Nearly had a heart attack watching this..

Having watched this again I still think it should be reported to the police. So the driver was apologetic! They could so very easily now be facing a charge of causing death by dangerous driving or be laying in a morgue right now along with at least one rider.
Those two riders are doing the rest of us a huge disservice by not reporting it in my opinion.
What if instead of two horses and riders it had been a pony and trap or a group of cyclists or a child on a pony? None of those would have been able to get out of the way quickly enough.
Please report it to the police and Bhs.
 
they grey horse cantering up behind the black one possibly didnt help the situation. that was also bad riding, the one in front had no idea what was happening behind her, and cantering a horse on a road that has just spooked whilst there are cars about is imo bloody stupid.

I am NOT excusing the driver in any way.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
apparently the driver stopped, apologised and was apparently genuine so the riders have decided to not take it any further which is their choice. absolutely horrific, I wouldn't be so generous though.
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Don't think I would be as well .
I think would have made sure I had a film of her number plate and taken the film to the police .
TBH even with out the horses, imagine they where cyclists ,it was a mad place to try to overtake that's a dangerous driver full stop not one that does not understand horses .
I don't think it was great performanace from the riders either the one in front allowed to big gap to form between they what on earth was see thinking she ought to have slowed down when the grey started mucking about .
Never string out that shows exactly why it's dangerous .
 
jhoward said:
they grey horse cantering up behind the black one possibly didnt help the situation. that was also bad riding, the one in front had no idea what was happening behind her, and cantering a horse on a road that has just spooked whilst there are cars about is imo bloody stupid.

I am NOT excusing the driver in any way.
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I dont think the grey horse and rider have any impact on what that driver does.
The road is straight for long enough for the driver to have slowed down unless they were not paying attention, I have commented and put that I hope they pss the footage to the police.
The police will be able to lift the reg number fromthat footage easily enough.
 
What I'm failing to understand about the whole situation is what on earth the person in that silver car was doing or how fast were they going to not even think about slamming on the breaks/handbrake/driving up the verge rather than zoom past the horses? Surely doing an emergency stop would be most people's first reaction?? So what was wrong with them to not see the scenario playing out in front of them?

I have had so many similar situations. Even had one on Saturday where my fairly bombproof horse span into the road spooking at a sign, he was still unsettled and I was using all my strength to try and keep him on the correct side of the road when some kid zoomed past at what I estimate to be 40-50 mph. I was waving at him to slow down as much as I could but he just waved back as if I was thanking him and motored off. Fortunately mine didn't spook, but there was a scary moment when he thought about it, then heard the car and changed his mind. People are just pig ignorant and don't care and have no thought beyond what they're doing and where they're going.
 
twiggy2 said:
I dont think the grey horse and rider have any impact on what that driver does.
The road is straight for long enough for the driver to have slowed down unless they were not paying attention, I have commented and put that I hope they pss the footage to the police.
The police will be able to lift the reg number fromthat footage easily enough.
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I think the driver was speeding and wasn't paying attention/didnt see them in time-not an excuse at all with other drivers stationary coming the other way. Many people just do not pay attention when they are driving and its scary.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
I think the driver was speeding and wasn't paying attention/didnt see them in time-not an excuse at all with other drivers stationary coming the other way. Many people just do not pay attention when they are driving and its scary.
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I think this is it , the horse thing is part of a load of people who are just bad drivers full stop and I think we need to think about the horse thing in the context of bad driving as a whole .
There will be of course be a few people who just have a beef with horses and behave badly because of it but they will be a tiny minority the rest are just bad drivers .
And no amount of horse based education will prevent that .
 
atropa said:
Saw this on FB, it really doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened. That bay horse's sense of self preservation was the only thing preventing a horrendous accident. I too think the riders should report it, the driver was clearly not driving to suit the road conditions.
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Agreed. I'm actually thinking the fact my horse doesn't spook at even the heaviest of scary traffic is somewhat of a disadvantage. The only reason the horse wasn't hit was down to it jumping sideways out the way. Take you a long time to get over that!

I also agree it's a police incident, no matter how sorry the driver was after the event. Who was blaring the horn, it wasn't clear to me if it was the idiot or someone else in the queue of cars.
 
jhoward said:
they grey horse cantering up behind the black one possibly didnt help the situation. that was also bad riding, the one in front had no idea what was happening behind her, and cantering a horse on a road that has just spooked whilst there are cars about is imo bloody stupid.

I am NOT excusing the driver in any way.
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It doesn't matter if the horse was cantering, galloping or doing cartwheels down the road NO driver should speed up and overtake - simples !
 
