165 replies to this topic

[Disco Dan]

You guys/gals are lucky in U.K - the insurance side of things I mean.

Here in New Zealand 16 year olds go out and get their license and go out and buy very fast and powerful cars. Whatever they can afford, usually their parents buy them for them as well.

Imagine a 16 year old driving a fully worked skyline with no experience and then add their immaturity into the mix... getting scared yet? Now, imagine they have been drinking. Most do.

Things are set to change, driving ages are due to change. Insurance is not compulsory - anther change in the works.

There are too many young drivers here in worked cars way to powerful for them. VERY bad news for everyone else that shares the road.

If you ever get a chance to see "Motorway Patrol" (NZ tv version) you would be shocked to see how many young kids that cannot drive well and/or drink and drive. The amount of cars flipping, going through peoples houses, crashing in every way possible. All because the are too young and unable to control a vehicle.

Also here we have a large amount of 'old' cars - pre 1990's cars. They usually are peoples 'first' cars - the ones without stupid parents that buy their child brand new. Trouble is this creates another set of problems. They have no idea how to maintain or cannot be bothered or too poor. These end up as rust buckets, almost entirely made of bog. Bald tires are common, they smoke and everything in poor state of repair... an accident waiting to happen.

Disco (Englishman living in New Zealand)

[Rented]

As some of you might of seen my thread where i was rear ended , i was braking down from 30 when i was rear ended by someone going 50 to 60mph . My car was sent up the verg , cork-screwed and landed on its side .
i am still suffering for whiplash , but i cant tell you how much i regard my bucket seats and 4 point harnesses now - they are god !!! Cost a small fortune for the FIA approved ones but you know how old they are and that they WILL work , plus your life is priceless !!

[vtec_miniestate]

Before



After



I was doing 70.. ish on the motorway when the two cars in front collided and went from 70-0 very quickly. I managed to get down to 40 before hitting a slick and just continuing on my merry way in to them

The front screen smashed and the passenger side was over a foot shorter than the drivers side..... i miss this car.

Luckily the just fitted brand new 1340 was untouched....phew

[CharlieBrown]

Gutted, thats a really nice mini!

Were you unhurt?

[mini1.3]

yes the other driver died as well.. you can see the damage to the tree is quite high up, he was airborne and had already had the head on impact with the mini before hitting that.

We only started doing this about 8 months ago, we do a 2 hour presentation and get all of our RTA gear out allong with the first aid kits, Oxygen, back boards etc and a body bag with a dummy in it. we do a full slide show with before and after pics and about 4 of us talking though each individual scene and then a short video about the girl in these clipslinky and then some footage from one of our RTA's. We then do an open forum about anything that people want to talk about and we're hoping to save lives.

that is a terrible story about that girl. it really puts things in perspective.

ive just watched tha video about that girl thats heart breaking really im not legaly to drive yet but its made me think and realise that no one is indistructerble and no one is replacable neither people or mini's

[minikidx14]

http://minikid14.20m...com/photo2.html (My own site) most of them 10-16 year olds going for 40-50mph to 0 in seconds

good job they are built with full rollcages, racing seats and harneses + helmets, neckbraces, gloves and overalls.

[racer36]

http://minikid14.20m...com/photo2.html (My own site) most of them 10-16 year olds going for 40-50mph to 0 in seconds

good job they are built with full rollcages, racing seats and harneses + helmets, neckbraces, gloves and overalls.

in autograss there is the same senario( a few times its been me and its not nice when ur stationary on track after a crash and someone hits you flatout in the drivers door ) ( please note :rollcages and doorbars DO work !)

this thread shows just what can happen to you at any point,you can be sat in your house and a car may come in your room,on the pavement and get run over after a car has a blowout,in a car and get done to you what happend to the poor girl ! (personally id rarther die than suffer the same fate as her !)

as for firefighters they deserve more respect than they actually get ! i seriously doubt i would be able to do biggavs job !
( FULL credit mate ! )

we had a presentation about this very thing which we was showed that same video of that girl

thats when u see cocky boys and girls thinking they are invinceable saying " seatbelts dont work they just trap you in the car " "my uncle crashed and would have been killed if he was wearing a seatbelt" ect...

you should have seen the expressions on thier faces when they were shown that video!

if there is 1 thing that will prevent crashes,drink driving ect...its theese presentations !

just thaught i would say what i have found out of experiance being 15 and with theese idiots!

[BishopMaverick]

ONE PINT IS TOO MUCH, END OF IMHO!!! I have a friend that is a fireman (respect to them all), and fellow motorcyclist... he has some pictures that make me feel really sick. I would want to be in my mini 1000 times over than on the bike in a crash, have lost 5 friends on bikes (witnessed 1 fatal and 4 non fatal accidents myself (and I'm only on a 50cc bike atm)) we just don't bounce, we have no airbags, we have no crumple zone... YOU WILL KILL US!!! take time to look for us please. Be safe on the roads, assume everyone and anything is trying to kill you... but also have fun in vehicles on the roads but don't end up on the road yourself... will try and pull out some pics of bike crashes as well as the mini crashes I have at some point, they are alot worse. Not that I'm saying car crashes aren't.

