www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-18671270
A man in his 80s has died in a car crash after driving the wrong way along the M4 on the Severn Bridge.
Police said the 83-year-old turned his car around just before the toll booths on the westbound carriageway, and headed back towards Bristol
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my kitchen window overlooks a oneway street, its surprising how many people who use it to visit the royal mail office to pick a parcel up then do a u-turn to get back on the main drag, if you want any free body work doing just hang around and lay in wait :)
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Brings to mind yet another court case, this time an inquest.
Drunk driver rammed a VW Golf head on while the drunk was driving the wrong way down the outside lane of the A19 in County Durham.
The drunk was killed, the driver of the Golf - a nurse - survived, although she turned up at the inquest with what we were told was a permanent limp.
Still a big thumbs-up to the crash-worthiness of the Golf - no idea what speed the drunk was doing, but she said she was near the legal limit.
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>> Still a big thumbs-up to the crash-worthiness of the Golf - no idea what speed
>> the drunk was doing, but she said she was near the legal limit.
>>
Just a guess - of course.
Perhaps the nurse was wearing her seat belt, while the drunk wasn't?
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And the common factor is?
Old drivers.
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Probably due to a serious loss of global cognitive ability.
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The common thread is the advanced age of the driver.
A few more of these and there will be a campaign to ban elderly drivers on safety grounds.
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>> The common thread is the advanced age of the driver.
>>
>> A few more of these and there will be a campaign to ban elderly drivers
>> on safety grounds.
>>
Don't the wrinklies have to have a retest after a certain age?
Locally, we have to have to renew licences - which involves an eye test - every five years. Also, above 70 (I think?) a note from a doctor stating that you are still capable is needed as well.
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>> Locally, we have to have to renew licences - which involves an eye test -
>> every five years. Also, above 70 (I think?) a note from a doctor stating that
>> you are still capable is needed as well.
>>
>>
Our politicians have not got the backbone to introduce that, their access to the taxpayer funded trough overrides all.
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ON, I wear specs while driving, and the recent test showed that I am still well within the accepted limits, with my current specs.
While waiting for my turn on the machine, a fair amount of applicants were told 'sorry, eyes not good enough!' or words to that effect.
Makes sense to me - I don't wish to share the road with Mr Mole or Mr Bat - and most everyobody accepts this.
Surely, if introduced properly (Ok, Ok, we ARE talking politicians here...) then Joe Public will realise why such measures should be put in place, and why retesting of old folk makes a bit of sense.
Or is it another 'culture of entitlement' hurdle that would get in the way? OR alternately some civil-rights issue that 'big brother' is watching you?
Personally, I've never had a problem carrying photographic ID. The credit-card plastic license with picture, D.O.B, signature etc makes much more sense than that stupid bit of paper which was the norm in UK for many years.
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But first the fit but foolish younger males would have to be banned....
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But it isn't the foolish younger males who keep driving the wrong way down motorways and dual carriageways.
Eyesight is a problem in the elderly but so is the plethora of unecessary road signs at every junction. There isn't time to read them all and all they do is serve to disorientate people.
I agree that eyesight should be tested in car drivers after the age of 65 as it is in lorry drivers.
After 65 we have to have a full medical on an annual basis to retain our HGV licence but can keep a car licence forever.
Yes, far more damage can be done with a lorry, but there's a fair bit done by car drivers who are medically unfit too.
Pat
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Pat, I had perfect eyesight until i was about 25.
Yep... one day I put on my girlfriend's specs as a joke and went "Well ****** me! I can see!"
Up until then, I didn't realise I had a problem. As I'm sure 90% of the non-spec-wearing population thinks.
To assume that somebody can get a license at 18, then drive for almost 50 years with their eyesight possibly deteriorating is a horrible thought.
But I'm sure it happens far too often.
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Had much the same experience. I first got glasses at 24 when I realised that my wife could read the direction signs long before I could. Explained why I was so bad at sport - I could never see the ball until it was 3 feet away!
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To pda.Perhaps not. They just have difficulty staying on the black stuff. Both age groups, and those in between, have difficulties with some aspects of driving. However, the greater risk is from the unfit through testosterone.
Last edited by: NIL on Tue 7 Aug 12 at 20:28
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>> However, the greater risk is from the unfit through testosterone.
