Deadly Roads - "Are polish roads really THAT dangerous?"

Yeah, Kazikowski, they'd care if even their Maluch got totalled. It's still expense and hassle.

I don't know about the world, but we certainly top that clasification in EU.

Just in the last weekend 38 people lost their lives on polish roads. RIP [*]

I think a significant portion of the problem is the lack of motorways, if a driver feels like speeding hes forced to indulge on single lane highways dodging in and out of traffic.

Yeah, and winter is fast approaching. It doesn't augur well for a positive change.

Yes, however I think that the issue is more complex than that.

There is a group of aggressive drivers here that spoil it for all of us. Not only do they put their and other drivers life’s in danger, but also set some pressure on all of us. Personally I feel immune to it, but I do see how my sister is stress out whenever she tries to join the traffic during the rush hour, or when she drives behind a lorry or a tractor and there is a string of cars behind her. She's like "ohh my God I have to overtake that tractor because those behind me surely are angry that I drive so slow", ect... I'm sure that quite a number of road casualties are the inexperienced young drivers that acted under "pressure".

polish roads are NOT dangerous,its the few idiots who use them.the problem lies in the difference of speed between vehicels(sorry for the spelling)polish drivers can be very impatient which leads to a lot of dangerous driving,i think the fines should be increased,and furthermore,if you are a danger to others,take the license.i drove to poland twice a week from holland,and could not believe what i sometimes saw on the road,i realy started to believe that some people thought they where imortal.and when they have a accident they stand next to there wrecked car, trying to look inocent and totaly blameless,by the way i like poland and its people,but not the driving,and thats my story,driver by profession,chris from holland

Fair point. I think the roads are not overly dangerous for cars with good suspensions. Cyclists are far more at danger on some roads.

It's all too easy to place/lay the blame on the roads, rather than for the drivers themselves to accept responsibility.

One of the key things i see every day is the speed of polish drives..even in housing estates on narrow roads, there is this need to put the pedal down without and concern for the consequences. I think we can blame bad roads etc until the cows come home but ultimately it is the responsibility of the person behind the wheel...and unfortunately, there are far too many who act irresponsilbe.

As most drivers probably use the same route every day they should be aware of blackspots. Blaming the road in the event of an accident is ridiculous.

no kidding, i was compelled one time to inform some wanna be thug that, in fact, the speed limit in a car park is not the same as on a street.


I think i fit the bill there in some respects, for example when the speed limit posted is 80 yet no one actually drives 80 or below, i feel compelled to go with the speed of traffic cause if i didn't then i presume this would infuriate other impatient drivers which would then cause them to do something stupid and put others' lives at risk.

Here's an example of an impatient Polish driver:
I was turning from a small road (50km/hr) onto a main road (110)
The merging area was rather short and the point of merger was downhill.
Now, I could have tried to merge but I never would have got up to speed within the confines of the merging lane, so i'd either have to stop in the merge lane or try and force a driver over.

There was too much traffic on a 5pm friday to go about it that way so i stopped to size up the traffic.

Rule 1 in driving is that you make a judgment before you initiation, so just as i'm taking an extra look, the guy driving the opel behind me uses his horn-"hooonk."

Ok, no big deal but just as I started to go he lays on the horn a second time.
So I slammed on the breaks and just waited. And waited. And waited. I started counting at some point and got up to 30-something, so i estimate he laid on his horn for a good minute.

I refused to proceed until he got the hint.

What does the moron in the old Opel try to do then?
Race me of course.
It should have been clear to him at the outset which car is faster and given the large bus in front of him, it should have been even more abundantly clear there was no point in racing.

Gee any ideas what he'd have done had he actually got ahead of me?

understanding the polish driver is understanding the polish

Well, I think that even the police don't know how to drive. One time we where on the main road and a cop car flung out in front of us from a side road. Had to apply brakes, but we weren't keen on honking the horn on the cops. Is using the car horn legal in Poland?

I flashed at one once to hurry up as he was doing less than 5mph on an empty street in the middle of the road, Me then panicked and drove into a lamp post.


Probably nothing, Poles are generally lovely friendly and courteous people until they get behind the wheel of a car and for some unknown reason they seem to be utter bastards.

I had a bit of a road rage incident with a fairly new passat diesel on the way back from Gdansk last year, He overtook me driving like an idiot with his fairly pretty girlfriend in the passenger seat (I guess he was trying to impress her with the amazing power produced from his smokey and gutless VAG diesel engine)

Any way we stopped at lights and I pulled along side him in a battered BMW 325i with a dent in every panel and faded paintwork (utter shed but procured for a mere £300), He started revving his engine in order to initiate a challenge, which being young and naive I decided to accept. I left the idiot standing from the lights due to the fact I had 192 bhp as opposed to 90 something, Next set of lights he was livid hitting the steering wheel and shouting things and his girlfriend was laughing, It did amuse me and my 5 passenger greatly. He overtook me on the next blind corner though as I wasn't stupid enough to carry on.

youtube.com/watch?v=QhCN2m9Bzq4

youtube.com/watch?v=Y4pA3U5kDxg

These are just two. The second is from a Silesian dude.

For more, look at Babska Szkoła Jazdy on Youtube.

Scary stuff!! I'm not the world's best driver but I'm a DAMN sight better than these people

HILARIOUS stuff, esp the clutch hopping

Ah, I remember the year they were building the roundabout in Chwasz and the detours meant dreadful traffic jams. I made the mistake of actually *stopping* when the traffic-light went red in front of me. Tosser from about 2 cars back jumps out straightaway and in no time at all is banging with his fists on my window screaming at me that I must have nothing to do and that some people need to get to work in the morning.

