It’s a bit wet….
There are times when you wonder just what idiots are thinking.
It was blowing gales of up to 85mph yesterday, it was dropping around a quarter of the months rainfall in about 6 hours, but people still drive around without their headlights on! I was nearly written off by one bloody idiot who thought that I could see him approaching with no lights on where everyone else were using fog lights just to see the end of their bonnet….
He was a lorry driver!
So at a time when a professional driver of a large, dark, lorry has trouble seeing the cars in front you would think he would be professional and expereinced enough to realise that the spray thrown up by such a horrific downpour might make him invisible to see as well; while he was doing around 50 in a 40 zone; while traffic might be joining from the slip road. When this driver followed me to a roundabout and got out of his truck in front of a police officer to remonstrate, the police officer got his notebook out to write down my side of the story. He put it straight back away when I told him that the lorry did not even have any lights on when he pulledup to talk to them (which they noted), let alone driving!
They sent me on my way and had a quiet word with him.
It makes you wonder though. These professional drivers with their arctic lorry; driving up and down our roads every day and some of them seem to think they own the road we all drive on. For example; back in July, in the Highlands of Scotland a professional HGV caused death by dangerous driving because he failed to secure 26 tonnes of timber correctly… This is of course the Highlands with lots of gradients, sharp turns and various animals wandering free.
Last month in Wales a professional lorry driver lost his attention while driving, swerved to avoid a stationary car in the middle of the road and hit a moving car head-on, killing the driver. The professional lorry driver “did not realise” that the slippery road surface warning, after the local council re-surfaced the road, “extended beyond the warning sign”. The lorry trailer itself was a death-trap with faulty brakes and missing wheel studs, wondering if the surface had not just been re-done, then would there have been any difference in the result?
and finally, back in May a lorry went over a speed hump in London and its door flew open nearly taking London Mayor Boris Johnson out as he cycled around the city on a “fact-finding” mission. The door was not properly secured and we nearly lost our London Mayor over it (okay… so some of you think thats a good thing).
Guess what though. These “professional” drivers got a maximum £500 fine and 8 points. Not even a disqualification. I bet if a train driver; a professional driver; left a door open, or lost concentration and nearly hit another train, that they would not have a job, let alone a train driving licence left in their hand?
Professional Drivers indeed.
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In other news:
Department for Transport (DfT) (“DafT”) is about to embark on a campaign to reduce CO2 emissions. They have embarked on the first step by taking over National Express East Coast Trains (now run by DfT owned “Directly Operated Trains”) lets hope they reduce fares to encourage train travel.
In this “equal opportunity” world, it obviously does not extend to car insurance. You can understand that young drivers, fresh out of driving school, are chargedmore as they have less experience, but MoneySupermarket.com have found that 18 year old males are likely to pay £2000 for car insurance (for a car unspecified), whereas a girl would pay around half that (on the same car). Ergo, we should sack all the male lorry drivers and employ women, driving pink tractor units covered in pictures of hunky men to keep them satisfied on the road…..
I am getting worked up about lorry drivers now…. time for a bottle of water.!
Network Rail can’t afford to use the train!
Another 200 people in coaches will hit our roads shortly, because Network Rail, maintainer of the UK’s rail network, can not afford the price of train tickets on the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) that it maintains the track for.
For a conference in Coventry, they are laying on coaches at a cost of £12 a head, instead of giving the delegates a train ticket costing over £130.
No I am not saying that Network Rail are doing anything wrong. On the contrary, being funded by the Government and hence the tax payer, they are penny pinching like any good company should do. That in turn will mean that the money we give them through our taxes will be used elsewhere and making it go further. In fact, even if they made useof the advance purchase fares, it would still be £2 cheaper to use the coaches.
