Tuesday 24 June 2008

13 in a Volvo

A man in London was banned from driving for a year and fined £900 after being found guilty of Dangerous Driving - for having 13 people in a Volvo S70. According to the BBC "The defendant denied his action was dangerous saying he had been driving sensibly at no more than 20 mph." Thirteen people in big European sedan/saloon? In the Caribbean we would say that he wasn't trying hard enough.

But the really funny part about the BBC article is that it was accompanied by a video reconstruction, where they tried to fit 13 people into a Volvo, apparently without success. In this case they definitely were not trying hard enough, especially since the car was a wagon/estate and most of the "people" were children (including a toddler). I near brek down laughing when the woman decided that the last three children could not fit.

I remember at a family reunion many years ago in Guyana, we fit 15 people in Honda Accord. This was achieved by having two layers in the front and back seats, someone in the middle changing gears, at least one head out through the sun roof and, of course, making good use of the boot. Many more than that have been transported back to Crown Point after Layday celebrations at Tobago Race Week, using a single pickup truck (and that would classify as an SUV, in rich-country speak).

13 people? We could fit more than that in a small RIB.


Click on the link below to view the article and the video:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/north_west/7471102.stm

Saturday 7 June 2008

Big bang


Ouch!! Professionals may not have as many collisions as we do, but when they do crash, they make a proper job of it. That's going to be expensive.

See http://2008.medcup.org/home/.