RE: Stressed Mothers Pose Real Danger
Friday 19th March 2004
Stressed Mothers Pose Real Danger
1 in four have crashed with kids in the car
Stressed out mums are being urged to hang up their car keys on Mothering Sunday as research reveals the strain of chauffeuring kids is leading them to make serious road safety blunders.
Britain's five million mums now make over 19 million car trips a day ferrying youngsters between activities.
They admit the soaring stress levels and distractions caused by noisy or boisterous children are prompting them to take greater risks on the roads.
Stress experts, commissioned by Autogalss, monitored busy mums and found their heart rates typically rose 51%. Mothers themselves admit the danger this leads to:
- A staggering 26% have been in an accident while driving with their children
- 69% regularly break speed limits and 54% jump lights
- 47% drive aggressively
- 79% regularly take their eyes off the road to deal with children
Nigel Doggett, managing director of Autoglass, said: "The pressure to race kids from school to sports and parties to play dates is clearly taking its toll on mothers' driving behaviour and safety .
Discussion
There was a sad case near here a couple of years back, mother and two offspring squashed under a petrol tanker, in head-on collision.
Large amount of discussion in the local papers as to the cause. Accident happened immediately after a sharp-ish left-hand bend (in relation to the direction of travel of mums car), collision happened on the right hand side of road, two children in back of car, NSL road, just outside of village.
What odds kids bickering in back, mum reaches round to sort them out, forgetting about driving, splat.
Large amount of discussion in the local papers as to the cause. Accident happened immediately after a sharp-ish left-hand bend (in relation to the direction of travel of mums car), collision happened on the right hand side of road, two children in back of car, NSL road, just outside of village.
What odds kids bickering in back, mum reaches round to sort them out, forgetting about driving, splat.
scrutineer said:
how much do they pay people to state the obvious in surveys?
We live near a school....doh!recently one even parked ON our drive as the nearest space was a long walk away!.....came back to find me parked sideways behind her JUST WAITING....
just a thought but being a devious bast i would love to have got out,locked the car up and then gone in for a cup of coffee......whilst calling the local skip delivery company for the immidiate delivery of one of their larger skips that has already been filled with brickies rubbish...or a shipping container company who can deliver asap.....when mummy came back for her motor and finds it blocked in by your car she would probably knock on the door,finding that there was no answer she may think the car belonged to another inconsiderate mother and think "oh,i'll come back in a bit".......then on return finding the car totally blocked in and unmovable as the skip/container is mm from the arse-end of her vehicle and there is no way to turn it around due to the strategic placement of various items....that is the point where you come out and present her with the option of paying for the skip/container hire with an ammount added for a parking fee for leaving the car on your property without your consent and if she refused that you could simply tell her you are not bothered about how long her vehicle is there and your going to leave the skip/container where it is for at-least a year and hope that she can do without the car (and if you go down the container route and has it put in with the containers doors facing the road it wont effect you as you can put your car INSIDE it!!.
This smacks of Sun 'journalism' to me. Ok 25% of mums have crashed with their kids in the car but over what time period, is this over a year or over the entire lives of their kids or all the kids they've had? If this a real road accident or does it include bumps into lamp posts etc? How does this compare with other drivers or drivers in general over the same time period? What was the size of the group?
Come on Ted, we should be doing better than using the same cr*ppy psuedo statistical methods as those pointing their fingers at us just so we can prompt the hard of thinking element of prodominantly male drivers on this site to point their fingers at a group other than themselves.
Regards,
Mark
Come on Ted, we should be doing better than using the same cr*ppy psuedo statistical methods as those pointing their fingers at us just so we can prompt the hard of thinking element of prodominantly male drivers on this site to point their fingers at a group other than themselves.
Regards,
Mark
'54% jump lights' 
Shocking stuff indeed. Of course they could always teach their kids a bit of discipline and have them sitting down, strapped in and listening to Bob the Builder or whatever it is these days.*
* of course I don't have kids, but I seem to remember I didn't jump around in the car while it was in motion or I'd be in trouble.
Shocking stuff indeed. Of course they could always teach their kids a bit of discipline and have them sitting down, strapped in and listening to Bob the Builder or whatever it is these days.*
* of course I don't have kids, but I seem to remember I didn't jump around in the car while it was in motion or I'd be in trouble.
rich-uk said:
...I seem to remember I didn't jump around in the car while it was in motion or I'd be in trouble.
Here, here!
If I jumped around etc in the car, I would get a good smack, or even the wooden spoon when we got home.
I think that it is the 'nanny state' causing this, nowdays you can't smack kids etc and therefore there is no disapline, just look down your street occasionally and you will see the 'little darlings' up to something.
Well if talking on a mobile phone whilst driving is too distracting to be legal, surely disciplining/restraining/ feeding kids can't be sensible?
