OMG, he’s doing ‘driving’ again…
I’ve lived in a bunch of other countries, yet it’s only in the UK (in general) and England and Wales (in particular) that I’ve witnessed the stupidity gene kick in amongst motorists with such great frequency.
The trigger is something to do with foggy weather.
The thicker the fog, the more stupid the average motorist becomes.
This morning, with good visibility reduced to less than 10m, cars screamed past me in excess of the 70mph national speed limit.
But it was OK for most of them – they had their rearward-facing, high visibility fog lights switched on.
Der!
It’s as if illuminating these devices somehow confers upon each vehicle, and its occupants, a magical shield of invulnerability; makes the people and their form of transport impervious to what they dare not imagine, not even in their worst nightmares.
Sadly these people are deluded.
As one motorist found this morning, in Gloucestershire when s/he attempted to redesign his/her car by using the blunt end of a 41-tonne articulated lorry.
I’d estimate the combined force of initial impact (bearing in mind that both vehicles were travelling in the same direction, therefore the initial impact speed was significantly less than a head-on collision would have been) at around 20mph.
The lorry must have been travelling at approximately 55mph, the car was probably slightly over 75mph = 20mph estimated force of initial impact.
Not too much, eh?
20mph?
Walk away from that one?
Umm, no.
Having made the initial impact the car driver lost all control as the car flipped over and hit the central barrier at a speed above 70mph.
It was a mess.
I’ve picked up the pieces from more disastrous military aviation crashes.
But not many more.
The police officer said he believed the car driver had died the instant the car hit the central barrier.
Part of me wants to grieve.
Part of me thinks ‘Oh well, it’s just the shallow end of the gene pool getting thinned out’.
The good news is that no-one else was killed.
But I’m guessing that the lives of other people have probably been devastated this evening.
B.
These genius “I’m better than you all at driving in the fog people exist everywhere. Last year, one of those killed a colleague of mine on his motorbike in these conditions.