Female ADI’s Car Attacked in Londonderry

21/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

This is a scary story from the Derry Journal. A female instructor was conducting a lesson when her car was attacked by a lunatic.

Police are appealing for witnesses. No one was hurt and no damage was done.

I must say that the police statement and the witness statement look like descriptions of two completely different incidents:

A PSNI spokesperson said: “Police in Derry received a report of rowdy nuisance in the Duke Street area on Friday March 18.

“Around 8pm a male, who appeared to be intoxicated, hit the window of a parked red Volkswagen car twice. Two people were in the car at the time. Anyone with information can contact police on 0845 600 8000.”

A female driving instructor was left shaken after her car was attacked by a member of the public while giving a lesson on Duke Street on Friday.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said the incident left her “shaking with fear” and added that she will never return to the area after dark.

“I was at the beginning of a lesson near the test centre when I noticed a man near the walkway beside the river Foyle staring at us. When he started to make his way towards the car I knew that something wasn’t right. I told the learner driver to lock the doors and it was then that the man started to try and smash the driver’s side window in.”

The woman said that the man appeared intoxicated and explained that if it had not been for the intervention of a couple passing by the man would have continued with his assault.

“I was shaking with fear – his eyes were sticking out of his head – he must have been drunk or on drugs.

“A man and woman were walking past the driving centre and thankfully chased him away.”

She added: “I would call on all other driving instructors to be vigilant and exercise common sense when taking lessons there – especially when it’s dark.”

See what I mean?

No, Really – Democracy Doesn’t Work

20/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

I wrote recently about how Montana (USA) had rejected a bill to make texting while driving illegal. It’s impossible to fathom the logic used to come to the effective conclusion that texting while driving is OK.

Arizona seems to experiencing a similar problem. They have three bills under consideration:

  • banning texting while driving
  • booster seats for children under 8 mandatory
  • transporting children in open beds of trucks prohibited

You’d think logic and commonsense would make these a foregone conclusion, wouldn’t you? Well, the votes are surprisingly close and there is a lot of debate on that last one. They are not foregone conclusions at all.

Japan Earthquake Sparks Panic Buying

19/03/2011
DOAADI
Computers & Tech, World

DRAM MemoryPeople had better buy up their gadgets before the price goes up. If this story in Information Week is anything to go by, there is going to be a scarcity of electronic components in the wake of the Japanese earthquake.

Increased ordering has already been observed. Prices have already risen by 10-30% in the last 24 hours.

Japanese semiconductor factories have had to suspend production as a result of the strong aftershocks – they shut down when a tremor measures 5 on the Richter Scale, but shocks as high as 7 are being experienced.

Japan is a major manufacturer of memory chips for smartphones and PCs.

Apparently, Apple is very vulnerable to these shortages because many of its components are unique and cannot be sourced anywhere else.

Merseyside Police Event to Cut Road Deaths

19/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI

This story on the BBC reports on an event by Merseyside police aimed at cutting the death toll amongst young drivers.

Merseyside PoliceAround 2,400 people under 25 have been injured in the last three years and 12 have died since 2009.

The event is being run today (I’m only commenting on the article, not advertising it), so it’s probably too late to go if you’re seeing this.

People can win driving lessons, breakdown kits, and even a go on the police skidpan. Police vehicle examiners will also be able to check cars to make sure they’re roadworthy.

One of the police officers involved says that accidents wreck lives. No one could disagree with that.

He also says one death on the roads [in Merseyside] is too many. No one could disagree with that (and that applies everywhere, not just in Merseyside).

Probably the most significant thing he says, though, is:

By nature young people are inexperienced but also tend to be over-confident, which can be a disastrous combination.

Young drivers, especially men, are more likely to take risks – driving too fast, too close to the car in front and dangerous overtaking.

And this is where it gets complicated. Having said that young people are “over-confident”, is an event like this ever going to change them? Having said that young men are more likely to take risks, will they change after going to such events?

The short answer is NO, on both counts.