But hey, I still want both a bike and a car, because they are great!

Enjoy but keep you and those around you as safe as possible!

Bishop M.

[Burnard]

This thread is a real eye opener, especially to see the effects of crashes at relativly low speeds, I think i am one of the few people my age who do understand the effects of actions.

The people at my school really need a presentation on road saftey, they are complete *melonsing* numties who dont deserve liecences! ive had atleast 10 near misses this year on the way to school or in the car park. They just dont look, it seems to be a case of im doing this you just get the *melon* outta my way or im going to hit you.

a few of the 6th form cars even have bits missing, and chunks out of body work, like they dont even care, i simply can not believe that these people are allowed to drive!

yer, ok i know im only walking, and they are in there cars, but if they are like this toward pedestrians it will be pretty much the same towards other road users, the insane thing is the school dont apear to do anything about it.

The younger drivers, and people about to learn to drive in this area (wokingham) seriously need to be shown what could happen if they dont get there act together.

does anyone know how i could go about arranging a road saftey talk at my school, i seriously think that everyone would benafit?

Chris

[wolfie]

imho 1 pint has exactly 0 effect on your driving unless you're drinking battery acid or straight vodka!

personally i dont think 2 pints is too bad if they're over a decent length of time but mr bobby law has other ideas so its best we all stick to the 1!

some truely horrid piccies on here, makes you think twice about taking those blind corners on the B roads at speed... you never know when theres a cycalist or a tractor or something coming the other way with a car overtaking it... mini vs tractor = lots of T-cut

you truly are a *meloning* *melon*
come to our yard after we have picked up a fatal where drink or *rubbish* driving been the cause, ill let you see the body parts still in the wreck, saying that the smell of dried blood and rotting internals splashed around the car is worse than anything you will see

Edited by The Matt, 04 February 2009 - 06:54 PM.
slightly less offensive now

[mab01uk]

Interesting TV clip below on the early Mini taken from a 1999 CH4 Documentary on Car Safety. It shows why the Mk1/2 door latch/locks were changed for safety reasons on the Mk3 onwards, the large cut-outs put into the metal dashboard parcel shelf and the front seat tilt catches added..............petrol tank filler neck stayed the same though?

Austin Mini and its accident safety

TEbmPsukEHI

[mab01uk]

The only crash test video on the Mini I have seen as it never had to meet the modern NCAP Tests

5tLE6gd-8AM

[mozzo1]

this is what happens when you drive into a 3ft x 3ft wall at 25mph !!!!



Resulting in =
2 dislocated and broken ankles
broken elbow
shattered jaw
broken cheek bone
broken eye socket
140 pins and 4 plates in my face

OH and heart stopped on the way to the hospital

well if this can really happen hitting anything at 25 mpg then i aint ever going in my mini again and nor should anyone else
hard to beleive though

[Marroon]

i think you ment 25 mph, it doesnt matter how much fuel your using when you crash into the wall

+ i can belive that, because hes crashed into a wall, so the mini's had to take all the impact, and theres a chance that the rear end would have lifted up off the floor, like most cars do on crash testing into a stationary wall, so that would cause the car to "crease"

But thats not a reason never to go in a mini again, many people drive minis there whole life and arent hurt.

Personally, ive never crashed my mini, but ive been able to avoid close shaves due to its brilliant handling and responsivness, its almost instinct now that if im skidding forward to put full lock on to avoid hitting the ar infront.

I think it also helps safty wise knowing the limits, like when you first go round a roundabout in the wet too fast, or your first lose the backend by countersteering too fast, thats why personally, i dont believe theres any harm in doing harndbrakes turns on a empty car park when you first pass your test, or messiong around in the snow and ice in your car in an open space, because you learn how to control it when your rear end swings out,

But your all bound to dissagree, I just think not enough people know what to do in situations where they loose control off there car or loose traction, because theyve been taught to pass there test and thats it.

[Burnard]

I think it also helps safty wise knowing the limits, like when you first go round a roundabout in the wet too fast, or your first lose the backend by countersteering too fast, thats why personally, i dont believe theres any harm in doing harndbrakes turns on a empty car park when you first pass your test, or messiong around in the snow and ice in your car in an open space, because you learn how to control it when your rear end swings out,

But your all bound to dissagree, I just think not enough people know what to do in situations where they loose control off there car or loose traction, because theyve been taught to pass there test and thats it.

I dont dissagree with what your saying, infact i plan to learn car controll in a similar way when i get my liecence, I feel that the government should change the test to include car controll on a higher level.

The ironic thing is that the people who do go out to car parks and open spaces to do handbrake turns and donuts, can end up with a fine, or points on there liecence! and they are the drivers that will be the safer drivers on the road.

Its the nanny state i tells ya!

It would mean that there would be far less accidents and induries due to accidents, because all the new drivers would have to know how to controll the car before they are given a liecence.
If they included things like skid pan driving, drifting, track driving in the lessons and test, everyone would be a better drivers, but the test would be more expensive, and they would need to open more specialist centres, which the government would claim it costs too much.

Would you pay more to get a liecence, if you knew that the extra money you are spending on the car controll could save you life? I would!