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A Tesco "Express" - makes it a perfeck tale!
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"Words of advice..." wonder what they were....?
Last edited by: R.P. on Wed 22 May 13 at 20:36
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Put more tonic in it at lunchtime?
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It seems quite common for people to accidentally drive into buildings. What sort of speed do they go at that these things can happen so suddenly and uncontrollably?
When I park at Tesco I approach the space cautiously, expecting hazards to appear at any moment. If my brakes failed I would simply roll forward at about 2 mph and would then apply the handbrake. Was this man parking at 50 mph and relying at doing an emergency stop just in time?
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What struck me as funny was the reporting of the automatic doors opening to let him in....
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>> What struck me as funny was the reporting of the automatic doors opening to let him in....
>>
Unusually it seemed to be a very slow happening which is also puzzling.
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Could it be another case of hitting the gas instead of the brake ?
When My Triumph 2000 was written off some years ago, the initial cause was a driver on the gas not the brakes. " My Brakes failed officer!" After I helped disentangle the culprits car the BiB tested the brakes and stated " The brakes are fine !
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>> It seems quite common for people to accidentally drive into buildings. What sort of speed
>> do they go at that these things can happen so suddenly and uncontrollably?
>> When I park at Tesco I approach the space cautiously, expecting hazards to appear at
>> any moment. If my brakes failed I would simply roll forward at about 2 mph
>> and would then apply the handbrake. Was this man parking at 50 mph and relying
>> at doing an emergency stop just in time?
Its an auto, he pressed the gas rather than the brakes. My mother did it and demolished the trolley shelter in Waitrose.
She swore the brakes failed as well. They always do.
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Odd really, most automatics have brake pedals the same size as a small tea tray...
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>> 73
>>
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mayor-pictured-driving-through-tesco-1903788
Mr Buckle said he spent two years as a bus driver in London, later becoming an instructor for other bus drivers.
The Conservative councillor, who now plans to give up driving, says it is the first accident he has caused in 56 years on the road."
From the DT
He said that he came into the car park at normal speed, dropped into first gear and went round into the disabled space.
"I put the brakes on and all of a sudden the car shot forward for no apparent reason,
so maybe not the normal auto reason?
Last edited by: henry k on Wed 22 May 13 at 22:45
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>>so maybe not the normal auto reason?
Get a grip of yourself man - how could it possibly shoot forward 'for no apparent reason' if he put the brakes on.
:)
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>> The Conservative councillor, who now plans to give up driving, says it is the first
>> accident he has caused in 56 years on the road."
I wonder how many accidents he had seen going on around him?
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>> From the DT
>> He said that he came into the car park at normal speed, dropped into
>> first gear and went round into the disabled space.
>>
"I put the brakes onpressed the accelerator by mistake and all of a sudden the car shot forward for no apparent reason,
The normal auto reason.
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>> 73
>>
>>
Not old then. ;-)
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Having spent a week abroad driving a manual hire car, no problem, I came back to UK and used my automatic car. At one point on day one I forgot which car I was in and pressed the left pedal to change gear! Of course it was the brake and my partner gave me her views on this, once she had got her face off the windscreen. I am a Senior BTW!
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>>At one point on day one I forgot which car I was in and pressed the left pedal to change gear!
I've never owned an auto. I've done this every time I've driven one, invariably stopping short of the first junction.
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The only thing I see described in the reports as automatic is the shop door, although it's hard to see how a manual car could have done this.
In a 'my brakes have failed' situation, I suppose the natural response is to compound the error by pressing harder on what the driver imagines is the brake pedal.
Perhaps this is why my automatic, as well as its tea-tray brake pedal, has the accelerator positioned further to the right than I've been used to in manual cars: to create unmistakably different feels for the two pedals. Doesn't stop me keeping my foot well away from it when it's only the brake hold keeping the car stationary.
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I know this Tesco Express very well - it is about three hundred yards from our house. It is impossible to approach at speed because of the necessary turn in from the road though a narrowish entrance. It is a small, busy car park where tight manoeuvring is inevitably required and actually, I prefer not to use it because of this very reason. I usually cycle down to the shops but, if I am in the car, I use a more spacious car park some 40 yards away across the road.
This car park is made for the classic 'older person not reacting properly in an automatic' scenario. It happens all the time in Bury St Edmunds ........... lovely place though, and worth the risk!
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Perhaps rather than universal re-testing of older drivers they should simply be banned from driving automatics?
Automatics, despite their name, appear to need a greater degree of mental and physical coordination than manual cars.
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You know the answer of course, that would fix all this, according to the hatted Guru.
LFB
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"You know the answer of course, that would fix all this, "
Make everyone use bicycles?
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>>
>> LFB
>>
Yes, but the difficulty seems to be the necessary de-coordination required after a lifetime of using the LF for the clutch.
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Why not simply ban older drivers from driving, period.
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>> Why not simply ban older drivers from driving, period.
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Older, as in "Your age + 20" ?
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>> >> Why not simply ban older drivers from driving, period.
>> >>
>>
>> Older, as in "Your age + 20" ?
Seems fair.
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I've driven autos for decades so if I'm unfortunate enough to still be around in 20 years I'd have no more trouble driving an auto than you would a manual car.
But someone at an advanced age changing their car from their usual manual gear change to an auto, well, we have seen the result of that from time to time, although it is still a rare occurrence I'll wager.
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As I posted earlier....
From the DT
He said that he came into the car park at normal speed, dropped into first gear and went round into the disabled space
How many auto drivers " drop into first gear" ? especially on the flat.
Was it in fact a manual gear box not an auto ?
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>> Was it in fact a manual gear box not an auto ?
>>
Ok, it was a manual gearbox. But if you are in first gear on the flat and the brakes fail the car would creep forwards at walking speed unless you press the accelerator, or unless there is both an accelerator AND a brake fault.
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It still "shot forward"
Brake failure does not "shoot forwards"
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"..............although it is still a rare occurrence I'll wager."
I'd wager it's a pretty common occurrence and rarely reported generally because it usually happens at low manoeuvring speed and the only damage is dented cars and injured pride. It only reaches the papers when e.g. it's the mayor ending up in Tesco's or, in another local incident, an old lady driving into a hospital's fish pond. When an old boy managed to write off 5 cars (including a friend's) in a car park in town, it didn't even make the local rag.
The latest report in the Bury Free Press (local paper, and fount of all knowledge) says that the mayor's car was an automatic.
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He was probably a smoker who had run out of cigarettes and just couldn't get his next "fix" fast enough. He maybe thought it was a drive-in store.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Thu 23 May 13 at 10:00
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Maybe he needed an oil change and misunderstood what the self service tills are actually for.
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I drive an auto, SWMBO drives a manual.. I swap cars frequently. I am a senior citizen.
Does this entitle me to a free wash crash and write up in the Daily telegraph.
(Or is that only for swivel eyed loons? :-)
Last edited by: madf on Thu 23 May 13 at 11:51
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>> He maybe thought it was a drive-in store.
>>
I remember a launderette in Wandsworth in 1981 which claimed to be "drive-in".
It wasn't, they just thought it was a trendy name to use, but I always had this insane urge to have a go.
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We, well, that is not me of course, in fact no one I knew particularly well, or at all really...
...once managed to drive our maths teacher's Austin Champ up two flights of stairs at lunchtime and park it in his classroom on the day we, that is 'they' of course, were leaving school.
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Parking at/in Tesco - Roger.
