8 killed on the roads

MrJoeSoap

I could be wrong but the accident in donegal today/lastnight where 1 young man was killed, that car when i saw it on the news just screamed boy racer to me

Not the greatest image ever but I'm inclined to agree.

69 mustang

If Government really cared about the loss of life on the roads speed traps would be on back roads. With our grey weather and lack of good roads lights should be fixed on dips at all times [not like cars you see at dawn with maybe 5watt side lights on ] as most of our road deaths are head on usually over taking miss judged.
As 2cars traveling at 40KPH meeting head on is the same as hitting a wall as 80kph.

RicardoSmith

True. There make a show and dance about it, but they take little real action.

Capt'n Midnight

junkyard wrote:

Firstly, I think the speed limits are unrealistic, the're too low! In my opinion the limits are that way as an excuse for poorly maintained and badly designed roads. Secondly I think that any major accident is caused by excessive speed, inexperienced drivers and cars with modified engines, but no modifacations to brakes and suspensions. I think that seatbelts have the're limitations too, in the event of a major accident I don't think they save anyone, if anything they trap you in the car and this is a major problem if the car catches fire.

Holy crap, I didn't think anyone still believed that jibberish.

Speed limits too low
99% of drivers break the 30mph limit in some areas, it's a fact of life that too many drive above a safe speed considering their capabilites and the conditions - changing the legal limit won't change the behaviour of the worst offenders unless the law is enforced.


causes of crashes
Read your own post - you say that you think that excessive speed is a contributory factor in accidents just after saying you want the limits upped !

400 people a year die on our roads, not to mention the number of other incidents where cars are written off. Basic forensics like looking at skid marks and the car itself would have figured out that by now and made it highly illegal and the insurance companies would have premiums to match on modded cars.

seat belts]/b]
Lobby groups might complain about seat belts but I defy you to find a similar attitude amongst the people who pick up the pieces. If you find any government site or independent national road safety organisation or the AA or RAC suggesting that seat belts don't save lives please feel free to post.

If a car catches fire - then a non wearer if they haven't banged thier head and rendered them selves unconcious or injured themselves or got jammed down in the seat well might get out 1-2 seconds faster than someone wearing a seat belt, as long as the car hasn't rolled.

As for Airbags - they are designed to be used WITH seatbelts, not as a replacement for them. In fact if you arent properly seated when it goes off there is a small chance it will do more harm than good. - perhaps wire the airbag to only go off if the seat belt is fastened. Oh yeah air bags take longer to deflate than it takes to take off a seat belt - so I wouldn't worry about the fire.

Oh yeah have you ever been to a junkyard or seen many crashed cars ?
Strangely enough for those used to watching US cop shows, most of them aren't burnt out. Most of the burnt out cars you see were probably set alight by joyriders / thieves. - so the chances of being in a burning car are very slim, so slim that car fire extinguishers tell you to put them in the boot not in the passenger area.

pontovic

Who here thinks that having a speed limit of 100km/h on small country roads is absolutely crazy ?? I do for one. I think that 60km/h should be the max on the smaller country roads. I was driving up in Donegal recently, around Glenties and Ardara, and if I matched the speed limit there I would have killed myself !!

Alun

pontovic wrote:

Who here thinks that having a speed limit of 100km/h on small country roads is absolutely crazy ?? I do for one. I think that 60km/h should be the max on the smaller country roads. I was driving up in Donegal recently, around Glenties and Ardara, and if I matched the speed limit there I would have killed myself !!

Depends on what you mean by "small country road", but in case you hadn't noticed all "R" roads are now 80km/h, effectively by default, although it is within the powers of local councils to set lower, or even higher, limits where they see fit (not that they do, mind you).

Anyway, remember that it's a maximum speed, not a target to be attained, and there may well be sections of the road where it's perfectly safe to drive at (or in many cases, even above) the limit and others where even half that would be suicidal. That's what the large lump of grey matter in between your ears is for.

Hagar

There will be thread exactly like this next Monday and the Monday after that...

