Lock em up.

[Gybe]

Just a Snow rant, justified I believe

We had to venture out on the roads yesterday and they were out there again, the lazy stupid ignorant _ _ _ _ _ _ who never bother to clear all the snow and ice off the windows, mirrors, bonnet, boot and roof of their cars and van's. These dozy dangers should be locked up for endangering lives, they can have a very poor restricted view of the road and what's happening around them with mirror view blocked and also dump more snow on the road, other vehicles and pedestrians! What the _ _ _ _ is wrong with these drivers and why aren't the police throwing the book at them?
One news report today has a photo of an Audi on the M4 yesterday. Completely covered in thick snow with a small books sized area cleared on the windscreen for the stupid driver to peer through

Rant over.

 

[kopite]

Just a Snow rant, justified I believe

We had to venture out on the roads yesterday and they were out there again, the lazy stupid ignorant _ _ _ _ _ _ who never bother to clear all the snow and ice off the windows, mirrors, bonnet, boot and roof of their cars and van's. These dozy dangers should be locked up for endangering lives, they can have a very poor restricted view of the road and what's happening around them with mirror view blocked and also dump more snow on the road, other vehicles and pedestrians! What the _ _ _ _ is wrong with these drivers and why aren't the police throwing the book at them?
One news report today has a photo of an Audi on the M4 yesterday. Completely covered in thick snow with a small books sized area cleared on the windscreen for the stupid driver to peer through

Rant over.

bit to cold for me to clear the snow off!

 

[Gybe]

bit to cold for me to clear the snow off!

Not funny really kopite! One ignorant motorists load of snow flying of his car roof and hitting a mother and her little children yesterday was't very clever.
Kent police have put out this warning http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-police-issue-weather-1546728

 

[Parksy]

We rarely see any traffic police patrols since cameras have been used as cash generators in place of police who could apprehend drunken drivers, dangerous drivers, mobile phone addicts, drug drivers, uninsured unlicenced drivers, and other assorted lunatics that we have to share the roads with.

 

[mrssproket]

Fully justified rant and I'd love to join in

It's dangerous, pure and simple

I passed a car on saturday and it had one stripe about 6 inches wide across the windscreen at eye level, other than that it was covered in snow, couldn't see the lights or indicators. Idiots, because it's never usually them who ends up getting hurt

 

[Gybe]

We rarely see any traffic police patrols since cameras have been used as cash generators in place of police who could apprehend drunken drivers, dangerous drivers, mobile phone addicts, drug drivers, uninsured unlicenced drivers, and other assorted lunatics that we have to share the roads with.

Kent police have obviously got the Nissan drivers number so I hope he or she gets well nicked Parksy!
It's been snowing all day and I have to a Heathrow airport run this evening, not looking forwards to it especially if there are any of the snow bound idiots on the road.

 

[Parksy]

Take care, it's been snowing all day here in the Midlands but I'm warm and snug at home and I intend to stay that way

 

[Raywood]

The only answer is for the Police to stop and charge them and the courts to ban them.

 

[woodsieboy]

I agree with the comments about drivers who fail to clear the snow from their cars,but I found that the majority of drivers that I encountered on Friday and Saturday were driving well and making allowances for the conditions,in 450 miles I only saw 2 accidents,one was a small citroen that slid into a BMW X3 that was at right angles across a hill, and the other was a pick up that was travelling too fast in the outside lane of the M5, hit the centre barrier and skidded across 3 lanes to the nearside, fortunately onto a wide escape area.Nobody was hurt in either case. My completely unscientific survey of 4x4s in the snow showed that Land Rovers and Discoverys,the older the better it seems, Shoguns and Daihatsus seemed to cope the best,also saw abandoned rear wheel drive Mercs,Porsches and BMWs. Apologies in advance if I have upset anybody.

