A new poll by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) reveals that Canadians are only moderately concerned about elderly drivers as a safety issue. “We expected more Canadians to be concerned, particularly as the population of elderly drivers is growing and will double in the next 25 years,” says Ward Vanlaar, a research scientist for TIRF.
Who is responsible for a crash? This is a question that I am asked fairly frequently, usually by a driver who is expecting that the other driver is totally at fault for a collision that they have been involved in.
Have you ever been traveling a long distance from home and received a traffic ticket that you felt you should dispute in court? Were you disappointed to learn that in order to dispute the allegation you would have to travel all the way back to the court nearest to the place where the ticket was written? Many drivers decide at this point that the issue is not worth pursuing, pay the ticket and carry on.
"Ah, the Christmas driving spirit is manifesting itself everywhere. I was sitting in a mall parking lot waiting for my wife and whiling away the time by watching what was going on in the vehicles around me. It was not a happy time of year for the occupants of some of them!
There has been an interesting discussion in a driving forum that I moderate on the internet in the past week. The initiator of that discussion wondered why he had been hassled by the police for driving when his blood alcohol level was less than the legal limit. He felt that a 24 hour prohibition was inappropriate when he "only blew a warning."
Have you noticed the growing tendency of lazy drivers who are now crossing over oncoming lanes of traffic to stop in front of particular addresses? It used to be that I would happen to notice people parked facing the wrong way in front of houses but now a week doesn't go by where I come nearly face to face in a game of parking chicken with a driver who has decided to cross over the center line to stop in front of a house.
Is it really necessary to make shoulder checks while driving? If you expect to pass a driving exam in British Columbia the answer is a definite yes. However, some driving schools are teaching mirror adjustment techniques to replace shoulder checks.
Back on the 25th of July I wrote about the rash of motorcycle collisions on Vancouver Island. Most were attributed to driver error and I wrote that the Graduated Licencing Program gave new drivers plenty of time to develop their skills before moving on to the next stage.
OK, hands up those of you who have taken formal driver training in the past five years and were not learning to drive for the first time. Heck, hands up everyone who has ever taken formal driver training after you first obtained your driver's licence. Perhaps I need glasses, but I don't see a forest of hands waving out there!
This year has not been a good year for motorcycle collisions on Vancouver Island. Of nine fatalities, police report that seven of them have been the fault of the rider. Speed and inexperience are the cited contributing factors.