Ann Elk

I know that it's not a catch-all solution, but I really believe that if the Government were to take the step of banning modifications that it would definately have a positive affect on the road-deaths toll. Week after week I see the wreckage of modified cars in the papers - it can't be all coincidence surely? Now, I'm not naive enough to think that this measure would solve the problem, but I do think that if you take a 1ltr Corsa, designed for town driving at reasonable speeds, attach a performance exhaust, a set of wheels too wide for the arches, a dump valve, lowered suspension etc you upset the fundamental dynamics of the car and make it an accident waiting to happen.

Generally speaking, cars are modified for one reason only - so that they can be driven faster - this alone should be enough for the government to find reasonable grounds for banning them.

seamus

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Oh yeah have you ever been to a junkyard or seen many crashed cars ?
Strangely enough for those used to watching US cop shows, most of them aren't burnt out. Most of the burnt out cars you see were probably set alight by joyriders / thieves. - so the chances of being in a burning car are very slim, so slim that car fire extinguishers tell you to put them in the boot not in the passenger area.

Aye. Just over 10 years ago, I was in a crash with my parents and one of my brothers. The car had just done 70 miles at 60mph, and it was a fairly hard collision - 30mph+. The car eventually went on fire, but we would have had up to ten minutes to get out of the vehicle before being overcome. Cars don't spontaneously burst into flame, without some very specific circumstances. In our case, the crash had burst a fuel line, which begin pouring petrol onto the superhot engine block. And it still took ages to go up.

I know that it's not a catch-all solution, but I really believe that if the Government were to take the step of banning modifications that it would definately have a positive affect on the road-deaths toll. Week after week I see the wreckage of modified cars in the papers - it can't be all coincidence surely? Now, I'm not naive enough to think that this measure would solve the problem, but I do think that if you take a 1ltr Corsa, designed for town driving at reasonable speeds, attach a performance exhaust, a set of wheels too wide for the arches, a dump valve, lowered suspension etc you upset the fundamental dynamics of the car and make it an accident waiting to happen.

Generally speaking, cars are modified for one reason only - so that they can be driven faster - this alone should be enough for the government to find reasonable grounds for banning them.

I have to disagree. If you get into the realm of banning modified vehicles, then you have to ban all vehicles over a certain HP. After all, a man would only buy a Porsche becaue it goes fast, right?

Once again, it all boils down to enforcement. We see in the photos that the crash where no other vehicle was involved, was driving on a UK reg. Surprise, surprise. If the Gardai clamped down, and forced all modified vehicles and UK regs to produce insurance, tax and licence at a station when stopped, you'd weed out a lot of the scumbags.

BrianD3

I was actually thinking last night when I wrote the post that there'll probably be a "garda crackdown" on the roads for the next week in response to the deaths. Sure enough, on the N4 Mullingar bypass this morning there were two speed checks - one on each side of the dual carrigeway. Also an unmarked car waiting in the hard shoulder a couple of miles away on single carriageway section. Not sure if he was involved in the speed checks. But I have never seen this amount of cops on a short section of road at the one time.

Will they be out in force at 3 am next friday and saturday night? I doubt it. Far easier to use resources to catch a few commuters going 5 km/h over the speed limit on a monday morning :rolleyes:

Going back to the crashes in Donegal, in the Civic one the back seat passenger died. The passenger compartment of the car is reasonably intact. It is pretty safe to assume that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. It is also safe to assume that there was speeding and/or drink and/or bravado involved. As for the other crash where 5 died, the Peugeot is very badly damaged. You would expect the driver to die and the front passenger to die or be badly injured in a crash like that even if they had their seatbelts on. But you would expect at least some of the back seat passengers to survive had they all been wearing belts.

Rodney Trotter

8 people dead and not one SUV involved?

At least 3 cars which crashed did not adequately protect their occupants.


And, to the idiot who bemoned the fact that the driver of the Mazda Premacy was "taken out of the juristiction" to hospital obviously does not know the geography of Denogal and the fact that Aughnagelvin (sp?) Hospital, in Derry, is the closest A&E to the crash scene and is symptomatic of the cross-border co-operation whuich exists at all times for all emergency services for accidents on both sides of the border.

