A Sign of the Times Options

[NWNREADER]

I find looking where I am going quite helpful.

[dannyboy]

I know quite a few people who have followed the satnav and got themselves into a pickle. You need a combination of map and satnav. We reap what we sow as they say.

Blindly following a satnav - a database of nodes connected by a computer that assumes a road is a road & can be driven along....

[spartacus]

You need a combination of map and satnav.

And add a few fluid ounces of grey matter and a sprinkling of common sense and you're nearly there...


And how long before a farmer in his tractor, pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales or pig slurry (just to make it interesting), causes an accident on the A339 as it pulls out from Ashford Hill Road, because it can no longer use the ford to get to Thornford Road and beyond?


"An accident waiting to happen" as they say.........


Yes an accident has already happened at the ford, but there are 'accidents' and there are 'Darwin Awards'. If this incident had resulted in the car being washed away and the occupants suffering no more than wet pants and an embarrassed look then we'd be saying "Did you not SEE the big yellow signs??!!"

But because it's ended in tragedy it's a knee jerk closure and a "Oh it wasn't your fault love....Blame Mr TomTom..."

Just because someone has been foolish (to put it mildly) shouldn't deny use of a facility for the more capable.

[user23]

Blindly following a satnav - a database of nodes connected by a computer that assumes a road is a road & can be driven along....

Yes, but can it store children's fingerprints.

[On the edge]

Yes, but can it store children's fingerprints.

Love it! I can sell you an onboard system that would read those finger prints and stop the under aged attempting to drive.

[x2lls]

And add a few fluid ounces of grey matter and a sprinkling of common sense and you're nearly there...


And how long before a farmer in his tractor, pulling a trailer loaded with hay bales or pig slurry (just to make it interesting), causes an accident on the A339 as it pulls out from Ashford Hill Road, because it can no longer use the ford to get to Thornford Road and beyond?


"An accident waiting to happen" as they say.........


Yes an accident has already happened at the ford, but there are 'accidents' and there are 'Darwin Awards'. If this incident had resulted in the car being washed away and the occupants suffering no more than wet pants and an embarrassed look then we'd be saying "Did you not SEE the big yellow signs??!!"

But because it's ended in tragedy it's a knee jerk closure and a "Oh it wasn't your fault love....Blame Mr TomTom..."

Just because someone has been foolish (to put it mildly) shouldn't deny use of a facility for the more capable.

You make a good point.

Perhaps we need to keep a hammer in our cars for emergency escape, or even our 25 yard swimming cerstificate(!) ?

[blackdog]

Perhaps we need to keep a hammer in our cars for emergency escape, or even our 25 yard swimming cerstificate(!) ?

You haven't got one? http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/27100732103...&adtype=pla

[x2lls]

You haven't got one? http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/27100732103...&adtype=pla

Blimey!

I spose if you can't get it online, it doesn't exist.

[spartacus]

You haven't got one?

I keep it in the boot just out of arm's reach



.....alongside the defibrillator and oxygen cylinder for those other minor medical emergencies..

[motormad]

Yes an accident has already happened at the ford, but there are 'accidents' and there are 'Darwin Awards'. If this incident had resulted in the car being washed away and the occupants suffering no more than wet pants and an embarrassed look then we'd be saying "Did you not SEE the big yellow signs??!!"

But because it's ended in tragedy it's a knee jerk closure and a "Oh it wasn't your fault love....Blame Mr TomTom..."

Just because someone has been foolish (to put it mildly) shouldn't deny use of a facility for the more capable.

Isn't that what I said, just in a more kindly way?

[NWNREADER]

Yes an accident has already happened at the ford, but there are 'accidents' and there are 'Darwin Awards'. If this incident had resulted in the car being washed away and the occupants suffering no more than wet pants and an embarrassed look then we'd be saying "Did you not SEE the big yellow signs??!!"

But because it's ended in tragedy it's a knee jerk closure and a "Oh it wasn't your fault love....Blame Mr TomTom..."

Just because someone has been foolish (to put it mildly) shouldn't deny use of a facility for the more capable.

Sorry, but I find that form of words insensitive regarding the error made by the driver. I know of so many incidents where observers pronounce upon the person involved, then make a similar mistake themselves. Right up until the nanosecond after we have done it, we think only fools do such things.

