Friday, September 14, 2012
Over-zealous young drivers in F1
It is not only on the general roads that young driver insurance tends to be a bit pricey.
In Formula One racing things are much the same – in this high octane world of races, chases, thrills and spills it is the older, more experienced and less gung-ho drivers that are cheapest to insure.But there is a more serious side to this – younger drivers in F1, so keen to make their mark and to show their fearlessness, are said to be more liable to take the kinds of risks that might lead to serious accidents.
It was during Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix that the young Romain Grosjean caused havoc as he shot dangerously out of the blocks in his Lotus car. He was found to be driving recklessly and will miss the Italian Grand Prix as a punishment.
Such antics do not go down well with other drivers, although most remember what it is to be younger and less reflective. "I'm not angry with Grosjean, he definitely didn't do it on purpose," said Fernando Alonso, one man who suffered because of Grosjean’s over-zealous start.
"It was a case of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I think that certain drivers should try and take fewer risks at the start. It's a bit of a tendency currently in the junior formulae, but it would be better if, right from the start of their career, they got used to respecting more strictly the rules relating to behaviour on track."
It’s also true that the more accidents drivers have, the higher their motor insurance premiums will be. And which team in its right mind would want to insure an accident-prone driver!
Image © UNIF1ED via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: accident, F1, Formula One, Grand Prix, insure, race, road, young driver insurance
Monday, September 10, 2012
Are you having to put fuel before family?
I am about to pull you into a confusing and ridiculous dreamscape – just go with it.
You’ve just driven your car down a long road, and suddenly your car begins to take over. You let go of the steering wheel, but it keeps trundling along. It seems to know where it’s going – and soon you are in a petrol station forecourt. One of the pumps unhooks itself and turns its little oily eyes towards you.
It says, “You’ll have to cancel that Sunday Roast, mate. This is going to cost you more than you thought.”
All of a sudden, your pockets, which were filled with money, are empty, and you leave the forecourt feeling annoyed.
Ok – when I click my fingers you will wake up.
Right, so, how do you feel? Did that dreamscape hold some parallel to your real life?
According to Hyundai, it should do. A surprising number of people have had to stop visiting their family as often because of fuel costs, with 60% of families missing out on gathering together for the Sunday Roast.
Don’t despair though – there are ways to save on the costs of motoring. One of them is by driving in a safe and economically friendly manner. Another, which might help low mileage motorists and young drivers receive a cheaper quote upon renewal, is by purchasing telematics car insurance.
Get a quote and see if that Sunday Roast is back on the cards!
Photo © www.theedinburghblog.co.uk via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, drive, family, forecourt, low mileage, money, petrol, pumps, quote, road, steering wheel, Sunday Roast, telematics, visit, young driver
Friday, August 17, 2012
Don’t get distracted by pedestrians
Do you find that in the summer you can’t stop looking at pedestrians?You’re not alone – but you should really try and avoid getting distracted by scantily-clad people and focus your attentions on the road.
Apparently, according to a car insurance company survey, 60% of men and 12% of women have taken their eyes off the road in order to…admire the view.
Amazingly, 21% of motorists even admitted that billboard models cause them to become distracted from the road too!
A large number of traffic accidents are caused every year by road users who were not giving the road their full attention – so it’s important that we drivers learn some self-control.
It would seem that’s not as easy for some as it is for others though. Reportedly, 17% of male motorists knew that this behaviour was dangerous but couldn’t help looking anyway.
Come on drivers – let’s try harder! There’s plenty of time to people watch when you’re not behind the wheel.
Photo © Crystian Cruz via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, dangerous, distracted, driver, motorist, pedestrians, road, summer, traffic accident, wheel
Friday, June 8, 2012
Road closed due to a lot of hot air
There’s a strong likelihood that at some point in your driving career you’ll encounter something on the road that you weren’t expecting, be it a family of ducks crossing to the nearest lake, or a children’s football game down a quiet residential road.
If you’re driving safely, these odd surprises shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s true that some may become stories to tell for years onwards if the incident was unusual enough.
Over the Jubilee weekend many motorists will have picked up a great story.
A hot air balloon with sixteen people on board began flying so low – because of a lack of breeze – that the balloon’s operator had to contact the police to explain that he had to land on the road or else risk hitting people’s houses.
Thankfully, everything went smoothly. One of the people who had been riding in the balloon’s basket stated, “When we came into land I think we hit a tree and a road sign which probably softened the landing.
“When we touched down we all cheered. No one was panicking and the police grabbed the basket to stop it dragging or blowing away and we all got out.”
Phew! That was a close one – I bet a hot air balloon landing near the road is not something drivers expect to see every day. Now that’s a story!
Photo © Eric Lim Photography via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: crossing, drivers, driving, hot air balloon, Jubilee, motorists, police, residential, road
Friday, May 4, 2012
First person shooters improve driving skills
All you gamers out there – it’s time to rejoice.
If your parents are constantly telling you that you’ll get square eyes, or your brain will rot, or your young mind will be influenced into committing violent crimes due to the shooting games you play on the console of your choice – they might stop when you tell them the results of recent research. Scientists at the University of Toronto tested 25 people. None of them had ever played video games – no I don’t know where they found these people – and they were split into two groups.
One group of 16 played 10 hours of first person shoot-m-up games in one to two hour sittings, and a control group of nine played 3D puzzle games.
Previous to being given games to play their brain waves had been measured while they tried their hand at a visual attention task. After the game playing was over, their brain waves were tested again while performing the same type of visual attention task.
The results showed that individuals who had been playing shooting games had significantly different brain waves recorded during the visual attention task, and had improved at the task too.
The 3D puzzle game lot showed no improvement.
In a nut-shell – playing first person shooters could improve your visual awareness on the road and reduce the risk of you suffering a crash!
Photo © Fey llyas via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: awareness, brain waves, crash, puzzle games, road, shooting games, University of Toronto, visual attention
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Ferrari driver played a part in the preservation of hedgehogs
A hedgehog in the German area of Lower Saxony may have thought that its days of nesting and nocturnal hunting had come to an end when it looked up to see a Ferrari Testarosta heading in its direction.
However, in a startling turn of events the motorist quickly swerved into a road barrier, allowing the bristly critter safe access to the other side.Fortunately neither the spiky animal or affluent motorist were left with any injuries after the incident. However, the Ferrari was badly damaged and the driver was left having to make a car insurance claim of around £30,000.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the general lack of cross-species communication there has been no offer of thanks from the hedgehog. However, we can imagine that it was particularly happy upon seeing its friends and family later in the day.
As for the driver, he must surely deserve a place – alongside the train driver who saved a Scottish Swan and the bus driver who saved an owl – in the animal kingdom's hall of fame.
Perhaps he'll be offered a helping paw by Sonic, Knuckles or maybe even Shadow if he finds himself in trouble again?
Photo © callocx via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: barrier, car insurance claim, driver, Ferrari Testarosta, hedgehog, motorist, road
Monday, April 2, 2012
Driver-inflicted windscreen damage
Imagine the scenario, you're idly cruising along a scenic countryside lane when out of nowhere a suicidal duck comes hurtling towards your car windscreen. Such a scenario may be enough to deter some people from ever taking to the road again.
Rather worryingly the windscreen repair specialists Autoglass have reported that such events occur with some regularity. Indeed, during the last year alone the motoring public have made calls about snowball and pheasant-related damage.
One may well wonder how the call centre staff managed to keep the smirks from their faces when being told about the man who parked in front of a golfer’s tee, or the apparently evil intentions of the most adorable feathered critters.
They must also have struggled to resist a laugh at the expense of the motorist who managed to cause damage by scraping their windscreen with a Susan Boyle CD. Apparently such tales are only to be expected as part of working life at an auto repair company.
The Autoglass Managing Director said, “The UK's potholed and congested roads don't make things easy for motorists, but sometimes it seems vehicle and glass damage is self inflected or the result of freak occurrences.”
Photo © dan taylor via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: auto repair, car, countryside lane, damage, duck, motoring, motorist, parked, road, windscreen
Monday, March 12, 2012
Littering motorists grind our gears
No one at the Hoot offices enjoys seeing litter on the ground, so we’re welcoming the news that soon there may be a fining system coming into effect for drivers who drop rubbish out of their car onto the road.
As difficult as it might be for the car-proud among us, it is important that we keep the UK’s highways clean by keeping the rubbish we’ve made in our cars until we arrive at our destination and can throw litter away in a bin. By the end of the month, authorities in London will be able to fine littering motorists up to £100 for their offence, and we’ve got our fingers crossed (like the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman) that authorities all over Britain will soon be able to fine drivers who litter too.
It isn’t fair that some road users think it’s alright to make a mess of our roads and have councils and other authorities clean it up, usually at a cost to all tax payers.
The Highways Agency has said that if all of the rubbish thrown on UK roads annually was collected and put into bin bags – 700,000 of them would be filled.
So, it you never litter the roads we applaud you – and if you do, don’t.
Photo © riverofgod via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: bin, clean, councils, drivers, fine, highways, Highways Agency, litter, littering, motorist, offence, road, rubbish
Friday, February 24, 2012
The siren-like call of the sat-nav
Most of us would probably be quite happy to have a sat-nav, if we haven’t got one already.
But beware!Their voices can lead you astray as surely as a siren’s call, and in total sat-navs have reportedly cost £203million in vehicle repairs in the last 12 months alone.
The head of car insurance at Confused.com stated, “Our research has shown that the sat-nav is not always the blessing it was once hailed to be and, increasingly, motorists appear to be citing the device as a source of frustration and danger.”
The problem is that a combination of out-of-date maps on the devices and drivers relying too heavily on the directions given by the gadget is resulting in crashes which could easily have been avoided.
Although it is hoped that a summit set to be held in March this year will solve a lot of the navigational errors being suffered my motorists, many sat-nav problems can be resolved by drivers paying more attention to the road and looking at their intended route on a real map before leaving.
The art of true navigation is being lost, let’s reacquaint ourselves with it.
Photo © Unhindered by Talent via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, Confused.com, crash, device, directions, gadget, map, motorists, navigational error, road, sat-nav, summit, vehicle repairs
Friday, February 17, 2012
Silver drivers
As a young driver, with all your friends passing their practical tests and finding freedom on the roads, it must be easy at times to feel like young people make up a large majority of road users in Britain.
You’d be wrong though. Figures from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency show that in fact, the number of elderly motorists over the age of 80 far surpasses the number of 17 to 19s behind the wheel!
Only about 682,000 drivers up to the age of 19 hold a full licence in comparison to the one million over 80s still negotiating the UK’s road network.
Furthermore, they drive in just as safe a manner as 25 to 29 year olds and suffer three times fewer severe injuries or deaths on the highway than the 17 to 19 age group.
A spokesperson for the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) states, “Those who wish to continue driving beyond the age of 70 should only be prevented from doing so if there are compelling reasons.
“Rather than seeking to prevent older people from driving, we should make them more aware of the risks they face and offer them driving assessments to help them eliminate bad habits.”
Your 80th birthday might seem a good long way away, but it’s nice to know that your car won’t be snatched from you when you reach the big eight zero.
Photo © Todyotter via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: 80, birthday, Britain, Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency, full licence, IAM, Institute of Advanced Motorists, practical test, road, road user, young driver
Monday, February 13, 2012
Snow parking
Usually ice and snow give motorists problems because they have to try and navigate slippery roads, and deal with road closures too.
However, some drivers in Chiswick, West London, had some rather different problems with snow and ice.
A large snowball was taking up a parking bay for much too long – without paying we might add – and was quite rightly given a parking ticket for it.
Now, when I say ‘large’ you may imagine something about the size of a football. No – this was a 4-foot high monster snowball – and someone wasn’t very happy that it was taking up precious road-side space.
A spokesperson for Hounslow County Council stated, “It's good to see people support our efforts to keep our roads clear for traffic. However, removing a penalty charge notice from a vehicle, unless you are the driver, is an offence.
“This could lead to the driver unfairly missing out on the chance to pay early at the lower rate through no fault of their own.”
Hopefully the person who was meant to get the ticket did receive it before their fine was increased.
We wonder whether the snowball vacated the space after being penalized for its offence, or whether it is still sat resolutely on the tarmac attracting odd looks from passers-by.
Disclaimer: Attached photo is not of offending snowball. Photo was posed by model.
Photo © chatirygirl via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: Chiswick, fine, ice, London, motorist, offence, parking bay, parking ticket, road, road-side, snow, tarmac
Monday, January 23, 2012
Tourist information? …Sorry I’ve forgotten
Are you proud to know your way around your area and happy to direct visitors to wherever it is they’ve just asked you directions for?
Well don’t keep relying on your sat-nav when on the road, because you might start to lose the ability to remember the layout of places.
According to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Germany, we remember our way around by creating a mental map.
Our mental map is created, in part, by looking at a real map of an area. However, our mental map is prone to being forgotten if our brain gets used to being guided around with no real knowledge of its location or surroundings.
If you want to avoid losing your mental map, and your ability to create new ones, then you might want to follow the advice given by one of the researchers.
“Look at maps before you start your trip, keep them at hand, but navigate yourself, and try to rely on your memory.
“It will work better than you expect.”
No more sat-navs for us – we’re building up our mental maps! (Although we might turn the sat-nav back on for confusing ring-roads…)
Photo © @boetter via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: directions, layout, location, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, mental map, navigate, ring-road, road, sat-nav, surroundings
Friday, January 20, 2012
High-tech glasses and road safety
We’ve all seen people driving while chatting on their mobiles and been thoroughly disgusted at their reckless behaviour, but some new technology might give us yet another hazard on the road.
A company called Lumus has developed a pair of glasses which can project images onto its own lenses, making email, film, TV and games available to the wearer, centimetres from their eyeballs. It’s a very clever piece of tech but imagine how many reckless drivers might choose to watch a film while on the motorway. They’d probably have some popcorn on their lap too, knowing the ridiculous things they get up to on the road to the detriment of car insurance prices and motorist safety nationwide.
The company’s website tag-line is “Seeing through. Seeing beyond. A vision ahead,” but the problem is that although the images are transparent to allow people to get on with their day while being entertained, if you focus on them the real world behind will probably just become a blur.
Fingers crossed that no-one wears these glasses behind the wheel and that pedestrians don’t get too swept up in the film they’re watching to pay attention to traffic.
Photo © runekrem via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: behind the wheel, car insurance, driving, glasses, hazard, Lumus, mobiles, motorway, road, technology, traffic
Monday, December 12, 2011
Indoor positioning system
If you find sat-navs useful when you’re trying to make your way around the UK’s roads, a new gadget which technology companies have created could help you when you’re out of your car!
Such firms as Google and Nokia have developed an ‘indoor positioning system’ so that people walking around very large buildings, like shopping centres, can navigate the area easier.However, some people are worried that individuals using this system could be tracked, or that companies could collect information about which shops they went into and spam them with targeted advertising.
Nevertheless I think this gadget could be useful. Many huge shopping centres have maps scattered about for customers to look at – but they’re not always that easy to find.
My experience is that I walk past the shop I was looking for in an attempt to find a map!
Photo © Jeppestown via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: gadget, Google, indoor positioning system, map, Nokia, road, sat-nav, UK
Friday, December 9, 2011
Getting onto the motorway
When I was taking my driving lessons I found ‘A’ roads frightening enough to tackle with my instructor next to me, so I can well imagine that there is some merit in the new scheme coming into effect next year.
Apparently, road safety minister Mike Penning has stated that soon learner drivers will be allowed to go onto motorways as long as they have a qualified instructor with them. The aim of this initiative is to familiarise learners with the 70mph (perhaps eventually 80mph) speed limit and the motorway layouts, so that their risk of suffering an accident on these roads once they pass their practical test is reduced.
The head of road safety at the AA stated, “This is good news. It will end the ludicrous situation where people can live near a network of motorways and pass their test without ever having been on one.”
I have to say I agree. The first time I went onto the motorway I had to take my dad with me for support and almost missed my exit because I suddenly forgot how to change lanes through fear of the high speed I was traveling at.
Exactly when this scheme will begin hasn’t been reported, but I have a feeling learner drivers will really appreciate the experience. I know I would have.
Photo © Firing up the quattro… via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: 70mph, AA, accident, driving lessons, learner drivers, motorway, road, road safety, speed
Monday, December 5, 2011
A Marmity mess
Whether you hate Marmite or you love it – no one likes having to take a detour because there’s been a Marmite spill all over the road.
However, recently some poor motorists who had been travelling along the M1 had to take alternative routes when a lorry crashed and spilled sticky goop all over the highway.
Ok – it wasn’t actually Marmite – it was waste brewers yeast – but it was first reported to be Marmite and as a Marmite hater I personally can’t see the difference between the disgusting brown spread and waste yeast encrusted with tarmac anyway.
The motorway had to be closed in both directions between junctions 32 and 33, the lorry driver was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and The Environment Agency was called to help clean up and check that waterways hadn’t been polluted.
What a mess! It proves how evil Marmite is once and for all!
Ok, yes, it wasn’t Marmite…
Photo © Jacob Rickard via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: detour, highway, junction, lorry, M1, Marmite, motorist, motorway, road, tarmac, yeast
Monday, November 21, 2011
Hippocampus GPS
Do you always get lost? Maybe you just need to update your brain with new maps.
Apparently, according to neuroscientists at the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London our mind works like a sat-nav when we’re making our way somewhere by foot. One section analyses how far there is to go before we reach our final destination, and another part decided upon which route to take when we have several paths to choose from.
One of the scientists explained, "The posterior hippocampus cares about how long a route is going to be. It's like GPS. It knows how far you've got to go in the real world and it gets more excited the closer you are to your goal."
So, if you’re thinking about getting a sat-nav, maybe you don’t even need one!
On the other-hand, navigating your way through some of the UK’s more complicated roads, like the one-way systems which encircle whole towns or cities, might be a little easier with GPS technology on your side, and not just the posterior hippocampus.
Photo © dkwonsh via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: brain, destination, GPS, hippocampus, lost, map, navigating, road, route, sat-nav
Friday, November 18, 2011
Lollipop lady stops charging horses
Lollipop men and women have to be quite brave, we think, what with some of the reckless drivers there are on the road.
So we definitely take our hats off to one 53-year-old lollipop lady who stopped a group of charging horses on her watch!
She stated, "I looked up the road and thought that's a lot of horses.
"I stood there and held my stick out as they ran towards me and they must have been startled by my jacket.
"It was lucky the horses didn't come running along 10 minutes earlier as they would have killed some children.
"It's not something you expect to see"
Guiding the horses into a garden, she kept them off the road until the police and RSPCA came to take over and the owners arrived to return the animals back to the field they had escaped from.
The headteacher of the school for which the lollipop lady works applauded her quick thinking, and we do too!
Photo © Joybot via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: drivers, horses, lollipop lady, police, road, RSPCA
Friday, November 11, 2011
Changing someone’s flat tyre could save your life
The well-know sayings ‘one good deed deserves another’ and ‘what goes around comes around’, couldn’t be more fittingly used than as two morals of this true story.
A 61-year-old Canadian man in America was driving his pick-up truck down the Interstate 94 when he noticed that two women were stranded at the side of the road unable to change the flat tyre on their car, so he pulled over to help them.One of the women states, “We were so grateful. Nowadays, nobody ever really stops to offer their help. It's kind of scary sometimes, because you really don't know what you're getting into.”
Having changed the tyre he went on his way – and usually that’s where the story would have finished.
However, a matter of minutes after setting off again the man began to have a heart attack and his wife, who was in the truck with him, stopped the vehicle and tried to flag down another motorist for help.
And who happened to stop but the two women her husband had helped a few miles down the road.
One of the women, a certified nursing assistant gave the man CPR until a state trooper and two Dunn County deputies took over and a helicopter ambulance arrived.
Thanks to the man’s good deed, the nursing assistant was able to give him the CPR which helped him survive until the emergency services turned up.
As the Patrol Sergeant stated, “It's an interesting turn of fate.”
Photo © Tiger Girl via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: CPR, flat tyre, heart attack, miles, motorist, pick-up truck, road
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sat-nav blindness
Sat-navs can be really useful for people who haven’t taken a certain route before and feel more confident if they have some guidance.
The problems begin when motorists rely too heavily on their GPS system and begin following it blindly to the ends of the Earth. The truth is, voice on the machine may sound authoritative, whether it’s Yoda or the basic man or woman’s voice, but it is still a machine and doesn’t have a brain.
No offence meant to sat-navs, they’re a great piece of technology, but if they hasn’t been updated for a while they could take you down a road that’s blocked off, or across a junction that doesn’t exist anymore, or tell you that through the new shopping centre is the best course of action.
One lorry driver recently got his vehicle wedged between two buildings at the end of a narrow lane that his sat-nav had told him to go down.
A car probably would have gone through – but this man must have forgotten that the GPS doesn’t know what vehicle you’re in.
A landlord near the narrow lane stated, “It was a very stupid thing to do and the locals thought he was a bit of an idiot for doing it.”
He caused damage to the properties on either side and the lorry was finally freed in a six hour operation the next day.
Next time he might try to judge the situation for himself before blindly doing as the sat-nav tells him…as should we all.
Photo © Mavroudis Kostas via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: GPS, guidance, junction, lorry, motorist, narrow lane, road, route, sat-nav, technology, vehicle