Only in your megalomaniac fantasies.

Whereas to suggest that very many absolutely do not give a flying sh=#FFFFFF[size=5.[/sizeit is not.

Equally preposterous - to suggest that a high % of drivers don't give a whether they kill somebody or not is - even for your warped sense of right and wrong - plain nuts.

Sorry but an "accident" in a car is when the sky falls on it, a la Chicken Licken.

Anything else, there's at least one party at fault.

That is not an "accident"

Can't disagree with that Coddy, the exception being some kind of failure with the car.

But realistically, people will always have odd lapses of concentration, and as with all aspects of life, people will make mistakes and bad decisions. It doesn't mean they don't care, nor does it mean they are bad drivers. But until cars drive themselves (not far away from being reality btw), there will always be human error.

One thing they could do is ban all black Audi's, at least then a shed load of s would need to buy a new car, and then we could take their licences off them, that would make the motorways safer

The real knobs are all driving white ones now

If you drink drive in ANY EU STATE you are banned from driving in ALL EU STATES, regardless of the level of alcohol allowed in your home state.

You know sometimes it is very hard to work out whether you are just on the wind up, semi-literate or plain dumb. Being charitable and assuming it's one of the latter two, then you just made up "a high % of drivers". The remark was (obviously) referring to "DRUNK DRIVERS".

No you aren't. A UK court can only ban you from land within its own jurisdiction.

However you wouldn't be able to hire a car abroad, as no hire company will hire to someone with a drink-drive conviction for up to 5 years from date of conviction, and certainly not within the disqualification period since you are not during that period the holder of a valid licence entitling you to drive.

If you use your own car, then unless someone else drove it out of the jurisdiction, you'd be driving whilst disqualified in the UK, for which you could go to jail.

If you drove abroad in your own car then you would not be driving whilst disqualified, as you are not disqualified in that country, but you WOULD be driving without a licence, and without insurance.

You may be thinking of the European Convention on Driving Disqualifications of 17 June 1998 which would have the effect of mutual bans, but doesn't, as it would need all states to sign it. Oddly, they CAN agree to mutually apply it voluntarily, but the only countries so far to have done so AFAIK are the UK and Ireland. So your ban WOULD mean you were also disqualified in the emerald isle, bejabers.

It was so much simpler back in 1971.

I copped a 12 month ban after being found with 86mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood (8 over the limit), following a stop for a faulty back light. Shortly after the ban I realised that I couldn't continue in my career and departed to work the summer season on Guernsey. While there I discovered that I could take a Guernsey driving test, so I got a provisional, booked a couple of lessons and then booked a test. I passed that and continued driving while I was there.

When I got back to the UK, I continued driving on my green Guernsey licence until my red UK licence was returned to me. I knew of others who got round the ban by driving on other countries' licences and even one bloke who continued driving on his International Licence, despite the fact that you also needed a domestic licence to validate the International one.

Impossible now with the PNC of course

I suspect the most noticeable impact in the next few weeks will be a large increase in "morning after" convictions. Best get a bus or taxi to work after a night out

How's the cave painting going?

Aha I thought that had been adopted EU wide, my bad.

Give 'em a chance man, it was only 1998 ffs

A great many poor drivers could be prevented from obtaining a full license by simply adding these two questions to the written exam.

1. Which make of car do you aspire to own?
2. Do you watch Top Gear?

If the answers are, Audi or BMW and yes, then you fail irrespective of how well you scored in the rest of the exam.

Google need to finish their testing and release the driverless car asap. That'll reduce road deaths massively*



They've been driving around California for years, the only accidents being when other vehicle drivers have driven into one of them.


*I'm not saying a driverless car should ever be operated by someone under the influence. More looking at the other '6 out of every 7 deaths' stat.

The only problem with driverless cars is that they will always stick to the speed limit and unless you make their use compulsory and ban all not-driverless cars from using the same roads then you will always get some petrolhead or simpleton in a car too powerful for his/her brain who will overtake, undertake, cut across lanes, follow too close, not be watching when the driverless car in front stops or just generally behave like your average sales rep in a BMW 3 series - ie there will still be plenty of s left to collide with the driverless cars and then blame everyone else.

