Aspies For Freedom

But the accident happened near Bartlow crossroads, which I think is around suffolk, essex, or cambridgeshire in England...

We kinda have... Well, good enough driving tests that not everyone who tries to get a liscence gets one. Unfortunately - To parraphrase a source I can't actually remember... "While the problems with young drivers are well documented, there are also issues with older, experienced drivers."

Basically - the young are bad at driving because they're inexperienced, and sometimes wreckless. The old are bad at driving because they assume that nothing bad can happen to them, since they've been driving for so long.

Everyone in this country is a worse driver than they think they are, either due to inexperience, wrecklessness, overconfidence, arrogance, growing into bad habbits, or a combination of the five is the basic gist of what I've recently read about it.

Mmm - I think the relative speeds are more relevent. Anyone know what the speed limit where the accident was is?

Single carriageways. The 40/30 thing tends to depend on if it's a built up area or not.

The 60mph, to my knowledge, is applicable on all country lanes, stupidly.

A 'B' road is smaller than an 'A' road, but considered to be a main road. You typically get buildings in parts of 'B' roads, but not in the case of 'A' roads.

In fact, I think 60mph is the national speed limit, and only motorways are able to have faster speed limits.

However, this doesn't really answer my question due to not knowing what sort of road the accident was on.

i'm kinda scared of driving myself...mostly becuase of the high risk of killing someone on the road and my hand eye isn't that great.  but just becuase it's true for me doesn't mean we should have high insurance for autistics.  that's unfair...

Amy wrote:

I had some difficulty learning to drive too. My first difficulties were learning to brake and accelarate easily and to make smooth turns. After I learned to do that, I still had trouble with deciding beforehand when to change lanes before a turn.  When I took my driver's test I still had trouble with this. I barely passed it with a 75. My driving instructor told my mom that the only reason I actually passed at all was because of a new law that you must have a permit for 6 months before getting a driver's license (don't remember the exact law.. it could have been six months from passing the exam... but anyway, the point is I had to wait several months before I could get my license). He told my mom that I had made a lot of improvement -that I had gotten the hang of the mechanics of driving but I still needed practice in the decision making part that most people took for granted. When it finally came time to get my license, I was much better at deciding how to get from point A to point B but I was still nervous that I wouldn't be able to do it. But I was wrong. The first place that I drove to on my own was my favorite fast food place.  I did have one minor wreck about a year later, but it was the other person's fault. They came around a corner too fast and hit me from behind when I was trying to turn. Since then, I have become a much better, more confident driver. Finding my way around and making decisions about lane changes and turns ect. The only difficulty I still have is when I try to drive a car other mine. When I do this, I revert back to having difficulty braking and accelarting easily for the first few minutes of driving it. If I have to drive a different car, I have to get used to it in a parking lot of a low traffic road before I feel all right about driving it in traffic.


However, I did really well on the written part of the test. We had three tests in driver's ed that we had to take. I made 100's + bonus points on all three. I memorized all the driving laws. People were convinced that I had a photographic memory.

There's probably a grain of truth - I can't drive a car very well, although I can handle a motorbike far far better (One accident to date and that was caused by the other driver after he pulled out of a t-junction when he should have given way), since they're completely natural to drive as opposed to lots of fiddly switches and sticks.

The thing i have the most trouble with is if an oncoming vehicle has their highbeams on needlessly because it hurts.

However I don't think it's wise for them to have tried pin the cause of the crash solely on Aspergers, and it's very untrue that aspergers cannot handle emergency situations, in fact maybe even the opposite, my friends have told me repeatedly that when something unexpected happens my reflexes and response to it literally scares them because I go from normality to response unaturally fast (Catching an object that fell off a table, responding to someone who burst into the room unexpectedly etc).

Most likely explanation was a mixture of speeding, lack of care and attention and ovesteer which any person could do. Hit it too fast, panicked, fishtailed and went into the wrong lane.

Be careful Theosoph!

We don't want to lose you too.

With the original guy: What a dreadful shame.

Me too Amy.

Drinking and driving is not a subject to be joked around with.

That's how I feel about the situation anyway.

theosoph,

These days there is always high emotion surrounding the subject of drinking and driving. When you openly admit to drinking and driving, it’s natural for people to react strongly.

You mentioned that you felt as though you had a certain ability or skill in being able to control a vehicle, and then noted having had a few beers just prior to an incident you cited.  I was wondering if you were crediting the alcohol with increasing your ability to avoid accidents.  Alcohol can make us feel more relaxed, and increase confidence. It would be faulty logic however, to conclude that because you feel more relaxed and in control that you actually are. Alcohol has been proven to slow down reaction times, so even if you were able to perform adequately in the other aspects of driving, there’s no getting around the fact that a slower reaction time increases danger to you and others.  That fact was recently proven here in the states using professional drivers (NASCAR) and testing their reaction times after drinking various amounts of alcohol. It won’t improve your driving, only makes it more dangerous.  If D&D is something you do out of rebelliousness, find another way to rebel, the cost is just too high, and we‘d like you stick around a while longer.

Yes, you were very honest and upfront about that.  So much so that it seemed like you maybe had reasoned out why it was OK, at least for you. I was trying to figure what your reasoning was.  

I'm inclined to blow-off rules too, but when I'm endangering myself, or someone else, it has sometimes taken someone else's stubborness to make me rethink what I'm doing.  I think I'm pretty intelligent, but I have a risky side; maybe you do to.