Driving standards

[boxbrownie]

45 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Well my driving standards are certainly well below what they should be, because I managed to go into the back of someone yesterday (albeit at such a low speed that there was no visible sign of damage to either car).  We're told not to admit liability but it's fair enough to say it was entirely my fault and I'm ashamed of it.

More embarrassed than anything else hopefully.

 

We had a load of traffic cops at our track once familiarising themselves with the actions of ABS on our split MU surface, it all went really well with the group watching half way up the embankment around track well out of the way, well out of the way until one of the pursuit instructors tried it and lost control completely almost spun and then proceeded (as they say) to drive up the bank towards the group, they scattered like skittles but luckily only one was actually bowled over resulting in a broken leg, more embarrassing for them was the fact that the ambulance that came to pick him up knew the lads and apparently didn’t let them forget for a very long time about their driving skills 

 

I was on the other embankment filming the test......needless to say the c Super wanted the film before I managed to get back to the edit suite 

Edited March 4, 2020 by boxbrownie

[Enterprisingwestern]

3 hours ago, Reorte said:

Well my driving standards are certainly well below what they should be, because I managed to go into the back of someone yesterday (albeit at such a low speed that there was no visible sign of damage to either car).  We're told not to admit liability but it's fair enough to say it was entirely my fault and I'm ashamed of it.

 

 Admit nothing until the other drivers whiplash claim has gone in!

 

Mike.

[Reorte]

4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

 Admit nothing until the other drivers whiplash claim has gone in!

 

They don't seem to get mentioned as much these days, was there some action against questionable whiplash claims a while back? It vaguely rings a bell.

 

Anyway it's a sad world when good advice has to be to not engage in decent behaviour.

[caradoc]

16 hours ago, Reorte said:

Well my driving standards are certainly well below what they should be, because I managed to go into the back of someone yesterday (albeit at such a low speed that there was no visible sign of damage to either car).  We're told not to admit liability but it's fair enough to say it was entirely my fault and I'm ashamed of it.

 

I did the same thing Reorte, not long after I'd passed my test and got my first car, way back in 1989. Driving from Scotland to Oxford for the first time, south of Banbury (ie nearly home !) I ran into the back of the van in front at a crossroads, having not realised when moving off that we would all immediately stop again as someone in front was turning right. We both stopped, exchanged details, and the only damage was to my front number plate. I believe that minor accident early in my driving career made me a more careful driver.

[Reorte]

56 minutes ago, caradoc said:

 

I did the same thing Reorte, not long after I'd passed my test and got my first car, way back in 1989. Driving from Scotland to Oxford for the first time, south of Banbury (ie nearly home !) I ran into the back of the van in front at a crossroads, having not realised when moving off that we would all immediately stop again as someone in front was turning right. We both stopped, exchanged details, and the only damage was to my front number plate. I believe that minor accident early in my driving career made me a more careful driver.

 

We learn from mistakes. Never make any and you never learn. Ideally you get a chance to make mistakes but ones that don't have serious consequences.

[Mark Saunders]

38 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

We learn from mistakes. Never make any and you never learn. Ideally you get a chance to make mistakes but ones that don't have serious consequences.

 

It's surviving them and learning how not to do it again!

[beast66606]

6 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

learning how not to do it again!

 

For those of us who work(ed) in IT, we like to repeat the same mistakes just to see if they were one-offs or reproducible.

 

(tongue in cheek)

[duncan]

23 hours ago, Nick C said:

Not so much driving standards, but related - I was driving down the M5 round Exeter yesterday, and there's various roadworks going on. At one point there was a load of cones along the hard shoulder, with red-and-white hazard tape joining them - except that in the wind, the tape had come off, and was being blown around the road.

 

This seems pretty dangerous to me, as it could easily get picked up by someone's wheel and tangled up - and it made me think that I don't recall ever seeing tape used on a motorway before, presumably for that exact reason...

 

 

I have never seen tape either, though often the cones seem to be connected by blue rope, particularly where pairs of cones are used.  Seems about 6mm diameter, not having stopped to measure it.

