Time To Watch Out!

[blarneyman]

According to Kirin, it's the car's fault.

 

It's not the cars fault! I can't believe you guys don't see where the real problem is.

IT\"S THE MOVIE PRODUCERS FAULT! If they wouldn't make these stupid ricer movies like \"The Fast and Furious\" & \"Tokyo Drift\" etc. non of these cars would be on the road

OK there's my fun for the day.

Seriously. This could be a good thing and a bad thing depending on how it's handled. If the government only destroys the cars that were used in street racing, GOOD! If they start taking any car that is capable of performing well, BAD! I just hope the government officials are smart enough to see this, if not, everyone will have to make a stand.  

[Matt]

The problem I have Kevin is you generalized truck drivers into bad drivers. Not every Professional Driver controls his/her truck like a sports car, every group has its bad apples, but to control the speeds of just trucks is absolute nonsense. According to ICBC accident stats, the number of vehicles involved in collisions were

Cars, P/u's, Vans etc. - 87.1% of total collisions
Commercial vehicles, including buses - 3.8% of total collisions
Something to think about.

We don't need to control the vehicles of other people, we need better training/education. It is far to simple to get a liscence in BC. Maybe raise the driving age to 18 or 19.  

[Bruce]

. According to ICBC accident stats, the number of vehicles involved in collisions were

Cars, P/u's, Vans etc. - 87.1% of total collisions
Commercial vehicles, including buses - 3.8% of total collisions
 

Stats can be manipulated.  In order to decide whether commercial vehicles are a real problem, you would have to factor in the mileage they drive.

[Bruce]

I think that stat I posted Bruce was for licenced vehicles, of course I had problems with my computer today and deleted all my cookies and temp files and can't seem to find where I found that site, you may be right, I'll keep looking.
 

Even if it were for the numbers of licenced drivers, people in Japan don't go anywhere.  They can't comprehend of a car exceeding 100k km because their cars never get that mileage.
In order for the stat to mean anything, it would have to include miles driven.

[egspot]

SLOW DRIVERS are just as much of a hazard as fast drivers, hence the latest action of ICBC and Motor Vehicle Branch to start pushing the \"KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS\" rule, new signs have been going up all over the place, still doesnt help though. I have always tried my best to live by the flow of traffic rule as long as I was comfortable doing it. If traffic in the fast lane is doing 130 and you want to pass someone, be prepared to do that speed or wait until its a pace your comfortable with.

Back on topic though, if you want to race take it to the track. It's unlikely that they are going to impound your car if your driving responsibly and abiding the law.

As I remember my long trips to Calgary and Edmonton, In Arberta most drivers follow the \"KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS\"  and further more, campers edge to the right to let the trafic flow by them.

Hey Matt, I heard in BC some can buy their licence.

[Billyisgr8]

Yes to Bruce and to Matt.  

And Matt it is easier to group all truckers together up here than at the coast as every 3rd - 5th vehicle is a truck going either way, so I would say I am now abit biased in a bad way because this is all I see everyday.  There was a counter put on the hwy counting trucks and the avg # of trucks in a 24 hour period passing through Sicamous was somthing stupid like 5000-7000.  I did not mean to come across as all truckers are bad, sorry ,  but even if it is 1% of the truckers driving past sicamous that are on the edge that is 50 to 70 drivers every day driving by on this crazy highway that is the only way to get anywhere.  Atleast the lowermainland there are many routes to distribute much of the comercial traffic.  Here we see it all.

Kevin



 

[silas]

If people were punished properly in the first place there would be less of a problem! here's a good example.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/09/14/...ed20050914.html

exactly. a slap on the wrists doesnt do it. deportation, vehicle siezure & license restriction, jail time, community service (send the perps out to whalley to pick up garbage off the streets in the middle of winter)....make the perps life a living hell so they get it through their feeble mind that they f@$ked up.

Drivers training in B.C is a joke compared to drivers training in Europe. I haven't ever seen statistics comparing say Germany to Canada however I would imagine there would be some differences. My point being is that vehicles over there undergo much stricter examination to insure roadworthyness. Yes I do agree that there are a lot of unsafe drivers in BC. However I much rather have people being attentive and know what they are doing and speed, then have soccer moms on cellphones driving 5000LB SUV's on the highways.

A solution would be to completly rework the drivers training program and give people the skillset to be better drivers...

you can polish a turd until your arms hurt....but it'll still be a turd.

ban cellphone use while driving. how??? big fines. an arguement would be that it would take too much policing to enforce it. \"shouldnt the authorities be spending more time catching killers & drug dealers?\" well, bad drivers can be killers and who knows, you might just catch a drug dealer in the mix.

rather than spend money on training....how about a mandatory retest every time you go to renew your license. sure it's a cash grab....but if you're a good driver, pay the few bucks and go through the process knowing that you'll pass and others will fail because they suck (thusly keeping the bad drivers off the road and hopefully making the streets a little safer). under a certain age and above a certain age, make it mandatory to retest for your drivers license every 2/3 years.

According to Kirin, it's the car's fault.

Isn't that how ICBC views it?

i thought it was a question of driver liability? car works great...driver was speeding and caused the accident. drivers fault...not the vehicles.
 


 

 
 

[Matt]

A mandatory retest is a great idea. A liscence is good for 5 years and instead of renewing it, you retest. Every 5 years no matter what the age.

[Shane]

While the govt is at it they should make mandatory speed limiters on semi's so they can't go over 100 kmh.

 

I've always thought there was something in the water up there, but now I know it. That is by far the most ignorant thing I've heard you say. Why would you want to restrict a trucks speed when most of the highways in BC are 110? Do you think that may piss of more car drivers and make them perfrom unsafe passing maneuvers? We hear about truck accidents on the radio and TV all the time down here, and it's ALWAYS the trucks fault. Even when that motorcycle lost control on the Port Mann bridge and slid into the back tires of a trailer, killing its two riders. Until the details were revealed, the radio was saying " we have yet another semi accident on the port mann bridge"

Perhaps we could train the car drivers, that to pull in front of a loaded tractor and hammer the binders just to make an exit is perhaps a bad idea. Perhaps instead of putting limiters on tractors alone, lets do it to every vehicle on the roads. Cause for the amount of bad truck drivers there are, there is sure as shit alot more dangerous car drivers.

Hey Matt I make my statement based on the area we live in.  We moved from the lower mainland where we both grew up, and I commuted all over vancouver for many years. Maybe the odd time once every few years  I  noticed trucks putting peoples lives in jepardy from speeding or stupid driving, .  Come live up here and you will understand where I am coming from very quickly. Driving to Kelowna or to Kamloops is the same.  Long haul truckers speeding way over the limit, I drive the speed limit, and these trucks fly by.  There is no need for it especially when the road is not straight and flat, it is curved everywhere up here as far as I have been to 100 mile and to Golden it is all curved with few straighter 2 laned sections.  Maybe there are straighter roads in BC but I have not been past these points other than by plane.  The amount of times I have seen "almost accidents" where my heart is in my throat because of it is close to once a month.  It is mind numbing.  These are truckers driving as though they are in a sports car.  This is why I think trucks should have a 100 kmh limiter.  

Which other roads other than the coquahala are 110?

This is not like the lower mainland, and we have the second best drinking water in Canada( well thats what we were told anyway).

I think that stat I posted Bruce was for licenced vehicles, of course I had problems with my computer today and deleted all my cookies and temp files and can't seem to find where I found that site, you may be right, I'll keep looking.

Kevin

Kevin, these guys put on more miles in a month than most put on in a year. These guys are professionals and know what their trucks can do unlike most kids in new souped up cars
 

[Billyisgr8]

Shane if I could only send you some video of what some of these guys really do.  I live it every trip out of Sicamous

 The last one just a few days ago ...we were passed on a long stretch of road with a corner up ahead, 400-500 ' from the corner another semi comes around it, the truck is half way from passing me completely, I am sitting about mid front trailer I can see he is not going to make it, I was allready fading to the shoulder, about the same time he starts  fading over while I am still right beside him.  Half our truck is  on the dirt shoulder off the pavement when he finally gets the whole rig into my lane, I could have rolled down the window and touched the trailer , the second trailer  tire marks on the road from where he was to where the other semi came was approx 20 '.  He forced me off the road because of his bad judgement, and if I wasn't driving a HUGE F350 crewcab longbox truck myself and was in a car, I'm certain the bumps on the shoulder would have sucked me into the ditch.  There was no profesional driver there, only somebody that coudn't stand doing the speed limit of 90 kmh.  Defensive driveing saved my family.....again.....This has happened so many times allready.  My wife has  been scared to the screaming level a few times times now .... it is ridiculous what some truckers think their truck can do. Many truckers are professional, many are not.  