Goldenstar said:
I think this is it , the horse thing is part of a load of people who are just bad drivers full stop and I think we need to think about the horse thing in the context of bad driving as a whole .
There will be of course be a few people who just have a beef with horses and behave badly because of it but they will be a tiny minority the rest are just bad drivers .
And no amount of horse based education will prevent that .
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There was a loose cow on the A702 when I was on the way to work. On a very long, wide open stretch with good viz. I stopped and put my hazards on as did the driver the opposite way (someone was herding it back to the farm entrance) There were about three cars behind me who did the same and a few more the other side. A driver came from my side, did not stop or slow down, overtaking our lane of traffic and narrowly missing the opposite lane, the cow crossing the road and the poor bloke herding the cow. What did he think we were doing-having a picnic? Because he acted as if we were just doing it for his inconvenience! People are brainless in their cars.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Agreed. I'm actually thinking the fact my horse doesn't spook at even the heaviest of scary traffic is somewhat of a disadvantage. The only reason the horse wasn't hit was down to it jumping sideways out the way. Take you a long time to get over that!

I also agree it's a police incident, no matter how sorry the driver was after the event. Who was blaring the horn, it wasn't clear to me if it was the idiot or someone else in the queue of cars.
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I *think* the beeping was one of the waiting cars trying to warn the speeding driver to slow down. You can see the waiting cars flashing their headlights just before the car speeds past. It may well be the thing that put the dark horse on edge enough to leap out the way - although, beeping with horses in the vicinity is obviously normally a silly thing to do.
 
It's terrifying! Poor horses and riders! I'm reasonably lucky in the roads I have to ride on are quiet and the drivers are very sensible on the whole, although an idiot last week overtook me and the car waiting calmly behind me on a blind bend. ********!
 
I'd be very disappointed if this driver is not being reported to the Police and that the "owner" of the video is now deleting potential evidence from social media. It is so irresponsible.
 
HBB said:
I'd be very disappointed if this driver is not being reported to the Police and that the "owner" of the video is now deleting potential evidence from social media. It is so irresponsible.
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hopefully they have decided to go to the police and been advised to take the video down in the meantime
 
This could have ended seriously badly. Perhaps with the popularity of hat cams now and the fact most these videos go viral people may start to get the message!
 
twiggy2 said:
hopefully they have decided to go to the police and been advised to take the video down in the meantime
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Maybe they rode their horses out today and found that a "RTC" did in fact occur owing to the definition of the law which states that if owing to the presence of a motor vehicle on a road, damage is done other than to the car then that is an RTC. If the horse is a nervous wreck in traffic then this would de-value it, and it it therefore damaged.

This link to 'damage' has never (to my knowledge) been taken to court, but if my horse was wrecked then I would certainly like to give it a run to see if I could make it a stated case! A horse that cannot hack is certainly worth less than one that can, unless it is a top level comp horse, which these did not seem to be.

I bet a solicitor who is expert in horse law would find that one interesting.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Agreed. I'm actually thinking the fact my horse doesn't spook at even the heaviest of scary traffic is somewhat of a disadvantage. The only reason the horse wasn't hit was down to it jumping sideways out the way. Take you a long time to get over that!

I also agree it's a police incident, no matter how sorry the driver was after the event. Who was blaring the horn, it wasn't clear to me if it was the idiot or someone else in the queue of cars.
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Might have been the red car trying to warn the oncoming (silver) car that there were riders in the road?

This happened pretty near me. My horse is also totally traffic proof, I don't think he would have got out the way!! Thank god they both jumped into the verge! I see dangerous driving pretty frequently, such as tailgating, overtaking when it's not clear, and getting way too close to cyclists, so it's not 'directed' at horses :(
 
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Pigeon said:
Might have been the red car trying to warn the oncoming (silver) car that there were riders in the road?

This happened pretty near me. My horse is also totally traffic proof, I don't think he would have got out the way!! Thank god they both jumped into the verge! I see dangerous driving pretty frequently, such as tailgating, overtaking when it's not clear, and getting way too close to cyclists, so it's not 'directed' at horses :(
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It makes you scared to be on the roads. Had my daughter out who is 6 and a friend today and that video went through my mind and I wondered if I should even take her on the road due to drivers like that. Her pony is totally bombproof and I honestly don't know if it would have reacted like that or just kept its course.

It really doesn't bear thinking about. I don't care how much drivers hate horses to take risks with another human's life as some do, well, the full weight of the law should be on them!
 