[kevinlms]

3 hours ago, beast66606 said:

 

For those of us who work(ed) in IT, we like to repeat the same mistakes just to see if they were one-offs or reproducible.

 

(tongue in cheek)

I thought IT techs make the same mistakes, to practice to see if they can rectify the mistake quicker next time!

[Jonboy]

7 hours ago, beast66606 said:

 

For those of us who work(ed) in IT, we like to repeat the same mistakes just to see if they were one-offs or reproducible.

 

(tongue in cheek)

 

ahh the old bug or feature test...

[Nick C]

Watched a close one this morning - two lane dual carriageway (I'll use lanes A and B to ease the narrative), A splits to give three lanes at the roundabout - 1&2 for industrial estate, 2&3 for main road. Morning peak, so there's a long queue in A for the industrial estate, with most taking lane 1 at the split - which means that the impatient types use the B, then dive across to lane 2 at the split. Only this morning the car in front of me wanted to, quite correctly, go from A into lane 2 - having to quickly dive left into 1 to avoid the impatient type who didn't look before changing lane...

[TheQ]

 A report from a friend at the MRC, of something happened last week.

 

On the busiest route into Norwich, at a roundabout with traffic lights..

Range rover goes through red lights cuts up friend and suddenly stops in front of friend across two of the 3 lanes , Causing emergency breaking, artic lorry close behind steps on anchors with squealing tyres...

 

 Friend gets out of car to find out whats going on... Cockwomble is on the phone.

 Walking back to car he indicates to the Lorry driver the cockwombles actions..

 

Lorry driver gets out of cab, walks to car removes phone from cockwomble.. violent discussions occur...

At this point the first Police car turns up (this is on the main road from Norfolk Police HQ into Norwich..).

 

 Police start to take action ...

Second police car turns up friend speaks to them and says "have a look at my dash cam"..

 Police take not much further interest in lorry driver, Cockwomble arrested.

 

Later police come to see friend for official report, and say..

no tax no insurance... bought licence down a back street in london.. person not of UK Origin..

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, TheQ said:

 A report from a friend at the MRC, of something happened last week.

 

On the busiest route into Norwich, at a roundabout with traffic lights..

Range rover goes through red lights cuts up friend and suddenly stops in front of friend across two of the 3 lanes , Causing emergency breaking, artic lorry close behind steps on anchors with squealing tyres...

 

 Friend gets out of car to find out whats going on... Cockwomble is on the phone.

 Walking back to car he indicates to the Lorry driver the cockwombles actions..

 

Lorry driver gets out of cab, walks to car removes phone from cockwomble.. violent discussions occur...

At this point the first Police car turns up (this is on the main road from Norfolk Police HQ into Norwich..).

 

 Police start to take action ...

Second police car turns up friend speaks to them and says "have a look at my dash cam"..

 Police take not much further interest in lorry driver, Cockwomble arrested.

 

Later police come to see friend for official report, and say..

no tax no insurance... bought licence down a back street in london.. person not of UK Origin..

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they'll be doing it again next week as well.

 

Sadly, the only deterrent against that sort of person, is automatic deportation.

[Nick C]

15 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

And they'll be doing it again next week as well.

 

Sadly, the only deterrent against that sort of person, is automatic deportation.

That wouldn't stop them, they'd just be doing the same thing in a different country.

 

I like the suggestion that the punishment for using a mobile phone while driving should be confiscation of the phone...

[PhilJ W]

But they'll only get another phone. The only way you are going to deter using the phone while driving is a mandatory ban as in drink driving. Even then it wouldn't deter such as the above mentioned who obviously has contempt for the law.

[Reorte]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

But they'll only get another phone. The only way you are going to deter using the phone while driving is a mandatory ban as in drink driving. Even then it wouldn't deter such as the above mentioned who obviously has contempt for the law.

 

Probably, but I still think the idea of having your phone taken off you (along with everything stored on it) even if you can get another one will still fill a lot of people with horror, more so than the idea of a driving ban. It won't be a 100% effective deterrent, nothing ever is, but I would be willing to risk putting money on it being a more effective one than current penalties for mobile phone use when driving.

