Page 7 - Phonebox Magazine October 2006

Dear Editor
The Other Side of the Story
I have just read one of the best indications of the arrogance of a UK motorist I have seen for years. For some reason, some of those who drive motor cars seem to develop a view of themselves that they are 'The Perfect Driver'. I think it is time to burst their little selfish bubble. I refer to the letter in the September 2006 issue by Geoff Bacchus.
First a few figures for you all. The motor car is an efficient killing instrument. Society needs to control it by taxation, laws and licenses for your good. I am well aware that many do not see it that way. But since the car arrived we have managed to kill over one million people with it in the UK. An average of 3,500 mostly innocent people are killed every year in the UK, so in ten years the population of Newport Pagnell will have been very painfully wiped out. That is ten people per day sacrificed to the great Motor Car. The UK NHS has to deal with 170,000 serious injuries caused by cars annually. In the UK for every one death, four are permanently disabled and 30 taken to hospital. Thirty million have been killed by motorists worldwide since we started driving. Today there are 1.2 million road deaths worldwide every year. Are your eyes glazing over? Do the figures begin to hurt? Have you lost a loved one to the motor car? Do the rest of you care?
I walk so I am a pedestrian. I find the footpaths blocked by arrogant motorists everywhere. I ride a bicycle (my main form of transport) and I find car drivers simply do not care, they cut me up often. The worst offenders in towns will partially overtake me as we approach junctions and roundabouts, then cut across my bow as they turn left, often without signalling. They fail to note they have only partially passed me, I am still level with their 'C'posts and I am rammed up against the kerb by them. Out in the country they pass me so close I often jump.
They ignore the advice of the Highway Code. Few use their mirrors. I ride two vintage motorcycles, again the motorist fails to take any notice of my hand signals, many do not seem to know what they even mean.
I ride a very fast modern motorcycle, and hate the car sitting at a T-junction waiting to pull out. I see its driver look at me, then through me, and then pull out into my path as if I do not exist. This even though I have my headlight on, a bright yellow jacket and a white helmet. More motorcyclists are killed by cars pulling out into their paths at T-junctions than any other cause. "Sorry Mate, didn’t see you" is an epitaph on many grave stones. I drive a 55-year-old MG saloon car, again few take any notice of its semaphore indicators, or my hand signals. Many car drivers will sit only a few feet behind it, 'tailgating' me. What they ever hope to achieve I will never know as It can only do 65mph maximum. But they get very angry when I stop, get out, and open my boot lid for them. I then explain the 'two-second' rule to them and the failings of impatience. Yes, and I do have use of a modern car, my wife’s. In it I note just how many ignore speed limits. The whole crux of the matter is in Mr Bacchus’ comment that many do not drive fast enough for him. Perhaps now I should mention that I am a retired police officer, who had to deal with the results of motorists impatience. The mangled bodies that had been through windscreens then hit by cars coming in the opposite direction, the crushed children and the parents anguish, the utter carnage of multiple pile ups. Worst was those who were still alive, but were obviously going to die, probably before the ambulance arrived. Then I had to go and tell their family.
Alas, not only have I had to deal with accidents, my family has suffered as well. Twelve years ago my son was killed by a speeding motorist (55mph in a 40 mph limit). He was in the intensive care unit for three days, and my wife and I watched him die. Fate had not finished with us, as three years ago a speeding woman driver came
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Phonebox Magazine 7