<PING> Kate

Posted by BEI Design on February 3, 2009, 3:47 am

This seems to be the year for extraordinary winter weather.
We (Pacific NW, USA) had 20" of ice and snow at
Christmastime, Sharon has just been through an awful ice
storm, and now the news is full of the record-breaking snow
in the UK. How are you doing?

Beverly

Posted by Kate XXXXXX on February 3, 2009, 4:09 am

BEI Design wrote:
show/hide quoted text
3" of snow had the eastern side of the UK in headless chicken mode! OK,
so there were sub-zero temperatures all day, and icy roads, but I'll
never understand why so many schools were closed!

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Posted by Kathleen on February 3, 2009, 10:08 am

Kate XXXXXX wrote:

show/hide quoted text
I can't speak to your particular situation but in our district a
substantial number of high scchool students drive themselves, siblings
and friends to school. And this is not a subset of drivers that you
want out and about in hazardous conditions.

My daughter was nearly killed last month. There was black ice but
district officials failed to cancel classes. A driver changed lanes
abruptly in front of her on one of the little bridges. She hit the
brakes, spun out. A glancing impact straightened out her trajectory -
lucky thing, too, or the truck would have rolled over as it went over
the 50 foot embankment.

The truck went down the slope like a sled. Brakes, e-brake, throwing it
into park, nothing had the slightest effect. It landed on its nose when
it hit bottom. My daughter had her harness on or she'd have gone right
through the windshield.

As it was, she was horribly bruised and bashed up. Fortunately for her
she had purchased and installed a fat, cushy memoryy foam steering wheel
cover only days before. When i got there you could still see her finger
marks, and the imprint of the bridge of her nose.

The hill was so ice-y that my daughter and the officer who came to her
aid had to take turns dragging each other up the slope. This was the
third accident on that bridge in less than an hour. The officer decided
to position his cruiser so as to force drivers to slow down but was
t-boned by yet another vehicle befor he could even get turned around.

Posted by Kate XXXXXX on February 3, 2009, 2:01 pm

Kathleen wrote:
show/hide quoted text

In the UK the earliest you can be out on public roads as a car driver is
17, so *most* 'young' drivers are older than that. In addition, cars,
insurance, road tax and fuel are all a LOT more expensive than in the
USA, so there are fewer school aged drivers on the roads. Schools often
have *very* limited parking - and very little on-street parking close to
them, so even staff don't always get a parking place, and students must
have permission from their school to bring a car. This leads to even
fewer school students driving to school on a regular basis. The biggest
problem is usually mums driving their brats walking distances to schools
- often less than half a mile where there are adequate footpaths! Minor
low speed shunts are the order of the day.

James gets the bus. It didn't run yesterday.

show/hide quoted text

Some folk are just plain stupid, and it's usually the innocent who pay.

Most cars these days in the UK are fitted with driver and front
passenger air bags, even small cars. Insurance is so horrific that very
*very* few folk under 25 and not in full time, well paid jobs can get
insurance for an SUV type vehicle.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Posted by The Wanderer on February 4, 2009, 2:51 am

On Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:01:59 +0000, Kate XXXXXX wrote:

show/hide quoted text

Living right opposite the local junior school, yes that really is the
biggest problem. The school itself is situated on a crossroads, and the
roads around the school are a no-go area from about 08.45 to 09.15. Mums
quite literally abandon their cars wherever they can, kids run
hell-for-leather in and out between the cars, mums are too busy chattering
to each other, and then if a driver happens to try and get through this lot
mums will shriek at kids for not paying attention when in reality it's they
who aren't paying attention.

All this is in a village that isn't on a rat-run to anywhere else, that
really does have only local traffic, where I've seen parents regularly
driving 200yds rather than walk, where school starts at 09.00 and
frequently parents turn up 5 minutes after. Small wonder that successive
generations are becoming more and more tardy over time-keeping. I'm also
left wondering how many young mums drive from school straight to the gym
for a work-out.

Yes, we knew the school was here when we moved, we don't have a problem
with the school, we do have a problem with the laziness of parents.
Needless to say, you all now know what really annoys us now......

Oh, and FWIW, we only has a very light covering of snow which quickly
turned to rain and nothing left at all. Dunno what all the fuss is about.
:-)

--
Richard

Have I understood what the other guy is saying?
Have I meant what I said? Have I said what I mean?

Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 > last >>

Similar Threads	Posted
Thank you, Kate.	December 12, 2006, 12:14 pm
Where's Kate??	August 8, 2008, 10:15 pm
Req...Kate please	July 9, 2005, 9:18 am
Ok Kate,...	December 9, 2009, 9:57 am
Mainly For Kate Dicey	March 5, 2006, 9:31 pm
Kate and other professionals........	April 1, 2006, 5:53 pm
Ping: Kate	June 7, 2009, 10:26 am
Whassamatta, Kate?	February 28, 2007, 11:03 am
[OT] Ping Kate	October 15, 2006, 2:41 am
Ping Kate	July 15, 2007, 7:12 pm