 

[Parksy]

I was out on Friday and Saturday in my Pajero (after clearing the snow from it

) and used mainly 4wd on Friday, the main roads were ok on Saturday so I only engaged 4wd on side roads. The traction was fine and pulling away on a hill presented no problems but I really needed to keep the speed down and excersise caution when braking.
2 tonnes could slide for quite a distance unless a driver of a 4x4 anticipated potential problems and braked early and very gently.
The only loony that I saw was the driver of a BM-trouble-you who was travelling a bit too fast and overshot a traffic island when he slid, luckily for him there were no other vehicles near enough for him to hit.

 

[Gybe]

A good friend took out 3 fence panels on an icy snowy hill bend on Friday whilst following a friend in an ancient beat up Disco. The fairly narrow block tread Disco tyres out performed the fat low profile Range Rover tyres that are more suited to fast luxury limo conditions. An X type BMW is more super fast limo like than a Disco, Pajero or Defender. Very few drivers seem capable of safe good driving practice in snow or ice. Behind the wheel of an X type BMW or M Class with sporty performance orientated tyres and with what can be a 100+ bhp more then a Pajero or Defender you still need a very light right foot. Tyre and driver performance are the main problem, older Disco's, Shogun and Nissan 4x4 have more agricultural style tyres than newer Type 3 and 4 fat tyre Disco's and other 4x4's.
The X5 I'm driving and our Mini Countryman 4x4 are both fit with winter tyres, Dunlop and Bridgestone. Both perform very well in the snow. With rocket like performance and 300 plus horses and diesel torque under the bonnet the BM-trouble-you could be a handful on its normal Pirelli's with a heavy foot.

ps. the Disco owner thought the Range Rover damage was fairly light. Ball Park figure yeasterday was several thousands, £98K RR Autobiography repairs don't come cheap.

 

[Dustydog]

I was out all last friday in the blizzards. Like others I saw the Mercs & BMWs stuck, back wheels spinning and going nowhere other than blocking the roads for the rest of us. Our MX-5 stayed at home. Her back wheels have no traction whatsoever on the snow and ice.
My BF Goodrich All Terrains came into their own with all four wheels providing traction. Ok it costs me a fortune to run during the year but on days like friday everyone wanted one

The idiots described should be blindfolded and told to walk 100 yards through the woods with their hands tied behind their backs. There would certainly be some bloodied noses

 

[JonnyG]

Mmmm lock em up! Nice idea hey we could create millions of vacancies that way, i mean if we started locking up ALL the idiots....

 

[Gybe]

Mmmm lock em up! Nice idea hey we could create millions of vacancies that way, i mean if we started locking up ALL the idiots....

JonnyG I'm only interested in locking up the snow bound driving idiots who are endangering lives on the road in the current snowy an icy conditions

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all,
been out every day since last week, in my front two wheel drive car fitted with dunlop winter boots, no problems, even this morning with 3in of snow overnight, still managed to get other half to the physio for 8.30am. cannot see a problem myself.
providing you prepare for the worst and adjust driving technique for the conditions, hey it's only snow

and will only last untill the roads clear.
ps as for cleaning the snow off the car a long handled soft sweeping brush does it in about 30 secs, so it not s case of some drivers being idiots just plain lazy,

 

[JonnyG]

Mmmm lock em up! Nice idea hey we could create millions of vacancies that way, i mean if we started locking up ALL the idiots....

JonnyG I'm only interested in locking up the snow bound driving idiots who are endangering lives on the road in the current snowy an icy conditions

understood.strange though as i am coming across plenty of idiots out there at the moment who are indeed Serious idiots considering the icy conditions, but what with their sceens being clear i suppose that makes all the difference...heh heh heh.....

 

[Gybe]

I fail to see how laziness absolves a driver from needs locking up idiot status if they drive on the road peering through a letter box sized hole in inches thick snow.
Between us may be we could come with a new 'Idiot' classification 1 to 10 scale. The JonnyG scale of road using idiots

 

[crazyguider]

am pleased to say my car hasn't been off the drive since last Wednesday! It is snowfree - including removal of the snowman my son built on it! My road is still a sheet of ice, however, and I'm plucking up courage to go out to take said son to the physio, Luckily I'm front wheel drive (the car!), so wish me luck!

