98 yr old duke crashes range rover

98 yr old duke crashes range rover

Author
Discussion

Pericoloso

44,044 posts

164 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
When he was spotted today at the wheel ,it was on the Sandringham estate .

Is that even a public road ?

Chrisgr31

13,490 posts

256 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Kierkegaard said:
I know you're trying to be clever there (and failing) but a 17 year old would (hopefully) learn from the mistake. You can't improve a 97 year olds coordination skills and reaction times. Not to mention a eyesight, which he appears to be wearing sunglasses this time round..
Of course the Daily Mail article which reports on him driving does state that he took a police eyetest after the accident which he passed.

Reality is that most people after an accident will get back behind the wheel if they have a car to drive. He does,

Its also possible that he has an exemption from wearing a seatbelt particularly following bruising after the accident.

PositronicRay

27,056 posts

184 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Pericoloso said:
When he was spotted today at the wheel ,it was on the Sandringham estate .

Is that even a public road ?
The estates pretty big public roads run through it.

DS240

4,681 posts

219 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Kierkegaard said:
A baby was in a car that was hit, that's called nearly killing a baby. In the sense that he nearly killed himself and anyone else in the cars involved. You can't plan how a car crash is going to pan out.

Hardly a "huge exaggeration".
This whole incident has been massively exaggerated.

Damaged looked minor in terms of speeds involved. The fact the car was on its side isn’t a biggy (Very slow speeds can roll a car if the circs right).

Rent-an-idiot ‘witnesses’... ‘I can’t believe anyone got out alive’. Utter nonsense. ‘I thought the car was going to explode so got the baby out’... yeah right.

News reports.. ‘glass on the road just shows how lucky it was anyone got out alive’... what the hell is this statement.

He appears to have pulled out onto the main road into path of another car. Clearly wrong, but has happened up and down the country multi times daily. Yet this one appears to be the biggest car accident that’s ever happened.

Just sick of the nonsense reporting over this.

Chrisgr31

13,490 posts

256 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Who says it is an armoured vehicle? The general impression and view on this thread is that it was not armoured.

dandarez

13,294 posts

284 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
OldGermanHeaps said:
Vipers said:
So say this episode happened to a youngish footballer on obscene mega bucks and totalled his top of range Range Rover, in similar circumstances, and went out the following day and bought a replacement, probably there would be no comments.

Because the Duke is 97, some are being so critical. What if this happened when he was 77?

We have no idea of his ability to drive safely, why not cut him some slack.

As has been suggested by one well known motoring organisation, if we ban drivers over a certain age due to their driving abilities, as been suggested, we would have to ban a lot of young drivers as wel.

I am sure we all think we are excellent drivers, I know I do, but accidents happen. Age has no connection to safe driving, there are good and bad drivers all ages. (I just know someone will throw up some stats now, oh well).

Of no consequence, Nick Freeman apparently said the sun was low in his eyes, and could be a point in his defence, just saying.
age does have a provable direct connection to safe driving whether you like to admit it or not, its undeniable. the ages are not universal, it is different for every individual, but it is a guarantee that someone who has just started driving has a disadvantage in their inexperience, and also many younger drivers risk meter needs recalibrating, just as it is an unescaplable fact that the senses and reaction times and judgement decline in old age and continue declining.
Its impossible to deny. there may be the odd outlier, but outliers are just that, notable because they are far from the norm.
After working in sheltered housing for many years and seeing the standard of driving from the residents I very strongly believe there should be some regular retests, getting more frequent as dotage progresses. there should probably be retesting for everyone, but that might be a bit of a challenge to ramp up the capacity of the testing centres in one hit.
And there will be a reason, as you will know, why they end up in sheltered housing. They usually require help to be at hand.

What about the rest of us?
I'm more fking alert today when driving than I have ever been in all my life.
Why? The standard of driving is abysmal today for many, many reasons, the least one being because of the elderly. Most drivers I encounter daily are not elderly old codgers, they are people of working age.

The growing number today who don't even know what a fking handbrake is for! I have lost count these dark mornings of the aholes who come up to a junction and sit with the fking footbrake applied right up until the time the lights change to green, they're still fking on when it goes amber.
One morning recently I was so pissed off with this new RR Evoque in front of me who just sat there foot on brake - my car is low - blinding me every time the queue stopped! So I put full beam on (naughty, but nice!). Nope. Still foot down. Moved off, traffic halts. Again brake pedal stuck down. Full beam! After almost half a mile of this I just flipped my sun visor down. We stop again, and surprise, driver door opens (of fk, what's gonna happen now - some huge bloke gonna knock me about?) Nah, huge is the right word! But 'she' (obese and young) exits the car while traffic is stationary.

'Is summat wrong babe?'
'Yeah (I say sarcastically), your brake lights are stuck on and your high level too!'

Guess what she said?
'Oh are they? Wat's a hileva light? Thanks babe, I'll get the garage to look at it.'

Bloody hell, and we are supposed to worry about a 97 year old who barely uses public roads!

Edited by dandarez on Saturday 19th January 22:20

768

13,713 posts

97 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
OldGermanHeaps said:
768 said:
I've nothing against 17 year olds driving - if they don't cause an accident - but once they have, and they manage to crawl from the wreckage (and aren't jailed in the process), you really do have to say to them enough is enough.
the difference it, in the vast majority of instances the 17 year old will become a better driver as they mature and gain experience. what do you think the likely progression is for a doddery 97 year old that has already caused a smash by doing something stupid? the only way realistically is downhill.
So it's ok to crash if you're young and gaining experience but not if you're old?

I don't know if he did something stupid, but once you have 10-20 years driving experience the only way realistically is downhill. If you can get to 97, unless something significant changes, I wouldn't be surprised if that downhill slope is pretty flat.