5500

Ann Elk wrote:

I know that it's not a catch-all solution, but I really believe that if the Government were to take the step of banning modifications that it would definately have a positive affect on the road-deaths toll. Week after week I see the wreckage of modified cars in the papers - it can't be all coincidence surely? Now, I'm not naive enough to think that this measure would solve the problem, but I do think that if you take a 1ltr Corsa, designed for town driving at reasonable speeds, attach a performance exhaust, a set of wheels too wide for the arches, a dump valve, lowered suspension etc you upset the fundamental dynamics of the car and make it an accident waiting to happen.

Generally speaking, cars are modified for one reason only - so that they can be driven faster - this alone should be enough for the government to find reasonable grounds for banning them.

Are yor for real?i can honestly say ive not once seen a modified car totaled or left in a ditch from an accident.Sure neither of the cars involved in the accident were modified!

As soon as speeding comes into the equation its automatically presumed its a "boy racer" or modifed car.People always seem quick to forget that drink and drugs may have been a major factor in the crash but instead they jump to the boy racer conclusion.

I dunno where your going either with cars are modified for one reason - to be driven faster,if i was you id do some research on modified cars because apart from you not being able to fit a dump valve to a corsa there of no performance gain anyways.

Our man in Havana

Rodney Trotter wrote:

8 people dead and not one SUV involved?

At least 3 cars which crashed did not adequately protect their occupants.


And, to the idiot who bemoned the fact that the driver of the Mazda Premacy was "taken out of the juristiction" to hospital obviously does not know the geography of Denogal and the fact that Aughnagelvin (sp?) Hospital, in Derry, is the closest A&E to the crash scene and is symptomatic of the cross-border co-operation whuich exists at all times for all emergency services for accidents on both sides of the border.

If he is at fault try getting him back to stand trial. Fat chance he would surrender himself.

Interceptor

Ann Elk wrote:

I know that it's not a catch-all solution, but I really believe that if the Government were to take the step of banning modifications that it would definately have a positive affect on the road-deaths toll. Week after week I see the wreckage of modified cars in the papers - it can't be all coincidence surely? Now, I'm not naive enough to think that this measure would solve the problem, but I do think that if you take a 1ltr Corsa, designed for town driving at reasonable speeds, attach a performance exhaust, a set of wheels too wide for the arches, a dump valve, lowered suspension etc you upset the fundamental dynamics of the car and make it an accident waiting to happen.

Generally speaking, cars are modified for one reason only - so that they can be driven faster - this alone should be enough for the government to find reasonable grounds for banning them.

Go back to Communist Russia where you belong. There are three breakers yards in Galway and if you take five minutes to look around any of them you will see that 99% of the crashed cars are normal, bog-standard cars. If your mind was any more narrow you would be called wafer-head. Do you know that Merc and BMW (and others) are forced by the German govt to limit their cars to 155mph? Why do cars imported to Ireland need to go this quickly? What happens if a speeding car hits your econobox Kia at high speed? You die, modified or not.

It is bad enough having to wear a shirt and tie to work without having to take the stickers off my car.

impr0v

If the modification embargo doesn't work, we can then experiment with mandatory oestrogen pills for all male drivers or, failing that, chemical castration.

Kersh

I have to say, the pictures in the paper of those 2 cars scared me. I dont know why they crashed , or who was at fault, but putting those pics in a tv ad, would definitely slow down most people.
Thankfully, im involved in motorsport, and Im an instructor at mondello, so I dont have any 'need' (for want of a better word) to speed everywhere, but I do see alot of idiots on the roads, who feel the need to show off their cars etc, and all the accidents happen when they come to a corner, cos as we all know, its easy to be quick in a straight line, different story when it comes to corners.
In my opinion, garda speed checks will not stop accidents like that one. These speed checks catch random ppl going over the limit on 2 lane roads usually, and are only a deterrent if the driver cares about points on his licence more than he cares about impressing the ladies. Also, I have never seen a speed check on an R road, ever, not that i think one would have prevented that accident, nor will it stop the one next weekend.