So I duly abandoned all signs of feminine self-control and screamed back at him in relatively filthy English. I wished afterwards I'd laughed ...

At least he didn't reach in for my throat - that was the low-loader driver a few years previously...

And then there was my boss a few years back - he was driving to Warsaw with me in the passenger seat. Car in front, car coming: and what does he do? Decides there is indeed space in the middle of the road and pulls out to occupy it. Sure there was space - he was straddling the white line and there was about 6 inches on each side.

neanderthals, the lot of them.

I know a guy who looks for cars with CB's and follows them calling them his 'sponsor'. His logic is, that they can get to places quicker by avoiding the Police checkpoints; I traveled with him once and never again as it scared the proverbial poo out of me.

driving along the trojmiasta obwodnica totally unaware theres such a thing as 'the wrong lane' in poland when some turd gets irate that he cant pass me.

flashes his lights, i flick him the bird. i pull off at spacerowa, he pulls off at spacerowa. i think here we go, he mounts the bank to get in front of me and slams on the breaks.

he jumps out the car, i wind my window up. he runs over screaming, i open the door on his head. he learns his lesson the hard way, i drive off

fuking clown

Personally I carry a six D cell maglite torch in my car, conveniently stored just behind the passenger's seat for easy access. On each of the six occasions over the past five years that gentlemen have got out of their cars to discuss the finer points of road traffic law, the sight of me reaching for a half-metre long 5cm thick steel baton with which to illuminate them with has resulted in them getting back in their cars and fecking off.

I was asked once by a policeman what I had behind the passenger's seat, so I showed him. He was most impresses and asked where I'd bought the thing. He did warn me that I could break somebody's head with that torch but my ex wouldn't translate my reply ("With care, yes").

great stuff


be warned that when you have to use it you better use it well. If you fcuk up then your weapon becomes their weapon it's more likely than many people realize.

Funny thing, every time i've pulled over and got out (always unarmed) to oblige in these situations my counterparts always seem not only stay inside but often lock their doors too, or then choose this moment to drive away.

I don't get it, if they were in such a hurry, then why fcuk around in the first place?

The only time one guy finally got out is cause i followed him throughout the city until he did so and he was genuinely scared. What had got him so was probably me pounding on his door at the traffic lights previous, screaming and cursing at him (and yeah i know how to position myself so i don't get the good news with the door).

What got me so angry was his reckless abandon in his giant garbage truck nearly killing me. When we finally did come face to face, the poor guy was just a trembling and stuttering mess. What could I do except try to up the poor guy's confidence and encourage him to use his mirrors better?

I remember screaming at him the first time, and i recall not recognizing my own voice at that time, I was livid.

I was waiting for someone by the side of a main road (ul Sobieskiego in Warsaw) this week. There are some lights there by a pedestrian crossing (not a junction) and due to being bored, I counted the number of drivers who went through a red light. In ten minutes, I counted 32. And this on a road with flowers and crosses every few yards.

It isn't the roads, it's the drivers. And even worse, the Polish drivers' licence is accepted internationally.

Truely frightening, isnt it ?

Hahaha have anyone drived in zakopane in the winter? most dangarous place on earth to drive a car would be zakopane for sure. Nobody there gives a f**k to put any salt or anything on the roads, and its so icy that you actually can ice skate on the roads with your car.

Well it was kinda scary when we were driving on a snaky road downhill and met another car on the opposite side, well we survived but still...

many times....but the traffic on 'zakopianka' is terrible...

Nah. Without a shadow of doubt the worst drivers in the world are in Saudi Arabia. No-one else comes close.

I've heard the same from people who've lived there. Scary enough here though.

True enough. I have commented on here before how the drive from Warsaw to Poznan reminded me of the Mad Max movie.

The Kuwaitis come pretty damn close. In Kuwait women are allowed to drive, but most of them wear full face veils and all of those keep their veils on when driving. Which means they have very little forward vision and no side vision at all.

But in Kuwait a lot of the drivers are not Kuwaiti and so drive a lot more carefully (because the rule is that if a Kuwaiti hits a white person, it's the white person's fault; but if a white person hits a Pakistani, it's the Pakistani's fault).

No, Polish roads are not too dangerous now - apart from all the roadworks caused by the massive influx of EU money. Practically every major road has now been completely re-aligned and surfaced to a high standard or is in the process of being so.

It's the Polish drivers that are dangerous!

My wife is polish and i'm Scottish. I'm not religous but i've started to pray before getting into a car here. What i have learnt is to forget everything you ever learnt driving in Britian and become an intolerant, aggressive, talentless moroon, but on the bright side, last week i was driving along minding my own business when this prick in a 20 year old BMW decides to show me how its done in Poland. I thought he would have been put off with the big flashing yellow lights indicating school, or the sign saying dangerous bends for 2km, but these were obviously just guidlines and that he'd seen Kubica driving on the tv and he dosnt slow down for anything as petty as that. Well i'm sure youve an idea were this going (unfortunatly he didnt).so he overtakes and i give a laugh inside. 2 mintues later,there he is standing at the side of the road, his BMW making conversation with a tree, his pride and joy completely f.ucked and i felt so happy. Maybe this will teach him a lesson, but i dont think so.

For anybody who does decide to drive here, take note of the following

1. Lane dicipline means nothing.
2. It is perfectly acceptable to undertake you, then pull out 3feet infront off you and brake sharply.
3. When you overtake somebody you must indicate to come back in, because they wont be able to work out that you dont like driving into oncoming traffic.

4. No matter what the road conditions, ice, snow, rain, you must drive at the same speed as in normal conditions.
5. Manners are for the week.