Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[consul 57]

took the old girl (57 consul) out for a spin and a cream tea today
almost hit by an oap on the way out of town, she was driving around a left bend on my side of the road? ok then for the next 20 miles or so then almost side on impact at a roundabout where the driver did not see, or realise you give way to the right, on the way back into town, both within 1/2 a mile from my house!
it's getting worse out there i reckon, and to make matters worse the cream tea was unavailable as well!

[alastairq]

You have my sympathies.
I have long reckoned Sundays...especially the afternoons & evenings, to be the time one will most likely see folk driving erratically.
It's as if, because it's ''Sunday''. it's time to switch off the brain.

A wile ago now, I reported, perhaps onhere, about how I got 'hit' three times in less than an hour, on one Sunday afternoon trip into my nearest town.
Luckily {I suppose?} I was driving my scruffy Daihatsu 4Trak...repaired as it is, using ten quids worth of heavy box section steel, etc.

First, had a young lass in a Citroen C1 enter a mini roundabout from my left, as I was actually across in front of her...striking my left rear corner [the bumper,actually]. In fact, as I traversed the mini roundabout, I suspected [as one does] she wasn't taking notice of my presence, by the way her car was moving.
No damage to the 4trak, aside from a slightly scuffed crosshead screw..but her car definitely showed signs of impact, on her front.
Details exchanged, she was shocked to discover how inattentive she had been. It could have been worse, she could have ended up under an artic...rather than simply bouncing off my rear corner.

Anyway, I eventually set off on my intended journey again, getting about 300 yards or so down the road, when an Audi emerged from a side street [ignoring the give-way lines & signs], from my right, and managed to strike the 4Trak on it's right front wheel. Luckily the road I was on was quite wide, and at the start of a bend..and I wasn't proceeding very quickly either.....I saw the car emerge, suspected the driver hadn't paid any attention to me, [from the way it was moving] so I had more or less stopped when his car hit mine...... Again he bounced off my right front corner & wheel....removing his plastic bumper and possibly other damage underneath as well. None to the 4rtak....Again, exchanged details...the fella looked totally bewildered by it all.
Then having parked in a supermarket car park, done my errand, and returned to the 4rtak, I hadn't even got into it when an old fella in a [Hyundai??] which was parked in the aisle opposite, reversed out, steadily but unwaveringly....heading straight for the rear of the 4Trak....with its steel bumper and tow ball. My attention was attracted by the shouts of folk round and about, trying to warn the driver, but he hit the rear of the 4Trak quite resoundingly. The 4Trak's towball disappeared inside his plastic rear bumper...and despite folk banging on his roof, he popped it into forwards gear, let up the clutch, and left his entire bumper attached to the back of the 4Trak. He didn't drive off....he seemed unable to actually do anything with his car but drive backwards and forwards. Again I exchanged details, and someone retrieved his back bumper, opened one of his back doors, and shoved it inside.
All this within the space of less than an hour.

I did pass the details to my insurer....just in case one of them tried it on.....But have heard nothing since...probably far too embarrassed to make any sort of claim? Not that they would have got very far, any of them.


Perhaps Sunday afternoon really is 'nap' time, when the medication is starting to wear off?
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[norustplease]

A lot of drivers seem to think that if you are on a main road, that you can simply pile across a mini roundabout and everyone approaching from a side road has to stop.

As regards the reversing OAP, I used to work in an office in a small country town in Cumbria, when a colleague saw someone outside reverse straight into his brand new Capri, and then proceed to drive away. My colleague, quick as a flash, dashed out of the office and intercepted said motorist at the traffic lights on the other side of the marketplace. He (the motorist) denied all knowledge, and was astounded when the damage to his own car was pointed out.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[ukdave2002]

My dad never used to trust a driver who was wearing a hat, as kids we challenged him on the logic, which resulting us conducting a survey (I think he thought it was a way of teaching us basic statistics!)

Results did actually "prove" that drivers wearing hats appeared to have less concentration and were prone to more erratic driving than non hat wearers.

I suspect it was really an age thing as in the 70/80's the only people who wore hats tended to be more elderly

Dave

[MVPeters]

[Brent29]

I feel you! Lots of bad drivers on our runabouts here.

[alastairq]

I think we are at a point where the current generation of 'older' drivers [I am over 70 , so may be categorised as an older driver]....are amongst the first of the generation of new drivers who underwent driver training, and testing, using the first of what I might refer to as the 'modern' car?
In other words, numerically greater, FWD cars, that were very easy for a novice driver to get on with. No real inherent vices, from a driver's viewpoint.
CArs were becoming more numerous, were easier to obtain, etc. We saw the stirrings of the two car families......three of four cars per 'family' becoming the norm within a few years....Parking was becoming a nightmare, to morph into what it is today.
From my own, full time, out-on-the-streets observations, nearly all driving school cars were of the easy to drive FWD variety...with the odd Escort thrown in for good measure. [Not that I found much difference in ease of driving between an Escort and a FWD cheap family car, so RWD was 'tamed' somewhat. Fiesta, anyone?]