[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11243376/Driverless-cars-could-be-hacked-by-terrorists-warn-transport-experts.htmlTHIS[/url could make it exciting.

I think you are probably right there. It will be interesting to see if there is any significant change in the number of drink-drive related accidents but I have my doubts there will be. I mean if people were careful enough not to go over the old limit were they the ones causing mayhem on the roads? I doubt it.



The SNP used to be referred to as the Tartan Tories. If Sturgeon gets her way and Scotland eventually does become independent I think you (and she) might find not every Scottish Nationalist is a socialist. Which is why I always felt voting "yes" in the referendum just to be rid of a Tory controlled Westminster was a very short sighted reason for voting that way.

Not that they have anything to do with socialism any more, Labour are toast in Scotland, even more so that they now have arch-Blairite Jim Murphy in charge of them. Quite apart from his grandstanding, the fact he's a Celtic supporter will turn most protestants away from him. He could well be out of a job come the 2015 election and the following Scottish elections

Although this is about drinking and driving, a side issue (asociated with convicted offenders being banned from driving). perhaps FA can illuminate.
Several younger drivers where I live are open about not having insurance or worrying too much about whether they a re banned or not. A fewer number of older males have the same idea. (As FA wants sources, it comes from many conversations over many years in a local forum, and also the local rag's reporting of magistrate cases.) the reason for ignoring insurance is obvious even if you disagree with it: the cost. It gets in the way of the right to drive (again, even if you disagree with such).

When challenged, they point to the number of repeat offenders who only get a fine and a further ban (on already an ignored ban or bans) and to the fact the police are so pressed, they get away with it time and time again. They realise the cost of prison means it will be rare. Few of these drink (or if they do, they tend to drink spirits).

How does a more draconian driving check such as in this thread deter these.

Th council is bringing in 20 mph speed limits : 30 mph is being ignored. So much that speed bumps (etc.) are being introduced to a busy road.

As a resident of Bradford, which for many years has had several postal districts at the pinnacle of the annual Uninsured vehicles list, with many tens of thousands of perennially uninsured cars, i don't know why you would think I need "sources" on the endemic problem of uninsured driving. I don't, I have access to more than you could shake a stick at, thanks.

You answer your own question that you raise. Like any offence, the trade-off is the risk of getting caught, and the likely penalty. It is trite to state that these are almost useless to deter uninsured driving, which is endemic not just in Bradford but in the country. Uninsured drivers are indeed a blight on society, but then so are (for example) drug dealers, yet drugs are more endemic than uninsured driving. And you can't simply lock half the population up (and even if you did it's easier to get drugs in prison than outside, though tbf you can't drive in Armley).

If you have a workable policy to change this let's hear it, though I'm not sure what your point actually is.

Can they take and crush your car if found to be driving it with no insurance? That'd be a decent deterrant.

Quote ="Errlee Berd"Can they take and crush your car if found to be driving it with no insurance? That'd be a decent deterrant.'" Indeed they can, and do. here's just one example: www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwes ... cars.shtml I don't know how much of n overall deterrent it is, though; many of the cars aren't worth much and so you mightsay that the risk of having your £300 Astra crushed is worth taking to save on the £5000 cost of a policy? That article suggests that as a result of the crackdown maybe 20,000 extra insurance policies were taken out in the area, so it's all good, and i applaud the campaign, but that would still leave the vast majority of uninsured drivers demonstrably not really bothered. stayinsured.askmid.com/seized.html

Quote ="Errlee Berd"Can they take and crush your car if found to be driving it with no insurance? That'd be a decent deterrant.'" Indeed they can, and do. here's just one example: www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwes ... cars.shtml I don't know how much of n overall deterrent it is, though; many of the cars aren't worth much and so you mightsay that the risk of having your £300 Astra crushed is worth taking to save on the £5000 cost of a policy? That article suggests that as a result of the crackdown maybe 20,000 extra insurance policies were taken out in the area, so it's all good, and i applaud the campaign, but that would still leave the vast majority of uninsured drivers demonstrably not really bothered. stayinsured.askmid.com/seized.html