortable. Someone flashed me out onto Westdale and, of course, he squeezed straight in behind me again.
I ended up going up a road I didnāt even need to go up because my own road is a dead end and I was becoming scared to go anywhere near home.
Thankfully, he didnāt follow me up there. But he beeped his horn again, ridiculously aggressively.
I turned around and went back onto Westdale, where I then noticed heād gone into the Co-op car park and was walking towards the shop. I caught a glimpse of him staring at me and muttering somethingā¦ probably giving me the middle finger too.
Sorry for the rant, but honestlyā¦ WHY?!
Can we not make mistakes anymore without being subjected to abuse and intimidation?
Where do people get off behaving like this?
Would he have done the same thing if I were a man?
Should I have stopped and confronted him?
Believe me, I wanted to. But the truth isā¦ I was actually scared.
A grown man I didnāt know made me feel scared because of one small, honest mistake.
How would he feel if that had been his wife? His daughter? His children? Being followed and intimidated by a stranger because theyād made a simple driving error?
Why wasnāt my apologetic look and wave enough? What exactly did he want from me?
In all my years of driving, Iāve never experienced anything like this. And I usually drive a sign-written van, so I know full well that Iām potentially opening myself up to people taking photos, reporting me or giving me abuse whenever they donāt like something I do.
But this felt different.
This wasnāt just someone being annoyed that Iād made a mistake. This was a grown man deliberately following me, driving bumper to bumper and making me feel unsafe.
And for what?
WHY?
We are all human. We all make mistakes. Surely we havenāt reached the point where one honest mistake on the road gives someone the right to intimidate and frighten another person.
Because today, for the first time in years of driving, someone genuinely made me scared.
And I just cannot understand why.
