My Writings. My Thoughts.
Absence of taillights in trucks
// May 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Safety Concerns, Traffic tales
Absence of taillight which serve as caution indicator is the major hazard in traffic control . Especially in the nights the vehicles that follow the trucks often find it difficult to locate the trucks moving ahead. This is a major cause for many accidents to occur during the night time on the highways. when the trucks are parked on the highways without lights it becomes unnoticeable other vehicles and some of them may crash onto the stationary trucks. even when the trucks are moving it is still dangerous for trucks coming at back for they will not have clear vision of traffic behind them. this leads to many accidents as drivers commits error in terms of judgment,distance and speed.
Overspeeding
// April 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Machismo and Motor sports, Safety Concerns, Traffic accidents
Generally most people love to drive. Man has always exhibited a passion for driving. We could even call it a craze. Many people derive great pleasure from driving. Usually more men than women take to driving for pleasure and fun. Racing is a much fancied sport the world over. International car rallies are another popular sport. The drag racing and stunt shows are other events that generate immense spectator interest.
Pressing on the accelerator pedal gives thrill to many a driver. Perhaps gaining instant velocity is an experience most drivers enjoy. Though it is purely a mechanical arrangement most drivers try to give the impression that it is an exhibition of their driving skill. They seem to be oblivious of the fact that the same acceleration can be achieved even by a kid or old man or woman, for all it needs is to press a lever. The drivers want to maintain speed and more speed for an extended time and distance without having to cut the speed. We may call it crazy. But it is very much true of many motorists both young and old, whether man or woman.
“It’s the ‘zing’ thing”, “0 to 60 Km in 10 seconds”, “it’s time to take the pole position” , “Living on the edge” are some of the advertisements that are put up by car and motorcycle manufactures to attract peoples imagination. They look very much forward to exploiting man’s love for speed, power, ruggedness, spirit of adventure and thrill. All these visuals and commercials unconsciously influence a man’s disposition to driving. And fast cars add to the fun, thrill and danger all the more.
Watch this video to understand the possible consequences:
Traffic in Dubai
// April 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Safari Drive
Whilst Dubai has a great road network with 8 and 10 lane highways (or more on some stretches), the standard of driving in Dubai can be abysmal at times. The death toll on Dubai roads is one of the highest in the world per head of population, no doubt this is exacerbated by the prevalence of powerful expensive cars and opportunities to drive them fast. It doesn’t help that 80% or more of Dubai is expatriate with a wide range of nationalities represented – anyone who has travelled out of their home country will immediately notice that driving standards and habits vary the world over. Assume that every bad habit you’ve ever seen is imported into Dubai and you’ll get the idea. Road accident statistics for 2006 are about 1 death and 8 injuries per day for Dubai, or 20 deaths per 100,000 population (compared to about 6 per 100,000 for the UK and Sweden). A few more statistics for the end of 2007 (for the UAE overall, not just Dubai):
• 2.35 million driver licence holders (and only 161,000 women which should delight all those male chauvinists out there)
• 1.7 million registered vehicles
• 6800-7000 major traffic accidents in 2007, approximate breakdown is:
o Abu Dhabi – 2200
o Dubai – 1800
o Ras Al Khaimah – 950
o Sharjah – 780
o Fujairah – 570
o Ajman – 280
o Umm Al Quwain – 170
• 830 traffic related deaths in 2007 (878 in 2006)
• According to Colonel Gaith Al Za’abi, Director of Traffic Department at the UAE Ministry of Interior (Gulf News report 13 January 2008), 25% of accidents in 2007 involved UAE nationals, 49% involved Asians, and 19% involved Arab nationals. A percentage figure for western nationalities was not given in the report.
Future Cars
// April 8th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Future Cars
Cars on Tomorrow’s Assembly Line
The so-called driverless cars — all equipped with sensors, radars, cameras, computers and communicators that allows them to maneuver its way on roads and through traffic with very little human assistance was recently featured by CNN. These driverless vehicles still have the usual automobile parts like the Mercedes radiator. The new parts that will make the difference and constitute the new technology will be the sensors and more sensors.
These sensors will be placed on the several vital parts of the vehicle to be able to monitor the movements of the car. Many cars of today already feature many sensors for controlling various provisions in the car. Some sensors check what the car is doing when the wheels turn. Another one monitors the movements of the wheels. There are brake sensors that time the spin of each wheel and there are sensors on the airbags which will trigger the airbags if and when a dangerous impact occurs.
These sensors fitted not only to watch over the behavior of the car but also to monitor how the various systems work or react with another. The sensors are also equipped to monitor the actions and behavior of the driver as well. It studies the driving style employed by the driver like the hardness of pressing upon the gas pedal and the manner of turning the steering.
The radars are designed to monitor the outside movements. The back-up applications will be the most known and most common of these components. These are the ones that warn you if the car is getting dangerously close to colliding with other cars or even to people. There will also be the active cruise control which will enable the driver to set a maximum speed for the car and ensure maintaining safe distances from the other cars on the road.
Although most of these cruise control systems are designed on highway speed mode, Continental Tevis has actually designed a system for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class that will work to slow speed mode and even put the car to a stop. So if the traffic situation is bumper to bumper there is no need to push the brake pedal on and off, as the car will be able to stop and go on its own. This unique feature of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class will lessen usual crashes associated with tailgating.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class line will use infrared camera and infrared light source for better night vision. The actual road condition can be viewed in green-and-black on a monitor on the dashboard. Furthermore, these cameras will monitor if the vehicle starts to go beyond the bounds of the lane that it occupies. By sounding an alarm, the driver will be warned of this occurrence.
The information that are received by the sensors, the radar and the camera will be fed in to the computer which will in turn calculate and assess the proper action that the car should make when it faces certain conditions. The computer will also function as a memory device which stores the information it has received so that in the event that a collision or a crash occurs, investigators can easily determine what went wrong. In some cars, the computers will actually manipulate and control the actions of the other parts of the vehicle to prevent accidents further.
Another of these devices is the Global Positioning System (GPS) or the telematic system, which enables the driver to communicate with other people and even to computers especially when the need arises. This system will use the satellites to be able to know and ascertain the exact location of a car. Studies are still going on for the advancement to give this system the capacity to communicate directly with one another.
The overall benefit of this new technology on cars is of course lessening road accidents and taking care of the passengers in cars. These driverless automobiles hold the promise of higher speeds and lower fuel consumption. The future will tell. And for now we have enough fuel for thought!
The College of Law on compensation for racist attacks, joint bank accounts and the dangers of crossing the road
// March 2nd, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Traffic accidents
Last April my news agency, like others in my area, was criminally damaged by a petrol bomb thrown into the shop. The attack was clearly racially aggravated. How can I claim compensation for this damage?
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme unfortunately covers only personal injury caused by crimes. If you were in Northern Ireland there is a special scheme for malicious damage to property caused by terrorism or unlawful assemblies of three or more persons, (Criminal Damage (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977). The 1998 Omagh bombing, for example, caused £8 million damage, of which more than half has now been compensated. However, there is no equivalent for the rest of the United Kingdom.
Clearly you must consult your own insurance policy. However, malicious damage would usually be considered a special peril so may well not be covered by standard policies. Otherwise a compensation order can be made against the perpetrator when convicted. As you rightly point out racially aggravated attacks carry stiffer penalties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the police are under a correspondingly higher duty to combat them.
Thinking about wills, I understand that joint house ownership involves a document that declares a Severance of Tenancy. But what about joint bank accounts and share ownership?
Clearly you can close the account in joint names and open separate accounts. Equally, you can submit a request to your bank for a new mandate to hold the account as tenants-in-common. However, do think about this because joint accounts help the survivor to access funds after the others death. Equally, you can, by using the requisite forms, split the shareholding and reregister separate shareholdings in the company. Otherwise you can still do a declaration of trust that the shares are held as tenants-in-common, without any need to register this.
A pedestrian, when crossing a road, which was otherwise clear of traffic, had an accident with a cyclist. It was evening and the cyclist, who had no lights or bright clothing, came so fast he did not see him. When braking he fell off. They both made statements to a policeman but one week later my friend received a solicitor’s letter claiming compensation on behalf of the cyclist and asking for insurance details. Is my friend the pedestrian liable?
A pedestrian or cyclist certainly has a duty of care to other road users so your friend may be liable for negligence in crossing the road without due care. There may, however, be contributory negligence by the cyclist in riding too fast and not wearing brighter clothing. A court may apportion this at 50 per cent and give the injured party only half his compensation and in negotiations between insurance companies this may well be the likely conclusion. Unfortunately, however, whereas motorists must have insurance cover, this is unusual for other users. Certainly some cyclists do have insurance cover for claims against them (for example, through the British Cycling Federation). However, anyone with household insurance (including other members of the household) should have public liability cover including claims against them when walking or cycling. Your friend should check this and tell the solicitor. If there is no cover it may not be worth his client suing him in any event.
