Safe Driving

[madchef]

Following on from the debate going on in the lounge http://fronteraowners.co.uk/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?p=149288#149288

and some of the things I have seen this week thinking that as we are a "large " online community could we get together with some of the sites aimed at promoting young kids to drive safely.We ( most ) do some form of offroading
and this is a great way to teach them control of their motors.Get them to come to some of the meets and the likes.

I was shown a police skid pan when learning how to drive and also done a little basic rallying which helped me.

The reason for this,read my post about the junction in the above link and then think

The 3rd car to hit this patch was a 23 hooded herbert in a souped up Puggy with all the race trim but out of the ones to hit this skid he totaly lost control.Luckily no damage or injury but what about next time.Fast car and no knowledge of what to do.
If you think this would work ( form of free advertising ) replies please.Can get set up if enough positives.

[Drift]

We ( FOG ) could NOT condone any form of training without public liability insurance ( which we dont have)

Also needed would be certified trainers and a full risk assesment, the list goes on.

[Silver Ghost]

[brachunky]

[Wneiljohnson47]

I'm afraid I dont agree with banning anybody from carrying passengers. It makes a mockery of being responsible adults and youngsters will never learn to be responsible if we keep taking away their need to be responsible.

EVERY driver has the responsibility to drive with respect to other road users in ALL areas of using their vehicle. Some older drivers who drive many miles every year become blase about the roads and the dangers. They get tired and carless and then that leads to dangerous driving.

The answer in my opinion as per the thread last night. is more police on the road looking for more than just the driver who is speeding. The dangerous driving, use of phones whilst driving, non wearing of seatbelts and all the other legal bits of driving often go unnoticed and unpunished and thats why the A&E departments get horrendous situations to deal with.

Of course everyone on FOG drives and behaves impecably on the roads dont we

[Silver Ghost]

[meooo]

Been through this with number 1 son (boy racer) and got the same to look forwards to with number 2 son (biker to be)
When we wrenched his motorbike off him @ 17 and got him through his test (first time) he got himself his first car (Suzuki Swift) which he proceeded to try to wreck......
Never hit anything/anyone, but managed at one point to destroy a set of tyres in one week!!!!!("No I havent been spinning wheels dad...honest)
Got on first name terms with the local cuntstabulary through his games.....threw him out because of it.......Police reckoned it woud be a good idea to limit teenagers to smaller engined cars.
"What size do you consider small?" I asked
"No more than 1000 cc" they said "then he couldn't do this sort of thing".....Suzuki Swift IS 1000cc......Police went away, sulking.
Even small cars can cause problems if the driver wants to be a prat!
If you reduce the top end speed to 30/40mph for new drivers, how are other motorists going to feel when they can't get past when going to work?
(ever been stuck behind a restricted moped on a country road?)
How would these kids ever learn to drive on motorways? you try driving @ 35mph on the m1/m6....you'd be locked up.
We all had to learn ourselves....we probably did similar things ourselves, but when I was a new driver (many years ago) all cars were slower/less powerful and there were less of them, so we could "get away" with things
I feel more training is needed nowadays for new drivers, perhaps skid-pans would be a good idea..certainly people I know couldn't control a skid to save their lives....but it has to be delivered by proffesionals, I now take my kids off-road locally and number 1 son (boy racer) has calmed down enough to borrow the Fronty occasionally, but I would be very wary of attempting to train others.....some of his mates are like psychos' when they get near a car.

[rangaKoo]

[madchef]

[comfortablyglum]

[outergods]

a couple of poiunt to make about the teen racer mentality. And i know this is a generalisation but.

1. they do believe that they can drive really well
2. they have no real understanding of the mechanical stresses placed on a car in 'race' conditions
3. The believe they have no responibility to anyone else. or worse, simply dont care.

Trying to teach or show a mind set like that is almost impossible.
Putting them on a skid pan would simply show them how to do similar in tesco's car park. it would teach then everything they need to know to show off more.

Ive got it comming in a few years with my kids.

I agree with limiting new drivers. limit the power to weight ratio of the vehicles. similar to bikes. dont limit speed or passengers. also make it law that a new driver has to display a P plate for 24 months maybe. and if they fail to. remove the licence and vehicle!

If we can have ours cubed for driving in the wrong place, they can have them cubed for driving illegally too.

We have a piece of straigh duel carriage way near our home. it has several roundabouts on it, and they TONK it along there, next to each other, under taking, weaving and straight lining the roundabouts. never a copper when you want one.

i can honestly say that one day i will probably end up T boning one of their little Corsa's or cleo's simply because they think they can nip out.
Might find i have a sticky accelerator cable that day............

Matt

[Silver Ghost]

[rangaKoo]

[Silver Ghost]

[madchef]