Motorcyclists killed after 'driving on the wrong side of road'
DarkJedi
Posts: 321 Forum Member
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The families of three British motorcyclists killed last night in a horrific crash while on a touring holiday in Italy have said the trio were experienced riders.
The three, two men and a woman, collided head-on with a lorry carrying building material as they came out of a tunnel. A fourth woman survived the crash but is now hospitalised in critical condition.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1215480/Three-British-motorcyclists-killed-Italy-driving-wrong-road.html#ixzz0RwaDkvUz
The sooner we all drive on the same side in Europe the better.
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I think my satnav has a reminder about side of the road when abroad. It's not so obvious on a bike.
A bit of an overreaction - the vast majority of us dont have a problem switching to the other side of the road when the need arises.
Tell that to the drivers.
I agree, it is up to the individual to make sure they know the rules of the road in that country.
Changing over to the right hand side here because of an accident there, will cause all kinds of problems, and will probably cause many more deaths in the process.
Drivers - listen up:
When going to a foreign country - please check what side of the road you are supposed to be driving on.
Cheers!
True, and the group had been riding in Europe for a week beforehand, it's not as if they got straight off the plane and forgot about the fact that they drive on the other side of the road over there. It seems from the article that a confusing or badly signposted road layout may have been the cause.
However, for all four bikes to be hit at once, they must have been riding rather dangerously close together?
It seems to be more about the actual changing of the road from single to dual carriageway (or vice versa) and the poor signposting of that that seems to be the issue as opposed to a driving on the left or right problem.
But I'm also telling you, because you seem to think the solution to three people driving on the wrong side of the road in Italy is for the whole of the UK to switch.
Driven quite a bit abroad, it is very easy to forget which side of the road to drive on, especially when coming out of a junction, you automatically look the wrong way, did it mysself near Zeebrugge, on a bloody dual carriageway, turned right at some lights onto dual carriageway, completely missed keep right sign, proceeded to drive down left hand side of carriageway, saw motorcar coming other way on 'my' side, went ofver central reservation and luckily there was hardly any traffic or there could have been a seriosu accident, all for a moments lapse of concentration.
Or the whole of the rest of Europe to switch.
Well if you were stupid enough to introduce it like that then it would be chaos.
Could that have been Sweden?
Indeed. Why do we have to switch?
It's statistically safer to drive on the left, we're an island, we have 30 million right hand drive cars and a non symmetrical road system suited to the left (check junctions where they split into two lanes etc) that even if it was symmetrical, would cost trillions of pounds to change over
And it wouldn't be possible to simply turn off-ramps into on-ramps and vice versa, because the former and design for deceleration and the latter acceleration. So it would require almost every junction on the motorway network to be reshaped.
Result: not worth it in the slightest.
Samoa. They changed sides a week and a bit ago from right to left.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Samoa-Switch-To-Left-Side-Of-The-Road-Lane-Change-Sparks-Protests-On-South-Pacific-Island/Article/200909115376133?f=rss
Yup Sweden did it in 1967....
The UK drives on the correct side of the road. Historically traffic drove on the left. Europe drives on the right because they followed the French who only switched to be contrary, which is typically French.
Changing the UK to drive on the wrong side of the road would be a mammoth undertaking. All signs would need to be reversed, motorways and "A" roads would have to close while junctions are rebuilt, service stations would also need to be relayed out for access, car park barriers would be wrong, all bus stops would now face the wrong way and not forgetting the millions upon millions of now confused drivers who would be driving less safe cars.