snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
Accidents are chance events, not forseeable. Unlike many road traffic crashes which are foreseeable, except to one of the drivers involved.
should old people be allowed to drive?
- Thread starter gavroche
- Start date
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The Jogger
Legendary Member
- Location
- West Sussex
That might make sense if you put some reasoning behind it.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
No it doesn't. Blame or otherwise is unrelated to the word accident. The phrase "accident waiting to happen" is nearly always used im the context of blame. In road accidents the insurers decide where the blame is and "was it your / they're" fault" is a fairly standard question.
What's the pc word for accident then? Or do we need some kind of sentence now?
asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
Crash, collision, hit and run, smidsy, whatever.
The fact is that road-use is an area where carelessness, lack of consideration, irresponsibility, recklessness anti-social behaviour are often treated as 'going with the territory'. It is time that mindset was changed.
Now, about speed cameras..
[QUOTE 1816124, member: 9609"]But it is often an accident for one of the parties involved in a two vehicle collision[/quote]
No - it is the outcome of the negligence, stupidity inability to drive or arrogance of the other driver
Calling it an accident absolves the muppet at fault.
No - it is the outcome of the negligence, stupidity inability to drive or arrogance of the other driver
Calling it an accident absolves the muppet at fault.
I think there's an underlying factor he can't or doesn't want to come to terms with. It's all 'PCGM' or seeking to pass the blame on to someone else with him.
I vaguely remember the campaign to stop calling them RTA (Road Traffic Accident) was through one of the road safety charities. A family suffered the tragic loss of one or their children through the actions of a driver who was then found guilty of dangerous driving and jailed
They were upset that throughout the case despite the increasingly obvious guilt of the driver and the final verdictthe word "accidnet was still being used.
I find their anguish and reaction very easy to comprehend
They were upset that throughout the case despite the increasingly obvious guilt of the driver and the final verdictthe word "accidnet was still being used.
I find their anguish and reaction very easy to comprehend
I find it hard to understand that the person getting in to his car after drinking five pints and a small whisky didn't mean to be involved in a crash killing three people and an unborn child so as it was unintentional, prefers this to be called an accident.
Or the man who skidded into a group of cyclists on an icy road on illegal tyres, killing two of them, he didn't mean it so this must be 'an accident'?
Or that tanker driver who didn't see the line of stopped cars in front of him on the M65, crashed into the back of them causing a massive fireball killing thirteen people, was this an accident?
As we on the 'accident' discussion, please take some time to complain to the BBC and ask why their local radio stations still report RTCs as accidents ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/
True story.
A close friend of ours died last Sunday aged 83, he had in the past few years had numerous black outs, one causing a fall resulting in broken neck and 3 months in hospital, however he continued to drive even with a brace on, not once did a doctor tell him not too. Last Sunday he drove to a local car boot sale and blacked out and died there. He should not in my opinion been driving for at least the last five years but nothing I said would stop him, and the Doctors obviously thought he was save, maybe he managed to con them in some way.
My wife is a Chiropodist and has many elderly customers who cannot turn their car around in our very large driveway, we often have to do it for them, many also will only drive with a passenger to do the sighting for them.
On the other hand my 79 year old brother still does fast track days on his motorbike for fun, so not age but health is more the problem. I think younger people sometimes cause more expensive accidents, which is why premiums are higher, for many premiums often rise after a certain age so insurers are aware of increased risk due to increased age as well.
A close friend of ours died last Sunday aged 83, he had in the past few years had numerous black outs, one causing a fall resulting in broken neck and 3 months in hospital, however he continued to drive even with a brace on, not once did a doctor tell him not too. Last Sunday he drove to a local car boot sale and blacked out and died there. He should not in my opinion been driving for at least the last five years but nothing I said would stop him, and the Doctors obviously thought he was save, maybe he managed to con them in some way.
My wife is a Chiropodist and has many elderly customers who cannot turn their car around in our very large driveway, we often have to do it for them, many also will only drive with a passenger to do the sighting for them.
On the other hand my 79 year old brother still does fast track days on his motorbike for fun, so not age but health is more the problem. I think younger people sometimes cause more expensive accidents, which is why premiums are higher, for many premiums often rise after a certain age so insurers are aware of increased risk due to increased age as well.
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
There's also, I think, the aspect of the phrase "just an accident". Somehow, the idea that something is accidental reduces the 'value' of the consequences. In some situations, that's fine - like when I jogged my nephew's elbow while we put a puzzle together. I said "Sorry Oli" and he said "It's ok, it was just an accident". That was fine, because there were no lasting consequences. But no one wants to think that the loss of a loved one is 'just an accident', when it's down to someone else's impatience, or over confidence or whatever.
With regard to older people, I favour continued testing myself, and some effort made to weed out or re-educate bad drivers of any age.
I was watching Eddie Stobart: Trucks and Truckers last night, and they followed a group of lads on the apprentice scheme. All 18 or 19, and taking their class 1 HGV test. One lad failed his mock test for being too hesitant overtaking a cyclist, and then running a red pedestrian crossing light, which he said he hadn't noticed. He failed his real test for overtaking a parked bus too fast in the face of oncoming traffic. Two days later, apparently, he took the test again and passed. In the eyes of the law, in a week or so he'd gone from someone too daft to see a pedestrian crossing, to someone capable of driving a lorry. All with no more than a year or so of total driving experience.
Black Sheep
Guru
- Location
- Rammy
Good point. I'm afraid that my view is largely coloured by my coming closest to death when a boy-racer came screaming round a blind bend on the wrong side of the road....on the A39 just outside Truro. Utter maniacs, those Cornishmen.
A few years ago, I'd have been 26, I was overtaken while driving briskly along a road that runs along the edge of ulswater by two 'boy racer' tarted up hatchbacks
the first overtook on a clear straight and other than 'he's speeding to get past me' I thought nothing of it, his mate overtaking me in the entry to a blind corner however...
just after the corner there was a line of cars heading towards us, had I not braked more for the corner than I'd been planning to there could have been a 3 car smash, us, the muppet and the car coming the other way, as it was muppet only got back onto the correct side of the road at the apex.
I'd guess the two drivers were my age or slightly younger.
I'm not perfect, but i'm not stupid.