>>
Next time I'm at the doctor's I'll ask him to check my testosterone. I'd hate to have too little!
tinyurl.com/c46gc9m
Last edited by: L'escargot on Wed 8 Aug 12 at 10:29
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>>Next time I'm at the doctor's I'll ask him to check my testosterone. I'd hate to have too little!
<<
Or too much, it keeps you 'up' all night!
:-D
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Just recently I have noticed at a few junctions where a single carriageway intersects with a motorway (A6 at Kegworth, M40 Gaydon turn) rows of tall, thin orange bollards ("contraflow cones") have been installed into the cats eye studs to prevent traffic from crossing over onto the wrong side before the start of the central reservation. Seems like a simple but effective solution to the problem of disorientated drivers taking the wrong lane where the consequences would be most severe.
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do toll roads / booths have a ' im not paying five quid get me outer slip rd /exit' what if you have no money on you and you accidently find yourself at a toll rd....cant you turn around or something?
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>> do toll roads / booths have a ' im not paying five quid get me outer slip rd /exit'
>> what if you have no money on you and you accidently find yourself at a toll rd....
>> cant you turn around or something?
Sadly not. When the M6 Toll first opened, all the signs on the A5 at Burntwood were changed to give the impression that the only way to Cannock was via the new road: goo.gl/maps/eDhjH
I fell for it, as did many other motorists, and I had to pay eight quid to drive three miles in my lorry. I wrote to Midland Expressway (the company responsible for the road) arguing my case for a refund, but they wrote back to say that a temporary yellow sign was in place on the A5 a few hundred yards before the Burntwood junction because so many people were taking the wrong turning, and I should have seen it...
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Tue 7 Aug 12 at 21:16
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Here in Austria there are big signs at the exit slip roads on every motorway junction to stop traffic joining the motorway in the wrong direction. Only once seen a Geistfahrer (wrong way driver) but presumably it was a big problem at one time.
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>> in Austria there are big signs at the exit slip roads on every motorway junction to stop traffic joining the motorway in the wrong direction.
They have those in Australia too. WRONG WAY! in red on white I think.
Denis Jenkinson, lifelong vehicle and racing freak, reckoned his eyesight was what let him down as a competition driver. It was only good for about 120mph, he once wrote (he had an E Type 4.2 at the time).
I have never aspired to be a competition driver, although I used to go faster than nearly everyone on the road. But from being in the quickest or anyway most gung-ho 1 or 2 per cent I have relaxed over the years and am now in the more-or-less-on-the-limit 10 or 20 per cent. It's somewhat cheaper that way and much more relaxing.
Seems to me though that from recognising that you have lost some of your barracuda's edge in traffic cut and thrust to waddling the wrong way up a dual carriageway is a pretty radical jump. I like to think that when I become that gaga I will notice it myself, or that someone else will.
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>>But from being in the quickest or anyway most gung-ho 1 or 2 per cent I have relaxed over the years and am now in the more-or-less-on-the-limit 10 or 20 per cent. It's somewhat cheaper that way and much more relaxing<<
Sounds like you've morphed into a mimser to me Sire.
:-}
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Oh I say Perro, that's a bit below the belt. In fact I'm deeply offended.
Mods! Mods! Ban the pooch for hooliganism!
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It isn't us slowing down Sire, its everybody else driving faster!
Even down these narrow Cornish lanes with sharp bends they fly down here as if old bill are after them.
I blame the parents.
:-D
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>> They have those in Australia too. WRONG WAY! in red on white I think.
>>
I noticed those in Ireland a few years ago.
But they weren't confined to indicating the wrong end of one-way roads. One I saw was on a perfectly normal 2-way road. What it appeared to mean was, "Wherever you want to go, this isn't the way".
A variation on the old "I wouldn't have started from here" joke.
Another gem was two men at roadworks with stop/go boards, out of sight of each other, with no walkie-talkie. Each just turned his board round completely independently of the other. The traffic passed by driving over the hardcore and round the site hut.
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I walked past this sign last Saturday.
surrey.greatbritishlife.co.uk/content/assets/images/galleries/main/102080.jpg
It didn't help us very much... we went in the fourth unsigned direction!!
