The Ford Capri Laser Page

http://www.devonlive.com/car-leaves-roa ... story.html
http://www.devonlive.com/car-crashes-on ... story.html
http://www.devonlive.com/live-crash-on- ... story.html
http://www.devonlive.com/traffic-misery ... story.html

If drivers need to be told of the weather conditions, should they be on the roads in the first place

Hi Andy,
A bit lively down your way, isn't it?
I wouldn't be surprised if the Police keep repeating warnings about driving in poor conditions because of the fear of litigation.
If they didn't I can imagine the drivers concerned making a call to the "Where there's blame there's a claim" type lawyers.....
As soon as there's a drop of rain on the M4 down in these parts, those big info signs warn of "poor driving conditions".

As you say, the bad drivers who take no notice of road and weather conditions have only got themselves to blame.

Andrew.

The A30, A38, M4 and M5 etc are straight roads for Gods sake......Some drivers can't concentrate for long periods of time! Get the Bus

Driving on the M25 yesterday with the rain and spray visibility was down to just the car in front. It amazes me how close people want to drive given conditions. I'm off to Devon in a few weeks for a holiday and I'm having second thoughts now! Haha!

Bracey wrote:Driving on the M25 yesterday with the rain and spray visibility was down to just the car in front. It amazes me how close people want to drive given conditions. I'm off to Devon in a few weeks for a holiday and I'm having second thoughts now! Haha!

Morons.......
Ok, but obey my laws, and have a good time

This may be contentious, but I do feel that Trucks should be confined to the inside lane and 50 mph in pouring rain. Their spray can magnify the poor visibility problem 10 fold but they don't realise what it's like for cars following them as they sit so high above it.

That said, moronic car drivers are just as bad, still wanting to do 80 and 90 mph without lights other than their day running front lights. You just can't see them until the last minute. Heavy rain and my front and rear fogs go on so that I can be seen in the hope that these idiots are actually paying attention to what is around them and not on their phone or searching for a different track on their radio or music equipment.

With the Devon crashes, how could anyone fall off the A380 other than going mad at the top of Telegraph Hill. Again, as others have said, it's tiredness added to not paying attention to the environment around them.

Paul G wrote:This may be contentious, but I do feel that Trucks should be confined to the inside lane and 50 mph in pouring rain. Their spray can magnify the poor visibility problem 10 fold but they don't realise what it's like for cars following them as they sit so high above it.

That said, moronic car drivers are just as bad, still wanting to do 80 and 90 mph without lights other than their day running front lights. You just can't see them until the last minute. Heavy rain and my front and rear fogs go on so that I can be seen in the hope that these idiots are actually paying attention to what is around them and not on their phone or searching for a different track on their radio or music equipment.

With the Devon crashes, how could anyone fall off the A380 other than going mad at the top of Telegraph Hill. Again, as others have said, it's tiredness added to not paying attention to the environment around them.

with all you say Paul, and I think Coaches and Caravans should stay in the inside lane at all times too. People can get impatient when stuck behind these vehicles in the middle lane and that's when accidents can occur.

Driving is the last thing on many peoples minds nowadays when they are behind the wheel....Mobile office for some, along with a lack of common sense!! Leave 10 minutes earlier if you think you are going to be late or the weather is bad.......

Last weekend I was helping a mate out after his Mk2 Fiesta broke down nearby. Heavy rain as we were attatching the towing bar, when this Ass*** (BMW I think) came around the bend blasting his horn (as if we were there by choice) closely followed by another, going like a pair of Had something been coming the other way at the time, it could have been nasty.

Paul G wrote:This may be contentious, but I do feel that Trucks should be confined to the inside lane and 50 mph in pouring rain. Their spray can magnify the poor visibility problem 10 fold but they don't realise what it's like for cars following them as they sit so high above it.

andyd wrote: with all you say Paul, and I think Coaches and Caravans should stay in the inside lane at all times too. People can get impatient when stuck behind these vehicles in the middle lane and that's when accidents can occur.

Sorry guys I'm afraid I feel the need to 'vent my spleen' at these comments - contentious it certainly is!

I love the assumption that all Truck Drivers only ever drive trucks and therefore have no conception of what it must be like to drive a car in any given conditions

Seems to me that drivers of large vehicles all too often get made the focus of attention in conversations like this, yet I have read all of the links published by the OP at the top of this thread and it appears that none of the incidents outlined mentions LGV/PSV vehicles at all. I'm not saying there's not any bad LGV/PSV drivers out there, of course there are - as with any particular class of vehicle, but sweeping statements and generalisations such as these are based on opinion rather than fact.

When you confine all LGVs and Coaches to lane one, you are in effect curtailing their speed to the slowest moving vehicle in that carriageway - be it a crane, wide load, horse box, classic car etc (or in the case of Tesco/CoOp/Sainsburys etc a 50mph limited truck). In doing so, the following vehicle(s) that may be legitimately faster (due to weight/size/drag on vehicle etc) will perpetually gain on the vehicles in front and have to keep 'backing off', and then reapplying throttle to maintain a steady road speed, as once you back off and lose momentum in a fully freighted 44t Truck your speed very quickly diminishes - this in itself becomes extremely tiresome and dangerous, try and imagine being forced to sit there and do this hundreds of times in a 4hr30mins drive. Hills will further slow these vehicles down, which only exacerbates the problems for the following heavy vehicles, meaning more wear and tear on the vehicle and more fuel used - categories for which my firm DPD(for one) have on-board monitoring on every vehicle and I am performance managed by these standards, with disciplinary action a possibility - and that's all on top of the tachograph laws and WTD regulations!
As a result of the above you will then end up with extremely long lines of Heavy traffic in lane one, making joining the Motorway an absolute nightmare, as many drivers already seem to assume that they have right of way when joining so I dread to think of the complaints and chaos that that would cause too.

