Car Safety

[Benny]

I've got a 17 year old son who, like every other 17 year old, drives like a knob.

Maybe this will help. Fairly graphic, don't say you weren't warned.

[smilodon]

You don't have to be 17 to drive with your brain in neutral. Holding a full driving licence seems to be the only requirement for going out there and killing people. As that video showed, we can all drive like muppets. Nice find Benny.

If the video does move anyone to take a long hard look at how they drive then Maybe these two web sites (for UK forum members at least) might be of interest. I joined both and it changed my driving beyond recognition. I really was a dreadful driver. I'm not particularly 'better' now but I'd like to think I'm safer :smile:

http://www.roadar.org/

http://www.iam.org.uk/

[T-Bag]

A good start to fixing the problem is to raise the national speed limit to 80mph for dual carriage ways and motorways, and lower it in towns to 20-25mph and have POLICE CARS enforce it, and speed camera has no shame or inconvenience. People can laugh off a speeding ticket, but if someone stops them at the sde of the road and tell them they're an idiot, those memories will last, even if their behaviour doesn't right away.
Anything to get them thinking about how stupid they're being.
(Not saying I'm a good driver, but I've got a car which punishes me with 20mpg if I decide to go fast or drive like an idiot, so it's gentle acceleration for me and 65mph on the motorway)

[BigFatCat]

Forget all the safety cameras. Have far more bike police so they can enforce traffic laws and also attend crimes and other inconveniences too.

[Tutonic]

Forcing people to re-take the driving test once every, for example, 10 years would be a good move in my book.

It might stop people getting into bad habits that you see every day on the roads. I'm pretty certain that some people think that because they've passed their test they no longer need to do basic things like use their indicators....

[Lexander]

Forcing people to re-take the driving test once every, for example, 10 years would be a good move in my book.

It might stop people getting into bad habits that you see every day on the roads. I'm pretty certain that some people think that because they've passed their test they no longer need to do basic things like use their indicators....

I disagree with that as it might work with the bad drivers, but for good drivers and professional drivers it would just be an extra cost of hundreds of euros or pounds for nothing.
Maybe there could be a system to block the bad drivers from good drivers, otherwise it will just be teasing overall.

[Tutonic]

I disagree with that as it might work with the bad drivers, but for good drivers and professional drivers it would just be an extra cost of hundreds of euros or pounds for nothing.
Maybe there could be a system to block the bad drivers from good drivers, otherwise it will just be teasing overall.

In the UK, it currently costs Ã,£31 to take the practical driving test. That isn't alot of money to ask for every 10 years, passports are more expensive.

[smilodon]

My concern is that we all think it's someone else who is the danger. Unfortunately most accidents are caused by normal, moderate drivers who are not screaming about like lunatics. They're going at 40mph in a 30 limit, they're talking on a mobile phone, fishing in the glove box for a sweet, driving one handed with a cup of take away coffee in the other, arguing with their passenger, wondering what to have for dinner and generally not giving 100% to their driving. Statistics show that the vast majority of accidents including fatalities are caused by 'lack of care and attention' and not speed or dangerous driving. This is mainly due to most drivers have no plan or system for their driving. They just get in a drive from A to B. This why they will always react to a situation as it develops rather than take the 'advanced' approach of planning for a situation before it has happened. Reactive versus proactive. It's almost impossible to teach yourself to drive pro actively hence most of us will always be a statistic waiting to happen, no matter how much we don't want to be one.

The only way to reach an acceptable level of safe driving is to get someone to teach us. The trouble is I have a serious problem with self criticism especially about my driving ability. It's the curse of modern men, and increasingly women that there is a real stigmatism about being considered a bad driver. Even this post will probably get some peoples hackles up as it suggests that anyone with no more than a full driving licence is by default not an expert driver and therefore not as safe as they could be. Maybe so, but the question is how good is good enough when it comes to manoeuvring 3/5 of a ton of metal about when there's only a six inch curb between you and most of the child population of this country. One basic driving test back in the distant past and then not much more than the self delusion that years at the wheel have made us all better drivers? That doesn't really explain why we kill 2000 odd people a year and main another 30,000.

