How safe are your roads?

So far this year there has been 5 deaths on the A75 from Gretna to Stranraer and now everyone ic calling for road upgrades as shiftzz says is the road that bad or are we all in to much of a hurry these days.

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Stark figures ..

As said, not the roads that kill ..

"A total of 36,371 people were killed on Britain's roads between 1999 and 2010."

3,600 deaths per year .. or 12 jumbo jet crashes EVERY year.. one every month !

If these deaths were due to aircraft crashes no one would fly, and they would be grounded... but we drive most days and never think it will happen to us..

From the governments own statistics, alcohol is a major factor in around one in five of all road deaths.. 20%.. that equates to 7,274 preventable deaths.. without spending a penny on road improvements..
 
I bet bad eye sight accounts for an inordinate amount.

When did you last have yours professionally checked ?

Do you ALWAYS wear your glasses if required ?


Do us all a favour go and make an appointment on Monday






It is not all down to bad eyesight go round any super market and observe how many people are brain dead and totally unaware of what is going on around them


Oh and whilst we are on about it there is almost no such thing as an vehicle accident each and every incident is due to an idiot unless it is due to a very rare mechanical failure.
 
laneside said:
I bet bad eye sight accounts for an inordinate amount.
When did you last have yours professionally checked ?
Do you ALWAYS wear your glasses if required ?

Do us all a favour go and make an appointment on Monday

It is not all down to bad eyesight go round any super market and observe how many people are brain dead and totally unaware of what is going on around them

Oh and whilst we are on about it there is almost no such thing as an vehicle accident each and every incident is due to an idiot unless it is due to a very rare mechanical failure.
Click to expand...
Do you have a few problems with your driving by any chance or are you an optician. People are brain dead, people are blind, people are unaware what is going on around them, people are idiots. Do you fall into any of these catagories I wonder.:Eeek:
 
Thats an interesting site. I could have forecast whereabouts on the Wirral there had been fatal accidents before I looked at it and I was right.

Most of the roads were there have been fatal accidents are known localy as "fast roads" much loved by boy racers.

There was a programme on the telly a couple of months ago visiting dangerous roads.

Where an effort had been made to make the road safer there had been a big improvement and its so obvious that our roads need a lot of work on them to make them safer.

As already said, the drivers have to look too themselves and improve their driving but a lot more could be done by the engineers in local councils. The problem is, MONEY or rather the lack of it.

Jim
:Smile:
 
in uk i have near misses most times i go out,still awaiting compensation from 18 months when hit by land rover
In spain since last Sunday been out every day 100k +
Near misses every day,yesterday 5 near misses,chased one driver and caught him at traffic lights,denied he was in the wrong
Today finally hit the road,cuts/bruises but nothing broken,rider in front hit some stones i when over top of him
Being on a bike is dangerous!! where ever you are
now of to Marjal nursing my wounds
Regards
Tony

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gerryhughes said:
So far this year there has been 5 deaths on the A75 from Gretna to Stranraer and now everyone ic calling for road upgrades as shiftzz says is the road that bad or are we all in to much of a hurry these days.
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In our opinion there is nothing wrong with the A75, as Shiftz rightly says, it's the drivers not the road.

We have been driving along the A75 for 12 years, since moving away from the busy Gatwick/M23/M25 area and we've seen more bad driving along the A75 than anywhere else.

People take chances where they shouldn't, overtaking on the double white lines, overtaking just before the brow of a hill and other general madness.

Regardless of how much money is spent on the "upgrading" of this road, you will still have the idiots driving on it and nothing will ever change this:Angry:

We've had conversations with local police who have said that there is a bad mix of drivers on the A75, farm vehicles, elderly drivers, young immature drivers who think they're invincible and of the ferry traffic to and from Ireland. But that's no excuse for bad or dangerous driving:Blush:

We have an Irish friend who drives like an idiot when he's going to and from the ferry, how he's not been involved in an accident yet, must be done to good fortune.

They don't call it Paddy's Racetrack for nothing:Doh:

 
gerryhughes said:
So far this year there has been 5 deaths on the A75 from Gretna to Stranraer and now everyone ic calling for road upgrades as shiftzz says [HI]is the road that bad [/HI]or are we all in to much of a hurry these days.
Click to expand...

perhaps it is Gerry.. this is the main arterial road linking N Ireland to the M74/M6 and all points South ..

Not been along it for a few years, but I do recall a lot of HGV traffic so perhaps it does justify duelling .. as mentioned there is a lot of local traffic.. it's bound to lead to frustrations when slow traffic is holding up freight traffic.. time is money for hauliers .
 
The overwhelming impression I get from reading the details of deaths local to me is that the majority are people over retirement age, closely followed by young motorcyclists. Two high risk groups
 
TheBig1 said:
The overwhelming impression I get from reading the details of deaths local to me is that the majority are people over retirement age, closely followed by young motorcyclists. Two high risk groups
Click to expand...

When discussing whether the elderly should have to take a retest on th BBC news it was said and I quote "even though the elderly are the safest group" :Smile:
 
ScotJimland said:
As said, not the roads that kill ..

"A total of 36,371 people were killed on Britain's roads between 1999 and 2010."

3,600 deaths per year .. or 12 jumbo jet crashes EVERY year.. one every month !

If these deaths were due to aircraft crashes no one would fly, and they would be grounded... but we drive most days and never think it will happen to us..

From the governments own statistics, alcohol is a major factor in around one in five of all road deaths.. 20%.. that equates to 7,274 preventable deaths.. without spending a penny on road improvements..
Click to expand...

So therefore 80% of them are not pi$$ed.

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ScotJimland said:
I think most on here can subtract 20 from 100 .. :RollEyes:

what's you point ?
Click to expand...

Thats simple enough, more accidents are caused by the 80%, not some drunk.
So what do you suggest for the 80%? Fix that and you have got rid of most of your problems.
 
How many times do you hear a report about a road accident where it says, "The car left the road". Why did the car leave the road?

Then we read that the driver was 18 with a 17 year passenger, the car skidded off the road at a bend and a hit a tree, this is most likely due to the fact that the young driver was inexperienced, speeding and had no respect for the road whatsoever.

This is down to driver error and nothing to do with a road requiring upgrading. Spending millions on straightening/upgrading roads is never going to be the answer when you have a high percentage of morons behind the wheel.


 
My two-pennorth - the basic issue is that driving is regarded as a right, not a privilege. We routinely accept life imprisonment as a punishment for crime, yet I have never, ever, seen anyone banned from driving for life. And joky, feelgood stories abound of someone taking their 100th test, or whatever. Would we feel comfortable flying with a pilot in that position?

Long ago, the car became accepted as the symbol of personal freedom and we made a pact [with the devil ?] whereby we agreed to accept any casualties produced as a result. The irony now is that the bicycle is much more an expression of personal freedom than a car. Overtaking in a car is now almost a thing of the past - the roads are so crowded that your vehicle is essentially part of a mass-transit system: like a carriage in a train. Perhaps that's why there seems to be more frustration resulting in anger directed at cyclists. And why motorists are so goddam bad at overtaking us!
 
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I bet a few die by doing things like this.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SetgRrdJiGs[/ame]

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just a few thoughts...

over the same ten year period ..

3,000 were slaughtered in the 911 atrocity

we invaded a country , spent untold £billions fighting, have lost 400 troops and 5,000 causalities.. about 4 soldiers per year killed ...

over the same ten year period

36,371 were killed on the roads... 10 every day , more than 10 times the number of 911, how many billions were spent ... where do our priorities lie ?

fighting a futile war or reducing road deaths ?
 
Jim, I dont see the relevance between road deaths and 911.
Two totally different topics.

The crux of the thread as I see it is cyclist road deaths?
Has anyone considered :
Although motor vehicles badly driven are a cause of deaths among cyclists, many cyclists themselves cause problems on the roads, to which they will never admit.
a good few think they have the god given right to do what they want and the rest of the road using public should put up with it.
I have witnessed cyclists riding two abreast on fast, not too wide country roads.
When I asked why they did this and pointed out the dangers, the reply was in the way of "because we can", followed by "car drivers should watch out for and give way to cyclists in all circumstances".
I have also been stopped by folk marshalling cycle road races on a busy local road.
They (not too politely) TOLD me that as they are having a cycle road race, I should slow down considerably and give priority to the racers.
What bullshit!
Where bad cycling is concerned, the same scenario will appear as for the dog walkers picking up dog crap....."I always do it right". Yeah, ok.

I would suggest that I pay for the use of the roads, cyclists dont, so they should give ME priority.


Some misguided souls would say the biker shown in Gromett's clip is a good rider.
Most of us (including Gromett, I hope) would say "clown".
 
There's no doubt that there is a lot of really bad driving, that coupled with Booze and Drugs will cause more road fatalities.

There is also no doubt that our roads are badly engineered. I watched an alleged engineer being interviewed on the box, he was trying to defend an accident black spot saying that there was no further engineering work that could be done that would reduce that accident black spot.

The interviewer wiped the floor with him and it was embarrassing to watch this idiot squirming.

I could improve road safety by recommending engineering design changes to roads, councils don't have the money.

I drove the A75 too Stranraer for a couple of years quite some time ago, I was working there and its where I learn to sing "Oh Flower of Scotland" :Laughing: That was a dangerous road then and I cant see it having changed much.

Jim
:Smile:
 
Hi Johnp10
Its clear from your post that you are not a cyclist, if you were you would have some idea of how vunerable we are on a bike.
Thats not forgetting joggers,walkers,horse ridgers or anyone using the highway.
Its not a case of paying road tax or not,that is not the issue,its being aware of vunerable road users and drive accordenly
I know were not all perfect road users what ever mode of transport we chose to use so allowances and common sence must prevail

Tony
 
With regards to the A75 road to Stranraer, there has been millions spent on "upgrading" certain parts of this road since we moved to the area 13 years ago. The majority of this route has been improved and straightened at a huge cost over the years, but there are still accidents on the road, why? People take chances where they shouldn't, we've been overtaken on double white lines when doing 60 on a stretch of this road. The driver who did this was spotted by a police motorcylist who chased after him and disappeared down a side road, we never did find out if he got him:Smile:

The most recent one was an overtaking lane approximately half a mile in length near Barfil, which was built to relieve "frustrations" so that drivers could overtake when required. I think the cost was more than 9 million pounds, however, many times when we drive along this section there are very few motorists on this stretch at the time.

The other additional overtaking lane was west of Newton Stewart, so that vehicles could easily overtake the heavy lorries going uphill on the way towards the ferry terminal at Cairnryan.

Just because a driver feels "frustrated" by slower moving traffic, it doesn't mean that they should take chances and cause danger to other road users.

The added problem on the Barfil stretch is that on the occasions when it does get busy, is that drivers see the short length of road that allows them to overtake and they all go for it at the same time, causing havoc at the end of the additional lane.:Eeek: This now ends up with drivers pulling in front of you and causing everyone to break sharply.

There are two small villages, Crocketford and Springholm along this road, the speed limit through the villages is 30 MPH, but a lot of drivers don't heed this at all.

The speed limit for the rest of the A75 is 60 MPH, unless for HGV's over a certain tonnage, which is supposed to be 40 MPH.
However, many times when travelling home, we've had huge articulated lorries sitting on our tail, so the majority of them don't stick to the speed limit.

We live just 500 yards off the A75 and we know for a fact that the road is not constantly busy, the traffic varies according to ferry traffic from Stranraer heading eastwards. But this only lasts for a short time until the traffic passes through.

We have known times of the day when you can stand for several minutes before a car comes along. So as far as we're concerned it's not the road that needs improving, but what goes on inside the heads of some motorists.

With regards to bikers, the majority of accidents around our rural area are on the country roads, usually near bends and only involve one motorbike:Sad:

A local policeman says that the majority of motorbike accidents that they hear reported are usually down to speed and speed alone and the driver going too fast for the road.

Country roads, bends, speed.......enough said:Blush:

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Mostly car, bike and goods for Tunbridge Wells

For the Tunbridge Wells area we had 77.. covered mainly by car, motorbike, truck .. on looking at a spot where we have a speed camera, one accident only and he was 95 year old walking... as the camera has been there for many many years one wonders if it has had an effect?