In the case of confining heavy vehicles to lane one in heavy rain only - I would ask who would police whether the heavy rain was 'heavy enough' to enforce the ban? An LGV driver being prosecuted for being in lane two in the rain may argue that it wasn't that heavy etc etc, it would just go on and on. Otherwise I suspect 'Joe Public' would take it upon himself to decide that the rain was too heavy and start flashing and gesturing etc and we see road rage incidents increasing even more, when he really needs to be concentrating on the conditions!

If the conditions are bad, surely we ALL should adjust our driving style accordingly?

All too often I see these sweeping comments about trucks on the roads, seems nobody wants us out there on 'their' roads, yet everyone expects the shelves full when they go to the shops and beer in the pumps when they go down the pub, or their classic car part purchased from eBay delivered on time.

Anyway, as I say, just my ten-pence worth, I hope I've managed to put a different perspective on the argument without treading on too many toes (tin hat on and running! )

Mike.

Big Mike wrote:
Anyway, as I say, just my ten-pence worth, I hope I've managed to put a different perspective on the argument without treading on too many toes (tin hat on and running! )

Mike.

No need to run Mike, good points made I used to drive a 7.5 Ton Removals Lorry 20 years ago, and also spend hours next to drivers in our bigger lorries but wouldn't want to do it now, fairplay to anyone who does it's not for me anymore.
Many times since I have experienced a HGV in the middle lane of the Motorway, struggling to get past an equal size vehicle using the inside lane, therefore causing a queue and frustration behind it.

None of that explains your average car driver colliding with a tree or rear ending someone else......Poor concentration that's all it is imo.

Another today http://www.devonlive.com/mother-and-two ... story.html Apparently(?)She crossed the central white lines and collided with the truck

Andy

Hi Andy, many thanks for reading and digesting my points.

andyd wrote: Many times since I have experienced a HGV in the middle lane of the Motorway, struggling to get past an equal size vehicle using the inside lane, therefore causing a queue and frustration behind it.
Andy

Andy I HATE being 'that' guy, out in lane two trying to pass like that - especially on a two-lane stretch of road. I always try to avoid getting into that position! Given your past then I'm sure you appreciate there's many factors to take into account here - ok I may be gaining on the truck in front, so then I'm looking to ascertain whether he's loaded or empty, (if he's loaded he's going to slow down uphill but be quicker downhill - all relative to my load status too, of course!), whether his limiter seems to be set a 56mph, 52mph or even 50mph, and again road conditions and traffic approaching in lane two from behind. You have a few seconds to make the call, you commit to the manoeuvre and pull out only to find an incline, an uphill, a downhill... whatever, which either slows you down or speeds him up

A bit of 'local knowledge' helps of course so I always try and remember where I'm at and factor any know climbs/descents into the equation too, so for the most part I do avoid being stuck out in lane two, but not always I'm afraid to say - and I DO accept and understand your frustrations at that part!

As a side note to that, if I'm the guy in lane one being overtaken and this situation crops up I will back off just a couple of mph to let the quicker guy through and back over to lane one ASAP, but again sadly that's just a courtesy thing and doesn't apply in all cases.

Sorry to read about today's accident you posted there, truly tragic, that one. How awful for all involved.

Mike.

What with this thread and the recent threads criticising BMW drivers, poor Mike has received a lot of flak on this forum recently......

Let's all enjoy the roads together and remember that the most important thing is to get home safely to your loved ones.

Andrew.

Andrew 2.8i wrote:What with this thread and the recent threads criticising BMW drivers, poor Mike has received a lot of flak on this forum recently......

Let's all enjoy the roads together and remember that the most important thing is to get home safely to your loved ones.

Andrew.

Ha Ha! I hadn't even mentioned the BMW Andrew for fear of completely being written off as an enemy of the forum

I completely agree with your sentiments, but please don't worry too much, I'm not getting hot and bothered about it all, just keen to put another perspective across, that's all

Big Mike wrote: I'm not getting hot and bothered about it all

Hi Mike,
That's almost a disapointment! I was envisioning scenes reminiscent of those from the film "Duel" if you ever encountered one of us while driving on the highway.... Just joking, of course....

All the best,
Andrew.

Andrew 2.8i wrote:from the film "Duel"

My favourite Spielberg film that is. Classic.

Andrew 2.8i wrote:

Big Mike wrote: I'm not getting hot and bothered about it all

Hi Mike,
That's almost a disapointment! I was envisioning scenes reminiscent of those from the film "Duel" if you ever encountered one of us while driving on the highway.... Just joking, of course....

All the best,
Andrew.

Although I could never behave like that to a Capri, of course

pbar wrote:
My favourite Spielberg film that is. Classic.

Agreed Paul! It's there in my collection too.

Andrew 2.8i wrote:reminiscent of those from the film "Duel"

pbar wrote:
My favourite Spielberg film that is. Classic.

Agreed Paul! It's there in my collection too.

Mine is 'ET'.....

Battle of Britain . Reading I can see how we got to films we like ?

Big Mike wrote:
Agreed Paul! It's there in my collection too.

Excellent! I have the special edition DVD.

Fordoholic Nick wrote:

Andrew 2.8i wrote:reminiscent of those from the film "Duel"

pbar wrote:
My favourite Spielberg film that is. Classic.

Agreed Paul! It's there in my collection too.

Mine is 'ET'.....

Jurassic Park for me

Jaws is my close second.