M444TTB Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 It's unusual for me to feel at all moved or sickened by a report but this paints such a clear picture in my mind. I wonder if I'd read this at 17/18/19/20 it would have improved my driving? Not that it was as bad as some and def didn't involve drinking! Although the trouble at that age is the mind defaults to 'won't happen to me'. http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/10868009.Inquest_hears_teen_girls_were_drinking_before_fatal_A419_crash/?ref=var_0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff oakley Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Very sad but clearly the fault lies fairly with the driver here. No amount of speed limits, or laws will stop someone drinking and driving. The loss of young life seems so much more wasteful. When my daughter started driving we bought the best and safest car and made her confident enough to say no to others who were driving badly and about to drive after drink. Peer pressure will always be a problem but teaching confidence is the best way to tackle stupidity. She has refused to passenger in peoples cars, at the time unpopular, but after they have crashed, others in her group all do the same. How any parent can live with the loss of a daughter especially knowing here death and the injuries and deaths of others was completly avoidable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M444TTB Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 While her friends sound like idiots (at least the one lad saw trouble coming and put his belt on) she was very clearly at fault. The article doesn't say but I assume they think she stood on the brakes for a laugh and then lost control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacko9370 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 That was the second incident on that bit of road in 2 weeks, the other was a fatality aswell and involved drink driving. My son new the occupants of both, I hope it's made him think about his driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peet Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Any loss of young life is sad news. Thoughts with family & rescue workers, these sort of incidents stay with them forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhutch Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yes, not at all great. Fortunately I managed to get through the first few years of my driving (I'm now 26) without any deaths of my friends or friends of friends and although I have had two crashes having left school, both while driving alone on back rounds, getting it wrong and meeting a fence/post not injured myself either. I never drunk anything before driving at all when I was at school or a student and largely avoided and suppressed silliness in cars I was in or driving, always wore a seatbelt, etc. I think as much as anything put off by films and the like but that report is a harsh reminder of the costs of getting it wrong and I can draw a lot of parallels with myself and the bloke who 'saw it going wrong and put his seatbelt on' beforehand. A sound move clearly but its hard to know where to draw the line of 'ok, I want out of this' and actually making them stop the car or whatever. Equally its hard to ask a friend who's giving you a lift 'have you been drinking' or whatever. I would probably make excuses and not get in the car if I had known, but it can be hard to know. Feel quite funny inside just thinking about it to be honest. I probably have most of two decades before I face it from the other side, assuming I am lucky enough to have kids, but I think my parents where pretty good about it. We lived in the middle of know where and not overly near anyone else I grew up with, or public transport, so they did a hell of a lot of ferrying us about along side lifts from friends older siblings and the like before we learn to drive, and then when we where going out. But yes. Serious stuff. Daniel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Verona Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I was brought up in Hackney and got my first car at the age of 17. I did drive too fast and had a few accidents but no injuries. All the accidents were deemed to be others fault but I must admit, had I driven slower I would probably have avoided them. It's a many faceted tragedy. The parents and relations, the relations of the others, the friends, the emergency service people who had to deal with at the scene. I just can't imagine how I would react if it happened to one of my kids. They don't drink and drive and didn't when they were teenagers. It's making me feel sick just thnking about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue ass fly Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Thats awfull We've just had a local one where someone pulled out onto a main road after being flashed by a car Didnt think to check the other direction and got T boned by an artic Two teenagers dead Scared to death when my kids first went out Thing is we were all young and foolish once and drink driving wasnt as frowned upon back then 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peet Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 The one good fact is that incidents invokving fatalities are getting fewer due to safer cars and traffic calming but sometimes the speed is just too much the tree too hard... I'm a firefighter in London now in a specialist rescue unit bulk of which is dealing with extrication techniques from car crashes - good news is that the cars are getting tougher & we have to keep upgrading the equipment and that it's a high ratio of survivors now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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