[News] Driving wrong way on a motorway

[GT49er]

Elderly, and car having foreign plates possibly meaning not used to driving on left, backed up by fact he is in outside lane, which would be the slow lane if used to driving on right.

No, the left hand lane would be the fast one if driving on the right.

 

[chimneys]

No, the left hand lane would be the fast one if driving on the right.

Good spot! So he was in fast lane whichever side of road he's used to driving on!

 

[rippleman]

Retest for everyone every 10 years, 5 years over 65, 2 years over 80.

If you fail you have 3 months 'grace' to resit and pass or you lose your licence.

Why should the fact that you once passed a test (possibly years ago and to different standards) allow you to continue driving for ever ? Everyone should have to regularly prove they are capable and not a danger to other road users.

Yes indeed. IIRC, Hackney Carriage licence holders have to have a medical every 5 years and then annually at age 65. Said test includes a stringent sight test.

Whilst this does not test the driving ability of the licence holder it does pick up any medical issues that might impair driving. Not sure how the rules are applied today but when my dad was taxi-ing in Brighton back in the 70s/80s, if you failed the medical and the appeal, the HC licence was taken away forever. The medico would also notify the DVLA if a serious condition was discovered (eg sight issues) so they could take away the regular driving licence too. Probably can't do that today because of the drivers "human rights"!

Test + Medical every year after you start to receive the State pension. As someone mentioned earlier, if you can afford to run a car you can afford a test (and medical).

 

[Notters]

Indeed it could but far fewer lives would be saved in comparison to raising the minimum age to hold a driving licence to 25.

There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between the age of a driver and driving the wrong way along a motorway. Just Google the subject and you’ll find it covers a full range of ages.

There are over 1.5 million drivers on the UK roads aged over 80 and in proportion they are involved in fewer accidents resulting in death or serious injuries compared to drivers in other ‘age bands’.

Personally I’d be in favour of all drivers being subject to a sight, reaction and anticipation test every time their licence is renewed. All of which could be simply completed via the use of a computer at test centres.

I'm sure I read somewhere that this is because they do about 1% of the mileage. I could be wrong. It's surely accidents per mile that matters?

 

[Notters]

I don't recognise this phenomena of old people slaughtering others on the roads that you refer to.

If we really want to reduce road casulaties my top priorities would be:

Young drivers (17 -24)
Foreign HGV drivers
Motorcyclists

Having said that, I believe a driving licence in this country is way to easy to get and far too hard to lose.

 

[Creaky]

I'm sure I read somewhere that this is because they do about 1% of the mileage. I could be wrong. It's surely accidents per mile that matters?

You are correct that the annual ‘mileage’ of drivers past retirement age is lower than those of working age but nowhere near 1%

The comparison in 2014, (the latest statistic I have found), was 3,819 to 6,871. Interestingly the average distance for drivers under 25, (the group with the highest accident rate), is given as 3973, almost identical to that for those over retirement age.

 

[Weststander]

I saw those stats.

One of the reasons for the big jump in older fatalities, mentioned in the narrative of the report, is that elderly people are more likely to die in a collision; whether it’s their fault or not.

 

[Creaky]

One of the reasons for the high rate of fatalities in accidents involving drivers over 80 is that those over 80 are far less able to survive the trauma caused in an accident rather than they are more likely to be killing others.

 

[GT49er]

I saw those stats.

One of the reasons for the big jump in older fatalities, mentioned in the narrative of the report, is that elderly people are more likely to die in a collision; whether it’s their fault or not.

Good point.

 

[Creaky]

I saw those stats.

One of the reasons for the big jump in older fatalities, mentioned in the narrative of the report, is that elderly people are more likely to die in a collision; whether it’s their fault or not.

Snap

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Ok. Yours wasn't the only comment linking this to Brexit, and it's impossible to tell since the 'jokes' look just like the real moaning

No worries.

I was once in a minibus driven by a Brit in Canada who took a left down a dual carriage way. Luckily nobody about, but he panicked and floored it. The ****. And he was 24. I guess one can imagine an 80 year old panicking too. Some of our slip roads and roundabouts can be confusing, especially with the parochial approach to laning, chevronning and sinage that varies from place to place.

 

[Nigella's Cream Pie]

I don't drive much but have never seen here unmissable 'wrong way' signs like I've seen in the US, I wonder why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrong-way_driving#/media/File:Californiaofframpwrongway signage.jpg

Ford have introduced automatic warnings for Focus:

 

[Brian Parsons]

What has concerned me all along is how did he get to go down a slip road the wrong way. Having just watched the dash cam coverage just before the tragedy occured I noticed a sign with the A40 Oxford at the top and the A329 the next exit. As I lived in that area for 47 yrs and used the M40 I've just Google Earth and Junction 7 is a restricted exit. Its actually very easy to go the wrong way at that exit and the next one up the motorwaý. I only hope the Highways Agency take stock at make it impossible for this tragedy to ever happen again, not just on the M40 but all Motorways and dual carriageways. Human error and confusion may be hard to assess but better signage etc may go a long way.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

[Guy Fawkes]

M40 crash: Wrong-way smash car 'crashed days before'

A car which crashed killing three people after driving the wrong way on a motorway had been involved in a collision five days earlier, police have said.

Thames Valley Police said it had referred itself to the police watchdog. The force said on 10 October a report of a damage-only road traffic collision involving the Subaru Forester in High Wycombe was made to them. It said it had made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct in relation to the fatal collision "due to previous police contact".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-45901084