Category - World

With all the kerfuffle in the USA over texting while driving you’d have expected any proposed law to make it illegal to sail through the system and become enforceable in no time at all.

Not so in Montana.  The Republic reports that Bill 251 has been rejected by a 31-18 vote.

Apparently, it would be hard to enforce and create more work!

It’s nice to know that it isn’t just in the UK that people who should be under 24 hour care make it into government positions.

I wonder how they think they can stop it without it involving extra work?

Basically, these loonies have declared that texting while driving is OK by virtue of rejecting a bill to make it illegal.

In the words of Kent Brockman:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work.

The Market Rasen Mail has an article on Facebook and Twitter use behind the wheel. It seems that police in Devon & Cornwall are catching more and more motorists possessing phones with internet capability.

Inspector Richard Price, from the force’s roads policing unit, said: “With the new mobile phones, it is becoming more commonplace for people to use them to access social media than for texting while driving.

“The availability of information is sometimes too tempting to drivers and often they will be picking up the phone and updating their (Facebook) site.”

It’s frightening that people this stupid are even allowed out unsupervised, let alone permitted to drive cars. They even admit to it.

…research by the RAC had shown one in five motorists in the south-west had admitted to checking social media alerts whilst driving…

So up to 20% of people on the roads down that way are liable to be surfing while they are driving. I’d wager it is even higher around London and in the south-east.

Inspector Price summed up the whole problem surrounding driver behaviour on the roads – and that would include the behaviour which kills all the little chavs everyone is always prattling on about:

A minority of drivers have a complacent and sometimes arrogant attitude to driving.

He didn’t define “minority” in this case.

Another American story, this time about a school bus driver in Connecticut (link now dead – it was on the CBS News website) who sent over 1,000 text messages while driving between April and May 2010.

The investigation appears to have been triggered by alleged assault by the bus driver’s daughter on the autistic daughter of another parent. But the texting problem was revealed by surveillance cameras set up to investigate the allegation.

We have to remember that this isn’t an “American thing”. Obsessive texting is a real problem in the Western world.

This story has been picked up by the Daily Mail over here.

If the UK isn’t careful, America – where some states require a pack of Pampers to be carried in the boot in case the driver needs a nappy change – could overtake it in the road safety stakes.

This article indicates that Texas (of all places) is seeking to make 16 the minimum age for a learner licence, and 18 the minimum age for a full licence across the whole country. In addition, they wouldn’t be allowed out at night, wouldn’t be able to carry more than one passenger under 21, and wouldn’t be allowed to use their mobile when driving.

Experts warn this won’t happen without a big fight, as some states will oppose the change.

The most telling comment comes from a driving instructor over there:

Kerryne Wilshire says she’s not sure if STANDUP [the law in question] would actually keep teen safer. She says at the end of the day it depends on the driver.

“Every kid is different and that’s a kid by kid basis,” she said.

The only thing I would say is that 14 or 15 is WAY too young to be driving. Some people are still children at that age, still playing with dolls or fighting in the mud. At least by raising the minimum age you are removing a large part of that issue.

But age is only part of the problem, as Kerryne Wilshire suggests.

The Belfast Telegraph reckons the minimum driving age could rise to 18 under proposals…

…to cut the carnage on Northern Ireland’s roads.

The proposals would also see restrictions on high performance cars, curfews, and a minimum number of lessons before being able to take the test.

Apparently, 17-24 year olds make up 15% of the driving population and yet they account for 38% of all fatal collisions. Those numbers got me thinking about the American problem I reported recently. The Americans allow driving from as young as 14, and their statistics report that “teens” account for 7% of the driving population, but 20% of all driving deaths.

How do the two compare?

Let’s imagine we have 100,000 drivers and 10,000 fatalities in some time period.

The NI figures mean that 15,000 17-24 year olds would be responsible for 3,800 deaths. That works out to 0.25 deaths per 17-24 year old.

The American figures mean that 7,000 “teens” would be responsible for 2,000 deaths. And that works out to 0.28 deaths per “teen”.

It’s not that different, is it? And I bet the UK mainland isn’t much different, either.

So is raising the driving age the answer? Is extra lessons the answer? I’m not so sure. Everything points to it being the same in every civilised country.

This article in The Journal (Ireland) has to take pole position in the race to find a statement of the blindingly obvious.

Eating and drinking while driving a ‘major distraction’

No, really? But when you then look at the next part:

[the spokesman] said he didn’t expect people to do away with their morning coffee on the drive to work, but urged drivers to be careful and act sensibly, in particular with hot beverages.

You certainly shouldn’t be fumbling with the cup while you are on the move. A simple incident like the lid coming off and coffee spilling could become disastrous.

