Don Your Way column: My brush with late night road rage on the streets of Doncaster

Welcome back to Don Your Way - if you've missed me the last two weeks it's because I've been enjoying a fortnight's holiday.
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Other than the odd day out here and there with the kids, it has been nice just to kick back, relax and enjoy some of the blisteringly warm weather we've enjoyed (or in some cases, endured) across the start of the school hols.

But enough of the chit-chat, on with this week's musings.

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Let's drive safely on the streets of Doncaster, says Darren Burke.Let's drive safely on the streets of Doncaster, says Darren Burke.
Let's drive safely on the streets of Doncaster, says Darren Burke.

During the aforementioned holiday, I was driving home one night after midnight, my dad and youngest son with me in the car.

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Trundling along Leger Way, all of a sudden, a boy racer whizzed past me rather pointlessly, passing me on the wrong side of a traffic island, simply because he didn't fancy travelling behind me at the speed limit.

To signal my annoyance at such a daft bit of roadmanship, I did the usual 'full beam flash' as he overtook and thought nothing more of it.

However, my dopey and ropey driving friend (we'll presume it was a he) wasn't done yet. Slamming on the brakes, he then crawled towards the roundabout at Armthorpe Road, forcing me to dawdle along at snail's pace behind him as deliberately hindered our journey home.

As we reached the roundabout, he turned right to go into Armthorpe, while I continued on along Leger Way.

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End of the matter? Oh no. Obviously incensed at my full beam antics, he came all the way around the roundabout to follow me - and then proceeded to dazzle me with his headlights all the way to the next roundabout, before finally whizzing past me in again, zooming off in a cloud of dust and no doubt manic laughter.

My family looked on in amazement at the antics of this prize pillock in his little red Corsa, with my lad especially bemused by our encounter with Doncaster's answer to Lewis Hamilton.

It's easy to see how so many drivers end up wrapped around lamp-posts when there's lemons like this on the road.

OK, it wasn't the most dangerous bit of driving and no-one got hurt, but that's by the by.

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The fact of the matter is some impatient idiot was determined to enjoy his own little game of GTA (that's Grand Theft Auto to non-gaming fans) simply because my driving at 40mph was getting in the way of his after midnight jaunt.

And before anyone accuses me of being a goody-goody, yes, I'm not perfect on the road myself and have certainly cut people up from time to time (not deliberately) and may even have nudged the speedometer, but touch wood I've never been involved in an accident - and nor do I have any points on my licence.

I'm also not naive enough to think these kind of goings on are ten a penny after dark on Doncaster's roads.

But in 25 years of reporting, I've also covered numerous sad deaths and road accidents, young lives and innocent victims, snuffed out by a moment of madness.

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So while it might seem hilarious fun to 'stalk' a middle-aged bloke making his way home from the cinema in his 'dad-mobile' there's often far more serious and dangerous consequences that could be lurking around the next corner.

Drive safely and make Doncaster a safer place for the rest of us.