This thread compliments Alwyn's post re the Welsh assembly but I also thought it important enough to create a new thread from:
Last night (Friday) I left my company Christmas do about 11:30pm and got in the car to drive home. Before any comments are made, of course I'd had a few drinks, I'd had 5 cokes throughout the course of the evening...
Coming out of the hotel car park and heading towards Manchester town I was very aware of the number of people spilling out of pubs who were all around and consequently was driving 20-25 along a very wide road (30mph limit).
I saw a taxi pull over on the opposite side of the road a hundred yards or so in front of me but didn't think too much of it. The two guys in it, got out (neardise onto the pathway) and then as bold as brass without even looking in either direction walked round the back of the car and across the road, right in front of me. I'd already noticed they weren't paying much attention and was waving my right plate over the brakes and when they did this I had to stand on the brakes and steer to avoid them. As a result I ended up with the car about 45 degrees ("North East") to the road and half on the oncoming lane which unfortunately had nothing in it (else that may have nearly hit them as well). How I missed one of these guys I will never know - the other had the sense to start running but one didn't. When I looked up even the taxi driver had his head in his hands (thank god there might have been ONE witness on my side if I had caught one of them). The guy who I nearly hit was stood in the road LAUGHING and got a bloody big mouthful from me afterwards but then told me to pee off and disappeared into the pub he was heading for in the first place.
At this moment I had been doing about 20 mph but this back up my comments previously that if someone does walk out in front of you in this way, you are not going to be able to stop whatever speed you're doing/car you're driving.
I had to sit in the car at the side of the road for a few minutes to collect myself - it'd be me who was banged up in Mr Plod's cell if I'd run him over and how would that have been my fault?
My point is, that in addition to everything that has been said on here recently, you CANNOT leave ALL the responsibility of road safety in the hands of car users. It doesn't work like that and if anything is actually making the roads an unsafer place than they already are. I just hope that noone on here ever meets a similar situation where it all happened half a second later...
Safe driving everyone
Dan J
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Re oncoming lane, I meant FORTUNATELY had nothing in it of course - SWMBO nagging me to hurry up :-)
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In Swindon one night, after a particularly heavy session after rugby and a farewell to a mate joining the army - I along with a chunky hooker (!) and inside centre got whalloped by a brand new Citroen Saxo. The poor chap had only picked it up that day. I still have the paint on my belt and trousers.
The police very kindly looked after us that night "for our own safety" - a group of 10 toga wearing drunken Swindon rugby players tried to stage a prison "break-out" at 4am but the police weren't having any of it.
I think the moral is, for the drivers unfortunate enough to have to drive through any town centre - always assume the pedestrians are absolutely slippered and *will* stumble into the road.
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I am a private hire (taxi) driver, working nights, but no longer driving on Friday and Saturday nights. The abusive, fighting, glass and bottle throwing drunks, are ruining everybody's enjoyment. Many of my friends have been abused and threatened. They have also stopped driving on these nights. When we've all stopped, how are they going to get home? Walk.........Shouting, fighting , urinating, causing damage etc etc.........THAT night is not very far away.
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> I think the moral is, for the drivers unfortunate enough to have to drive through any town centre - always assume the pedestrians are absolutely slippered and *will* stumble into the road.
But what about the slippered pedestrian trainee kamikaze walker in the suburbs at midday?
And even if you do drive into town using reverse gear with a mattress tied to your bonnet: what about the slippered pedestrian determined to throw himself under your rear wheels?
There was an article in the motoring telegraph a while back where a tired journalist sleeping in his (parked) car was woken by a pedestrian crashing into it and seriously injuring his head.
And the police looked after the pedestrian while awaiting treatment, and treated the driver like a criminal!
The ONLY way you can be sure of being a "safe" driver is to leave your car at home and safely locked away in a padded garage, while you walk the streets looking for an appropriate bus.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Now that wouldn't be the not so hidden agenda of the so-called "safety" brigade perchance?
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Reading this thread just after the "warning" one, how about all pedestrians after a few having to wear a large reflective sign "WARNING - this punter is p****d he may wander into the road without warning"
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I spent 3 weeks in UK, mainly London and the SE (TUnbridge wells area), in September. I was moving around continually as I had a lot of things to do. In the street, on the Underground, in Malls, shops, my nostrils were continually assailed by the smell of drink on people, anywhere from 1000 in the morning onwards. Aside from the unpleasantness of this, e.g. on trains in closxe proximity to others, there was the often quite scary noise and aggressive behavior of men (and women) in pubs and on the streets in the evenings. There seemed to be a distinct separation between what one might call social drinking and a clear inability to handle alcohol.
I haven't lived in UK for more than 30 years and have no intention of returning permanently as it really seems a miserable place to live and getting worse, but I don't recall the open consumption of alcohol in such quantities in those days. Particularly unpleasant was the sight of so many women clearly inebriated, not just merry from one or two drinks.
I live in a third world city with huge crime, where many people carry guns(and use them), but I can honestly say I was more uncomfortable on the streets of London than I am in Manila.
THerefore (and here's the motoring bit) I find it not the least surprising that drunklen pedestrians are yet another UK motoring hazard. I also wonder (perhaps worse) whether, if so many people are drinking so much and so often, how many are behind the wheel, despite the laws and measures against it. No, I'm not a temperance freak or anything like that, not a behavioral scientist, but my humble observation is that there are an awful lot of people in UK with incipient, if not with actual, drink problems. Stands to reason a lot of those are probably driving.
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Does stand to reason that a lot of the "habitual" drinkers are driving.
Which probably explains what I read once: that the police know exactly who they all are.
Doesnt explain why most of the people breathalysed aren't prosecuted though, or why ten times as many are stopped at Christmas, with no increases in prosecutions.
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Thought of a new "bumper" sticker, in the style of those irritating "Baby on Board" things how about a free round the neck badge with every pint saying,
"Danger P*sshead on foot!"
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