Fools Motto said:
Shocking to watch. Sadly not surprising considering the complete lack of 'horse aware' some of our road users have this day and age.
Hope the driver had a fright as much as we did, and more..
Poor horses and riders.
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Believe me, it isn't that they lack horse awareness, it is road awareness they haven't got a clue about. It never fails to amaze me how slowly (and subsequently violently) people react to say, brake lights all going on in front of them, or traffic lights going red. I have come to the conclusion that most drivers (and just about all women, sorry girls) don't look any further ahead than their thumbs on the steering wheel. I was commuting to work the other morning with a bus up ahead of me. Now, life has taught me that buses tend to stop to pick up people at points which are marked by these odd things called bus stops and they tend to be 100 yards or so apart. Driving along I could see people gathering at these bus stops so it was fairly obvious that the bus was going to be stopping pretty soon, so I sat out to my right a bit so that I could see ahead and be ready to drive a route around the bus. The two cars in front of me didn't change position, drove right up behind the bus and stopped because, guess what, they couldn't see and were then trying to drive out behind the bus at 45 degrees, totally blind so abandoned that idea too. I neatly overtook them both and carried on with my journey. Even on 30 mph roads I'm looking at least 200 yards beyond my bonnet and watching for potential hazards. On the motorway I'm looking at least 800 yards ahead. I also can't understand why people find it IMPOSSIBLE to drive at 30 mph without looking constantly at their speedometer (their usual excuse as to why they were speeding!) My instructor taught me to drive for miles at whatever speed he set for me and hold it there without checking the needle. But when you see what the driving instructors get up to these days, no wonder driving standards are so low.
 
fatpiggy said:
I have come to the conclusion that most drivers (and just about all women, sorry girls) don't look any further ahead than their thumbs on the steering wheel. .
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I take exception to this about female drivers... Insurance companies believe women to be so much safer that they actually prefer to give them lower quotes.

Having had weeks of learning to drive at high speed for Public Services, I have special training for visibility and awareness. Other people do not bother me though, as long as they are driving within their limits. Maybe they are not in a rush, and therefore happy to trundle along in the line of traffic? I know OH can get frustrated (also Public Services trained) when I "miss an overtake" when TBH I am in no rush and can't be bothered with such knife edge driving.

Maybe the driving test could be in 2 parts, one a basic test as is now, and the car limited to both engine size and speed, until the second test which is more about awareness, where on passing a person could be unlimited on engine size, and also top speed raised to national limits. Fitting a speed limiter is not so expensive...

After the first test people could be limited to the speed of HGVs, so no extra issues on roads. The promise of bigger engines and higher speeds would encourage people to take the higher test. In my case that was 4 weeks full time, after having 5 years as a leisure driver, including 7.5 tonne wagons, trailers etc, so no slight commitment.

That would be safer, but nothing will mitigate against fools driving on the phone etc.
 
I also take HUGE exception to fatpiggy's remarks. What a self righteous post with absolutely no basis on fact.

I've seen the video and it shook me up terribly, they were a whisker from serious injury. Neither rider was at any fault, it was a stroke of luck that the dark horse kept moving as they would have had no chance of survival if the car had met them earlier I reckon.
 
FP remark about woman drivers is just plain wrong all the evidence shows that male drivers have more accidents and many more of the serious accidents that women .
Young men being by far the most dangerous drivers of all .
 
SuperCat007 said:
What I'm failing to understand about the whole situation is what on earth the person in that silver car was doing or how fast were they going to not even think about slamming on the breaks/handbrake/driving up the verge rather than zoom past the horses? Surely doing an emergency stop would be most people's first reaction?? So what was wrong with them to not see the scenario playing out in front of them?

I have had so many similar situations. Even had one on Saturday where my fairly bombproof horse span into the road spooking at a sign, he was still unsettled and I was using all my strength to try and keep him on the correct side of the road when some kid zoomed past at what I estimate to be 40-50 mph. I was waving at him to slow down as much as I could but he just waved back as if I was thanking him and motored off. Fortunately mine didn't spook, but there was a scary moment when he thought about it, then heard the car and changed his mind. People are just pig ignorant and don't care and have no thought beyond what they're doing and where they're going.
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I thought this too. Lots of time to see the horses and the other cars that have stopped. How much attention can you possibly not be paying to ram last horses at such speed without even attempting to brake? Very scary.
 
9tails said:
I also take HUGE exception to fatpiggy's remarks. What a self righteous post with absolutely no basis on fact.

I've seen the video and it shook me up terribly, they were a whisker from serious injury. Neither rider was at any fault, it was a stroke of luck that the dark horse kept moving as they would have had no chance of survival if the car had met them earlier I reckon.
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Come and spend a few days driving with me then. I used to do 25K miles a year when I had my horse, all road types and I know what I saw. As a cyclist the drivers I fear the most are women. They are often indecisive and try to go through gaps that have long since got smaller. As for insurance, women tend to have different sorts of accidents - men tend to be reckless, high speed, women tend to be shunts and lower speed incidents many of which could have been avoided with a bit of forward thinking. High speed accidents cause more damage per incident. Hence the insurance premiums. Women tend to drive lower mileages too, so the accident risk is reduced proportionately and we don't tend to be obsessed with high performance cars/high speed driving like men. Perhaps you should have seen the near miss I witnessed two weeks ago on my way home (in the school run window of time) where a woman driving a people carrier turned left out of the straight on only lane, much to the surprise of the driver in the lane beside her which is left and straight on. Luckily he was on the ball and stopped in time to avoid a collision but it was a very close shave. Just one example.
 
I hope the video has been taken down because the police want to use it in evidence to prosecute the driver.
 
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