Real roads have no restart button...

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Yanto, you make a good point but we have to adopt a damage limitation attitude or the only alternative would be automatic castration for all new drivers! A Micra will do far less damage than a vehicle with five or ten times the engine power. In my stupid days the worst I did was embarrass myself. Oh and break a half-shaft by sliding sideways into a kerb on a wet corner with my foot still planted... A lorry driver who witnessed my error leaned head and shoulders from his cab and gave me a slow hand clap. 

[Blatman]

6 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

I get the delight of taking pain meds’ every single day of my life, and at some point, natural wear and tear will mean I need an operation on C4/5 that has significant risks of paralysis

Different but I had surgery on L4/5 in 1997 and it went very well. An old acquaintance of mine had a disc replacement on c4/5 about 12 years ago and again it went well. The only tip I can offer is have a neuro surgeon do rather than an ortho... 

[John K]

29 minutes ago, Man On The Clapham Omnibus said:

A Micra will do far less damage than a vehicle with five or ten times the engine power

Got to agree here. I learnt to drive (in actual fact learnt how not to have accidents) whilst 18 and working as a delivery driver for Hertz.

I spent 2 years mostly driving group A or B Fiesta 1.1 or Escort 1.3 which would get out of shape at 20 mph on a greasy road. You could drive well beyond the cars limits and know you would slide to a stop before hitting the kerb.

Not quite the same threshold as a RS Focus, so you slowly learned car control. Took me 5 years to a 100bhp plus car. By then common sense had taken root. 

[dombanks]

The graduated license is a pointless excercise imho. My worst accident was in a fiat 126 you cant get much lower without involving pedals. With your average small car being nippy amd 1000x safer than the crap from yesterdays black amd white era we should be looking at better education and ways to reduce traffic 

[corsechris]

There may be an element of the change to steel helmets in WW1 here. After switching from pith to steel, there was a huge increase in head injuries. A commensurate drop in fatalities though. Safer cars means less of these halfwits die in their accidents. 

[John K]

14 minutes ago, corsechris said:

There may be an element of the change to steel helmets in WW1 here. After switching from pith to steel, there was a huge increase in head injuries. A commensurate drop in fatalities though. Safer cars means less of these halfwits die in their accidents. 

So we are sort of skewing natural evolution.

Because modern cars go off like a bouncy castle in an accident and have mega safety features, it means folk who 'should' have removed themselves from the gene pool actually live to drive another day... And probably learn nothing from the experience except it's OK to have accidents

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Although we have a medic in my family, I have often thought that medicine has done men (and women) good, it has done mankind as a whole much damage  by allowing Darwin's theory to plough into the ground. But I digress...

 

[SootySport]

Had a few "Watch this" incidents in my youth but none of them as dangerous and expensive as the modern kids.       A Ford 100e  and Anglia were my first weapons of choice back in the day, circa 30bhp I think.

[John K]

11 minutes ago, SootySport said:

A Ford 100e  and Anglia were my first weapons of choice back in the day, circa 30bhp I think.

Was the 30bhp for both of them..? 

[DonPeffers]

I have often thought the driving test should have more overtaking tuition to ensure safe overtaking in the correct gear.

Also having watched the TV program '100 year old driving school' where older drivers (some of whom have never passed a test) are assessed I would have liked to see them do an emergency stop and a hill start.

There was one lady of 105 years who passed the assessment and plays tennis and bowls every week and could still touch her toes and do Pilates----incredible.  Some days I can barely get out of the chair let alone the westie. Doctor says it's just down to luck so nowt to do with decades of fags and booze.

[SootySport]

1 hour ago, DonPeffers said:

I have often thought the driving test should have more overtaking tuition to ensure safe overtaking in the correct gear.

Also having watched the TV program '100 year old driving school' were older drivers (some of whom have never passed a test) are assessed I would have liked to see them do an emergency stop and a hill start.

There was one lady of 105 years who passed the assessment and plays tennis and bowls every week and could still touch her toes and do Pilates----incredible.  Some days I can barely get out of the chair let alone the westie. Doctor says it's just down to luck so nowt to do with decades of fags and booze.

I saw this as well,    some wonderful seniors around,   like the 100 year old lady who used to deliver Spitfires to the Squadrons and after the war raced Allards on track, think the ROSPA guys felt a bit underqualified after hearing that

[dhutch]

On 02/10/2017 at 13:31, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Police estimate we were both doing about forty, me braking heavily, him spinning out. The A4 ended up two metres shorter.

I get the delight of taking pain meds’ every single day of my life, and at some point, natural wear and tear will mean I need an operation on C4/5 that has significant risks of paralysis.

Not good. 

As you say, it's one thing on your own, or on a track or drift day with other consentinf adults, but certainly not on road with public.

Even then, while we have all done it, being a w**k puffin even with your own life is still selfish if you have family and friends.

Daniel

 

[corsechris]

On 03/10/2017 at 09:04, John K said:

So we are sort of skewing natural evolution.

Because modern cars go off like a bouncy castle in an accident and have mega safety features, it means folk who 'should' have removed themselves from the gene pool actually live to drive another day... And probably learn nothing from the experience except it's OK to have accidents

Yep, we are working towards an idiocracy at an alarming rate.

[DonPeffers]

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/1652851/killer-driver-who-mowed-down-tot-harlow-edwards-in-coupar-angus-jailed-for-6-years/

A terrible tragedy but sadly unlikely to be the last one.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

3 minutes ago, DonPeffers said:

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/1652851/killer-driver-who-mowed-down-tot-harlow-edwards-in-coupar-angus-jailed-for-6-years/

A terrible tragedy but sadly unlikely to be the last one.

Indeed so. I'm sure there's a technological remedy to prevent any 'phone use in a car - at all, by anyone unless the passenger seat is occupied. We survived  without up until the mid-eighties and if an emergency occurs, STOP! If the technobods come up with a cleverer way then let's hear it.