I've just been listening to a traffic report warning about big hold-ups on the M40 after an accident.
Actually it was a collision caused by driver neglect and/or incompetence .Somehow the use of the word "accident" neutralises it, and that seems to me to be wrong.
On virtually every journey I see bad driver behaviour ,where it's a matter of sheer luck that damage hasn't been caused. For example, endless cases of stupid lane-changing at high speed on motorways, compounded by no indication.
Perhaps if we stopped using "accident" ,or kept it for the rare cases where it genuinely was an unpreventable collision, it would penetrate peoples' brains better that driving is the most responsible act most of us perform every day ,
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Understand that in Plod world the term 'accident' is a no no.
Now in is 'collision', hence Collision Investigation Unit on the side of their vans.
HMG please note as Road Traffic Acts etc require amendment.
DVD
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Correct. We no attend Road Traffic Collisions, not accidents. Of course, this meant that thousands of pounds worth of paperwork had to be destroyed and new ones printed.
MLC
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Agree with the sentiment.
Hard to think of a crash that couldn't have been avoided with decent driving.
I've always thought that every crash should be investigated by plod or carry points. Crashing seems far worse than crossing a double white line yet one has a stigma but not the other...
You're a shower! You're an absolute shower!
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DVD,
Brings to mind the Roadcraft video, where the police instuctor on the first training day asks the drivers 'What is the first word you hear from a driver involved in an accident?'
'Is it 'SUDDENLY?' ' I would suggest to you that very few things happen suddenly'.
Wish I could post it word for word, but I have loaned the video to my 18 year old Associate who is ready for a mock test after 5 drives...he understood today that the nutters behind us on a twisty road were thinking that his brake lights were not working - as he was not using them, being in the right gear, position,and speed for the conditions.
If we could only emphasise the two second rule - how many lives could be saved?
Matt35.
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Politically correct garbage. As if changing the name you call it will prevent even one instance ocourring. At a road safety meeting I once managed to stay awake -just - while some worthy wasted half an hour smugly explaining why a collision between two vehicles was a crash and not an accident.
If you did not intend it to happen then it is an accident, just like the ones you have when you drop a plate or fall off your bike or get your girlfriend pregnant. More time spent educating drivers on how to prevent accidents rather than proving how clever we are with words by changing the name would be a step in the right direction.
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If you did not intend it to happen then it is an accident,
Then almost all traffic offences would be accidents...
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Accident: An unforeseen or unexpected event. Collisions, as you point out, can be almost always prevented and are (or should not be)not unforeseen or unexpected.
Discuss.
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Accident: An unforeseen or unexpected event. Collisions, as you point out, can be almost always prevented and are (or should not be)not unforeseen or unexpected. Discuss.
No doubt. Hard to see how two properly drive cars could colide without one or both making a careless mistake of some kind.
In fact maybe someone could post an example of an unavoidable accident they had seen?
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How's about that plane crash a while back in which (thankfully) nobody was hurt? As far as I can remember, a small passenger jet overshot the runway and crashed through the hedge at the edge of the airport ('The hedge? At the edge?') and totalled a passing Ford Focus. OK, so you're driving past an airfield and have been warned about sudden aircraft noise. But a plane? Coming through a hedge? Don't think even Nostradamus could have predicted that one!
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Acts of God (and I don't count this one as the pilot may well have been at fault thereby causing the accident) are the only exceptions to this debate (trees falling on cars, etc).
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(and I don't count this one as the
pilot may well have been at fault thereby causing the accident)
Of course I should have typed collision, not accident!
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How's about that plane crash a while back in which (thankfully) nobody was hurt? As far as I can remember, a small passenger jet overshot the runway and crashed through the hedge at the edge of the airport ('The hedge? At the edge?') and totalled a passing Ford Focus.
Erm that would be the pilot, or maybe the guy in the tower calling the wind direction wrong.
I once landed at a place in Norfolk. (Disused US runway from WW2)
Landed due west into the reported wind. The tower had given use the reciprocol! Exciting stuff. But not an accident!
The prop was nearly a hedge trimmer.
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Terry, did you really land a single prop aircraft, or are you getting carried away with your Back Room persona again?
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Terry, did you really land a single prop aircraft, or are you getting carried away with your Back Room persona again?
I landed it but I haven't, and didn't have a PPL.
Just a very nervous mate from work with PPL next to me!!!
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Ah yes, but if a road crosses the end of a runway there is the possibility that at some time a plane will run onto it just the same as if you travel through a green traffic light it is possible that a car will contravene the opposing a red light, more so in the latterthan the former due to numbers. The chances of that happening are still slim but nevertheless it happens there is a probability there. In which case it is not an "unforseen circumstance" due to possibility.
Perhaps that is where the answer lies. We plod along in our comfort zones oblivious of the telltale signs that something is developing or may occur.
That is the philosophy of Adavanced Driving. "Expect the unexpected".
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Fair enough, Full Chat, I see what you're saying. So if I see a 'circus in town' poster, I can expect an itinerant elephant to sit on my bonnet? If we all lived like that we'd be nervous, gibbering, gin-soaked wrecks. What's that? We are? Oh...
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So they are all accidents then?
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Rob
Said a bit tongue in cheek but I think the theory is about right!
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Of course you're right - as Monty Pythons Flying Circus once said: "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
My driving instructor said to me :"If you expect everybody else on the road to be a bl***y idiot, then you won't go far wrong." He was darned right!
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Source: Home Office - Manual of Police Driving Instruction
Circa: 1964
Page 77 para 16 (7) Use of speed.
Remember that a Police officer must never be involved in an accident. No Police Call is so urgent as to justify an accident. It is far better that a criminal should escape for the time being that the crew of a Police car and other road users should be exposed to grave risk or injury.
So they have changed goalposts. Accidents OK but collisions No or is that collisions OK but accidents No?
DVD
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A few years ago one of our reps got stuck behind an 'accident' on the m6 around birmingham after a tanker load of animal blood burst, the first few cars showered in blood endup crashing, probably due to shock.
I'd say this is would qualify as an accident, yes the original incident maybe could have been averted if there were more stringent checks on the tankers (i dont know the full details so maybe it wouldn't
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