Car trouble

[richard p]

i reckon the root cause is weve now got a whole generation of "drivers" out there who have been brainwashed by watching programs like top gear where a car is rated by its (illegal) top speed, (idiotic) acceleration figures and the presenters ability to make the tyres smoke.
banning comprehensive insurance and going back to 3rd party only might help aswell.

[Sue]

Mr Man's insurance company have given me a hire car so at least I'm still mobile. I drove into work today super carefully I can tell you. I was watching everyone like a hawk.

Johnboy that sounds awful. You can suffer from post traumatic shock from witnessing something like that, so do visit your GP if you feel a bit wobbly. I got a lecture today from my Doc on the subject. I had to go for a check as my back started to hurt big time. Luckily it's only ligament damage, but it will last for up to 2 weeks, so a few sleepless nights to come for me I think

As for your Herby - serves you right for putting that big bore exhaust and spoiler on your barrow. And stop thinking about Lizzie on her cross trainer - it will do your blood pressure no good at all

Sue

[Chantal]

I've come close to being flattened twice in recent weeks, on both occasions by a car going the wrong way down a one way street. On both occasions I told the driver the street was one way but unfortunately neither driver spoke English and seemed to have no idea what the road signs meant.

[Jenny Green]

I think it's because Christmas is round the corner. Everyone's stressed and not thinking straight.
I'll be trying to keep off the roads and out of the shops for the next couple of weeks I think.

[Wellie]

Sue, I 'feel for you' I DO.... and I'm really pleased that you're ok.
When we moved here from Buckinghamshire, I couldn't BELIEVE the awful driving. WAY too fast, and on MY side of the road. People still drive 'at' me, six years later, and why am I surprised ?!
Exactly WHAT are these Foresters 'like' ?????
Evidently they OWN The Forest roads (!)

But don't forget the extra-super-sense that we women have. When you're about to go round that corner, you KNOW there's an idiot around the corner headed for your bumper............ and that way, you won't be disappointed.

[Geoff]

It must be the car panto season, now you see it now you don’t.
My son lives near the centre of Manchester and pays a bit too much for his flat justified by the secure parking underneath with electric doors and access fobs.
So Saturday morning he rang to say his car had been stolen, found a pile of glass where it should have been. Reported it to all the relevant parties and we set about trying to source / finance a replacement.
Monday morning went down to see if there were any cctv cameras that could be helpful and found his car pushed against a wall in a dark corner, it is something of a rabbit warren under the building. Convinced us he hadn’t forgotten where he’d left it as there was a window missing but no broken glass. A few bits were missing but it seemed OK.
Told the Police and they said they would come round later. When they did they asked him to leave as it was and take it to the station this morning for finger printing. Went down to do that this morning and it had gone! Hunted everywhere this time but no sign so we are back trying to find a replacement.
Decided to use Google to see which cars get nicked most so put in “most stolen cars” – try it yourself and look at the eBay entry on the right of the screen. I bet you probably can do what it says.
Next act : Thursday 14th
Received text at 2am "Car recovered again. But engine sounds totally f****d. Has done around 10 miles on clock, and gained some petrol. Also tow rope moved from boot to back seat." Bizarre or what? Apparently Police found it nearby at about midnight. They want to finger print it so this time all the fuses are pulled while he is at work today. We can't think of a good explanation.[/u]

[Johnboy]

Hi Sue,
Sadly the accident was a fatality.
Our 'Bin men' are two smashing girls and had I not been talking to the one collecting she may well have been hit by the car. The other one, the driver, is in hospital with a serious whiplash injury and in all
there is one fatality and four in hospital.
The force moved a dustcart with the brakes on almost ten feet.
I must say the emergency services were very quick on the scene as I live rather rurally the nearest ambulance is stationed 12 miles away and I think they arrived within 15 minutes. The Police were even quicker and were here within 5 minutes. They summoned the Helicopter and that arrived a few minutes after the road Ambulances as it was already airborne for some reason or another.
They had to winch the Dustcart onto a low loader as the rear suspension made it impossible to do anything else.
It has left me in a state of shock and I can still hear the awful noise of the impact. The council are going to make repairs to the road in the morning as the surface was badly damaged loading the Dustcart.
I have traffic lights outside my place for tonight until the road is repaired.
Strangely I live way out from the villages but we have had several bad accidents on the same stretch of roads and the last one was a Farrari that hit some ice and tried to demolish my stone wall. The wall won would you believe!
JB.

[Allan]

There was another nasty fatal accident at Ombersley which we happen to know quite well.There is a dual carriage road running North/South, grass strip seperates the two carriageways. A rather too common accident involving two young men and their girlfriends travelling much too fast, out of control, hit a tree which sliced the car in two, all dead. Police appealed for witnesses. The recovery man said it was the worst fatality he had ever known. Reported in local TV. I'm afraid this sort of thing will go on while speed is considered fun.

Allan

[richard p]

excess speed is one thing but also very few people understand risk and probability, if a manouver, (overtaking or whatever)involves a risk there is a chance of it going pear shaped , if the risk is 1% ie once in a hundred times it will end in an acident , it is just as likely that the first time you take the risk it will be the wrong time. even if you get caught the first time you take the risk you are still just as likely to get caught the second time, the probability on the next event doesnt change because of the result of the last one.

[jopsy]

my dad was an insurance engineer whilst i was growing up
he used to go to court to be an expert witness to car crashes and nasty stuff like that
he used to show me photos of the cars and discuss speeds and what happened to the drivers
likewise with drugs-they got a policeman friend to show me dead peoples photos who had taken and died from drugs!
nice!
tell you what though it worked!!

[peter]

Sadly it is quite literaly a combination of impatience and not thinking of consequences, with a soupcon of F*** you.

Pulling out left on to the A414 from a side road, I paused at the start of the slip strip, as both lanes on my side of the dual carriageway were occupied for some distance.

After about thirty seconds a BMW arrived behind me, two minutes later, both lanes still very ocupied with fast moving traffic, what do you think happens?

Yup, thats right, braindead female in the BMW squeezes between me and the kerb and roars straight out, forcing various severe braking.

There seems to be a belief that traffic entering a dual-carriageway or motorway from a sliproad has priority, those funny little "give-way" signs are irrelevant to the idiots.

A work colleague lost her husband some years ago to a similarly impatient BMW which was never traced.

That junction has the only safety related speed camera's I know of, they do keep traffic on the main road down to the posted 50 and the regular reports of a fatal or near fatal in the local press are now non-existant, no thanks to idiots such as I describe.

[Chantal]

There was an amazing incident outside La Casa Loco today, Tim went rushing to the window to see what was going on as he heard squealing wheels. A Saab went screaming across the road, took the wing of a Rover, bounced off it and shot across the other way missing a woman and two small children by inches. It then hit a Council van and disappeared up the road. Everyone thought it was a stolen car and it turned out to be some 90 year old man who had cramp in his leg! His foot got stuck on the accelerator and there was nothing he could do. Luckily no-one was hurt but his car was written off too.

[Losos]

Chantal,
I think you mean that he 'thought' there was nothing he could do, any of the people on this thread would have done one of the following surely
a) Used their LEFT foot to depress the clutch (Unless it was an auto gearbox)
b) Switched off the ignition
c) Used their LEFT foot to hit the brake
d) Applied the handbrake (Admited that probably wouldn't have stopped the car)
e) Put the gearbox in neutral (You can do that on manual & auto box cars)

[Allan]

The safety enthusiasts here might look into joining GEM (guild of experienced motorists)and get very favourable insurance and rescue plus a good magazine of relevant articles.
If nothing else, read the articles on the website and try some of the links.
http://www.motoringassist.com/

[Chantal]

I do take your point Losos but from what I understand he was a bit doddery before he got INTO the car; I can only imagine what he was like when he got OUT of it. It's OK to say do all or any of those things but if you're doddery and panic stricken it's probably a totally different matter. The whole incident took less than 30 seconds. I doubt he'll drive again.