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Letters to the Editor

The Editor,

Unexpected Hazard

A few evenings ago (16th September) I was driving from Pulborough to Arundel along the A29. This is a modest A road with plenty of speed limits and I was behind a carefully driven Ford Focus in my wife’s 1966 Anglia with another car behind me. At the bottom of Bury Hill the 50mph limit ends and the road widens to two lanes, so I overtook the Focus and moved back to the left lane. The car behind me followed and remained in the outside lane to overtake me.

This took him a lot of time. I was in third gear doing about 55-60mph (1500GT engine) up the hill and as the white Astra van drew level the driver hooted and waved at me. Ah, I thought something is falling off my car – so I followed him at a reasonable distance and listened to the car, which seemed fine.

At the roundabout half a mile further on the van stopped, its hazard flashers were switched on and the driver got out, wishing to talk to me. How kind of him. What followed was totally unexpected.

He was clearly angry and was ranting that I had been racing him up the hill, and sitting on his tail. I was amazed. I pointed out that I had remained in the left lane and waited for him to drive past in the outside lane – the problem was his. There are always three versions of the truth – my version, your version, and the truth – but I really could not see what had triggered this version of events. He was about 30, I am about 60 and his van was a 2002 model. He threatened to report me, muttering about powerful cars, and drove off. I noted his number FD02NBV.

So readers, beware. Do not drive your older car up hills faster than expected; do not embarrass younger men in nearly new vehicles. If his girlfriend had been with him, would the Anglia have swept her off her feet like a Ferrari apparently can? As you can imagine, the Anglia is very proud of this incident.

Yours sincerely,
Christopher Darwin

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