It does begger the question though as to whether there is finally an admission that the railways are over-priced. Apparently the arguement in railway circles is that Network Rail staff should get free train travel, which I disagree with in that I doubt contracted hauliers who deliver food to Tesco or ASDA don’t get a discount in the respective supermarkets. Maybe if the railways were cheaper thenwe would have less problems on the roads. A search of any train tickets supplier (TrainLine.com or National Express East Coast; for example) will show that advance purchase fares are available for that journey for £14 vice £135. Dropping the priceof fare by shouldbe viable….. surely?
Todays Travel News
Reports are coming in of severe traffic jams in and out of Caerleon as millions of people attend the ritual of begging big lottery winners for money.
The queue is said to be formed of hand drawn carts, various old car, VW camper vans full of hippies and representatives of Britain’s banks.
Had a near accident today. A Merc Minibus thing (**05DWH) just could not pass me quick enough after spending 12 miles following me at the speed limit. I would not mind apart from the fact that the driver decided to pass so close that he clipped wing mirrors, AFTER I pulled as far into the left of the road as I could on the dual carriageway, suspicious that he was going to pass.
He then slowed to the speed limit but decided to cut into the inside lane on every bend regardless of which way it went and cut across 3 lanes of a roundabout.. Sometimes I would love to have a camera in the grill..
Nissan are bringing out a new motor. Looking like a cross between a motorbike and a SMART, the Nissan Land Glider is an ultra-lightweight urban car and its narrow single-seat body actually leans into corners.. that will be the motorbike bit then.
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Be thankful if you have a are a car driver if you live in Peterborough or Kings Lynn.. you won’t see many trains today!
First Capital Connect train drivers have opted not to offer their services driving trains today. Its not a strike though… Sunday service at the company is run with drivers who volunteer to work, something which they are not actually obliged to do, especially when FCC have been in paytalks with train drivers union ASLEF for a little while.
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Manchester United’s training ground is going down in value on training days as Sir Alex Ferguson orders his stars to curb their extravagant nature during the recession. £100k Audi R8 Supercars and their ilk are being slowly replaced as Gary Neville now turns up for training in a Toyota Prius eco-car and Owen Hargreaves in his Mini Cooper.
Crash fanatics like former player Ronaldo should rest easy though, they can crash a free car offered by Audi as standard to all United players.
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Why did they call this post “13″?
You would think, that when heavy rain falls in the dark, drivers would drive more cautiously..
Not where I seem to ever want to drive.
A driver in a van for a Structures company (do they know what happens to a structure when it is hit at speed?) spent about a mile investigating my rear bumper because I was overtaking a queue of lorries on a dual carriageway. When I finally was able to pull in, he pulled alongside, gestured and sped off. Considering I was doing 70 at the time, I see no complaint!
The press report today that new car sales are up. The Government “Scrap Scheme” is believed to account for 20%
of sales, although some retailers would rather use them as adverts to buy a new car. It has not helped Toyota who has posted losses of £2.36billion and forcing it to pull out of Formula 1, while Vauxhall (and Opel) are looking to lose just under 20% of its 54 000 strong European workforce.
You don’t need cars in London’s Oxford Circus now though as £5million of investment has been made for the city’s first ‘diagonal’ pedestrian crossing! Yes. To add further delay to the big red buses, ALL traffic now stops to allow people the opportunity to not have to cross the Circus twice, allowing for more shopping time… rather your wallet than mine.
Oh and Boris opened it with a Bong… lets hope that this idea was not a Bong Pipe dream!
Sticking with Buses, and a London bus driver got more than he bargained for when telling a group of students that he was full… They rioted! The students of Orpington College, last year host to a stabbing in the college community, fought with police with two requiring hospital treatment as 7 students were arrested. Local Residents label the College a ‘Scum Magnet’ I call it a night on the beer!
and Finally
The winner of the Third Coventry and Warwickshire Young Driver of the Year was announced yesterday; the driver won a New Peugeot 107… surely something that he could sit in without cracking his head like a 307 would have been better?
