Monday, July 23, 2012
Sardine-related traffic
Have you ever been driving along, heard a rattling noise and thought – which door isn’t closed properly?
Well I know I have, and luckily every time it’s happened I’ve found a safe place to pull over, get out of the car, and close the door firmly before continuing my journey. One delivery truck driver in Poland wasn’t so lucky though, since he failed to close the rear doors correctly, and didn’t notice in time.
This resulted in 24 tonnes of sardines spilling out onto the road, reportedly covering several hundred meters of the highway and bringing other road users to a standstill for hours while the fish were cleared up.
The truck driver was fined £50, and also had to pay £5,000 for the clearing of the road.
One motorist caught in the traffic stated, “At first we thought it was some sort of divine judgement – like a plague of locusts or frogs.”
I may very well have thought the same thing had I encountered thousands of tiny fish on the road – it can’t have smelt particularly divine through…
Hopefully the driver will be more careful next time. What a waste of fish!
Photo © rockyeda via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, closed, door, driver, driving, fish, highway, journey, Poland, rattling, sardines, traffic, truck
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
Friday, December 16, 2011
More than your five-a-day
At a traffic junction in Coundon, Coventry this week something very strange occurred.
Motorists in the UK always have to be prepared for precipitation, but drivers in this area were witness to a very different sort of rain. Out from the sky fell – not water – but apples.
Yes. Apples.
One road user stated, “The apples fell out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. Everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.”
There have been two theories presented since the fruity downpour. One involves a plane losing its cargo, and the other involves a mini tornado sucking apples from an orchard somewhere and then letting them go over Coventry.
Well, you’ve heard the stories about raining frogs and fish – now you’ve heard of apple-rain.
We’d quite like it to rain money next. We’re carrying buckets around with us just in case.
Photo © Grey World via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: apples, Coventry, drivers, experienced motorist, fruit, junction, precipitation, rain, road user, traffic
Monday, November 14, 2011
A mini roundabout conundrum
Have you ever approached a mini roundabout at exactly the same time as the motorists on the other available exits and found that everyone comes to a standstill?
The first time I experienced this oddity I was, thankfully, having a driving lesson, so my instructor could guide me through the conundrum which lay before me.
I was giving way to my right, and the car on my right was giving way to the car on their right who was giving way to me. And of course I wasn’t moving because I was busy being a good driver and giving way to my right.
“Someone’s got to go”, driving instructor explained, “otherwise we’ll all be sat here forever waiting for each other.”
Eventually the motorist to my right decided to make the first move and eventually everything was back to normal and traffic was flowing again.
But it made me realise how a lot of the things you learn about driving, you only really learn once you’ve passed your practical driving test and gained some more experience of the road.
That’s why it’s so important that some insurers make cheaper insurance quotes available to young drivers, because if they can’t afford the cover they might not get back onto the roads until much later on in their lives and by that point they’ll have missed out on years of useful motoring experience.
Photo © bravediggs via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: cover, driving instructor, insurance quote, mini roundabout, motorist, practical driving test, traffic
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Village of the damned bollards
Parents of children in Plymouth are up in arms about a planned traffic-calming scheme near their children’s school.
This may seem odd – after all, what parent wouldn’t want better road safety exercised near their children – however, they had their reasons. Simply cast your eye over the photo and you may see eye to eye with adults who called these strange child-shaped bollards “pretty scary” - saying they were like “something out of Doctor Who”.
Another creeped-out parent said, "In the middle of the night you'll see these weird-looking things.”
However, we think that these little polyurethane pupils may be just the ticket for slowing down motorists.
The very fact that they are painted to look like children, and appear a little out of place along the pavement, is probably guaranteed to make drivers lighten their tread on the accelerator. Plus, as the bollard maker explained, “If you see a child next to the road there is a natural reaction to slow the vehicle down.”
Yes, they do cost £350 each and “they might frighten the children”, but really, we think they’re ideal.
The bollard makers remain rightfully “proud” of their creations and we secretly hope to see their eerie rows near schools all over UK very soon.
Image by SteveR- via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: accelerator, bollards, cars, pavement, traffic, vehicle