How? Just how?

What on earth…Man arrested after ‘driving wrong way’ on M20 as horror crash leaves woman seriously injured
The driver of a Seat Leon has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after colliding with another car Get daily news by email
A man has been arrested after ‘driving the wrong way’ on the M20 in a horror crash which left a woman seriously injured.
Drivers have described the moment they had to do a ‘double take’ when they saw a black Seat Leon travelling in the opposite direction to the London bound carriageway.
Police were called to the busy motorway at about midday after the car collided with another vehicle, leaving the passenger in that car seriously injured.
The Seat Leon driver sustained minor injuries in the crash, before being arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Both directions of the M20 were closed between junctions 11 and 10 with delays of several hours for diverted traffic.
The driver of a black Seat Leon has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving
A motorist, who was caught up in the incident, has spoken about the moment he saw the car coming towards him.
Paul, who did not want to give his surname, told KMFM: “I kind of had to do a double take. I thought I was seeing things.”
Kent Police are now appealing for witnesses to come forward, especially those who may have dash cams installed in their cars.
Police Constable Simon Masterson from the serious collision investigation unit said: “There will be a number of people who would have seen this incident, and potentially might have video footage from ‘dash cams’. “I would appeal for anyone who has any information that they think could be relevant to call us as soon as possible.”
Three ambulances were sent to the scene, as well as air ambulance crews, police and the fire brigade.
Ambulance spokesman Rich Airey said one woman was cut free after being trapped in the vehicle “for some time”. She was then taken to hospital with multiple injuries, but in a stable condition.
Two others were taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, one with a possible broken leg and the other with a hip injury.
The motorway was closed in both directions and was reopened by around 5pm.

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When will people learn. NO ALCOHOL!

Having been hospitalised and almost killed by a drunk driver, I have a unique view on these idiots. For the love of all that is holy JUST GET A TAXI. You’re not going to kill someone in a taxi’s back seat. 130 times over the drug-drive limit when he lost control of his car and killed his best friend is jailed for two years
 Friends were driving back from festival when car crashed and one died
 The driver had taken a cocktail of drugs and was way over the current limit
 Family of 22-year-old who died say his death ‘left a void in so many lives’
 Judge jails driver for two years after hearing he has become a monk
 Defendant’s father is a Tory councillor for Lindhead in Scarborough
Christopher Backhouse has been jailed for causing death by careless driving after he was found to be 130 times the current
drug-drive limit
The son of a former mayor was 130 times the current drug-drive limit when he lost control of his car whilst driving home from a festival and killed his best friend.
Christopher Backhouse, 26, had taken MDMA, ketamine, cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy during four-day event before he killed his friend Alexander Baron, 22, in a crash on the A64 in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. He admitted causing death of careless driving following the crash in August 2014 but was this week jailed for just two years – of which he will serve half behind bars.
Backhouse – who was also convicted of selling ketamine and cocaine in the months following his friend’s death – drove almost 300 miles with Alex and their friend Connor Johnson from the Boom Town Fair in Winchester back home to Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
But about 50 miles from home, he lost control of his blue Renault Clio and it ended up in a ditch.
North Yorkshire Police traffic officer Zoe Billings said his drug reading was ‘simply staggering’ and the highest the force had ever seen. Prosecutor David Bradshaw told the court: ‘Backhouse had 1.3microgrammes per litre of MDMA in his system – which in later legislation was deemed 130 times over the drive limit. ‘This was a near fatal and toxic amount. It is such a significant amount it would affect all aspects of driving.’ Backhouse tried to correct a swerve in his steering and narrowly missed a red Suzuki Swift on the road in front of him.
His car then went through a metal barrier and a fence and into a ditch.
The court heard Baron, who was in the back of the car, had ‘died instantly’ when a fence post had come through the back window and hit his chest. Connor Johnson received a broken neck and ankle. He added: ‘I also want to make this point Mr Baron was not wearing a seatbelt.’ The court heard the defendant is now working with ROPER – a buddist therapy clinic.
Sentencing Backhouse to a two year jail term, Judge Colin Burn said: ‘I know no sentence will bring Mr Baron back, and of course Mr Backhouse has been affected of what happened, but I need to do the duty of the court.’ Source: Mail on Line

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Well they didn’t do anything wrong.

I’d be worried about structural damage to the bumper myself but…Student hits a deer on his driving test… but still passes
A sixth-form student from Essex has passed his driving test at the first attempt, despite hitting a deer during the exam.
Tom Lo, 17, has told Newsbeat that he was about 10 minutes into the test when the animal ran across a road right in front of his car.
“I was picking up speed because it was a 60mph zone and all of a sudden I see a deer in front of me. “So I hit my brake but unfortunately the deer was killed,” he says.
It happened on a road near Colchester.
“I pulled over after the incident and my driving instructor had a look at the car and checked the deer. “He said there was nothing we could do and that it wasn’t my fault, so I was told to continue my test.”
Amazingly, Tom passed the driving test with two minor faults.
He’s told Newsbeat he was shocked after the accident but managed to hold it together for the rest of the exam.
“I was a bit shocked and I didn’t really know what to do. I tried to focus because I’d worked quite hard on my driving test.
“I tried to carry on driving to a high standard. At the end my driving examiner told me I’d passed and he had a word with my driving teacher to let him know what had happened to the car.”
Tom’s driving instructor Robert Jezierski, 56, said Tom was pretty quiet after being told he’d
passed his test.
“Most pupils, when they’ve finished the test and they’re told that they’ve passed – they have a big smile and put their thumbs up.
“But Tom just sat there quite quiet, obviously in shock at what had happened and a bit worried what I was going to say about the car. “It wasn’t that bad though. It cracked the number plate and there’s a split in the front valance that goes along about three inches.
“But it was very fortunate, the amount of damage.”

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How much?

The NHS amongst other services could do with that money.
£2.5m bill for
driving theory
test ‘fiasco’
Taxpayers have been left to foot a £2.5m bill after transport officials admitted bungling a decision over who should manage driving theory tests for learners.
Labour accused ministers of incompetence after they were forced to row back on a decision to hand the contract to LearnDirect from 2014 because they had failed to carry out proper checks on the company.
Pearson Driving Assessments, which currently owns the £30m a year contract, issued a formal challenge and were rewarded with a two-year extension to their current deal, meaning LearnDirect cannot take over until 2016.
The contract with LearnDirect was to be worth £20m-£25m per year, ministers confirmed, leading to accusations that the botched process could have cost the taxpayer up to £20m over two years.
Coalition officials insisted Pearson would operate the tests for a lower fee in 2014 and 2015, meaning the actual cost of the mistake will be closer to £1 million per year, but admitted the failed procurement process itself had cost more than £500,000.
It also means LearnDirect’s new testing system, which will offer candidates a wider range of test centres to choose from, has been held back for two years due to the paperwork error. Pearson previously admitted losing details of more than 3 million learner drivers in 2007 during a “routine” data backup procedure.
Mary Creagh, the shadow transport secretary, said Labour had written to the National Audit Office to demand a public review into the “financial fiasco”.
She said: “A year after the NAO concluded that there were severe management failures in the InterCity West Coast franchising process, the DfT have another contract shambles on their hands.
“Ministerial incompetence at the Department of Transport over the driving theory test procurement has cost the taxpayer up to £20 million over the next two years.”
A Department of Transport spokesperson said:
“The renegotiation of the current contract with Pearson to deliver driving theory tests up to September 2016 has delivered substantial savings, with similar savings achieved by the decision to move to LearnDirect delivering tests from 2016. The cost of the tests will actually be cheaper in 2014 than they were last year. It is simply wrong to claim the Government’s procurement has cost the taxpayer £20m.”

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Buzz lightyear 😂😂😂

And in other news.… as the two Ronnies used to say.
Buzz Lightyear wins battle over driving licence
A man who changed his name to Buzz Lightyear for charity has won a battle with the DVLA to have a driving licence in his new name.
Mr Lightyear, formerly Sam Stephens, had changed his name by deed poll but said the DVLA would not honour his request, citing reputational damage.
The 26-year-old from Devon, who also has a tattoo of the character, said he had now been issued with a new licence. The DVLA has yet to make a comment on the decision.
Mr Lightyear said he wanted to do “the most outrageous thing” possible to raise money for the children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent, and chose the Buzz Lightyear theme because Toy Story was his favourite childhood film.
As part of his fundraising campaign, Mr Lightyear got a tattoo on his leg, ran the Brighton marathon in April 2015 and signed the deed poll on the finishing line when he reached his target of £2,000.
“Cancer’s not the greatest thing and in children it’s horrible”, he said.
He said his original application to change his driving licence was rejected in May 2015, despite having sent the DVLA his legal paperwork. Mr Lightyear said he thought media pressure had encouraged the agency to change its mind and issue a new licence.
The electrical wholesale manager described how his new name meant he had struggled to book tables at restaurants, and had had online shopping orders cancelled, but would still do another “name-changing fundraiser”.
“I’m not married yet – I am looking for Mrs Lightyear”, he said

