Westhill - Kingswells

[ollie1903]

I'm sure those people can predict 'oh and 18month old has died', so I better not moan about traffic - I should just expect someone to be killed.

 

Absolutely tragic for the family and hope the mother pulls through, for all those concerned.

Best not saying anything then.

 

That directed at me? The accident was at 3, I left at 4, hadn't a clue what had happened so wind your neck in.

 

Anyway, such a shame. I travel on the road every day and you do get people cutting across the carriageway and leaving the back of their car on one of the lanes, got to watch yourself.

Not directed at anyone pal, just a generalisation.

 

I know both mother and father.

 

The finest couple you could ever meet.

 

This is fucking awful.

The elderly couple are the parents of a very close friend of mine, who many on here will know and at this time will not be aware.

[tup]

Heartbreaking, fatal accidents happen at this time of year, every year it seems.

 

I don't think there's anything that can be done about it unfortunately, but it leaves in it's trail a lifelong nightmare for those bereaved, especially where children are involved.

 

RIP.

[Dandyesque]

They should close all the gaps in the central reservation on that stretch - as has been campaigned for these last 10 years.

 

They reduced the speed limit from 70 to 50, but crossing 4 lanes of dual carriageway, going in 2 different directions just shouldn't be allowed.

 

Anywhere else in the UK and there'd be a flyover...

[Dandydon D]

The main roads in and out of Aberdeen are a joke.

 

I take my life into my own hands every night driving home from Kintore. The Junction at Marshall Trailors is horrific at 5pm. Cars darting across the dueller in all directions.

 

How there is at least not a 50mph zone at that are is beyond me. Sadly its only a matter of time before the next big accident at that junction.

 

Any other city would have flyovers built. Absolute joke.

[K-9]

The main roads in and out of Aberdeen are a joke.

 

I take my life into my own hands every night driving home from Kintore. The Junction at Marshall Trailors is horrific at 5pm. Cars darting across the dueller in all directions.

 

How there is at least not a 50mph zone at that are is beyond me. Sadly its only a matter of time before the next big accident at that junction.

 

Any other city would have flyovers built. Absolute joke.

Roads in general don't cause accidents. Drivers do. Some of the idiots on the road are an accident waiting to happen.

[vanderark14]

Roads in general don't cause accidents. Drivers do. Some of the idiots on the road are an accident waiting to happen.

 

correct, the dual carriageway going towards ellon is another place to see these idiots, especially at the Dyce trun off just after balmedie. So many people just drive out despite cars coming towards them at 60/70

[StandFree1982]

Not saying this was caused by idiot drivers BUT there are far too many dick heads on the road these days. Putting speed cameras, speed limits etc only do so much. They need to change the behaviours of the drivers first. How? fuck knows.

[Foster14]

Roads in general don't cause accidents. Drivers do. Some of the idiots on the road are an accident waiting to happen.

 

Mix of both really. There are certain roads which are accidents waiting to happen in certain conditions, where the risk could be reduced by lower speed limits and alternate road layouts. There are some dual carriageway right turns which barely have a space in the middle for one car, but somehow expected to get across without getting in the way.

 

As for the Westhill road crash, very sad.

[Foster14]

Not saying this was caused by idiot drivers BUT there are far too many dick heads on the road these days. Putting speed cameras, speed limits etc only do so much. They need to change the behaviours of the drivers first. How? fuck knows.

 

First and foremost I'd say teaching people how to drive before giving them a licence. Rather than teach them out to pass their driving test.

[Dandydon D]

Aye driving that road in the morning is a fucking bastard. Cars just seem to think you'll move over for them, they'll come out of the Tyrebagger and pop right into your lane, you have a car to your right in the overtaking lane, so you can't go into that lane - only thing you can do is slam on the brakes.

 

And the same with going home, you have folk jumping out at you from Marshall trailors to the right, and no further than 20 yards up the road - you have cars coming out of a junction to the left.

 

Not a good road at all.

 

One of the worst things is folk who pull out from marshall trailors to cut across and sit in the central reservation bit. The other night Some woman cut across to the central reservation and left about 1/2 her car sticking out into the fast lane. No option but to ram on the brakes and cut into the other lane. Riles me that. Common sense and thinking about other motorists is all it takes. See white van drivers do this all the time. Dont give a shit that half the van is sticking out into the carriageway.

 

It really does defy belief that section doesnt have any kind of slower speed restrictions. There is usually 4-5 really bad smashes there every year.

[tup]

Thing is you can do any number of improvements but you will not stop accidents from happening due to the human input.

[Dynamo]

Thing is you can do any number of improvements but you will not stop accidents from happening due to the human input.

