and advise the local plod
Not many plods around Northern NZ during the middle of the day, local station closed - most of NZ closes for the weekend - or I would have driven around and lodged a complaint, but I do have the number should I see that car around again anytime soon. But .... some years ago I was nearly knocked off my m/bike by another female motorist, and I turned around and caught up with her and drew alongside, indicating that she should pull over and explain why she nearly killed me, i.e. what part of the word STOP didn't she understand on a large red sign at the end of the road that she had pulled out of whilst looking at her phone ? She didn't even slow down, and actually edged out into the middle of the road, pushing me into oncoming traffic, so I gave up, went home and rang the Police. Nothing more was ever done about it. The next day I saw the same car at the petrol station, but driven by a totally different female, blonde instead of brunette for a start, no contest. I stopped and asked her who owned the car, 'cos the day before I had nearly been killed by the then driver. No answer, as she got in and drove away, but when I got home my wife told me that I had been telephoned by the Police, and they wanted me to explain why I had been harassing women in the town ? Incident eventually closed with no charges.
At the same gas station another women who had completed her filling, paid, got back into her car whilst I was still filling mine, started up and drove straight into the back of my car. I asked her what she was thinking of, and as she was clearly under the influence of something, I called her a stupid bitch. A man came across and said that she was a friend of his, and if I called her a bitch again he would hit me, so I did, and he did. At that point I stood in front of his car and called the Police - sometimes mobile phones are useful ! - and surprisingly they arrived fairly quickly, seperated us, and asked me to wait on one side. Eventually the female officer let the man and woman go their seperate ways before hearing me, and then came over to talk to my wife and I, and started by saying that she was considering charging me with using insulting language in public, i.e. calling someone a bitch ! No mention of the physical assault on my person, or the slight damage done to my car when it had been run into, albeit slowly. Call the Police ? Yeah ! Right ! The victim is rarely considered in NZ, and the perps. are let off with a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.
mobile phones used while filling the tank have caused explosions. Never happened,
I might agree with that, but the service stations have a right to stop mobile phone use on their premises if they wish, and driving and phoning is illegal, and potentially dangerous.