The First Moan
Okay, so it has been just over a week since I set this blog up and no posts. You may think that the world has become a better place since I posted; but that is as probably as me winning £100million on the Euro-Lotto!
Lets look at the evidence so far.
Driving down a typical 1-up, 1-down “A” road, doing 60, with double white lines down the middle. So single file traffic then except for the gentleman who has a nice shiney silver Porsche. He had followed me all the way through the previous town at 35ish (30 zone – but it was 9pm) talking on his phone, with about a dozen items of dry cleaning hanging up on the front passenger side. Coming into this No Overtaking section he overtakes into the path of an oncoming car, crossing the double white and nearly causing an accident, leaving it glaringly obvious that hecould not see outof his passenger side window (or wing mirror) and nearly taking me out in the process, at 60mph. He disappeared into the distance at an estimate 85mph.
A few nights later, I found another dangerous driver earlier on the same road, albeit for very different reasons. The driver, in a Ford Fiesta, insisted on doing 45 mph (still in a 60) and was having trouble steering in a straight line. First impressions are that this could be a drunk driver, however I found out later this was probably not the case. Arriving into the same town, the limit drops to 30mph, although the driver insisted on doing between 35 and 45mph, constantly re-adjusting their speed using the break and accelerator. I dropped a few car lengths further back and eventually gave up, turning into a Tesco to grab some cash out of the ATM. I caught up with the same car further on, on a dual-carriage “A” road. It was still doing 45mph! Upon passing the car I found that there was a little old lady there. Face almost kissing the windscreen, appearing not to be able to see where she was going. I have been running about 10 minutes later ever since, but still see the same car, doing 45mph, on the same dual-carriageway.
That night was another crazy loony as well… on an unlit moped on the dual carriage-way. Baring in mind this is after 9pm and pitch black with no on-road lighting between junctions. I wonder how long the moped rider will last. I have no qualms about a moped rider sticking to the 30mph technical speed limit of his machine, but surely he knows where the head and tail lights are? Queue the line of cars approaching and having to take avoiding action as the glint of a black riding jacket comes into view (No Hi-Vis clothing) all flashing their headlights and hazards to warn others.
annnnnnnnnd finally.
College Students. Big enough and ugly enough to be able to get to and from college. But every afternoon, every hour, twenty or thirty parents decend on the local college, blocking all the local roads. Whoever thought that parking ACROSS the only way in or out of a road because “I will only be 10 minutes, just picking my son/daughter up” does not cut it when I have to go to work. The only way to get them to move (after being told to f*** off and wait) is to slowly nudge towards their car. I actually had to make contact with one driver to get him to move after a torrent of abuse….. until I told him I was on my way to a train hitting a person nearby (I was on-call). He then moved his car.
But why should I have to take that action. Why should I have no ability to drive my car out of my road for 10 minutes every hour because a 17 year old kid has not got the common sense to find their way home?
You have been warned…
Today is the dawn of a new day. The Disgruntled Driver hits back from driving for TWO HOURS every day and seeing the most disgusting examples of driving known to man.
I am not a cruel man. I will not openly publish your Registration Number, I will not name the company emblazened across the side of a lorry, but you will know who you are!
Why am I doing this? Because the quality of some drivers is disappointing and we as taxpayers pay the price: Why do we need to have the run up to roundabouts coated in high friction tarmac? If people knew how to slow down for a roundabout, then we would not have a problem! Why do motorcyclists insist on overtaking a line of cars driving at the speed limit just because they can? Why do commuters on the A3 at 6am insist on sitting so close to your bumper that they can see what dinner you are going to deposit in the toilet next?
If this kicks off, I might actually move it to a proper website with an archive and all that Jazz… because the drivers don’t seem to care who knows they are there!
Its not just that though. I am going to include thoughts and feelings as I go about my day (or night – I work shifts), comment on the news…. especially if it means us drivers are paying out more money, and generally being chaotic…. like the lorry driver who insisted on driving the wrong way down a one way street, straight into traffic!