 

 

Everyone always seems to be in so much of a rush these days. Nipping out in front of you when it's really not safe to, just to say 15 seconds on their journey.

[StandFree1982]

First and foremost I'd say teaching people how to drive before giving them a licence. Rather than teach them out to pass their driving test.

But the problem isn't knowing HOW to drive, it's the "I need to overtake anyone that is infront of me" mentality and "I need to get everywhere NOW".

 

Maybe increasing the age limit to drive? but this doesn't solve the problem of the 40 y/o in his Audi driving like a cunt.

Maybe putting in some speed limiter on cars where it uses GPS to tell what road you are on and then limits your speed? i'm sure there would be issues with that with regards to GPS signals being wrong, safety issues? who knows.

[Foster14]

But the problem isn't knowing HOW to drive, it's the "I need to overtake anyone that is infront of me" mentality and "I need to get everywhere NOW".

 

Maybe increasing the age limit to drive? but this doesn't solve the problem of the 40 y/o in his Audi driving like a cunt.

Maybe putting in some speed limiter on cars where it uses GPS to tell what road you are on and then limits your speed? i'm sure there would be issues with that with regards to GPS signals being wrong, safety issues? who knows.

 

My point was more that in doing your driving test, you are trained to do some manouveres (some of them pretty useless too), you are trained to deal with certain things and then once you get through you actually learn to drive. You learn to drive thereafter and in that you pick up bad habits, whether it be from peer pressure, poor role models or just being incapable of grasping how to deal with certain situations on the road.

 

You seem to be focussing on speed, but that is only one of many issues. I really don't know the answer to it either, but I just feel that getting your licence from a bit of general knowledge on driving theory and passing a rather routine driving test.

 

When I passed my test, I had neither driven at night anywhere other than in well lit towns, and I had never driven in overly wet, icy or snowy conditions. Who did I learn to do that from? Myself primarily, my dad perhaps a bit. That can't be good, is it?

[diamondsr4ever]

I think companies have a lot to answer for, to many staff are forced to work within a scheduled time frame, there should be more flexible hours, people shouldnt be docked wages if they are 5 mins late etc for work, doctors go mental if your 10 minutes late, airport checkins want you there bang on the money, everything we do in life is scheduled and set in stone and everything needs to be done now.

 

deliveries, taxis,buses,trains everyone goes bananas if they are a bit late, because were meeting for a pint at 7....dont want to be there at ten past.....

 

when your in europe, everyone gets on with it, no major rushes not sure on the stats for france, italy and spain to our roads?

 

just my opinion.

[Jonty]

I think companies have a lot to answer for, to many staff are forced to work within a scheduled time frame, there should be more flexible hours, people shouldnt be docked wages if they are 5 mins late etc for work, doctors go mental if your 10 minutes late, airport checkins want you there bang on the money, everything we do in life is scheduled and set in stone and everything needs to be done now.

 

deliveries, taxis,buses,trains everyone goes bananas if they are a bit late, because were meeting for a pint at 7....dont want to be there at ten past.....

 

when your in europe, everyone gets on with it, no major rushes not sure on the stats for france, italy and spain to our roads?

just my opinion.

 

Madrid/Bardelona are two of the busiest, congested cities for traffic I've been to. Likewise Paris. UK roads are statistically far safer than those on mainland Europe.

 

Not to say they can't be improved, as a tradegy like this proves.

[BrianFaePerth]

when your in europe, everyone gets on with it, no major rushes not sure on the stats for france, italy and spain to our roads?

 

Bergen is a bit bigger than Aberdeen, but has exactly the same problems with rush hour, despite there being no real pressure for most people to show up at work at a given time.

[GK55]

People just need to leave in plenty of time to get to your workplace, or anywhere they are going, in that given timeframe.

 

Far too many accidents happening on the road, and most of it involves time.

 

I was on an interesting HSE course lately (not the typical boring HSE course to my surprise). The instructor went round the room, and every person out of the 20 attended had had some form of accident, and 19 of them had to do with time! Was an eye opener.

 

RIP to the wee fella involved in last nights accident. Tragic, and a tragic time for it to happen, right before Christmas. That family's life changed forever last night.

[StandFree1982]

My point was more that in doing your driving test, you are trained to do some manouveres (some of them pretty useless too), you are trained to deal with certain things and then once you get through you actually learn to drive. You learn to drive thereafter and in that you pick up bad habits, whether it be from peer pressure, poor role models or just being incapable of grasping how to deal with certain situations on the road.

 

You seem to be focussing on speed, but that is only one of many issues. I really don't know the answer to it either, but I just feel that getting your licence from a bit of general knowledge on driving theory and passing a rather routine driving test.