The problem lies in the attitudes that young people have these days. It stands to reason that new drivers will always be at greater risk when they start driving on their own – it’s the Law of the Universe, so people should stop trying to fix it.

It is the attitude that some drivers have which needs changing. Voluntary attendance at a free event like this won’t do it, no matter how laudable to underlying motives for running it are.

Stop-Start Drivers a Nuisance

19/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI

This is an old article.

This story in Autoblog raises an interesting issue (link now dead).

It says that there is a group of drivers between the ages of 17 and 29 who have passed their tests, but rarely drive. As a result, when they DO drive they are a danger to themselves and everyone about them.

The “research” (aka survey) from the Axa insurance company says that 17% of drivers in the 17-29 group drive maybe once or twice a month at the most (many drive less with gaps of years). But the survey reveals that these people are more likely to have accidents that were their own fault.

The figures are astonishing (not to mention confusing – you can imagine Axa’s staff raiding their database and learning how to use Microsoft Excel to come up with these statements):

  • those who drive once or twice a month are FIVE TIMES more likely to have had FOUR own-fault bumps than those who drive daily
  • they were 14 TIMES more likely to have had FIVE own-fault bumps
  • they were 11 TIMES more likely to be uninsured when they had those bumps
  • only 11% described themselves as “confident” behind the wheel, compared to over 50% of regular drivers
  • 28% admitted to having forgotten most of what they learnt for their tests

The article immaturely ends by saying: never mind the over-70s having to retake their tests – what about this lot? I think we can just ignore that, because they are two totally separate subjects (how many over 70s are totally non-confident on the road, and only drive once or twice a month? Sunday drivers, anyone?)

The “research” is nowhere near deep enough to reveal whether these people don’t drive BECAUSE they are not confident, or if their lack of confidence stems from their not driving. For most of them it is quite likely to be the latter.

I remember when I passed. I couldn’t afford a car and didn’t drive for over a year. I never thought about it until I got in my first car, then all of a sudden I was nervous because I’d never driven alone before. So I warn all my pupils of that when they pass, and to consider easing themselves into it rather than jump in with both feet if they are nervous or worried in any way.

It’s fairly obvious that if they don’t practice then they will forget.

Somewhere along the way, that’s the point this story has missed.

And it should also be fairly obvious that you can’t just say someone who doesn’t drive very often is an insurance dodger without some serious qualification.

As for nervousness – it’s a separate thing altogether for some people.

Democracy Simply Does Not Work

19/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

Idiot SenatorWith 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.

Surfing Whilst Driving in UK

18/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

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.

£24,100 to Insure Volvo

18/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI

A Southport teenager has been quoted £24,100 to insure his 12 year old Volvo, which is worth £700.

I have to say that the article is a little biased in favour of the teen. It says:

The Crossens youngster flipped his Corsa, despite driving at low speed, and came to a standstill in the front garden of a Bankfield Lane house.

Now, this is where the problem is. A basic understanding of physics makes it hard to imagine how going slow and carefully can flip the car off the road, across the pavement, and into a garden. Obviously, having no understanding of physics at all means newspapers anxious to sensationalise can make such statements with ease.

If I was going to draw up a typical likely-to-drive-like-a-chav profile for a teenager, one of the first things I’d put on it would be “Vauxhall Corsa”. I won’t say where said teenager would come from, but some areas of the country would feature higher than others.

I drove in the bad weather and at no point did my car show any signs of leaping tall buildings and landing on its roof in someone’s front garden. Sir Isaac Newton would be happy to know that around here at least, gravity and the laws of motion still work as you’d expect, even if they’rer suspended up in Southport.

The teenager was quoted £24,100 by the AA. On price comparison websites he was quoted £12,000 and £15,000. It is fairly obvious that he is seen as a high risk – no matter what car he is driving.

Perhaps he could consider that Co-op blackbox scheme that has been launched. Then he can prove his last accident was a fluke and nothing at all to do with going too fast.

Texting School Bus Driver

18/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

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.

Raising the Driving Age in USA?

18/03/2011
DOAADI
ADI, World

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.