Nervous to drive again

Hi guys. I gave up driving lessons for a few months in August before starting again a few weeks ago with a new instructor. My new instructor is great and things have been going much better - my confidence was better and I felt more comfortable driving. I've had 6 or 7 hours with him and he's talking about taking my theory test as soon as possible. However driving home in the almost dark on Friday night there was a line of cars parked with gaps between on the opposite side of the road. There were two oncoming cars as I approached. The two cars both pulled in and acknowledged I should go past (fine, my right of way too, right?) and I was past the first car and nearing the second when the driver pulled out the car and nearly rammed into the side of me. I had to swerve to get out of his way and ended up nearly on the pavement to avoid him. My driving instructor was fuming at the other driver saying he should never have done that. Was I in the wrong at all? I'm paranoid that I did something wrong and I then had to pull over and calm down cause I thought he was honestly going to hit us. Anybody got any advice for gaining confidence again ?!
Thanks

Reply 1

Neostigmine

18

Original post by ifandbutwhynot

Hi guys. I gave up driving lessons for a few months in August before starting again a few weeks ago with a new instructor. My new instructor is great and things have been going much better - my confidence was better and I felt more comfortable driving. I've had 6 or 7 hours with him and he's talking about taking my theory test as soon as possible. However driving home in the almost dark on Friday night there was a line of cars parked with gaps between on the opposite side of the road. There were two oncoming cars as I approached. The two cars both pulled in and acknowledged I should go past (fine, my right of way too, right?) and I was past the first car and nearing the second when the driver pulled out the car and nearly rammed into the side of me. I had to swerve to get out of his way and ended up nearly on the pavement to avoid him. My driving instructor was fuming at the other driver saying he should never have done that. Was I in the wrong at all? I'm paranoid that I did something wrong and I then had to pull over and calm down cause I thought he was honestly going to hit us. Anybody got any advice for gaining confidence again ?!
Thanks

Sounds like the other driver was at fault. It is always startling when it happens and it even happens to experienced drivers. Get back in the car, remember it wasn't your fault and you successfully avoided an accident!

Reply 2

im.a.witch

13

Original post by ifandbutwhynot

Hi guys. I gave up driving lessons for a few months in August before starting again a few weeks ago with a new instructor. My new instructor is great and things have been going much better - my confidence was better and I felt more comfortable driving. I've had 6 or 7 hours with him and he's talking about taking my theory test as soon as possible. However driving home in the almost dark on Friday night there was a line of cars parked with gaps between on the opposite side of the road. There were two oncoming cars as I approached. The two cars both pulled in and acknowledged I should go past (fine, my right of way too, right?) and I was past the first car and nearing the second when the driver pulled out the car and nearly rammed into the side of me. I had to swerve to get out of his way and ended up nearly on the pavement to avoid him. My driving instructor was fuming at the other driver saying he should never have done that. Was I in the wrong at all? I'm paranoid that I did something wrong and I then had to pull over and calm down cause I thought he was honestly going to hit us. Anybody got any advice for gaining confidence again ?!
Thanks

Similar thing happened to me on my first lesson. That driver clearly didn't check you were there his/her fault entirely.
As the other person said don't let it knock your confidence unfortunately there are drivers like this everywhere as you get more experienced YOU WILL cope better with it
good luck with the Theory :smile:

Reply 3

ifandbutwhynot

OP

Thank you guys ! Had my first lesson back this morning and it went really well - instructor said if that had been a test I would have passed so I'm really pleased :smile:

Reply 4

Zero_Hero

I had the same feeling. But nervousness became excitement after having my new car.