Driving and Roads

Never, ever buy extended warranty. Here endeth today's lesson.

(I had to complain about a foreign body in something I bought from Tesco. The letter I eventually got back made reference to Orange Juice which was nothing like the original product - and I stood there while the CS droid typed it in to the computer, so how can it go so wrong? I would've complained again, but a) they didn't include any sane contact details on the letter and b) I couldn't be arsed with them any more.)
 
Toyota auris hybrid ts. It is in the police pound so the Focus may be fine.

Surprised you were allowed to photograph it. I wasn't allowed to photograph mine when it was in a secure yard - next time I'll have a dash cam when I go to unload a car from such a place. The yard our car ended up at was a privately owned one, but many vehicles there were under police impound from accidents.

The dogs will need some comforting for a while before they will want to get in a vehicle again. At least you have all survived with minimal serious injury. It is all the faffing around that goes with it, finding another vehicle with what the Insurance are prepared to pay out, and what additional money you can put in to get yourself back to a similar state of vehicle that is a major pain.

My wife wrote off our Mk4 Mondeo - well some other clown was at fault, she was just driving our car at the time. Wife was travelling from Finmere towards Bicester, road was straightish at point of accident. From wifes perspective, she was travelling at speed limit on cruise control, Landrover Discovery coming the other way wanted to turn across her path into a side road, was slowing as he approached the intersection to allow her to transit it, and he got hit from behind by an Alfa Romeo. The impact slewed the Alfa sideways into the path of my wife as she was coming through, and she hit it square on in the side of the Alfa which in turn slewed it back onto the water table on his side of the road, compressed the front of the Mondeo to about half its length, and slewed my wife off into the trees on her side of the road. Guy driving Discovery manages to stop his vehicle and gets out to try and find out why he suddenly got a shunt up the back end to discover a badly damaged Alfa in the ditch behind him with extensive side damage and our car in the trees opposite with hazards flashing, Guy had to be cut out Alfa.

He tried to fight a charge of Dangerous driving causing serious injury, and plead it down to a lower charge, but the PPS was having none of it. They reckoned they had 15 witnesses (including the two drivers he hit) and he did eventually plead guilty to the charge once it came to court. I had the last laugh (although quietly, as I attended court to see him sentenced) as the accident happened in March, but because of his fighting the charge it didn't reach court until November. One of the parts of the sentence was having to wear a ankle bracelet for 2 months of curfew - which ended up being right across the Christmas/New Year period. He also had to pay a victim surcharge of around £400 within a month (unfortunately the type of incident didn't mean we could apply for victim compensation), a couple of years of driving ban, and a couple of other items I can't recall.

Wife ended up with significant bruises from the seat belt, and sprain in her left foot. Luckily because she was using cruise control her right foot was tucked backed and didn't suffer damage. But I was impressed with how the car took the shunt, despite the way the front was damaged you could still open all the doors, so the cabin structure was almost straight. The windscreen was broken and the dash pushed out of place, and the drivers door rubbed on the rear door, but the crumple zone had done its job.
 
Amazing story. Did your wife get this fractured sternum we both got? Very painful when you cough!
...
Yes, the crash systems do a good job at protecting passengers by sacrificing the car, in our case the front foot of it.

No, she didn't have damage to her sternum, just the ankle and stomach. I couldn't believe how many airbags there were in the car, I think we counted seven of them as there were ones in both fron foot wells as well as the dash and steering wheel.

The biggest problem was we believe that it brought on a major medical condition that required a specialist operation and had her off work for 5 months, but there was no way of proving the accident as causal, and the doctors said they didn't believe it was causal for her later condition.

I learnt to drive at 25, and 45 years later this is my first accident, though cars I have had have been damaged before when I was not in them. One time, I had agreed to trade in a car and someone smashed into its rear in a very small supermarket carpark. Another time, a 3 month old car parked in a cul de sac had its side smashed in by someone reversing into it at night. It was the days of local bobbies, and I happened to have parked exactly where one of those usually parked his car. I still can't believe how quickly he found the culprit.

haha, amazing how the possibility of it happening to them makes them get a move on.
 
Just made me laugh:
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Page link if you want the alt-text: https://xkcd.com/1897/
Or for mobile: https://m.xkcd.com/1897/
 
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Not legally enforceable. Speed limit is 30mph then!
Even better, one of those speed trap display thingumies set at 20mph in a 30mph zone - with the advisory sign - telling everyone legally travelling between 20 and 30 mph to slow down. Probably down to the County Council trying to put a 20 mph limit on an "A" road and being refused permission (along with cycle lanes and reduced speed limits from 60/40 to 30 that were allowed).
 
I passed one very similar this morning in W.B. Probably not the same one given the look of the background, but I suspect not very far away.
The b@5t@rd5 have set those automated speed readout thingies to flash amber tell you to slow down when it's perfectly OK as well.
Time to get a high vis. jacket, a pot of grey paint and a small set of steps and go out after dark with a brush.