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Beyond road rage

Lock them up and throw away the key. ‘Lunatic’ driver banned for ramming car on motorway and
sending it spinning across two lanes of traffic
Dashcam footage shows Stephen Jack, 59, aggressively trying to undertake the Peugeot 3008 on the M6, but instead colliding with it
A road rage driver has been banned for ramming a car on the motorway and causing it to spin across two lanes of traffic.
Stephen Jack a self-employed electrical contractor of Hawthwaite Lane, Barrow , Cumbria, pleaded
guilty at Preston Crown Court to dangerous driving and failing to stop on Monday 4 April.
He was given a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, ordered to complete 150 hours community service, pay £295 compensation, £400 costs, an £80 victim surcharge and was banned from driving for 18 months.
Image: Cascade
Bob Hoton was driving in the fast lane (3rd Lane) southbound on the M6 at Charnock Richards near Leyland when a black Nissan pick-up truck began flashing its lights behind him.
Mr Hoton, 62, said the Nissan Frontera appeared to want to overtake but he did not move over because of other cars in the first two lanes.
However, seemingly the Frontier driver’s frustration got the better of him and after a dangerous attempt to undertake, he collided with Mr Foton’s Peugeot 3008, forcing him to spin and take refuge on the hard shoulder.
Mr Hoton, from Clitheroe in Lancashire, captured the incident, which took place at 6.58am on March 26 last year on a dashcam positioned inside his car.
He said: “I drive a lot of miles for my job, as a control system engineer contractor, and I see a lot of crazy driving, so I’d got the camera put in my car,” he said.
Mr Hoton was sent spinning into the hard shoulder by the force of the impact
“I saw him coming up behind me at speed, he started aggressively flashing his lights to try and get me to move over but there was traffic at my left. By the time it cleared, he had decided to undertake and ended up ramming into my car.”
Mr Jack said after his court appearance that the incident had been a “moment of madness”.
“It wasn’t a deliberate act on my part to crash into him,” the father-of-three said.
“I didn’t realise I had hit anyone. At the end of the day, things were quite stressful in my life at the time. My mother-in-law and father-in-law were living with us, they were both dying.
“The decision I made was the wrong one, it was a moment of madness.”
Source: Mirror

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Could you live with this?

How…
Young driver accused of causing death of fiancé just
EIGHTEEN days after passing her test
Charlotte Wassell, 20, has gone on trial after losing control of her Ford Fiesta with her partner Kailen Spreadbury and their nine-month-old son Freddie in the back seat
The young driver killed her fiancé and father of their child in a horrific head-on crash just 18 days after passing her driving test, a court heard.
Charlotte Wassell, 20, ploughed into a Vauxhall Vectra after losing control on a busy A-road, with her partner Kailen Spreadbury and nine-month-old son Freddie in the back seat.
She had been driving her Ford Fiesta at around 70mph when she careered into the central reservation but “overcompensated” when she tried to correct the steering.
Wassell has gone on trial of causing the death of Mr Spreadbury, 20, by driving carelessly, on March 1, 2014.
Opening the case, prosecutor Peter Clark described how Wassell’s actions caused the Fiesta’s rear end to swerve in an action called a yaw.
It ended up hitting the central reservation at a 90 degree angle and flew over the barrier in “mid-air.
Mr Clark said: “It would have looked to anyone at the scene as if it was flying through the air
“Miss Wassell was a very inexperienced driver who only passed her driving test 18 days before this horrible incident.
“The collision happened because of careless driving. Driving that was below the standard expected and that tragically set a chain of event. “The prosecution say, sad though it is, that is the inevitable conclusion.”
The car’s passenger side, where Mr Spreadbury was sitting, then hit a black Vauxhall Vectra travelling in the opposite direction.
Mr Spreadbury suffered multiple trauma, including a broken spine and organ failure, and was killed instantly.
The Vectra was being driven by Susan Fuller with Christine Wisby in the passenger seat, along the A1114 in Essex.
Mrs Fuller suffered a fractured sternum and shattered the bones in her lower arm in the crash. Ms Wisby also fractured her sternum and broke one of her vertebrae.
Miss Wassell, from Chelmsford, Essex, was seriously injured in the crash and was placed in an induced coma while she recovered from serious internal injuries and a broken pelvis.
She has since recovered from her injuries.
The couple’s son Freddie, then aged nine months, was sitting behind his mother and only suffered minor injuries.
Addressing the jury, Mr Clark said: “The defendant is charged with causing the death of Kailen Spreadbury. “She was then 18 and the deceased Mr Spreadbury, was 20. He would have been 21 in July of that year. “They were a couple. They had a nine-month-old son called Freddie and Freddie was with them in the car. “He survived the crash with just minor injuries and will be three this summer.
“Miss Wassell the defendant, incurred serious injuries as a result of this crash. At the time they were classified as life threatening.
“She has overcome these and is with us now. Two women were in the other vehicle also suffered serious injuries as a result of this incident.” “As the car approached the area where the two roads merge for an unknown reason the cars off side wheel struck the curb on the central reservation.
“The wheels should not have come into contact with that curb and that coming into contact with that curb is momentary in this case.”
Mr Clark explained that although momentary the collision had grave impact.
He explained that Miss Wassell was interviewed by police when she was well enough and had “no recollection” of crash whatsoever.
This has been accepted by both sides and she will be asked no questions about the crash.
Toxicology reports showed that she had no drugs or alcohol in her system and that day’s weather played no role in the crash.
Both of the cars involved in the crash had no defects and there was no blow out of a tyre before the crash, according to the prosecution. The central reservation barrier was examined and found to be slightly lower than it should have
been but this did not have any affect on the crash.
The Fiesta was travelling at around or just below the 70mph speed limit on the road and there is nothing illegal in the speed Miss Wassell was driving.
Mr Spreadbury was a talented footballer, having played for Chelmsford City Colts and at West Ham United and Chelsea FC’s academies until he was 14.
Hundreds of people attended his funeral and memorial football tournament when it was held shortly after his death in 2014.
He was described as a “doting father” by friends and nicknamed Joey Baddow for his similarity to The Only Way is Essex star Joey Essex.
The trial continues.