It is really hard to comprehend how many trucks are driving down this road on a single lane highway.

OK sorry, I'll shut up now and get this back on topic.   I agree with re-testing drivers licences, my late grandfather was 95 and still driving, what an accident waiting to happen he was.  My other grandpy is 85 and driving, but he does not comprehend very well anymore, he drove into our parked beetle, and didn't even acknowledge the fact that anything was wrong with hitting another car.  He gets lost in Langley, he drives every day to practice driving, he does not shoulder check, he just changes lanes and hope whoever is beside him moves out of the way, never looks in the rear view mirror when backing up...scary.  Also maybe a manditory defensive driving school for newbies would help.



Kevin

[Bruce]

My other grandpy is 85 and driving, but he does not comprehend very well anymore, he drove into our parked beetle, and didn't even acknowledge the fact that anything was wrong with hitting another car.  He gets lost in Langley, he drives every day to practice driving, he does not shoulder check, he just changes lanes and hope whoever is beside him moves out of the way, never looks in the rear view mirror when backing up...scary. 



Kevin

I would tend to agree with you on the truckers.   Most are good, some should be jailed.  I've got similar stories.

You should really report your grandfather.  Call up the dept of ICBC that deals with licencing.  Would you rather inconvienience him, or would you rather learn he killed some child on a bicycle?  When my buddy went through this quandary with his senile father, he determined that the proceeds from selling the car plus insurance savings, would never be spent on taxis over the remainder of his life.

[Billyisgr8]

The whole family is for him giving up his licence, the problem is he will not.  He is old school like many grandparents....stuborn

Kevin

[OUTKAST]

Report tough desicion but the right one  

[Bruce]

Kevin, YOU need to report him.  You can contact his family doctor and tell him he's not fit to drive.  The Dr. has the power to pull a licence.

Think about this, eventually he will, one day, not be driving.  There are only 2 ways he will get to that point.  One is you making that call, the other is after he kills someone.  If you wait, part of the responsibility lies on eveyone in your family.

You said he doesn't acknowledge it is wrong to hit another car.  Does he know it is wrong to hit a pedestrian?  A cyclist?

IMO, he is much more dangerous on the road than any of those truckers you see in Sicamous.

[blueberry]

went through it with my Dad. There really is no debate. It reaches a point when general saftey is the 1st concern. Family doctor can do it or contacting the RCMP (drastic - but there if necessary). I just hope when my time comes I will remember my Dad and his driving and give it up gracefully!

[Billyisgr8]

From what I remember of going through this with my dad the doctor can only pull the licence is there is a medical condition which will affect his driving ability, or he hands it in willingly, which he refuses to do.  We as family can't  report my dad as driving bad and have it taken away, something has to happen as in an accident which is stupid.  Seniors need to be tested for driving every 5 years.   Now back to my grandpy, the whole family is aware of his driving, and has made clear to him he needs to stop driving....he doesn't think he needs to turn it in yet so we can't do anything about it other than follow him with a video camera for proof.

Kevin

[Bruce]

We as family can't

[Cameron]

Back on topic...

Australia is seizing street racer's cars also. But the authorities don't crush them. The seized cars are used for crash testing.

The link, with video.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22740...446-421,00.html

 

[OUTKAST]

Well even with abig motor I could probablly be overlooked   Just need one ofthose slowmoving vehicle magnets . A speeding bus Ya right  B)  

[egspot]

Well even with abig motor I could probablly be overlooked   Just need one ofthose slowmoving vehicle magnets . A speeding bus Ya right  B)

selling a Bus?