There was a report from Bath last week that the introduction of 20 zones had put the accident rate up, but the council hadn't got the money to remove all these damned signs etc. Funny how they found the money to waste in the first place to introduce them.
 
I'm mystified why there are no longer signs at the approach to motorways declaring the restrictions. Hell, there are motorway approaches around here that don't even advise the change of speed limit.
Saves money.

You are supposed to know the national speed limit and restrictions on the various roads and for your type of vehicle. You are expected to recognise when the spacing of lamp posts means that the speed limit is 30 mph in a built up area. Why waste money putting signs up and maintaining them?:D
Money was no object when they were imposing those ridiculous 20mph zones everywhere round here. There are probably more 20 signs than 30 signs now. Then councils are bleating poverty at every opportunity. But we're drifting on to the Driving and Roads thread again...

"Supposed to know" may be the intention, but many don't (or have forgotten, or think they might get away with it... which they probably will with the current state of policing).
 
There was a report from Bath last week that the introduction of 20 zones had put the accident rate up, but the council hadn't got the money to remove all these damned signs etc. Funny how they found the money to waste in the first place to introduce them.
Well, around Weston Village (Bath) they've been painting cycle logos on the road and dedicating half of it for those buggers where there's hardly room for cars to pass anyway. Since when did cyclists pay towards the provision and upkeep of roads (general taxation notwithstanding)?
 
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Re prpr's rant on 20 mph speed limit signs, I've just spent a few days in Birkdale/Southport and the lampposts there are festooned with them. No one takes any notice, even the local buses travel at 30. Sefton Council are cash strapped. :confused:
On the busy coastal road, where there's a chance of reaching the maximum 50 mph, a cyclist held up hundreds of yards of traffic because he couldn't be bothered using the dedicated (well surfaced) cycle path which is separated from the carriageway for their safety, grrr! :mad:
 
"Supposed to know" may be the intention, but many don't (or have forgotten, or think they might get away with it... which they probably will with the current state of policing).
In theory you are supposed to know, otherwise you'd probably fail the driving test. I know there is a problem with too many signs in some places, but your original point is valid. :thumbsup:
Well, around Weston Village (Bath) they've been painting cycle logos on the road and dedicating half of it for those buggers where there's hardly room for cars to pass anyway. Since when did cyclists pay towards the provision and upkeep of roads (general taxation notwithstanding)?
A main road near me* had cycle tracks painted on both sides of the road - obviously narrowing the road. The opportunity was taken to reduce the speed limit as well (60mph/40mph down to 30mph). The interesting part is that there are some detector wires embedded in the cycle track and the pavement. And, yes, there are cyclists still cycling on the pavement.
Re prpr's rant on 20 mph speed limit signs, I've just spent a few days in Birkdale/Southport and the lampposts there are festooned with them. No one takes any notice, even the local buses travel at 30.
See my comment at #475. Same road as above (*) at end of cycle track. A non-enforceable advisory 20mph with speed trap flashing at legal 28mph drivers. :rolleyes:
 
Please will a Bristol native explain why the road signs at the roundabout where the Westerleigh road crosses the A4174 ring road direct traffic for Bristol and the M4, M5, and M32 towards Westerleigh? As far as I know that's just a winding country road that eventually comes out on the A46 close to M4 J18 having passed through Codrington (hardly a good route for HGVs, or even if you want the M4 eastbound - never mind anything westwards!). The obvious route is to continue along the A4174 to M32 J1, and connect with the M4 from there.

I can understand that might have been a diversion while the Bromley Heath viaduct was being rebuilt (between this roundabout and the next in the anticlockwise direction, ie heading for the M32), but that was finished months ago.

(Courtesy Google Street View)

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Please will a Bristol native explain why the road signs at the roundabout where the Westerleigh road crosses the A4174 ring road direct traffic for Bristol and the M4, M5, and M32 towards Westerleigh?
If the city council have had anything to do with it, I'm not surprised. Everything they do seems to make things worse. Been going downhill ever since the millennium, when they turned the Centre from gyratory to figure of 8, and made a lot worse by the previous mayor.
The green sign on the bottom picture has had something covered over - perhaps they forgot to remove it.

(I'm not a native, thank God - I just drive around in that area sometimes; thankfully a lot less than I used to.)
 
The green sign on the bottom picture has had something covered over - perhaps they forgot to remove it.
It does, I think the M4 (etc) markings have been painted over - but if you look to the right of that picture you can see where the traffic is signposted up the Westerleigh road off the roundabout.

(Gone midnight and some bugger is still letting off fireworks)
 
Okay... so I'm driving in the outskirts of Bristol (as I often do), after dark, approaching the A38 in Patchway from a slip road, and a triangle warning sign lights up in LEDs showing a bicycle. What the...? Then I spot a bicycle on the main carriageway crossing my path to join the road. Very good (especially as I came across a bicycle accident not long after it had happened earlier in the day).

The question in my mind is: how the hell did it do that? So there could be a sense coil in the cycle lane, but that wouldn't distinguish between a bicycle and a car that happened to stray into the cycle lane shirley?
 
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