Don't read this if you haven't time for a rant!!

[SteveyC]

This is why I want to leave the UK!!!

Some of you will know I had an accident recently with my family in the car, in which I wrote of my car. Here are the facts....
I was in a 30mph zone following an elderly gentleman in a ford focus estate. It was hammering down with rain after a week or so of hot dry weather and there were many large puddles on the road which I've traveled on hundreds of times. My back end snapped out causing me to veer across the road to the other side, I mounted the curb, clipped a telegraph pole, veered back across the road into a hedge. Police came took a statement from me and my wife and the witness who was the gentleman I was following.

2 Months later (this morning) I've got a letter through the post stating that if I did not pay ?140 for an advanced driving course I was going to be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.

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After ringing them, the onlything they could say was, send a letter explaining your point to the prosecution officer and the letter would be considered before going in front of a judge!!!

I did nothing wrong, why has this happened!!?? As if I don't have enough crap on my plate at the moment without being prosecuted for something I haven't done.

[MotherBear]

Stevey, sorry to hear about your accident. I sincerely hope you and your family came out of it without any injuries.

Do you have any idea why your car?s back end slewed across the road? It sounds like the police believe that you may have temporarily lost control of the vehicle under the extreme circumstances, hence their suggestion about the advanced driving course. This course is geared to training drivers to cope with difficult situations they might encounter on the road. If this is the case and you do attend the course, at least you will come out of it with something constructive whereas, if they insist on taking you to court and fining you (depending on the outcome, of course), it will leave only a gaping hole in your bank balance and no doubt slap some points on your license. I know you feel you didn?t do anything wrong ? it?s something that could happen to anyone under the circumstances unless they had prior knowledge of how to deal with such an emergency. Looking positively at the situation, if you do decide to take up the offer of attending the driving course, it could well benefit both you and your family safety wise in the future, not only in dealing with this type of unexpected occurrence, but also in the event you came across a dangerous situation caused by someone else?s driving. Taffy could explain better what goes on during one of these courses as, if I remember rightly, he undertook one some time ago.

This is only my view of why this has come about, taking into consideration what you?ve said in your post. I wasn?t there at the time, so you may see it differently. [img:f2ad90e851]http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/spezial/Fool/pom.gif[/img:f2ad90e851]

Mother Bear now runs for cover. [img:f2ad90e851]http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/spezial/Fool/ende.gif[/img:f2ad90e851]

[SteveyC]

Yeah I could totally see the benefit, if the letter I got was worded like that. I agree that although the cause of the accident may not have been my fault but the evasive action I took wasn't adequate. The letter was like 'do this and we'll let you off with a warning' which is an admission of guilt in my eyes. Also even if I could afford it, a forced ?140 fee is outrageous. Taffy's course was probably an advanced driving course where they teach how to handle the car in extreme circumstances and general awareness raising, but a defensive driving course I do not need as you can't get more defensive than doing the speed limit following at a safe difference on a country road on a sunday drive to the shops.
I'm not saying I'm an angel on the road (I drive an Audi 2.8 Quattro now :icon_biggrin: ) but this is how I know I was definitely going steadier than usual cos I have a direct comparison to the wahy I drive at other times.

What erks me about the whole culture of the UK now is the 'blame culture'. There's always someone at fault and the situation can always resolved long term. It's just not the case, that's the reason it's called an accident. There are countless examples of innocent people getting blamed for slipping up in the most minor way. It makes me really sad, like I wanna be a recluse for the rest of my life.

[Fi]

I agree Stevey. Sorry to hear about your accident. The UK is terrible for blame culture and not just blame but compensation culture has hit the roof, I mean it's ridiculous you can now sueanyone for anything basically and anyone can sue you for the same.

I was speaking to a friend of a friend the other day who told me a dreadful story which I might add is happening all too often!! He was burgled (whilst he was upstairs sleeping with his young family), the burgler in his haste ransacking the poor mans house tripped over on something and is now sueing the victim. What is the world coming to?!!!

:icon_eek: icon_exclaim.gif :icon_eek: icon_exclaim.gif :icon_rolleyes:

[selchie]

Yikes. For that kind of money they ought to let you drive the practical portion of the lesson in a fast car!

By your report, it does seem that if you can satisfactorily present your perspective on what happened, that they may waive the possibility of course or court. If so, good luck.

You could alway retract your statement, then locate the witness and get him to do the same. As i've been told by the police all too often after getting my car vandalised over and over.. no witnesses, no crime.

[MotherBear]

[quote:3e7d40f4b2="SteveyC"]
2 Months later (this morning) I've got a letter through the post stating that if I did not pay ?140 for [b:3e7d40f4b2]an advanced driving course[/b:3e7d40f4b2] I was going to be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.[/quote:3e7d40f4b2]
I was going on this when I advised it might be a good idea. Perhaps the defensive driving course comes under the umbrella of the advanced course? I don't know much about it. Whatever, I hope you manage to sort something out to your advantage, as 140 quid is a lot of money.

[SteveyC]

Yeah it's actually called a 'driver improvement course'. Read of that what you will. I'm gonna write a letter anyway explaining my point of view, at the end of the day no-one was hurt, no damage was done to other property (except a hedge and my own car), I was doing the speed limit it could have been petrol, aquaplane, a suspension fault anything other than pure driver error so I can't see how they could have enough evidence to support a claim of this nature even if it was valid. Let alone the fact that I was following another car at exactly the same speed and he was fine.

[moggy]

Advanced driving courses are good. I have done one on my bike. You may think that you know everything you need to know to drive on UK roads, but despite having held a driving license for 19 years, I still learned heeps doing it.

I understand how you feel about being made to do it, if you do it it is admitting that you are guilty.

[SteveyC]

YAY!!! Someone agrees with me. Thankyou Moggy, I am actually wanting to go on a course as i am stilll a bit baffled by the accident myself and don't like being out of control and never want to be left scratching my head again, so it's definietly one for the near future but these circumstances just aint quite right to take a chance.

Rant officially over unless they refuse my letter, see me at magistrates and convict me anyway with NO evidence :icon_evil:
Sure they will see sense when I tell them I'm a moderator of a very large and good international website don't you know!!! :icon_biggrin: