[Livia]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I was only posting it for the amusing video But seriously, nothing worse then getting stuck behind a 90 year old micra driver.........don't lie

Awww you thought this was Chat and Games... bless x

Oh no, it's maddening to get stuck behind Albert and Irene out for a Sunday jaunt in the Micra. But it's also annoying to have a teenager flash up behind you in his hot hatchback with the roaring engine (which usually turns out to be a hole in the exhaust), inches away from my beautiful car. In fact, get every other bugger off the road but a chosen few and driving would be a pleasure.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

Awww you thought this was Chat and Games... bless x

Oh no, it's maddening to get stuck behind Albert and Irene out for a Sunday jaunt in the Micra. But it's also annoying to have a teenager flash up behind you in his hot hatchback with the roaring engine (which usually turns out to be a hole in the exhaust), inches away from my beautiful car. In fact, get every other bugger off the road but a chosen few and driving would be a pleasure.

I do remember idiots at my school passing around an actual specific "tool" for putting holes in their exhausts to make their hairdrier-engine cars "roar" down the street. It was hilarious.

I do agree with MTVN though - a lot of the time, young drivers being dangerous drivers / in more accidents is down to them being careless, showing off, feeling invincible etc. rather than any actual inability to drive safely if they calmed down and put their minds to it. Also, other than that, a lot of accidents for young drivers are down to inexperience which often involves things like reversing into objects / understeering on corners and putting the car off the road (often into a ditch on a country road), usually resulting in a wrecked car but few injuries. When there are truly horrifically dangerous things going on causing horrible crashes it's usually down to recklessness as I said above - e.g. overtaking at 80mph on a blind corner, which is absolute madness. I was in a car with a friend who did it aged 18, narrowly avoided a head-on collision, I never got into a car with him again.

Occasionally with the elderly, as I said, they are simply medically unfit to be safe on the road, and completely unpredictable things can then happen (such as veering into oncoming traffic, or running red lights straight into a stream of cars). It's also something that can be really hard for people to admit to themselves - quite understandably - and I think it would be completely wrong to arbitrarily take away the right to drive at a certain age, so really having competency tests over a certain age is the only way to go.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

I do remember idiots at my school passing around an actual specific "tool" for putting holes in their exhausts to make their hairdrier-engine cars "roar" down the street. It was hilarious.

I do agree with MTVN though - a lot of the time, young drivers being dangerous drivers / in more accidents is down to them being careless, showing off, feeling invincible etc. rather than any actual inability to drive safely if they calmed down and put their minds to it. Also, other than that, a lot of accidents for young drivers are down to inexperience which often involves things like reversing into objects / understeering on corners and putting the car off the road (often into a ditch on a country road), usually resulting in a wrecked car but few injuries. When there are truly horrifically dangerous things going on causing horrible crashes it's usually down to recklessness as I said above - e.g. overtaking at 80mph on a blind corner, which is absolute madness. I was in a car with a friend who did it aged 18, narrowly avoided a head-on collision, I never got into a car with him again.

Occasionally with the elderly, as I said, they are simply medically unfit to be safe on the road, and completely unpredictable things can then happen (such as veering into oncoming traffic, or running red lights straight into a stream of cars). It's also something that can be really hard for people to admit to themselves - quite understandably - and I think it would be completely wrong to arbitrarily take away the right to drive at a certain age, so really having competency tests over a certain age is the only way to go.

Keep going T.S. With all these balanced, reasoned posts, I'm actually being converted to your fan club

Seriously, I know exactly what you mean when the immature idiots doctor their exhausts to make their 20 year old resprayed XR3i's sound like Ferrari's. It's the same with the cretins who 'burn rubber' when setting off or cornering. You know better than anyone that it all stems from massive inferiority complexes and gross immaturity.

Taking Liv's point on board, I never thought about bad young drivers being more numerous than bad old ones, but I agree.

I still think that the older a driver gets, the more frequent and stringent should be the re-testing of their abilities though.