It is funny how some drivers see themselves on the road, especially the young ones who are one of two types: Number one – just passed the driving test and to impress their girlfriends they turn up their speed, knowing there are dangers on the road, but totally ignoring the fact and thinking they are the only ones on the road. Number two – They are in a hurry and totally ignore their driving instructor’s ruling of looking in the mirror and if clear moving off giving the appropriate signal. Having left our house this Sunday morning on our way to church I had to veer halfway across the other side of the road because a young driver failed to stop at the double set of white lines at the foot of the road he was on. On several occasions he got up as close as he could and I expected him to pass me on the other side of the islands as we progressed towards Rodmill. It is a shame that we are producing a bunch of potential killers on the road who tend to think (or not think what they are doing) and that the markings in white on the roads are someone’s doodling.
If they wish to kill themselves, I prefer not be involved in their blatant foolhardiness. The whole thing about learning what to do and how to behave on the road is that safe driving can be achieved all life-long.
It is probably all these young MP’s who are demanding that everybody who is over a certain age should take another driving test, but what I’ve seen on the road begs belief what some young persons are capable of and usually get away with and these incidents are only reported if it results in a fatality.
My apologies to a certain batch of young drivers who follow the rules of the road, my sympathies go out to you, because these bad drivers tend to undermine your existence on our roads.
Many years ago while my wife and I were visiting friends in Hastings, we heard of an incident when a young driver ran over a cat and dragged the poor wretched animal up the high street. The comment was “It was only a Cat!” I am happy to report that the cat survived its terrible ordeal. The driver in my opinion should have gone to prison, fined £2,000 and banned from driving for three years.
The young cyclist who was riding his bike on the pavement as so many cyclists do, ran over a little girl who had just emerged from her front gate. She was dragged along the pavement and the rider never stopped – how callous.
Having viewed (ROSPA) The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Website – young drivers reported killed last year were 5,649 and the lack of experience has been used as an excuse, which doesn’t say much for the driving instructors. Whether drinking and driving were the common fault the report doesn’t go into any details. The amount of older persons killed on the road were less than half the number of the young drivers. Whether their fatalities were due to young drivers being involved it does not state. So being an experienced older driver doesn’t necessary mean our roads are safe.
With more houses being built and each family having maybe four cars to every household and the roads being in disrepair by Councils having ignored repairing them for decades and newer roads that are being built swallowing up our countryside – a driver young or old doesn’t really stand a chance of surviving.
Our new M.P. who during the election this year had a photograph taken in a Conservative leaflet stating that she intends to make our roads safer if elected has won her seat in our county, but I haven’t heard yet what she intends to do – I just haven’t heard period.
