Right. Rant mode activated.
People, before you go buy a car, would you please learn to drive? Not which pedal does this and which button does that, but actual learning to use the car / motorbike / truck on a road in accordance with traffic and environmental conditions. Things like
People, before you go buy a car, would you please learn to drive? Not which pedal does this and which button does that, but actual learning to use the car / motorbike / truck on a road in accordance with traffic and environmental conditions. Things like
- Observation;
- Planning;
- Anticipation;
- Courtesy;
- Patience.
I was nearly head-on'd today by a buck about my own age in a navy blue ford fiesta with L-plates on the back road between Sallins and Caragh. He understeered around a left hand bend due to having to brake because he hadn't anticipated the nearby junction and associated right turning queue. Yes it was raining, yes it was greasy, and yes the junction is in a stupid place - but that excuses nothing, it is a driver's responsibility to take this into account when analysing a bend.
He shat his own pants - I could see the expression on his face.
The problem with this however is that he got away with making a serious error of judgement, and this will lead to future complacency. People feel "forgiven" when a mistake doesn't lead to a crash, and I suspect that no modification to driving behaviour will result. Maybe he'll go down to the pub and say to the lads - Jeez you'll never guess what happened to me today. Boasting about the near miss.
Could we teach our young people about the weather? Teach them the basic physics of driving? The visuals of taking signage into account? Adjusting speed for the conditions? While they're in school and in some sort of receptive mode to learn stuff - this could go in in a very short period of time in Transition Year or 5th year.....it really would be cheap and easy.
Rant mode temporarily suspended.
http://www.irishadvancedmotorists.ie/
http://www.nsc.ie/RoadSafety/
http://www.drivinginfo.ie/safety.php - actually this one is funny. Being safe in a car in Ireland involves locking your door when driving, and driving to a Garda station if you think you're being followed. Ha. But there might be more useful advice on the site somewhere else.
He shat his own pants - I could see the expression on his face.
The problem with this however is that he got away with making a serious error of judgement, and this will lead to future complacency. People feel "forgiven" when a mistake doesn't lead to a crash, and I suspect that no modification to driving behaviour will result. Maybe he'll go down to the pub and say to the lads - Jeez you'll never guess what happened to me today. Boasting about the near miss.
Could we teach our young people about the weather? Teach them the basic physics of driving? The visuals of taking signage into account? Adjusting speed for the conditions? While they're in school and in some sort of receptive mode to learn stuff - this could go in in a very short period of time in Transition Year or 5th year.....it really would be cheap and easy.
Rant mode temporarily suspended.
http://www.irishadvancedmotorists.ie/
http://www.nsc.ie/RoadSafety/
http://www.drivinginfo.ie/safety.php - actually this one is funny. Being safe in a car in Ireland involves locking your door when driving, and driving to a Garda station if you think you're being followed. Ha. But there might be more useful advice on the site somewhere else.
I was about to put a silly/funny comment about your line: "He shat his own pants," but then I saw the serious tones around the rest of people's comments and thought, "maybe not..."
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