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Wrong way down a dual carriageway?

How? I mean HOW DO YOU GET THIS WRONG?
Driver caught on camera driving the wrong way on dual carriageway in Inverness
A dash cam has captured an extraordinary piece of driving in Inverness – a motorist driving the wrong way along a dual carriageway on one of the city’s busiest roads.
The footage shows a car driving the wrong way on the dual carriageway on the A82 Longman Road in the town. The car appears to have turned off the Harbour Road roundabout onto the wrong lane, heading back towards the Kessock Bridge.
Police are aware of the incident and have asked anyone with information to make contact.
As the vehicle filming the bizarre scene approaches, the black Vauxhall Corsa then makes a right turn across the carriageway into the car park of Longman House.
The footage was filmed from a dashboard mounted camera in the middle of the afternoon on Monday this week and has already received thousands of views on social media.
A spokeswoman for the police said that road policing officers have been made aware of the incident and urged anyone with information to make contact.
She added: “If members of the public have concerns regarding driver behaviour which is recorded on dash cams we ask in the first instance that they report them to the police. Social media is not regularly monitored and the best way to contact police with concerns is via 101.” Dash cams are becoming increasingly widely used and police last year charged a man after a near-miss on the A9 Inverness to Thurso road in February at the Tomich junction near Invergordon

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What makes a dual carriageway

First of all, what makes a dual carriageway? LANES, more than one I hear you say, you’d be mistaken. The central reservation (barrier, grass pavement, etc) that divides the carriageway (road) in two (dual) is the answer. If a national speed limit sign is in place then it 60mph on a single carriageway (no division of traffic other than white lines) or 70mph on a dual (separation of the two sides of the road by some physical barrier).

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Road rage

The difference between a “keyboard warrior” and your average person with road rage is the idiot in the car canard will kill or mame with over a tonne of vehicle. Count to 20 please. Road Rage: Motorists admit they are more aggressive to others once behind the wheel
More than half of motorists act more aggressively while driving than they would in person, according to new research.
Once behind the wheel, many motorists admitted shouting and swearing at strangers, but said they would not do so face to face.
A survey of more than 2,000 adult motorists found that:
 31% swore at strangers, but only 12% would do so in person
 26% shout at others, but just 12% would do so in person
 The survey also found that a third of drivers (33%) have beeped their horn aggressively
and 11% have deliberately tailgated another vehicle.
The top excuses for aggression behind the wheel, the survey found, include the belief that the other person probably cannot hear them, and feeling protected inside their car.
“Psychologists have known for years that cornered animals behave aggressively and being trapped in a metal box in heavy traffic can change even the most mild-mannered of drivers,” Neil Greig, from the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said. “Many motorists admitted to shouting and swearing when behind the wheel
Steve Barrett, from Churchill Car Insurance, which commissioned the survey, said motorists should try to be calm when face with aggressive behaviour.
“Remember that these frustrations often blow over as quickly as they arose, so it’s best not to give them any oxygen to escalate,” he said.
Psychologist Donna Dawson said the key to avoiding aggression is to not over-react. “If we became angry at every perceived injustice that occurred to us on the road we would damage our mental and physical health and probably end up in an accident,” she said. “The only way to make driving safe and more tolerable on our congested roads is to show each other patience and consideration.”

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