Last edited by: Crocks on Wed 8 Aug 12 at 15:22
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>> I walked past this sign last Saturday.
>> surrey.greatbritishlife.co.uk/content/assets/images/galleries/main/102080.jpg
>>
>> It didn't help us very much... we went in the fourth unsigned direction!!
>>
Yes, up past the closed pub?
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Here's more ammo for the anti-dodderer faction:www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-19185718 In this case not so much old git, as essence of git.
A "momentary lapse" seems to be the catch phrase for defending the indefensible. I can only assume the judge was a farmer or in the same lodge.
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-19178359
Not quite a wrong way, but certainly blind drunk. The arrogant drunken muppet is so blind that he was on Wales News tonight, literally hanging on to his friend to walk into court. He should be subjected to a Bathtub Tom talking to at the very least.
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I read earlier he couldn't read a number plate from 4 metres away and could only just from 2m. The eye sight alone was reason not to drive. And then twice over the drink drive limit! It's lucky he's not killed or seriously injured someone else before now.
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The obligatory crass quote in this case reads:
"I regard this as a bad case of careless driving and bordering on dangerous," said Judge Sampson.
Judge Sampson seems to have his finger on the pulse of the criminal justice system. Picking up a pedestrian on a tractor fork and driving along the road with her dangling on the end, screaming, is only "bordering on dangerous".
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...The obligatory crass quote in this case reads: "I regard this as a bad case of careless driving and bordering on dangerous," said Judge Sampson...
Cliff,
The defendant admitted careless driving which is what he must be sentenced for.
If the judge says 'it's dangerous', the defence will appeal on the basis the judge has sentenced incorrectly.
What may be read into the judge's remarks is mild criticism of the CPS for accepting the lesser charge.
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Well, that one was only 50 year old.
However, it appears that drinking large quantities of alcohol can cause one to act as if you are elderly.
On the general issue of elderly drivers, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon on the single track roads of the Scottish Highlands.
It is the fact that drivers of motorhomes (and in particular, British registered motorhomes) generally tend to be a lot more clueless about how to drive on single track roads than the average motorist.
In fact, they tend to be a lot more clueless, period.
My suspicion is that a large proportion of motorhome drivers are somewhat elderly, and not as alert as they might be.
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>> It is the fact that drivers of motorhomes (and in particular, British registered motorhomes)
>> generally tend to be a lot more clueless about how to drive on single track roads
>> than the average motorist.
>>
>> In fact, they tend to be a lot more clueless, period.
>>
>> My suspicion is that a large proportion of motorhome drivers are somewhat elderly, and not
>> as alert as they might be.
>>
Totally disagree, would you like to explain what we are all doing wrong please.
The reality, in my experience is that owner driven motorhomes are usually (but not always) driven by the over 30s but most of those over, say, 70 or 75, the "elderly drivers", have long since given up.
Also how would you define someone as being clueless about how to drive on single track roads?
Last edited by: commerdriver on Fri 10 Aug 12 at 13:40
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>> Also how would you define someone as being clueless about how to drive on single
>> track roads?
>>
How about failing to use passing places to facilitate the easiest flow of traffic in both directions, failing to use passing places to allow traffic to overtake, and not being able to reverse competently when they get it wrong.
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>> How about failing to use passing places to facilitate the easiest flow of traffic in
>> both directions, failing to use passing places to allow traffic to overtake, and not being
>> able to reverse competently when they get it wrong.
>>
Agree all bad things, don't think any of them are any more likely for motorhome drivers than anyone else. In my experience the worst ones for those are the chelsea tractor type of 4x4s
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Old Navy: >> How about failing to use passing places to facilitate the easiest flow of traffic
>> in
>> >> both directions, failing to use passing places to allow traffic to overtake, and not
>> being
>> >> able to reverse competently when they get it wrong.
That is exactly what I was referring to.
commerdriver: Agree all bad things, don't think any of them are any more likely for motorhome
>> drivers than anyone else. In my experience the worst ones for those are the chelsea
>> tractor type of 4x4s
As for who are those who are most likely to do these things, I simply speak from my own experience - which consists of quite a lot of driving on single track roads in the Highlands. My experience in recent weeks has shown a disproportionate amount of the "ignore everyone else on the road and don't bother to look in your rear view mirrors" behaviour comes from motorhome drivers - and not the younger ones.