 

Sad but that's the way the world is.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Reorte

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

And they'll be doing it again next week as well.

 

Sadly, the only deterrent against that sort of person, is automatic deportation.

 

, or limb removal?

 

Mike.

[stewartingram]

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

That wouldn't stop them, they'd just be doing the same thing in a different country.

 

I like the suggestion that the punishment for using a mobile phone while driving should be confiscation of the phone...

Nah, just behead them, they couldn't talk on the phone then.

[Pete the Elaner]

Not drivers at fault yesterday but police doing brainless things while I was on my way to the Leamington show.

Northbound M1 closed between J18 (Rugby) & J19 (M6). I wanted to turn off at J17 (M45).

with the M1 closed, the sensible thing would have been to divert most, or all traffic via the M45, A45, A46 & M69, back onto the M1 at Leicester. All are dual carriageways & as the M1 was relatively quiet, will have been able to cope without causing too much delay.

 

So what did the police do? They created a 10mph rolling road block on the M1 causing a huge tailback which would have created masses of traffic to pour off into Rugby at J18. it must have been chaos there.

Even if the road was about to re-open, what would have been wrong with diverting traffic via the M45...M69 anyway? 

The M45 was, as usual, virtually empty.

 

I don't know who makes these decisions. They clearly don't have a clue & have not idea how under-utilised the M45 has always been.

[PhilJ W]

51 minutes ago, stewartingram said:

Nah, just behead them, they couldn't talk on the phone then.

A few have done that themselves. In the USA one driver went under an artic whilst texting, they found his head on the back seat of his car. 

Edited March 9, 2020 by PhilJ W

[johnlambert]

2 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

They clearly don't have a clue & have not idea how under-utilised the M45 has always been.

 

When I lived in south Coventry I used the M45 frequently, it always felt like my private motorway as it was rare to see any other traffic. 

[PhilJ W]

Road rage.>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppvfFTeHc5Y

 

[johnofwessex]

On 09/03/2020 at 10:29, PhilJ W said:

But they'll only get another phone. The only way you are going to deter using the phone while driving is a mandatory ban as in drink driving. Even then it wouldn't deter such as the above mentioned who obviously has contempt for the law.

 

I suggest a Vet in every Traffic Police Car, or for more serous offenders a Farmer

[peanuts]

On 09/03/2020 at 10:29, PhilJ W said:

But they'll only get another phone. The only way you are going to deter using the phone while driving is a mandatory ban as in drink driving. Even then it wouldn't deter such as the above mentioned who obviously has contempt for the law.

i have always maintained that the only effective deterrent would be to A confiscate the phone on the spot

B confiscate the vehicle and charge the owner at least half the replacement value of the vehicle for its return if not claimed within 28 days vehicle is forfeit to the crown would only take a few well publicised prosecutions and alot of mind would come very sharply into focus 

[chriswright03]

On 09/03/2020 at 13:49, Pete the Elaner said:

Not drivers at fault yesterday but police doing brainless things while I was on my way to the Leamington show.

Northbound M1 closed between J18 (Rugby) & J19 (M6). I wanted to turn off at J17 (M45).

with the M1 closed, the sensible thing would have been to divert most, or all traffic via the M45, A45, A46 & M69, back onto the M1 at Leicester. All are dual carriageways & as the M1 was relatively quiet, will have been able to cope without causing too much delay.

 

So what did the police do? They created a 10mph rolling road block on the M1 causing a huge tailback which would have created masses of traffic to pour off into Rugby at J18. it must have been chaos there.

Even if the road was about to re-open, what would have been wrong with diverting traffic via the M45...M69 anyway? 

The M45 was, as usual, virtually empty.

 

I don't know who makes these decisions. They clearly don't have a clue & have not idea how under-utilised the M45 has always been.

I doubt that would be the Police that did that.  They are not allowed to close roads these days.  The bit about not having a clue I cannot argue with though whoever makes these decisions.