Drive and Survive

[spnracing]

Has anyone ever attended a session by this company?

I did yesterday, I went along with an extremely cynical attitude about what they might say (speed kills, etc etc?) and I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

I like to think I take pride in my driving, I'm fairly experienced and I take notice of road safety issues. Yesterday's session however made me realise how much more there is to the subject that most people realise.

For example - who out there knows the criteria for a council to;

1. Erect a red triangle (warning) junction sign
2. Paint 'SLOW' on the road surface
3. Paint longer white lines in the centre of the road
4. Erect a warning sign in a square grey background
5. Erect a warning sign in a square yellow background
6. Install a triangulated kerb edge

Obviously someone out there will - but I reckon the vast majority won't, which makes all the money spent on these saftey measures seem so pointless.

[plotloss]

Isnt all road furniture and markings related to the amount of accidents/deaths that happen on the stretch of road?

I remember being told by RoSPA that 2 deaths = one warning sign.

Oh, and the long white lines in the centre are hazard warning lines...

Matt.

>> Edited by plotloss on Friday 28th March 12:26

[skittle]

I went on one of theses course a few years back and I found it improved my anticipation of potential hazards dramatically - I believe it made me a safer and smarter driver

Did you have a go with the Car that simulates all the road conditions? Driving on ice, aquaplaning etc was execellent experience becase most people do not expereince those conditions until its too late

[Alan420]

spn, how do we get in touch and what does it cost?

[spnracing]

My company arranged this, assume they have a web site or something.

According to them;

A warning sign for a junction is erected after 7 accidents where police have attended (i.e. someone is hurt).

More signs (e.g. SLOW) are erected after 11 acidents.

After 14 a sign with a grey background is erected.

After a fatality a sign with a yellow background is erected.

This last point is something I certainly didn't know and I've noticed so many in the few miles I've driven since. There are two junctions on my drive home that have these signs, and the A321 south of Wokingham is absolutely full of them. Didn't stop a Laguna tailgating me the whole way, maybe he needed the course too.

[Don]

Interesting stuff, spn. I must say....when doing my Advanced Driving course I somewhat "rediscovered" the Highway Code!

[planetdave]

As a recently retired driving instructor I can tell you that UK gov doesn't really want the general public to know these things since they are not even on the sylabus for instructors. Considering the depth of knowledge required(?) this may seem like an oversight, but remember that the gen. public are basically asked to keep the car on the left and under the speed limit er thats it. And thats tough enuf for a large proportion of the population.

[deltaf]

And given the number of cars actually travelling along any particular stretch of road at any time, thats a remarkably low number of accidents...still...speed kills...