Big Nelly

Was on the news about 6 months to a year ago now how the Garda checked car engines to see if they where the same engine as the person had insured up in Donegal....over 2 days at a weekend they caught over 20 people with bigger engines in there cars than they had made out on there insurance information.....Donegal is a disaster.....has been known for years that they "soup" up there cars or go to the North and get engine doen up or have larger engines.....every weekend at this stage there is an accident up there!!!

I myself was there a few months back....just going thru on way to Islands for weekend.....road where empty and there was about 5 of us in a cru cab.....no real sign posts to tell us speed limits but we kept going at normal speed....anyway coming into this town came around the cornor to be faced by 2 cars coming down the road racing each other.......we pulled in and althou one of them pulled back abit only we pulled in off road there was no slowing them down......roared on down the road and around the cornor with the other bloke after moving back out onto the other lane.....if anyone came around cornor then it would have been another head on collision....and then we would listen to RTE news where mammy is going on about poor wee Jonny and how great a driver he was and so on......s***h**ds!!! again everyone blames the Garda....why should we??? why not blame the gobs**ts flying up and down the road thinking they are Mikey Schumacher.....if it was me and they where doing it outside my house....would go and buy one of those stinger things the cops have.......see them coming....fling it out....20-30 yards down the road and 4 flat tyres........or instead of complaining about the Garda trying to manage every back road here there and everywhere....why not ring them and tell them exactly where and who is driving like a nut case.....

At home in Cavan there was 2-3 fellow that left school and where working....so of course they all buy car....put stupid exchaust on them and start to roar up and down the road everyday trying to see who was fastest.....like one day at shop and asked one of them to move car so I could get to pumps.....even thou he didnt have to move 10 yards....sat in car while he revved the **** out of it and then a big skid to take off.....anyway about 2 weeks after this started to happen....someone(not me) had told the Garda so they where on the road and caught them 2-3 times each....not sure what happened but they stopped for a while......4-5 months later same crack started again.......so father went up to little jonnies father and told him to cop the f**k on or he would be reported....end of that.....simple people!!!

Anyway those who said a seat belt is useless are also s***h**ds in my opinion!! not attacking anyone here or any personal attacks but the amount of people I have seen all around the country that never wear seat belts is gas and so stupid........seat belts are proven to save lives.....my cousin when he was 18 was out driving and clipped a kurb.....threw the car around and he went side ways into a wall...hit on passangers side....had no seat belt on so was flung from drivers side over to smash his head off roof on passanger side.....if he was wearing a seat belt would be here today....you go and look at the imprint of someone's head in a car roof and then say seat belts are no good!!!!!

blastman

I think we should avoid getting too wrapped up in the fact that 8 people were killed in one weekend, as tragic as that statistic is. There will always be freak occurences where accidents happen in close proximity and the hand-wringing begins in earnest. This doesn't happen every weekend (thankfully) so while we should continue to try to make the roads as safe as possible, we shouldn't let hysteria cloud the issue.

As an aside, I was travelling to work this morning on my usual route and was on a well-tarmaced section R road. However, as I went round a bend at about 70km/h, I nearly went straight into the ditch as loose chippings had been put on the road yet there was no sign in advance warning that they were there. Things like that don't encourage your faith in authorities' seriousness about road safety.

Ann Elk

Seamus - I think that the possible top speed of a car is not an issue if the car is designed and engineered with those speeds in mind. This is the case with the Porsche and certainly not the case with many of the modified cars.

Eireal - A few points

Firstly, you and I must read different newspapers. I also work for a major car insurer and am well aware of the incidences of accidents involving modified cars (the majority of which are not disclosed by the way).

Secondly, if Im not mistaken, the 306 involved had a set of alloys which I'm pretty sure are non-standard.