 

[JonnyG]

I fail to see how laziness absolves a driver from needs locking up idiot status if they drive on the road peering through a letter box sized hole in inches thick snow.
Between us may be we could come with a new 'Idiot' classification 1 to 10 scale. The JonnyG scale of road using idiots

they would score 10,but so would many others..

 

[Parksy]

am pleased to say my car hasn't been off the drive since last Wednesday! It is snowfree - including removal of the snowman my son built on it! My road is still a sheet of ice, however, and I'm plucking up courage to go out to take said son to the physio, Luckily I'm front wheel drive (the car!), so wish me luck!

Take Care

I fail to see how laziness
absolves a driver from needs locking up idiot status if they drive on
the road peering through a letter box sized hole in inches thick snow.
Between us may be we could come with a new 'Idiot' classification 1 to 10 scale. The JonnyG scale of road using idiots

they would score 10,but so would many others..

When I was being taught to drive a lorry many moons ago the instructor advised me to regard every other road user as an idiot, he said that if as a lorry driver I always expected the worst from other road users I would rarely be disappointed.
The lazy idiots just make themselves easier to spot and to try to avoid

 

[Gybe]

Snow wasn't bad around Heathrow, so this makes you wonder about who was driving and the Range Rover tyres could be questionable.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4758229/niall-horan-range-rover-crashes-near-heathrow.html

 

[JonnyG]

Snow wasn't bad around Heathrow, so this makes you wonder about who was driving and the Range Rover tyres could be questionable.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4758229/niall-horan-range-rover-crashes-near-heathrow.html

Actually isnt the piont that even a little bit of snow or ice makes surfaces extremely slippery,and therefore extra care should be taken.my only concern is,whoever was driving,did they think because of the nature of the vehicle they could or did drive in a manor that
had them thinking they were immune to the conditions...

 

[Gybe]

makes you wonder about who was driving

did they think because of the nature of the vehicle they could or did drive in a manor that
had them thinking they were immune to the conditions...

As I said, the roads around Heathrow were not very bad! I think from the above JonnyG that we're on the same tack. Some intersting points here, especially for the unaware or those lacking in ice and snow driving experience - http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/bad-drivers-blamed-for-3-5m-damage-bill-of-snowmageddon-weekend-104830873.html

 

[JohnM20]

We've perhaps been a bit lucky in Derby only having about 6" of snow. Most drivers have been cautious but whilst out walking two days ago there was a young girl in an old (R reg) car, flying down the snowy / slushy road through our estate like a bat out of hell. I doubt whether she has had much snow experience judging by her apparent age.

On another point, and not I am not at all trying to be sexist in the slightest way, why is it that far more female drivers than male drivers drivers seem very reluctant to put on headlights when visibility is poor because of rain, snow or fog or it is getting dark or not yet fully light ? Some put on side lights, (which, correctly are parking lights only), and they assume that that is good enough to be seen but many don't bother with any lights at all. I've seen so many that I now make a point of looking to see the gender of the idiot driver. Currently, and this is a mental tot up, it is running at about 33% male 66% female but on the basis that there are more male drivers that makes it a far higher proportion of all female drivers. Many appear to be relatively young but by no means all (of either gender). As I stress, this is not a sexist remark but purely an observation and wonder why this is so, especially as insurance companies tell us that female drivers are safer drivers.

 

[woodsieboy]

They were out on the A46 in Gloucestershire this morning, Captain Birdseye had a porthole to look through,Postman Pat had a letterbox to look through,and the lady in a silver Peugeot must have been superwoman,she must have had x ray vision as she had no lights on and appeared to have cleared no snow from her car.
Most other drivers were being careful and considerate, except for white man van in Fiat Iveco, tailgating at 50 on a road that had been gritted but the snow was settling.