Few new drivers, once the test was passed, even dreamt of going back to 'school' to further enhance their driving skills over & above those demonstrated to pass the test.
[I always found that odd, when folk clamoured, once they'd left school, to go to college or university for a degree or some such....clamoured for 'further education', in other words]

The driving licence became relegated to the status of a 'travel pass', and the skills required to meet the conditions of issue barely given lip service.

The car became commonplace in our minds, like fridges or tellies.

So drivers, as they went through life, barely enhanced their driver skills over & above those required when they passed their tests.

It is no real use likening 'experience' to 'familiarity'...

Most drivers [if insisting on using 'experience'] actually learnt all the wrong things from their 'experiences'...

As anyone who has undergone any of the so-called 'advanced' driver training courses will attest....If ,indeed, they have fully understood what it was they were being taught?

Hence we get the commonplace adage, for example, of 'treating all other drivers as idiots'....or 'expect the unexpected' ??

All arrived at, mostly from personal experiences, by a total misunderstanding of what or how, to learn from those experiences, as a driver!


All the above, typed whilst I awaited the washing machine cycle to finish, has come about from a trivial episode that happened to me, and which was dealt with comfortably by me, yesterday.

Yesterday was my turn to provide Dad's taxi.

As a result, I ended up in a Morrisons car park at a town a dozen o=r so miles away [having enjoyed a very nice[cheap too] McDonalds coffee, via the drive-thru]
In other words, a typical urban or suburban locale. [So different to my home area, which is entirely rural...]

Anyway, as I was driving out of the car park, there were many side lanes, with 'give way' signage across them, leading onto the exit route I was on.

I observed a fairly new [electric] car drive up to the little junction in front of him, to my left, as I was making my way along.
I had registered its presence and speed on approach through building windows...so was not surprised.

I also noted the elderly [wrinkly, he might have been younger than I?}...driver not observing to his left [towards me], as he made uninterrupted progress towards, and over, the give way markings, to turn to his left [to go the same way as I....this was the exit road]...A distance of about 5 yards from first proper sighting, to the junction markings.
Now , because he was making uninterrupted progress, I coped comfortably with what might occur.....He got about half way out of the turn when he looked and saw me coming [albeit I was quite slow..]...
He stopped, far too abruptly for his passenger [a female, may have been a lady, I didn't know her!]....

He also adopted the expression of a surprised sheep!

I comfortably negotiated his now-stationary front end...and continued on...without any sort of drama on my part.
[As I got older, so I refrained from drama when driving, more & more..]

I went for some petrol....and as it turned out, he followed me in, and stopped alongside me, in order to 'apologise' for his indiscretions...
Which was nice of him, I suppose. { I don't suppose electric cars need petrol these days?] I still couldn't be sure the passenger was a lady at this stage...never did find out, either.
I assured him he caused me absolutely no inconvenience whatsoever...Which , I think, disappointed him somewhat...as he seemed sure I would have been bordering on the fluster-mode at that point.

Anyway, next thing he came out with, was to blame Morrisons for placing a large cluster of trolley shelters, etc, across the building front, thus 'restricting' his ability to see clearly, ,far enough to his right, to see if anyone was coming along the road in front of him.
I guess he didn't like it when I asked if he thought it was all right to continue on regardless even though he couldn't clearly see in order to comply with the road signs?
He had made, at his age, the classic novice mistake of, when one's view of an area which may be of interest is obstructed, then it is wise to slow one's vehicle down to a speed whereby one has time to look into the obscured area, then have time to act on what one sees...as well as time for one's vehicle to do what one wants it to do....

He made the classic mistake of blaming someone else, anyone else, for what really had been, a severe shortfall in his own driver skills.

Since I only wanted about twenty quids worth of fuel [I don't fill up, in case I khark it before I've emptied the tank.....something to consider at my age?], the vocal interaction was terminated quite quickly..I had to go & pay!

Yet, I observe all too frequently, older drivers displaying barely basic driver skills, which might somewhat belie the fact they've held their licences for upwards of 50 years or more.....and might even have 'never had a collision' to boot.

Maybe they've gone through their driving lives having someone else saving their bacon for them, all too often?

Which is what happens to most of us, which is why we tend to arrive at journey's end, safely and unscratched?
_________________
Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
----------------------------------------------
Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[Penman]

When giving lessons on Driver Improvement and Speed Awareness courses I would often hear that drivers had had 20, 30 or 40yrs of experience; I used to say that perhaps they had actually had 1yrs experience 20,30 or 40 times.
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

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