I noticed that many of the drivers featured in the video weren't nutty teenagers but ordinary people like me. Men in suits, mums on the way to the shops etc. ect. That's what brings the message in the video home. It's a video directed straight at me and not some 'other' group of drivers.

[sulky_uk]

as has been said this is a fairly graphic advert, but some of you may have noticed that the carat the start has northern ireland number plates. why is this relevant you may ask?
In northern ireland they have been using these types of adverts for at least 20 years (maybe because of all the other stuff that was in the news it didnt matter that they were a little bit gory). It still didnt stop young people wrapping themselves round tress, which is why in Northern ireland we have..The "R" plate , something like the p plate on the mainland you are restricted to 45 MPH at all times on 50 + roads ie duel carragways , motorways etc. if you get caught say slightly over the speed limit its a fine and a 1 yr extension to your "R" plate. If its really a really serious offense its an automatic ban for 1 yr then a retest then another 1 yr on R plates.
we used to have the most fatalities in the 17-25 bracket in northern ireland for motoring deaths in the whole of europe, now we are minor league, but i think the graphic adverts and r plates have helped acheive this

here are some more examples of northern ireland road adverts

[video=youtube;xtJqw--DGl8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtJqw--DGl8[/video]

[video=youtube;pmftKz0u62Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmftKz0u62Y&feature=related[/video]

[video=youtube;54TydSWjoYw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54TydSWjoYw&feature=related[/video]

i cant find some of the older ones but ill post them if i can get them and heres a 1990's northern ireland anti terrorism  ad

[video=youtube;NswpCTliqxo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswpCTliqxo[/video]

[Snokio]

It is my personal believe that we need more police on the roads, not speed camera's (or renamed 'safety' camera's) as speed alone is not the main killer on our roads, it's not even close really! If you think about it, how many times have you been tailgated? or seen a dangerous maneuver, such as under taking, cutting in front of people at roundabouts because they can't be arsed to wait like the rest of us, over take without thought, and not to mention the drunks and junkies on the road. And what has already been mentioned, people trying to multitask in the car, some can do it with ease, but a lot fail at it!
 
We have all been there when we were young / younger, including myself, not really stupid / dangerous stuff, but stuff that makes you think 'what if a car had broken down on that blind corner, or horse, or cyclist....'
 
It's these constant 'what ifs' that has made me slow down, and also now that my car has an MPG indicator.
 
Although, I don't like the way they change the speeds, the council seem to think it is necessary to slow everything down, even in wide open roads, a 40 or 50 is now a 30, with no houses, schools or any dangers :eyebrow:. Even when a man jumps off a bridge in suicide onto a busy road deems it to be a speed related death, must have a speed camera!!! :ranting2:
 
...and just to note, the slower we go, the more traffic jams, its not rocket science!

[T-Bag]

Yup, repeating myself again so I'll be brief. Police not cameras and sensible speed limits will fix the problem. Slow in towns, but faster when there are less dangers. Make people think why they're going slow, and know they can get caught anywhere, not just as they pass the yellow box.

[Gorion]

Higher penalties should also be implemented, and I mean license withdrawal on the spot and fines for reckless pedestrians.

We have the same problem over here.  The majority of the driving population doesn't give a flying F about regulations.  And if you think you have bad drivers, you really need to come over here and take a look at our mess.

Stop signs means keep going, give way means don't let the other driver pass, amber on traffic lights means press the gas pedal down as much as you can.  And the list goes on and on.  Let's not forget the pedestrians which cross a road without looking or when there's a pelican crossing <50 mts from them.

Basically we're in a situation were it's not how good you drive, but how careful/aware you are of the other idiots on the road.