Category - Bad Drivers

This makes interesting reading. Well, it’s more mind-blowing than interesting, with almost 10% of drivers admitting that they don’t know how to behave when they encounter horses. Even more surprising is that the figure rises when you ask younger drivers (or Londoners) about the subject!

You’d expect that even a monkey would realise that when you are passing an animal weighing upwards of half a metric tonne, usually with a young girl on top of it, you’d slow down and give it wide berth. For people who haven’t yet acquired the mental capacity of monkeys the Highway Code clarifies the situation further:

214

Animals. When passing animals, drive slowly. Give them plenty of room and be ready to stop. Do not scare animals by sounding your horn, revving your engine or accelerating rapidly once you have passed them. Look out for animals being led, driven or ridden on the road and take extra care. Keep your speed down at bends and on narrow country roads. If a road is blocked by a herd of animals, stop and switch off your engine until they have left the road. Watch out for animals on unfenced roads.

215

Horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles. Be particularly careful of horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles especially when overtaking. Always pass wide and slowly. Horse riders are often children, so take extra care and remember riders may ride in double file when escorting a young or inexperienced horse or rider. Look out for horse riders’ and horse drivers’ signals and heed a request to slow down or stop. Take great care and treat all horses as a potential hazard.

The survey conducted by the AA is quite worrying, and raises a number of questions. Setting aside the obvious one about the intellects of people who are deemed competent to hold a driving licence and yet are clearly too stupid to work it out for themselves, what the hell are driving instructors doing when younger drivers – those who have recently passed their tests – don’t know what to do? The Highway Code is there for all to see, and at the very least the topic should be covered verbally if it can’t be dealt with using real situations.

Apparently, nearly 20% of those questioned believe horses shouldn’t be allowed on the roads. The simple fact is that greater than 99% of horse riders are courteous and don’t deliberately get in the way, and they get off the road as soon as they can. Contrast this with cyclists – of whom 99% are complete arseholes who get in the way on purpose, and who definitely shouldn’t be allowed on the roads – and you can see that everything is the wrong way round.

I do everything in my power to get my pupils to encounter horses at some stage on their lessons. I take them on single track roads near stables at the time of day when horses are being walked out so we can deal with them. As I’ve said before, girls on horses (the majority of riders) usually give a friendly wave of thanks. Male riders can be less friendly (I don’t know why that is), and racehorse riders (the minority of riders around my way, and usually failed jockeys) are miserable and arrogant little sods most of the time. Racehorses are useful training tools because they are usually restive and don’t like walking, so it gives us an opportunity to stop or even switch off the engine in some cases. In fact, on my way to a lesson tonight I had to slow right down for a horse being led along the roadside which was obviously a little edgy, eliciting a polite wave from the male handler.

It isn’t that difficult to find horses and horse riders in many places – even in urban areas – and many instructors really ought to be driving just a few miles extra in order to cover the subject properly instead of hanging round the test centres conserving fuel. Obviously, not everyone can experience horses and riders first hand on their lessons, and in those cases the instructor should absolutely and definitely be covering it verbally – which many clearly aren’t.

Not long ago I wrote about how an idiot cyclist had caused chaos on the M25 by riding his bicycle on there, and how that in spite of trying to give the police a lesson on the Highway Code, he had been let off with just words of caution. In fact, it would appear that he was one of those people who is a few olives short of a pizza – but not enough to warrant being locked up for his own safety. Incredibly, the severest warning was apparently issued to motorists that they should watch out for such people (see the following paragraph for an update to this).

Well, another recent story tells how a cyclist was stopped on the M3. He claimed he was following his satnav instructions. It appears that both he, and the other idiot from the earlier story, were given £50 on-the-spot fines. The previous story didn’t mention that.

The problem is that both of them are complete imbeciles, and should have been prosecuted further. Neither story makes clear whether the two men had driving licences or not, though if they did then they KNEW the rules regarding cycling on motorways. If they DID have driving licences, then both should have been endorsed with points and a much larger fine. Both should have been named and shamed.

The police are taking too soft a line with cyclists, who are a growing menace on the roads. Jeez, you can’t even get away from the prats on motorways now.

Samuel Etherington, 20, has been jailed for 9 years, banned from driving for 7 years, and ordered to take an extended test when he is allowed to drive again. Although the report doesn’t make it clear, it seems that the driving ban will run concurrently with the prison sentence, meaning that when Etherington is released – probably in around 5 years time – he will only have to wait 2 years before getting his Provisional Licence back. If he doesn’t get parole immediately he may come straight out and be able to drive.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: UK Law is a complete ass sometimes.

Etherington was driving a modified Honda Civic (which are fast to begin with), with lowered suspension and loud exhaust. He had been taking ketamine (often referred to as “horse tranquiliser”) and mephedrone (an amphetamine), both of which are illegal. According to the Mirror article he revved his engine as he drove past Olivia Lewry and Jasmine Allsop. The two girls “shouted abuse” at him, and he turned around and drove at them at high speed. He hit them on the wrong side of the road, and both were killed.

What makes the story even more frightening is that the two girls knew Etherington and had actually arranged for him to pick them up from the party they had attended. Etherington’s car had a black box fitted and it showed that he accelerated to 71mph in a 30mph zone, striking the girls at approximately 65mph.

The BBC’s version of the story adds a few more astonishing details. It seems he lied about his speed, claiming he was driving at about 30mph. The black box in his car, which provided the real speed he was travelling at, was fitted because he had previously been banned from driving (after forcing a police officer to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, and failing to stop), and he couldn’t afford the insurance otherwise. The mug shot of Etherington shows him to be the archetypal pimply little scumbag you’d expect. Heaven only knows how he managed to get away with only 9 years instead of the maximum 14 given his record and the nature of this case.

But more chilling is the overlooked underworld today’s young people inhabit. All sentimental issues aside, the two girls knew Etherington and quite possibly had rode in his car before with him behaving the way people who drive modified pratmobiles usually behave. He was a drug user, a liar, and had a criminal record.

But the really, really scary part is that he isn’t unusual, and nor were the girls.

Last November I mentioned a driving instructor who had been measured at twice the legal alcohol limit while conducting a lesson. Well, here’s another instructor who chose a more creative way of throwing away all the hard work getting a green badge in the first place.

Andrew Paton from Aberdeenshire claimed he needed to get to a toilet urgently. He appears to have been about 3-4 miles away from his chosen lavatory location when he was observed undertaking a car, braking sharply, then passing a police patrol at 86mph. He accelerated up to 120mph at one point. Police commented:

This is a ‘professional’ driver that should have known better.

Note the use of inverted commas around the word “professional”. Ironically, the area this occurred in is extremely rural, and it happened last April – so the trees would have had some leaves for cover. He could have stopped in any one of a number places if he was that desperate.

Bearing in mind he was apparently clocked at 86mph and then 120mph by police, he denied these charges – precisely why is a mystery.

He was disqualified for two years and fined £350. A great way to end a career – assuming that the DSA removes him from the Register.