 

When I passed my test, I had neither driven at night anywhere other than in well lit towns, and I had never driven in overly wet, icy or snowy conditions. Who did I learn to do that from? Myself primarily, my dad perhaps a bit. That can't be good, is it?

I don't necesseraly think speed is the major factor, it was just the examples I was using above. I do think you should be taught how to drive in different conditions as you mentioned. I only had one lesson at night and didn't do any driving until I was on my own in the snow, so that was an experience.

 

Things I would suggest however:

 

The elderly should have to retake their tests.

First time drivers shouldn't be allowed to drive powerful cars for a year after passing. (insurance prices have pretty much stopped this anywyasy!)

There should be more scenario based training when learning to drive. Basics first, conditions second and then looking at handling differn't scenarios on the road.

The advanced driving training/test should be mandatory.

 

Anyways, it's a tragedy that a young kid has lost his life on our roads. It seems these days that it takes fatalities for things to change on our roads.

[sooth_stander]

What really annoys me about this and another similiar roads is, when you are driving towards Aberdeen in the inside lane between Westhill and Kingswells, you can see folk waiting to get onto the carriageway from the Brodiach road, or the one before that which takes you to Westhill, and when you pass them, they give you a glower as if to say "Why didn't you pull over to the right hand lane so that I could pull out onto the inside lane"?

 

Cos there a facking artic lorry coming up my outside, that's why, or some numpty on a bike doing the ton!

 

I agree though. Driving standards are a lot worse in Aberdeen, with more agression and a lot less patience.

[InTaeEm]

I don't necesseraly think speed is the major factor, it was just the examples I was using above. I do think you should be taught how to drive in different conditions as you mentioned. I only had one lesson at night and didn't do any driving until I was on my own in the snow, so that was an experience.

 

Things I would suggest however:

 

The elderly should have to retake their tests.

First time drivers shouldn't be allowed to drive powerful cars for a year after passing. (insurance prices have pretty much stopped this anywyasy!)

There should be more scenario based training when learning to drive. Basics first, conditions second and then looking at handling differn't scenarios on the road.

The advanced driving training/test should be mandatory.

Anyways, it's a tragedy that a young kid has lost his life on our roads. It seems these days that it takes fatalities for things to change on our roads.

 

I couldn't agree more, although all this could be irrelevant to what really happened regarding this topic which we don't know yet, things such as advanced driving tests etc. should be mandatory, even with todays technology etc. Driving centres should/could/maybe already have been built, with the possibility to reinact every type of scenario we may face each year ie. snow, heavy rain, night time and the likes, I passed in December (please don't stereo type me as the usual 'young boy racer' because thats exactly what i am not) and even done my Pass Plus, which ok on the day I got tested as it was a long distance and happened to be pouring with rain for about 80% of it, but also passing in December meant I had to go out in snow a couple weeks after, I taught myself and learned from my brother but still I had no experience in it, thankfull had no problems, but it would benefit a lot of drivers, no matter what age they are or when they passed their test, if this sort of help/experience was more easily available.

[ollie1903]

Unfortunately, the elderly gentleman involved in this tragic accident has now also passed.

 

AC, my thoughts and prayers are with you and the family.

 

Sad, sad day.

[tutankamun]

Unfortunately, the elderly gentleman involved in this tragic accident has now also passed.

 

AC, my thoughts and prayers are with you and the family.

 

Sad, sad day.

 

That's tragic. I got the impression from the news reports that the elderly couple weren't that badly injured.

[diamondsr4ever]

Unfortunately, the elderly gentleman involved in this tragic accident has now also passed.

 

AC, my thoughts and prayers are with you and the family.

 

Sad, sad day.

 

fukk sake!

 

terrible news

[ollie1903]

That's tragic. I got the impression from the news reports that the elderly couple weren't that badly injured.

The family involved are close friends.

 

News reports can not be further from the truth

[tutankamun]

The family involved are close friends.

 

News reports can not be further from the truth

 

Sorry to hear that Ollie.

[GK55]

Tragic news that.

 

I cant see how this accident happened - head on collision they report, but both cars end on the same side of the road.

[Pash]

Terrible news, I also thought they were ok going by media reports, just sounded like they had minor injuries but were fine. Any news on the elderly lady?

[Dynamo]

Tragic news that.

 

I cant see how this accident happened - head on collision they report, but both cars end on the same side of the road.

 

 

Terrible news. No one should lose their life on the road.

 

I think maybe the old couple had come from the Vets and the women was driving into to town, and the car wasn't probably over onto the middle embankment and the car clipped it. That's what i read.

[ollie1903]

Sorry to hear that Ollie.

Cheers

 

Terrible news, I also thought they were ok going by media reports, just sounded like they had minor injuries but were fine. Any news on the elderly lady?

Critically ill.