But I"ve never been...

But I"ve never been quite so shocked or scared as I was recently when, after a quiet Friday night and eight hours" sleep, I set off for Heathrow Airport at 6am. I gave myself plenty of time for an 11.30am flight - but I nearly didn"t make it. As I drove from residential streets towards the motorways I intended to use, I stopped for a red light. A second or two after the lights turned green in my favour, I pulled away... then had to take life-saving action to avoid being hit by a large, potentially lethal vehicle.

It was one of those short, stumpy but heavy street-sweeping trucks, and had it come into contact with the VW Golf GTI I was in, I would have come off much worse than the so-called "professional" driver cleaning the streets. It was obvious to me he"d jumped the red light. I was equally convinced that by being alert and taking emergency avoidance action (thanks, I believe, to all the driver training I"ve volunteered for over the decades), I prevented a nasty accident and almost certain personal injury.

But oh no, the other bloke didn"t see it that way - and told me so in aggressive terms. Which was fine by me. I weighed up the situation, and decided to get out of my car to speak to him. I was keen to hear how he could justify illegally ploughing his truck into the path of a car legally driving through a green light. I called him a few choice names and demanded an explanation. His excuse was that as he approached the traffic signal facing him, it was green... but because his vehicle was so slow, he did not have time to get across the junction before I received my green light to proceed.

Apparently, I should have been aware of this. I should have known how fast or slow his vehicle was capable of moving and remained stationary, even when the lights turned green in my favour. This incident proves at least four things: 1) Slow-moving vehicles can cause as many, if not more accidents than "fast cars" which, quite wrongly, seem to be blamed for most of the problems on the road. 2) Local authorities employ some low-paid drivers who are dangerous and in desperate need of specialist training. 3) As long as you"re confident enough to do so, it"s perfectly acceptable to shout at "public servant" drivers and others who"ve very nearly killed you. 4) You should report such potential killer drivers to their employers on the grounds that you seriously believe it"s only a matter of time before they cause a fatal road accident. I did.