Bob
 
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jaygee said:
Hi Johnp10
Its clear from your post that you are not a cyclist, if you were you would have some idea of how vunerable we are on a bike.
Thats not forgetting joggers,walkers,horse ridgers or anyone using the highway.
Its not a case of paying road tax or not,that is not the issue,its being aware of vunerable road users and drive accordenly
I know were not all perfect road users what ever mode of transport we chose to use so allowances and common sence must prevail

Tony
Click to expand...
Cyclists on the public highway are a menace and should be banned.
Jim
:Smile:
 
jaygee said:
Hi Johnp10
Its clear from your post that you are not a cyclist, if you were you would have some idea of how vunerable we are on a bike.
Thats not forgetting joggers,walkers,horse ridgers or anyone using the highway.
Its not a case of paying road tax or not,that is not the issue,its being aware of vunerable road users and drive accordenly
I know were not all perfect road users what ever mode of transport we chose to use so allowances and common sence must prevail

Tony
Click to expand...

Hi Tony,
No, I'm not a cyclist and I do accept how vulnerable one is on a bike.
Of course it's not just about road tax, but about expectations.
I have found that many cyclists / joggers / horse riders expect to be deferred to on the road just because they are not motorists.
I have been told by some cyclists that other road users should let bikes have way in all (and I mean ALL) Circumstances.
It's apparently ok to dismount at traffic lights and either become a pedestrian or ride over the junction from the other (green) direction on the footpath before rejoining the traffic flow.
Ok also, it seems, to pull out, turn without signalling or looking back and use footpaths as cycleways.
I dont have a beef with cyclists as such, just the attitudes of many of them.
We are preached at to be aware of cyclists, when in a great number of cases cyclists need to be aware of other road users.
Yes, we should make allowances,
yes, common sense must prevail,
but this is a two way street.
Cyclists must be aware they arent as visible as a motor vehicle, they must make allowances for the motorist.
The same obviously applies to those others you have mentioned but not preached at;
horse riders, joggers, etc.
Awareness and consideration by all is the answer, not just expecting to be pandered to because the particular road user is vulnerable.
 
As a keen runner and a cyclist John, your description and opinion relate to the many many motorists im afraid. :Sad:

The amount of times I have had to take evasive action whilst out running or cycling is amazing. Last summer I threw my water bottle at a car hitting it bang on the windscreen. I was quite pleased with my shot as the guy on his phone soon woke up. Its not the first time ive done that neither. Ive been hit by wing mirrors, ive had someone literally misjudge driving round me and rather than hit the oncoming car, think it's ok to simply knock me over instead. On this occasion I managed to literally jump in to the hedge and what did she do? Gave me a mouthful for daring to be running on a road with no footpath? Quite amazing behaviour.
Oh and please bear in mind that people were walking and running way before the motorcar came along.

So On my bike.
Is it so hard for someone to give me a wide birth when they overtake so not to frighten me? Do you know how many pot holes I will have to swing out and avoid to save damaging my very expensive racing bike or so it doesn't crumple? All we ask is that the overtaking car understands that and gives us some space. Then of course, there's the car that overtakes you only to turn left 25 meters later, despite that Im doing touching 30 anyway and then wonders why I shout abuse as it turns in front of me nearly knocking me over.
The other day on my journey to work I was overtaken by a car displaying a Think Bike sticker in the back window. She was so close to me I banged on her roof. :RollEyes:

Yes I get frustrated by bad driving, only last year a man from our local cycling club was killed by a careless car driver who simply misjudged overtaking him and hit him instead of waiting behind him for a clear place to overtake. He left behind a young family and a devestated mother, all for the sake of a car driver waiting another 20 seconds to see what was around the bend.

I understand your frustration, but i think it shows that you don't run or cycle in the 2012, an era when your journey and everyone else's is just so so much important than mine. BTW I own 3 vechiles all of which are taxed and insured i suspect that I might even pay more in the way of upkeeping the roads than you actually do? :Smile:

Most people infact in my cycling club own a car, they all do in my running club but although I am paying for the roads, I also suspect that I am using them or should I say damaging them less than you are?

Please don't think this is a personal attack on you as I see another funster liked your post too. All you have done is shown the way a majority of people think, and at least you have the balls to say it.

Sadly, I think, your misguided and quite frankly completely wrong. I expect you to make allowances for me as I am vulnerable I am a father, I am a person and contribute to society. I can not always see you hammering up behind me round a blind bend or coming towards me whilst I run facing oncoming traffic.

oh BTW I do also jump red lights on my bike, because I can and I fully suspect that your just jealous that I can and you cant :RollEyes:

Sorry for the long post, but something's deserve a long answer.

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