Other distracting behaviour admitted to by some of the 22,000 people surveyed included reading while driving (14.6 per cent), brushing hair (7.5 per cent) and changing clothes (3.4 per cent).

Nearly a quarter of the women that took part admitted to applying makeup while driving while 4 per cent of men said they sometimes used an electric shaver on the go.

They like to take it to the limit in Ireland, don’t they?

There’s talk again of raising the driving age in the UK in an attempt to stop immature morons killing themselves. I guess the hope is that an extra year or two means that they will grow up and behave at least a little like adults (the majority of teenage boys don’t become mentally mature until at least another 10 years after their teens).

But spare a thought for the Americans. Over there, you’re eligible to drive from the moment you can breath until the moment when you can’t anymore.

Seriously, though, the Americans are having a major burn on the issue of teen road deaths and distracted driving. So it is strange that this article should appear in the Maryville Daily Forum.

The author boasts that her granddaughter (I think) was being taught to drive by her friend – she didn’t want anyone else to teach her: just her best friend.

Carla had a friend over. She wanted the friend to teach her to drive. (Why they just didn’t play with dolls, I’ll never know!)

The only vehicle available that afternoon happened to be Dad’s pick-up. Said pickup had a standard transmission — AKA stick shift.

I wasn’t about to have anything to do with this driving lesson. Oh, I could have taught my sister to drive; however, I valued my life and these young teenage girls didn’t have Dad’s permission to conduct the lesson, much less drive his prize pick-up.

So, I hid out in the living room. I don’t know what I was doing, but I should have turned the music up louder or hid out in a more sound-proof location. It wasn’t long before I heard “Bam, Bam, Bam,” coming from the driveway. What in the world?

Reluctantly, I went to the east window of the living room. There I saw Dad’s pickup banging into the garage door over and over. Inside the cab of said truck I noticed two teenage girls giggling for all they were worth.

I just went back to the living room, turned up the TV and hid out a little longer.

I don’t think it was necessary for Carla to learn to drive a stick shift anyway. Evidently not because I don’t think she ever learned.

Frighteningly, that teenager could have been allowed out on the road. Is it any wonder the USA has a problem if this kind of thing is going on? It isn’t funny. Tragic, maybe. Worrying, to be sure. But definitely not funny.

Then there is this story about how to choose an instructor. Remember that in some States you can drive at 14. The majority are 15, and a few 16.

Car crashes kill more teens than cancer, homicide and suicide combined, which is why choosing a good driving school could quite literally be a life or death decision. In fact, the Automobile Association of America (AAA) reports that although teens represent only 7% of the licensed population, they are involved in almost 20% of all fatal accidents. Scary stuff.

Yes. Very scary. Scary that 7% of the population is responsible for 20% of all fatal accidents. In fact, the word is “terrifying”, not just scary. It’s an unbelievable statistic.

If they want to reduce deaths amongst teens, then raise the age limit to one which corresponds to being out of nappies.

The Calgary Herald says that City officials are considering building roundabouts as a solution to problems at 4-way stops and traffic lights.

Well, I suppose they’ve got to move into the 20th Century at some point – let’s hope they make it quickly into the 21st, where the rest of us are!

I do find the comments of a former driving instructor (Nicole McWhinney) amusing:

As long as everybody knows what they’re doing, everything is predictable, As soon as somebody’s unpredictable, then it causes chaos.

Yes. And as long as people are taught properly – and penalised if they behave “unpredictably” – then any road system works.

When I’m doing roundabout lessons with pupils, I often do my “History of…” routine, starting with when people rode in ox-carts between villages, moving on to horse-drawn carriages and horses, then the first motor vehicles, and going through crossroads, traffic light-controlled crossroads, roundabouts, and finishing with traffic light-controlled roundabouts. I haven’t got a clue if it’s historically correct (it’s near enough for my purposes), but it works.

A roundabout is merely a junction – often, a far less complicated one than one with loads of lights, stop signs, and areas you can’t enter. Countries which have steered clear of roundabouts have probably forced themselves into a bit of a corner, since normal light-controlled junctions can only deal with heavy traffic to a limited extent. They face the problem now that a roundabout might not actually help as much as they’d like.

It’s funny how you write (or say) something, and then you come across news stories on similar topics.

I posted recently about insurance fraudsters (like Mr Wilson, the scumbag who tried it on with me some years ago – and lost), and the guy who pranged one of my ex-pupils, and then tried to blame it on her by lying (and last I heard, it looked like he was going to be found out).

An article in Car Rentals suggest that in the same vein, cases of staged car crashes are rising dramatically in line with the UK’s burgeoning problem of pathetic personal injury claims (which, in turn, came from the USA).

No doubt this sort of thing occurs to lesser minds as a way of subsidising their unemployment benefits during a recession. SO ADIs had better watch out – a learner is an easy target.