PositronicRay

27,056 posts

184 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
dandarez said:
And there will be a reason, as you will know, why they end up in sheltered housing. They usually require help to be at hand.

What about the rest of us?
I'm more fking alert today when driving than I have ever been in all my life.
Why? The standard of driving is abysmal today for many, many reasons, the least one being because of the elderly. Most drivers I encounter daily are not elderly old codgers, they are people of working age.

The growing number today who don't even know what a fking handbrake is for! I have lost count these dark mornings of the aholes who come up to a junction and sit with the fking footbrake applied right up until the time the lights change to green, they're still fking on when it goes amber.
One morning recently I was so pissed off with this new RR Evoque in front of me who just sat there foot on brake - my car is low - blinding me every time the queue stopped! So I put full beam on (naughty, but nice!). Nope. Still foot down. Moved off, traffic halts. Again brake pedal stuck down. Full beam! After almost half a mile of this I just flipped my sun visor down. We stop again, and surprise, driver door opens (of fk, what's gonna happen now - some huge bloke gonna know me about?) Nah, huge is the right word! But 'she' (obese and young) exits the car while traffic is stationary.

'Is summat wrong babe?'
'Yeah (I say sarcastically), your brake lights are stuck on and your high level too!'

Guess what she said?
'Oh are they? Wat's a hileva light? Thanks babe, I'll get the garage to look at it.'

Bloody hell, and we are supposed to worry about a 97 year old who barely uses public roads!
You do realise that plenty of cars show brake lights when the parking brake is applied. Also many cars don't have a handbrake as such.

MrGTI6

3,162 posts

131 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
dandarez said:
From records he has had a clean licence almost since day one, and last accident which was apparently his fault was in 1997.
And even then it was on Liz's orders.

dandarez

13,294 posts

284 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
PositronicRay said:
You do realise that plenty of cars show brake lights when the parking brake is applied. Also many cars don't have a handbrake as such.
I should've guessed that. Makes me sound as clueless as her! Has the latest Evoque? Highly likely I suppose.
I'll have to sell my only a few years 'old' Mini JCW and get my own back! Nah, I like something that handles and gets away from the crowd.

Which recent car is it that has that long h-level brake light (well, boot high) 'full length' across the top of the bootlid that's better than Blackpool illuminations.
I passed one the other evening but wasn't sure what it was.


RATATTAK

11,157 posts

190 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
PositronicRay said:
You do realise that plenty of cars show brake lights when the parking brake is applied ............
Go on then, let's know which ones

Mort7

1,487 posts

109 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
americancrx said:
A report said that he was "distracted by the sun" before crashing into the Kia.

Why was he reading whilst driving?

I'd thank my lucky stars if I were still distracted by Page 3 at 97!
Beat you to it! See page 9. smile

Gareth1974

3,420 posts

140 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
RATATTAK said:
PositronicRay said:
You do realise that plenty of cars show brake lights when the parking brake is applied ............
Go on then, let's know which ones
My brake lights remain illuminated even when my foot isn’t on the brake pedal, with the automatic parking brake holding the car. VW Arteon.

guindilias

5,245 posts

121 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Chrisgr31 said:
Who says it is an armoured vehicle? The general impression and view on this thread is that it was not armoured.
Armoured vehicles don't generally have sunroofs - even N. Irish armoured PSNI cars have them deleted at a hefty cost as everyone has air-con these days - it's a weak point to aim at. (source - I've been in a few of them "involuntarily" wink

An armoured vehicle won't have a passenger door (which I presume the duke exited by) that you could even open to let someone out - they weigh an absolute ton and feel like a bank vault door. (source - I know some people who are driven around in them).

Or leave glass over the road when they roll. (source - they generally have BRG, Blast Resistant Glass, which is multiple layers of toughened glass with laminated glass in between - I used to procure the stuff).

Or roll when hit by a Kia. (source - I have a bit of common sense Not much, but enough! biggrin)

hyphen

26,262 posts

91 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Tabloids have interviewed the passenger in the car.

No win no fee ambulance chasers to follow? Palace will settle out of court you would imagine.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-phili...

RATATTAK

11,157 posts

190 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
Gareth1974 said:
My brake lights remain illuminated even when my foot isn’t on the brake pedal, with the automatic parking brake holding the car. VW Arteon.
How do you know ? ... nice car BTW

Gareth1974

3,420 posts

140 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
RATATTAK said:
Gareth1974 said:
My brake lights remain illuminated even when my foot isn’t on the brake pedal, with the automatic parking brake holding the car. VW Arteon.
How do you know ? ... nice car BTW
Saw them reflected in a window. Had the car 10 months before I realised.

OldGermanHeaps

3,842 posts

179 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
same on my MAN TGE, the auto brake hold activates the brake lights. only way to stop it would be to shift to park every time I stop, then mr flashy light bellend would be moaning I take too long to get moving again. showing brake lights doesn't indicate a bad driver, it is how modern vehicles are designed. get used to it.

Fastpedeller

3,875 posts

147 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
RATATTAK said:
Gareth1974 said:
My brake lights remain illuminated even when my foot isn’t on the brake pedal, with the automatic parking brake holding the car. VW Arteon.
How do you know ? ... nice car BTW
I didn't realise that was legal in UK - new one on me!

38911

764 posts

152 months

Saturday 19th January 2019
quotequote all
PositronicRay said:
You do realise that plenty of cars show brake lights when the parking brake is applied. Also many cars don't have a handbrake as such.
No they don’t. Regs state that Parking brake / hand brake must not illuminate the rear brake lights.

Auto hold / auto brake can (actually must), yes.... but Parking brake, no.