In my experience, Chelsea tractor 4x4s are no worse than average.
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At least two of my former colleagues have new motorhomes both are over 50 and have chosen the same life path as me (retired early and doing low level work) - I would be happy to go with them anywhere. One is a biker !
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A drunk lorry driver is jailed, but on the same day a 90-year-old killer doctor is not:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19205192
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>> A drunk lorry driver is jailed, but on the same day a 90-year-old killer doctor
>> is not:
And it is entirely correct that the 90-year old was not.
The lorry driver deliberately broke the law by taking sufficient alcohol to put himself well over the legal limit. The retired GP did not deliberately break any law.
The fact that he had "failed" an eye test the day before is interesting. I didn't know you could "fail" an eye test. Did the optician say "You are not fit to drive"? If so, then I can see that there would be a case that Waddell had deliberately broken the law - but there is no indication of this.
Interestingly enough, the BBC report does not include this:
In mitigation Charles Gabb . . .explained that on at least six other occasions motorists had been confused by the road markings at the junction and had gone the wrong way – including in daylight – and that it was luck no-one else had been injured.
tinyurl.com/cme3kek
Last edited by: tyro on Fri 10 Aug 12 at 15:53
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>> The fact that he had "failed" an eye test the day before is interesting. I
>> didn't know you could "fail" an eye test. Did the optician say "You are not
>> fit to drive"? If so, then I can see that there would be a case
>> that Waddell had deliberately broken the law - but there is no indication of this.
Thanks for that, tyro. As I wrote above, we have a 5-yearly renewal, which includes an eye-test. Surely the UK has an eye-test as part of the original drivers' license test? And surely there must be a standard which the original (let's call him 18 yr old) applicant must reach? and surely that (like the D&D limit) should be know by the pros - like doctors and optometrists? And surely said pros should communicate this to their patients when the pros are aware that the bloke can't see for toffee?
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>>Neil Sawyer, prosecuting, said Waddell's recollection of what happened was "hazy" and he had been confused due to a subdural haematoma - bleeding on the brain - prior to the crash.<<
I dont know about anyone else but id expect my driving to be a bit iffy if that happened to me aswell, even with good eyesight.
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>> ...due to a subdural haematoma - bleeding on the brain - prior to the
>> crash.<<
>>
I wonder when that was diagnosed? Sounds like his licence should have been revoked for at least a couple of reasons.
Colleague of mine, in his late 30's, had slightly disturbed vision for a while and went to his local doctor, who referred him to a specialist. He felt fine driving, but the specialist told him he couldn't drive, not even drive home. Once a doctor says that, you're committing a serious offence if you continue to drive.
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What I don't understand about "wrong-way" driver incidents is this;
I can understand how one might go wrong and turn down an exit. I've never actually done it myself, but I've come close.
I can even understand how once its been done, then on a deserted road it might take some time for the situation to sink in and to do something about it.
But surely to God, the first time a car comes at you head-on you instantly realise there's an issue, and don't just carry on regardless?
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>Surely the UK has an eye-test as part of the original drivers' license test?
>>And surely there must be a standard which the original (let's call him 18 yr old) applicant must reach?
>>
>>optometrists
Did you mean optomist?
We are still in the days of the horse and cart re eye tests for driving.
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/LearnerAndNewDrivers/LearningToDriveOrRide/DG_4022529
So tunnel vision and other conditions are all OK.
There is a little hope for 2013 but I have seen no more reports on progressing this.
"The move will see the traditional test of reading a number plate at 20 metres - recently cited at an EU summit as being 'the worst example in Europe' of checks on motorists' vision - scrapped."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1064343/Motorists-face-paying-renew-driving-licence-years-pass-fail-eye-tests.html
In the UK the normal license expires when the driver is 70.
To renew
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Driverlicensing/NeedANewOrUpdatedLicence/DG_4022086
and then every three years.
So hopefully you can see enough of the form on paper or on line to tick all the boxes in the comfort of your own home and then off you go and enjoy yourself playing dodgems.
Last edited by: henry k on Sat 11 Aug 12 at 00:23
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Another "wrong way" driver. - zookeeper