I think we can debate the ford (and others in the area, no doubt) without using words that would add to the grief of an already devastated family.

[spartacus]

I think we can debate the ford (and others in the area, no doubt) without using words that would add to the grief of an already devastated family.

Mr Gammon was visiting the area from Teddington. I feel secure in the knowledge that his family members aren't likely to read the drivel posted on here.

But if we are going to use this forum to discuss local topics of import then what better one? For me, there is a certain disbelief and astonishment that a driver would slowly ease their way into a swollen river over 3ft deep (5ft deep depending on which report you read!) in anything other than a Camel Trophy Landy.... I don't imagine that sort of thing was a snap decision in a Toyota Yaris. It beggers belief and you do wonder what possesses someone to do that...


Rather like those BBC wildlife docs where herds of wildebeest opt to chance their luck in a swollen river teaming with crocs..... You know, despite the calming Attenborough commentary, that it's going to end in tears.....

[Penelope]

I think that when it started to go over the wheels I would have got the message.

[Timbo]

As a woman Lady P, I doubt that.

[NWNREADER]

I think that when it started to go over the wheels I would have got the message to Parker to stop.

[Penelope]

Quite right, I'm too busy thinking of fluffy kittens and doing the dusting to be trusted behind the wheel.

[On the edge]

Quite right, I'm too busy thinking of fluffy kittens and doing the dusting to be trusted behind the wheel.

You are just being modest - driving is for little people; that's why you don't see anyone of importance drive themselves.

[NWNREADER]

1. Mr Gammon was visiting the area from Teddington. I feel secure in the knowledge that his family members aren't likely to read the drivel posted on here.

2. But if we are going to use this forum to discuss local topics of import then what better one? For me, there is a certain disbelief and astonishment that a driver would slowly ease their way into a swollen river over 3ft deep (5ft deep depending on which report you read!) in anything other than a Camel Trophy Landy.... I don't imagine that sort of thing was a snap decision in a Toyota Yaris. It beggers belief and you do wonder what possesses someone to do that...


3. Rather like those BBC wildlife docs where herds of wildebeest opt to chance their luck in a swollen river teaming with crocs..... You know, despite the calming Attenborough commentary, that it's going to end in tears.....

1. Then you don't recognise the power of the internet...... While the family may not look it up someone who knows them may find it and tell them - especially the previous thread.

2. As I said earlier, no shortage of people who realise the nanosecond after they have done something they have just joined the ranks of those who previously they thought of as beyond hope. We should all keep a small reserve on our ridicule of others .... just in case.....

3. That is nature at work. Are the wildebeest stupid? Should know better?

We can discuss the information available to drivers at the ford so they make sound decisions without such public ridicule of them, especially after the worst outcome.

My opinion. I don't demand everyone on the planet agree with me

[Strafin]

I'm getting a little fed up with people trying to police this forum. You would have to blind, deaf, dumb and stupid not to know that some people would have discussed it, if someone you knew and loved had done this. You would most likely have to go looking for it as well, I don't believe you would stumble across it by mistake. And if someone you knew told you about it, well that's down to the person telling them, nobody else. It's a discussion forum, this was a local event, albeit a sad one.

[spartacus]

While the family may not look it up someone who knows them may find it and tell them - especially the previous thread.

Why on earth would you suspect anyone would do that? To rub salt in the wounds??!

We should all keep a small reserve on our ridicule of others .... just in case.....

If I shuffle off this mortal coil by doing something incredibly stupid (I hope I don't but you never know - I have difficulty overcoming the urge to touch things that have a sign saying DO NOT TOUCH and my attempts at 'electrical repairs' around the house have nearly always ended in disaster!) I suspect it will be talked about and some may even laugh at my expense, but I hope the method of my demise isn't so stupid that it makes the funeral eulogy a bit of an embarrassment for the family....

That is nature at work. Are the wildebeest stupid? Should know better?

Well now you've pointed it out, it's Natural Selection..... Thinning the Herd so to speak... And we come back to the Darwin Awards element to this tragedy and whether there is a certain bovine character flaw in some that makes them keep going on when they should really turn back...........