Thirdly, I'm not referring solely to this particular accident. I'm well aware of the exent of the problem posed to road safety by drink/drug driving, likewise for driving when over tired, the terrible state of some of our roads etc., etc. But I ask you one question - if it really is the case that drivers of modified cars don't regularly drive in an unsafe fashion - why the reputation. Personally, and without exaggeration the majority of such cars I see are driven in a fashion which contravenes some of the rules of the road.

Finally, with regards the performance aspect - I admit that my mechanical knowledge when it comes to certain modifications sn't top notch - I'm neither a mechanic nor an avid modifier but I do possess a modicum of common sense and I know that dump valves weren't designed or fitted because they make a 'pretty sound'.

Whether or not they can be fitted to a Corsa is immaterial for the point of the argument - swap it for a Focus if it makes you feel better.

NOx kits do imrove performance.
Uprated air filters do the same.
So do superchips.
So do performance exhausts.
Urated brakes allow the driver to maintain higher speeds for longer before they have to brake.
Lowered suspension aids cornering at hih speeds.
Larger alloys do likewise.

Now don't try to tell me that these modifications are done without performance enhancement in mind because won't belive you.

By the way, I'm not talking about purely cosmetic modifications such as (certain types of) bodykits, and aloys which are the same dimensions as the manufacturers originals. It's where the performance is boosted that presents the problem.

magpie

Once again proof positive of the facts:

1) The vast majority of road deaths occur on single lane rural roads
2) The vast majority of road deaths occur between 9 pm and 4 am

What do the government do?

1) Put more concealed speed traps / cameras on dual carriageways in urban locations during rush hour to increase revenues
2) Ramp up their advertising campaign shifting blame for the carnage onto individual drivers rather than face up to their responsibility to improve roads and police them efficiently

Ann Elk

Interceptor wrote:

Go back to Communist Russia where you belong. There are three breakers yards in Galway and if you take five minutes to look around any of them you will see that 99% of the crashed cars are normal, bog-standard cars. If your mind was any more narrow you would be called wafer-head. Do you know that Merc and BMW (and others) are forced by the German govt to limit their cars to 155mph? Why do cars imported to Ireland need to go this quickly? What happens if a speeding car hits your econobox Kia at high speed? You die, modified or not.

It is bad enough having to wear a shirt and tie to work without having to take the stickers off my car.

99% of cars on the road are bog standard - nothing proven there.

Modified cars aren't a huge amount of use in a breakers yard due to the fact that they are generally fitted with non-standard parts - especially the body panels - hence the reason you dont see them.

If you don't like your shirt and tie - get a new job.

Nowhere in my post did i state that non-modified cars don't drive sfely, speed etc. - read my post before you hurl personal insults.

Yes I am aware that some rman cars are limited - what's your point?

prospect

ANN_ELK, while I can see your point, I must say you haven't really thought it through.

Where do you draw the line? Do we ban people from upgrading their stereos? The new one could be lighter than the OEM one, and this would technically yield a performance increase! How about new floor mats that are lighter? Or what if I wax the car, this would reduce the air resistance on the body and therefore improve the performance!

Also, an interesting statistic would be the percentage of modified cars that are the cause of accidents, versus the percentage of unmodified cars that are the cause of accidents!

Just some of my thoughts on the debate.

el tel

Given how such bad drivers we are in general and the number of death-defying crazy driving that we've all witnessed ourselves I think it's a miracle
that there aren't at least 8 people killed every single day in Ireland.

It's no surprise either at the number of incidents involving car loads of young people. They just don't get it that when it is fully loaded with passengers the brakes are much less effective and the handling is massively different. Throw in a bit of speed along a country road and the car be all over the show, going into bends too fast with brakes unable to scrub of the momentum, tyres struggling for grip, suspension bottoming out and the steering not responding...and should someone come the other direction for good measure...
It's bound to be happening dozens of times every weekend night.

impr0v

magpie wrote:

Once again proof positive of the facts:

1) The vast majority of road deaths occur on single lane rural roads
2) The vast majority of road deaths occur between 9 pm and 4 am

What do the government do?

