Although this proposal, as reported in today’s Daily Mail, may at first seem worrying for the elderly driver, I’m sure most people would agree that it makes sense to ensure both eyesight and mental skills for the elderly are fit for the purpose of driving.  Driving is a potentially dangerous activity, and we should all take care to avoid driving if unfit in some way.  This can include our emotional and our mental states, as well as physical fitness.  At no matter what age any one of us can be struck down with a mental illness, such as depression, which temporarily makes us unfit to drive, and we should each be responsible enough to accept that, just as we would have to if we broke a limb.  Therefore, although these measures might at first appear to be discriminatory towards the elderly, it is a sad fact of life that our mental faculties, as well as our eyesight, do decline with age.  However, just as we know we can improve our brain power with mental exercises, so all of us can do something to maintain our driving ability by raising our standard of driving whilst we are still young, and ensuring we have regular refresher lessons, at least every 10 years, to help us to retain that ability.  Any driver over the age of 55 can have reactions as fast, often faster, than someone much younger if they have learned to spot and react to any potential hazard much earlier, thereby cancelling ‘thinking time’ from the stopping distances table.  Make sure you are a proactive, as opposed to a reactive driver.  And do ensure you have regular eyesight check-ups and that you wear your glasses if prescribed for driving - you know it makes sense!

Click on this link to read the full Daily Mail article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=510738&in_page_id=1770

Driving from East Dereham in Norfolk to Cambridge last Friday was not one of the most enjoyable drives I’ve had.  Why?  Well first of all weather conditions were atrocious, rain shrouded in mist creating a kind of wet fog, so visibility was poor.  But worst of all a small minority of drivers had failed to put their lights on!  As a result they were virtually invisible, making the potential for a crash to happen on the road ahead much higher.  The golden rule must be, if you see the majority of drivers have their lights on, you become far less visible because of the light around you, so switch yours on too.  Even in daylight, heavy rain and mist-shrouded rain vastly reduces visibility so switch on your lights (but not front fog/spot as the light from these can add glare from reflection on the wet surface, so adding to the danger!).

In wet weather stopping distances are doubled, so increase your following distance to 4 seconds - use a static object, such as a lampost, and start counting as the vehicle ahead passes this object; if you reach the same object before you’ve finished counting you’re too close, so increase your distance by slightly easing off the throttle.

Tip:

Count in 1000s, 1000, 2000 etc or say the sentence “Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule” twice.  You need to say it at a steady pace, don’t gabble!

In many ways driving in rain can be more dangerous than driving in snow as other drivers fail to recognise the dangers associated with rain, so fail to adjust their driving.  Read our tip on driving in floods for information on aquaplaning.

With so much rain around our roads are fast becoming flooded once more!  The ground is still saturated so even a relatively small amount of heavy rain can quickly cause severe flooding.  When you are faced with driving in these conditions, the following advice will help to keep you safe and keep your vehicle going:

• Take your time when you have to negotiate a flood/deep water.  Stop and assess how deep it is first.
• Drive in first gear as slowly as possible but keep the engine speed high and steady by slipping the clutch.
• Keep to the highest part of the road, ie the middle or ‘crown’ of the road.  For this reason, do not try to negotiate the flood if another vehicle is coming towards you as you, or the other driver, could be forced into deeper water.  
• Never ‘take a run’ at the flood in the hope your speed will get you through!  Quite the opposite will result as this is a sure way of getting water into your engine which could cut out.  On some vehicles serious engine damage can be caused if water finds its way into the air intake. 
• Always consider other drivers as well as yourself - do not drive at a speed which will cause water to be thrown up all over their vehicle as you may cause them to break down.
• Although some diesel engines will tolerate a little water, many modern fuel systems are electronically controlled and therefore affected by water.
• Even small amounts of water splashed onto the electrical components of a petrol car can seriously affect the engine. 
• In residential and shopping areas, do please consider pedestrians on the footpaths - try to avoid puddles at the side of the road, they may well be very deep, but if you can’t avoid them because of oncoming traffic, then please drive slowly through them - don’t soak the pedestrians Brigitte Jones style!

