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View Full Version : Wrong way in roundabout


logdog
05-14-2013, 05:00 PM
I've been hearing about this for awhile but always suspected urban legend. This afternoon, we were driving our car through the Morse roundabout between Spanish Springs and The Villages Hospital. Halfway through I had to hit the brakes when I saw another car coming head on in my lane going in the wrong direction. She was going slow and obviously confused (I was close enough to see her face) so we didn't collide. Then she tried to exit the roundabout by taking the first available entrance to the roundabout (wrong way again) which was blocked by a car trying to enter the circle. Fortunately, there were some young TV landscape workers nearby who took control of the situation, blocked all traffic and guided her out of the circle. Probably can't blame this one on snowbirds since they're mostly gone. Just got to be careful and drive defensively all the time.

NotGolfer
05-14-2013, 05:05 PM
A week or two ago I met a woman in a sedan on one of the multi-modal paths over by the Buenas Aries (sp) gate . I waved at her to stop and told her she needed to get on the street. I think she already knew this...her response was "this is my 1st time here!" She was elderly..maybe late 70's or early to mid-80's. (it's hard to tell sometimes). She was embarrassed for sure.

As for the round-about issue....elderly, confused person probably who shouldn't be driving but is. Lucky for her she didn't have a head-on collision!!

DonH57
05-14-2013, 05:10 PM
Curious if it was the same woman I seen this morning driving in the wrong direction around Spanish Springs square. I flashed my lights, blew the horn and waved but it did no good.

Warren Kiefer
05-14-2013, 07:40 PM
I've been hearing about this for awhile but always suspected urban legend. This afternoon, we were driving our car through the Morse roundabout between Spanish Springs and The Villages Hospital. Halfway through I had to hit the brakes when I saw another car coming head on in my lane going in the wrong direction. She was going slow and obviously confused (I was close enough to see her face) so we didn't collide. Then she tried to exit the roundabout by taking the first available entrance to the roundabout (wrong way again) which was blocked by a car trying to enter the circle. Fortunately, there were some young TV landscape workers nearby who took control of the situation, blocked all traffic and guided her out of the circle. Probably can't blame this one on snowbirds since they're mostly gone. Just got to be careful and drive defensively all the time.

These are the same drivers we meet out on the highways coming at us at 60 MPH..... This has become a real concern for me when I travel outside of the Villages...

gomoho
05-14-2013, 07:47 PM
Boy howdy....

DougB
05-14-2013, 07:55 PM
Highway roundabouts? Yikes!

asianthree
05-14-2013, 08:54 PM
where are the snowbirds when you need them:a040:

Dr Winston O Boogie jr
05-14-2013, 09:12 PM
Could she have been British. I drove in the Bahamas and I can tell you that it's very easy to make a mistake when you are on the opposite side from what you are used to.

Dreamer61
05-14-2013, 09:16 PM
Those roundabouts can be overwhelming! Glad no one was hurt!

CFrance
05-14-2013, 09:46 PM
We were nearly T-boned last week by a mini van with two occupants. They were on the multimodal path and decided to exit (in a panic), not even watching for who was in the roundabout. It's really disconcerting when you're driving and see a car on the path! and then it comes right at you.

The guy noted our startled looks gave us a self-confident wave as he hit the street and nearly ran us down, and went on his merry way as if he'd done nothing wrong.

De Lis
05-15-2013, 06:59 AM
Could she have been British. I drove in the Bahamas and I can tell you that it's very easy to make a mistake when you are on the opposite side from what you are used to.

Bingo! (Let's hope.)

Madelaine Amee
05-15-2013, 07:18 AM
Could she have been British. I drove in the Bahamas and I can tell you that it's very easy to make a mistake when you are on the opposite side from what you are used to.

Agree - probably British. Several years ago there was a car coming the wrong way around the roundabout at Savannah, the rest of the traffic in the roundabout had come to a complete stop to let her exit, she was so embarrassed! It's probably easy to do if you are the only car entering the circle and have no one to follow for guidance.

CFrance
05-15-2013, 07:37 AM
Exactly why we let our son do all the driving last summer when we visited him in Australia. Even so, I kept being startled by cars passing us "on the wrong side of the road."

My Daily Run
05-15-2013, 07:48 AM
I saw a woman coming from Lake Sumter on Lake Sumter Landing road in her car with her left directional on in the cart lane waiting to turn left on the cart path but I think she realized what she was doing and was frozen still and didn't know what to do next. The gentleman in the cart in front of me got out and directed her toward the roundabout and off she went...now what did she do next. She could hardly see over her steering wheel...the poor dear probably doesn't drive her car much and didn't know what to do next but pretty scary !!!