1) Put more concealed speed traps / cameras on dual carriageways in urban locations during rush hour to increase revenues
2) Ramp up their advertising campaign shifting blame for the carnage onto individual drivers rather than face up to their responsibility to improve roads and police them efficiently

1) I'm not sure that this is the case, if it is, perhaps some statistics?
2) The majority do yes, the weekly peak for road traffic accidents is between 12am and 3am on a Sunday morning.

The goverment puts the speed traps and cameras on the most used roads predominantly for visibility purposes, it serves as a deterrent for most drivers to know that they are being watched. Placing a checkpoint or speed trap on a rural single lane road may sound like a good idea, but in reality it is a poor use of resources in terms of the amount of people checked and/or caught and the visibility of that checkpoint.

It's an understandable emotive response to an accident such as this, but consider the amount of rural single carraigeway roads in Ireland and the limited Garda resources, even if they decided to cover as many of these type of roads last night, there is a massive statistical chance that they would not have been on the road on which the accident happened. Take North Tipperary for example, it has 173 km of national roads, but 2588km of rural and regional roads. The shortcomings in staffing levels of the Traffic Corps are well documented, but I don't think anyone would realistically condone the enlargement of the force to the levels where they could police this amount of roadway effectively, it wouldn't make sense.

The fact of the matter is that the blame does lie with the individual drivers, the nanny state can't possibly monitor every driver and slap his or her wrist everytime they step out of line, it's just not feasible for a myriad of reasons. Neither can they make every road in the country crash proof, and even if they did, there would still be accidents such the one which occurred.

To blame the gardai and or the roads is a cop out, the fault lies in the mentality of the driver that drives down roads that are obviously not suited for the speed he or she is driving at, that overtakes when there isn't safe distance or time in which to do so and that takes unnecessary risks with his or her own life and, more importantly, the lives of others. The challenge is therefore in changing this mentality to one which takes cognisance of the risks involved everytime the driver gets into their car and therefore drives in such a way to minimise those risks.

Ann Elk

prospect wrote:

ANN_ELK, while I can see your point, I must say you haven't really thought it through.

Where do you draw the line? Do we ban people from upgrading their stereos? The new one could be lighter than the OEM one, and this would technically yield a performance increase! How about new floor mats that are lighter? Or what if I wax the car, this would reduce the air resistance on the body and therefore improve the performance!

Also, an interesting statistic would be the percentage of modified cars that are the cause of accidents, versus the percentage of unmodified cars that are the cause of accidents!

Just some of my thoughts on the debate.

I get the theory behind the post - but think that you've perhaps taken it a little too far. The chages you list there would result in little or no increase, and certainly not one that would be outside the manufacturers original tolerances. They would also have no effect on the mechanics or structural intergrity of the car, so think that these difficulties could be avoided if a decent definition could be drafted - e.g 'substantial increase'

AlanD

From what I can tell, that 306 was a GTI. Those wheels on the car are very rare but came standard on a 306 GTI-6. This is a 170 bhp car that is no slouch in the speed stakes. Regardless of how good this car is to handle the power, add 4 people to the driver and the handling and brakes will not be able to manage very high speeds. But then if this wasn't a GTI, (could have been the DTurbo from other markings on the car), there had to have been something irresponsible from either car go on for this incident to happen.

Personally, I think this was a case of highspeed antics that ended in disaster. Yes, RTE should say whether or not people were wearing seatbelts at the very least. There's not much else you could deduct at such short notice.

Short of policing every back road, which is unfeasible or adding speed camera's which will be just as unfeasibile because kids racing will know exactly where they can speed and where not, so short of all that, everyone needs educating and a more significant presence needs to be put on the road by the cops.

People should also report irresponsible driving to the guards.

Ann Elk

AlanD wrote:

From what I can tell, that 306 was a GTI. Those wheels on the car are very rare but came standard on a 306 GTI-6. This is a 170 bhp car that is no slouch in the speed stakes. Regardless of how good this car is to handle the power, add 4 people to the driver and the handling and brakes will not be able to manage very high speeds. But then if this wasn't a GTI, (could have been the DTurbo from other markings on the car), there had to have been something irresponsible from either car go on for this incident to happen.