A while back I narrowly avoided colliding with an MPV who cut across the front of my car from the outside lane, braked heavily and proceeded to perform an emergency stop halfway on the pavement. I was lucky to only lose a wing mirror.
After pulling in at a safe place ahead of her I walked back to find out what could have caused such a dangerous action. Baby in front seat had been sick down his clothes, so she had to stop and wipe him
The fact that she could have killed him in the process escaped her notice...
A while back I narrowly avoided colliding with an MPV who cut across the front of my car from the outside lane, braked heavily and proceeded to perform an emergency stop halfway on the pavement. I was lucky to only lose a wing mirror.
After pulling in at a safe place ahead of her I walked back to find out what could have caused such a dangerous action. Baby in front seat had been sick down his clothes, so she had to stop and wipe him
The fact that she could have killed him in the process escaped her notice...chimyellow said:
...I seem to remember I didn't jump around in the car while it was in motion or I'd be in trouble.
Here, here!
If I jumped around etc in the car, I would get a good smack, or even the wooden spoon when we got home.
I think that it is the 'nanny state' causing this, nowdays you can't smack kids etc and therefore there is no disapline, just look down your street occasionally and you will see the 'little darlings' up to something.
Nanny State sounds about right! Acquaintance of mine is -
Health Visitor. Wonder how much lentilist claptrap becomes ingrained in their psyche and how much young mums are influenced by them! Quote verabatim what I have heard:
"If you do that - you will make Mummy very sad!"
Dunno about anyone else - but when I was kid at school - muesli munching teachers (and parents) like that were "fair game". We sassed back all the more and made their lives absolute hell - because we knew that the discipline would not happen! Stricter teachers and adults - you knew where to draw the line!
Our kids and discipline? They know that claws come out pretty sharply!
. Misbehaviour in the car? Only happened once with eldest three arguing over some triviality - when they were about 6-7-ish! Pulled over at earliest and safest opportunity. They have never forgotten that particular lesson! zax said:
Well if talking on a mobile phone whilst driving is too distracting to be legal, surely disciplining/restraining/ feeding kids can't be sensible?
A while back I narrowly avoided colliding with an MPV who cut across the front of my car from the outside lane, braked heavily and proceeded to perform an emergency stop halfway on the pavement. I was lucky to only lose a wing mirror.
After pulling in at a safe place ahead of her I walked back to find out what could have caused such a dangerous action. Baby in front seat had been sick down his clothes, so she had to stop and wipe him
Take it - she never heard the term "common sense".
Yes - I have had the "sick" and the "uncomfortable nappy" in the car in the distant past! Not pleasant - worse with twins, but part of package with babies! But again - "emergency" can wait a few minutes until it can be dealt with safely!
But what can you expect? This Mumptie was probably indoctrinated with the mushy brained claptrap given as example in the previous post here!
This is really odd arithmetic. We all know that exceeding the speed limit and driving aggressively are both lumped together by the government and called "speeding". Therefore, we have 69% breaking speed limits and 47% driving aggressively, therefore 116% of mothers are guilty of "speeding". Did I make a mistake? I'm only following the government's logic.
Peter Ward said:
This is really odd arithmetic. We all know that exceeding the speed limit and driving aggressively are both lumped together by the government and called "speeding". Therefore, we have 69% breaking speed limits and 47% driving aggressively, therefore 116% of mothers are guilty of "speeding". Did I make a mistake? I'm only following the government's logic.
I think education should be the way forward, the NHS gives new mother courses (free I think) and part of this could include stating the obvious (look forwards when you are driving)
BTW I was rammed be a young mother in some sort of mini MPV who drove straignt onto a roundabout while turning to berate two children in the back of her car. It was pure luck that she hit my rear quarter and no the middle of the car (TVR S - no side impact bars there!)
BTW I was rammed be a young mother in some sort of mini MPV who drove straignt onto a roundabout while turning to berate two children in the back of her car. It was pure luck that she hit my rear quarter and no the middle of the car (TVR S - no side impact bars there!)
spunagain said:
I think education should be the way forward, the NHS gives new mother courses (free I think) and part of this could include stating the obvious (look forwards when you are driving)
The NHS already does postnatal classes for mothers. It doesn't offer driver training, and I don't think it should - it's not its place. Any NHS training would be of the same calibre as the information videos they show at postnatal things - formulated for the lowest common denominator and not taking into account anyone with a brain cell.
The one on teeth was just a glorified "look after your child's teeth" thing, with pictures of kiddies cheerfully forgetting they wanted cakes when daddy gives them a delicious apple to munch on. Because fruit, of course, doesn't contain sugar.
So keep the NHS out of it, IMHO. They have enough to do sorting out the postnatal classes they already run without complicating matters.
>> Edited by SGirl on Monday 22 March 13:16
Gassing Station | Motoring News | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff