Safe Speed Forums

I know a few older people who point accusing fingers at drivers under 25 for being the cause of all dangers on our roads. As I'm a thirty-something over halfway to becoming a forty-something I have a certain amount of sympathy, but I try to be impartial and point out that they're condemning many for the faults of a few. That's about to change. Stuff impartiality, I'm going to start waving the flag for younger drivers, and tarring all old drivers with the same brush that should be reserved for the slipper-wearing old bat who carved me up earlier today.

Oooo, let's turn right without looking, where did that car come from, why has that big ugly bloke driving it gone pale. Because you turned right, straight into my path, and I had to change lanes to avoid running into the back of your car you twisted old loony. Did I miss something in the Highway Code? Perhaps drivers of a certain age don't have to look when making right turns. Possibly it's the responsibility of other road users to ignore them. Or maybe, just maybe, you screwed up. A bloody shame I didn't remember your number plate correctly. Thought I'd got it but the police said it was a totally different car, and you didn't seem quite insane enough to need false plates.

It's a bloody good job one of us was awake. It's lucky that I saw her start to turn and moved left in time, 'cos there wasn't room to brake. For that matter it's lucky there was two lanes. If it was a single lane rural road I might have had a choice between hitting her or hitting a tree.

Hells bells, we all make mistakes but what's wrong with acknowledging it when we do and making a gesture of apology. No big deal. I've tried it myself with no ill effects, so I'm sure it wouldn't have killed her. I'm really starting to see what SafeSpeed means when he talks about learning from your own mistakes. If someone refuses to admit an error there's no reason for them not to do it again. Not only did the care home crash tester seem oblivious to the near miss, she then came close to driving up my arse more than once because she was no better at keeping a safe distance.

Rant over. I can start being reasonable and nice to old people again now.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

Quite possible the old dear didn't even realise she'd just done something with potentially disastrous consequnces

I'm convinced that there are people, young and old, who are just too dangerous to hold driving licences. They don't know which lane they should be in, they don't know how to drive on motorways, they can't process the vital information that we are fedback from the position of other road users, the road layout etc fast enough to be able to make the important decisions that go with being a safe driver.

The buffoons who feature on those learner driver TV shows who take 20 odd attempts to pass their driving test (and probably succeed by virtue of the fact that statisitically they are bound to put all the elements together on at least ONE occaision) somehow become folk hereos, yet are just bloody dangerous IMHO.

Yes, perhaps if you can't pass it in three attempts you should have to wait a year before trying again.

Then if you can't pass it after nine attempts in three years you have to wait five years, which would cause virtually all of them to give up.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

You must have been too close then

Yes! Don't drive too close and leave enough room to stop.

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It's Champion Man

You have COMPLETELY missed the point here. Gatsobait is driving perfectly normally along a main road, fortunately with more than one lane, when twisted old loony decides it's time to turn right off a side road and bugger the consequences - into his path. How the hell can he avoid getting "too close" in the face of driving of this level of incompetence.

Please read the complete case study PROPERLY before deigning to pass on your pearls of wisdom.

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Keep right on to the end of the road ...

Gatsobait - mate! Prescribe a wee dram (well before 11.30 pm!) and a night in watching the footie!

Sounds like you need one after meeting Miss Daisy!






Eeh! Bah Gum! Chumps!

Not again!

How was he too close? She turned right just as he was passing the junction and it was near miss - which he thankfully avoided due to there being a second lane to escape into. Fortunately, for all - no-one was undertaking at the time! She then failed to observe 2-second rule as she followed Gatsobait as he tootled along in his merry way!

Lady would appear to be in dire need of eye test and a little education in looking around a blind spot. Perhaps junction had something which obscured her vision? (Being generous to "lesser mortals!" and Miss Daisy )

itschampionman, sorry if my post did not make it clear. CJB has summed the situation up far more concisely than I did, but I'm a long winded sod at the best of times and when I did the OP I was firmly in rant mode.
Just to be clear, look at rules 148 and 149 in the Highway Code. The picture is not far off, except it was a car turning into the dual carriageway without looking, rather than a truck that was simply too long. Okay, now imagine I'm following the blue van and the truck driver kept going.

Oh no, me old Wonder Horse I'm well aware of that one. You must have missed my various anti-tailgating rants elsewhere on the board. I'm a two kangaroo man, and no that's not as mucky as it sounds. Tell you what else you missed though, though I see Mad Mog has already brought it up (thanks for the prescription by the way mate, shame the house is dry and I'm a rugby fan - and yes, that's even more painful right now than the footie ) I was tailgated several times after that. Not in an agressive way, more a negligent one . So that's rule 105 gone as well, and not by me as you assumed.
Sure you're going to ask this, but no I was behaving myself speed wise. I always do along there as it's a fixed camera site, plus there's the occasional bush-lurking, lidar-wielding plod to be found elsewhere on the same road.
I can also provide alibis for my whereabouts when JFK was shot, during the Brinks-Mat robbery and when the Titanic sank.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

If someone cuts right in front of you it's they that are driving too close in front of you, not you driving too close behind them.

Heh, I had a nasty incident with someone who definitely wasn't a 'young driver' just yesterday. Was driving out of the town up a fairly wide road, but there was traffic parked on both sides so it was somewhat narrowed. There was a bus coming the other way so I was quite over to the left. Then suddenly one of the parked cars opens their doors right into my path. Obviously I should have anticipated that that could happen, given that I've passed the hazard perception element of the theory test. But it's not quite the same when it actually happens and you have to slam on the brakes. I didn't have a chance of stopping in time, so I ended up flying past the door with about an inch to spare, tyres squealing... I just wonder if the person who opened their door realised that a) they very nearly lost their door b) they just cost me 1000 miles of tyre...

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..