Personally, I think this was a case of highspeed antics that ended in disaster. Yes, RTE should say whether or not people were wearing seatbelts at the very least. There's not much else you could deduct at such short notice.

Short of policing every back road, which is unfeasible or adding speed camera's which will be just as unfeasibile because kids racing will know exactly where they can speed and where not, so short of all that, everyone needs educating and a more significant presence needs to be put on the road by the cops.

People should also report irresponsible driving to the guards.

There are drum brakes on the back wheels so it can't be the GTI version - another case of aftermarket additions I suspect.

RainyDay

Ann Elk wrote:

Firstly, you and I must read different newspapers. I also work for a major car insurer and am well aware of the incidences of accidents involving modified cars (the majority of which are not disclosed by the way).

Hi Ann - Can you advise what happens in case of claims where the insurer spots a non-disclosed modification to the car? Does this impact comprehensive claims for the modded car? What about 3rd party claims against the driver of the modded car?

5500

Ann Elk wrote:

Firstly, you and I must read different newspapers. I also work for a major car insurer and am well aware of the incidences of accidents involving modified cars (the majority of which are not disclosed by the way). .

First up well then the owners are stupid for not declaring there modifications,id also like to see the papers you read because again ive never seen a modified car totaled or left in a ditch

Ann Elk wrote:

Secondly, if Im not mistaken, the 306 involved had a set of alloys which I'm pretty sure are non-standard..

99% Of cars new from the manufacturer for the past few years have come as standard with alloys.Does this make them all modified or any unsafer?

Ann Elk wrote:

Thirdly, I'm not referring solely to this particular accident. I'm well aware of the exent of the problem posed to road safety by drink/drug driving, likewise for driving when over tired, the terrible state of some of our roads etc., etc. But I ask you one question - if it really is the case that drivers of modified cars don't regularly drive in an unsafe fashion - why the reputation. ..

There repuation is there from two things.One being muppets who *think* they drive a modified car thats actually a bucket,in the eyes of any enthusiast these are fools and are who we try dissasociate ourselfs from due to being tarred with the same brush which leads to 2 which is lack of joe publics knowledge on what is/isnt a modified car

Ann Elk wrote:

NOx kits do imrove performance.
Uprated air filters do the same.
So do superchips.
So do performance exhausts.
Urated brakes allow the driver to maintain higher speeds for longer before they have to brake.
Lowered suspension aids cornering at hih speeds.
Larger alloys do likewise.

Now don't try to tell me that these modifications are done without performance enhancement in mind because won't belive you.
.

Again this refares to my above second point in the post above.

Larger alloys do not increase the perfomance of a vehicle,if anything they decrease its acceleration and top speed - FACT

I have 18"wheels fitted to my car and its lowered 35mm and its certainly not so i can get around corners quicker,as with most modified cars its purely for looks so that the car doesnt look like its on stilts from the bigger wheels fitted.

Air filters and performance exhausts on a stadard small engined car again are of no benifit to performance and may actually decrease it - FACT

Nitros oxide and superchips are a whole different ball game,yes they increase performance but the chances of seeing a 1 ltr corsa flying about town with them is very slim.

Ann Elk

RainyDay wrote:

Hi Ann - Can you advise what happens in case of claims where the insurer spots a non-disclosed modification to the car? Does this impact comprehensive claims for the modded car? What about 3rd party claims against the driver of the modded car?

RainyDay, with regards the comprehensive claims against the modified car, it's at the insurers discretion whether or not they choose to pay out. They used to be a little more lenient, but with the flak they cop over premiums, and the pressure they're under to bring them down, they are beginning to get much tougher on such claims. As it stands now, if the engineers spot an undisclosed modification, they will likely disallow your claim.

With regards the third party claim against the car in question, under the road traffic act, the insurers are obliged to pay out as they issued the disc, they can then try to recoup the costs from you, or bring charges against you for fraud. Generally, this doesn't happen though, and they'll just make it difficult to get re-insured elsewhere.