Aquaplaning:

This is what can happen when driving at speed in very wet weather.  It is caused by a build up of water between the tyres and the road surface - your vehicle is literally floating on water!  Your first indication of this is when your steering suddenly feels very light.  When this happens you have no control over braking or steering so do not attempt to brake or to steer.  Release your pressure on the accelerator and hold the steering wheel firmly until you regain control.  The higher your speed, the more likely you are to aquaplane.  Even at lower speeds, if your nearside wheels hit a patch of deep water, your vehicle may swerve because of the additional resistance on that side.  Therefore, keep your speed down and avoid deep puddles at the side of the road if at all possible.  Look well ahead so you can do any necessary braking before you reach the deep water.

In these wet times, stay safe!

Following the sad, sudden loss of SafeSpeed campaigner, Paul Smith, I should like to let all readers know that Paul’s partner of 24 years, Claire, has vowed to continue the campaign and so I would urge all interested in seeing a return to, in Paul’s words, “sensible road safety policies”, to join the campaign at: http://www.safespeed.org.uk

The following is contained in the latest SafeSpeed newsletter and I thought it appropriate to include here:

And in parting Paul recently created the 100 word Highway Code :
With every edition the Highway Code gets bigger. The latest edition recently published, has swelled to 133 pages. The Safe Speed campaign says that this ‘bloat’ is causing the
essential safety messages to get lost and has produced their own version of the Highway Code in just 100 words.

Safe Speed’s Highway Code in exactly 100 words:
================================================
Drive on the left.
Make sure you can see and be seen.
Keep a constant look out all around.
Be aware of signs and regulations and why they are there.
Be predictable.

Recognise and anticipate danger and keep clear space from it.
Always ensure that you can stop within the distance that you know is clear.
Develop your skills.

Give courtesy, co-operation and space to others. Don’t obstruct them.

Never take risks, drive unfit or compete with others.

Safety is paramount and far more important than priority.
Take personal responsibility for your safety and the safety of those nearby.

Enjoy.
==================================================

Safe Speed founder Paul Smith explained: “We’re not seriously suggesting that
the official Highway Code should be replaced with just 100 words of advice to
drivers, but the reason we have done this is deadly serious. We need to point
out to Department for Transport that they have lost sight of the essential
foundations of road safety, and their new Highway Code further loses sight of
these foundations in a morass of rules.”

“You cannot replace skilled human judgement with a rule book - however big it is
- but that’s exactly what Department for Transport is trying to do.”

“Our Highway Code even includes things that the official version does not. For
a start it reminds people that road use can be enjoyable. Without that
enjoyment we wouldn’t have the interest to develop the skills that safe use of
the roads requires.”

“Another problem is that the Highway Code tells us what to do, but not how to
decide when it is safe. We need to recognise danger and develop our skills for
that.”

“We hope that these founding principles will help road users everywhere - not
just drivers - to focus on what’s important and stay out of trouble.”

“Some of the statements may not be immediately obvious to inexperienced road
users, but all the common crash causes are covered. When we get it right we
don’t crash - but in order to get it right we need the right beliefs, the right
skills and the right attitude. When things go wrong - think back to your last
incident - and you’ll probably be able to recognise the cause of the incident
in those 100 words. Did you fail to spot the danger? Did you take a risk
knowingly? Were you unfit through tiredness, drink or drugs?”

“Use this code, learn from your mistakes and use the roads as safely as you
possibly can. It’s enjoyable to do so.”

We should like to wish all readers a very happy, healthy and safe 2008.  With severe winter conditions forecast over the next few days we thought you would like to be given as much help and advice as possible with winter driving - please see our previous tip on this topic and click on the following link to the ‘Brake’ website, where you will find lots of advice and links to other organisations for even more!  When it comes to road safety, you cannot have too much advice!  http://www.brake.org.uk/index.php?p=602