Idiocy on the roads

This is for pedestrians as well as drivers. Basically I was inspired by two stories/clips on the BBC website, one which showed some idiot schoolboy from Scotland trying to jump over a metal fence onto a main road and getting hit by a bus and another which shows some stupid Swedish twins running across a motorway and one of them getting levelled by a lorry. I just thought it might be interesting to see what we can come up with clip wise for moronic behavour on the roads.

These are those BBC clips:

The Swedish twins: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7636577.stm

The idiot schoolboy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7598674.stm

No idiots were killing in the making of these clips, but they were seriously wounded.

I think the UK thinking and, say, the US thinking of road safety is really different. I mean, in the US the responisibility of the safety of the pedestrians is on the driver, meaning if someone darts out in front of them they stop. In the UK the general idea seems to be that you have your crosswalks, use them; otherwise get the fuck out of my way. Now! I love that kind of thinking more, personally, so Australia may have adopted it.

In Taiwan it's "I can't be bothered walking to the side walk, I'm going to cross here. Stop for me while I walk across slowly." You ever been to China-town anywhere? Then you probably know what I mean.

As someone who has been learning to drive in the UK for the last year or so I can tell you that my driving instructer put a lot of emphasis on the fact that it is the drivers responsibilty to stop for any idiot who want to cross the road wherever the hell they feel like.

Motorway stuff is different because there are no pedestrians allowed on the motorway! And that aside, what kind of braindead moron do you have to be to try to cross a motorway?!

That schoolboy was the one that got me though. I cant help but wonder what went through his mind when he did that. If there is one place I would never even consider trying to jump a fence like a hurdle its on a main road...that or at a railway junction but its the same kind of danger.

In parts of San Diego county, there are signs on the freeway warning of pedestrians possibly running across the freeway. There was a time, about 20 years ago (and yeah damn I'm old) when illegal immigrants were fleeing across the freeway to get away from border patrol. Sad stuff and scary as hell for the drivers.

When I am a pedestrian, unless I am at a pedestrian crossing, then I give way to cars, cars are bigger than you, you don't take on something bigger than you, it's pretty simple. As a pedestrian I think you should be on the look out for cars, as cars aren't always on the look out for pedestrians, especially if you're crossing the road somewhere strange where a car wouldn't expect you to cross. I also think its dangerous for cars to give way to pedestrians when they don't have too/ not supposed too, it holds up the flow of traffic unexpectedly and can cause a car accident.

I guess its just a case of everyone paying attention to everything they do on the roads, whether you're a pedestrian or a driver. it's common sense in most cases, but sadly a lot of people don't have a lot of common sense.

If you want to see some moronic behaviour on the road go to Rome or anywhere in Greece that's really scary stuff

For all the chaos on the roads in China and a lot of Asia in general, there seems to be no organisation, no traffic laws, no rules, but you don't see a lot of accidents. Some how they make the crazy work.