Bermuda's #1 Forum

Three in a week. All leaving many friends and families sad.

One question: What was a truck doing parked on the main road on Knapton Hill at 9.45 pm?

Having seen the picture of the truck parked on the side of the road I have no doubt that the person who owns it, as well as the operator, should be sued to the fullest extent of the law.

Dr Ewart Brown as the Minister of Transportation is also at fault. He has done nothing but add to problems by allowing more and more trucks on the roads and letting them get away with driving at night. His ministry is nothing more than a protection racket for friends and family. Just watch as we start to see more and more cars get the boot and tow trucks start pulling cars. Had to get that $50k licensing fee in first though.....

Casual Observer posts over in the other world:

"Let's be real... The problem isn't the government, it's with us bad drivers... Do we really need the government to tell us how to drive? Methinks that 'draconian' measures would only be met with more grumbling about 'why don't they go solve some real crimes and stop harrassing people for stupid stuff'... It's about personal responsibility...... and respect for other road users..."

I couldn't agree with you more CO. And there are some decent drivers out there. Not everyone's a dope. Unfortunately though the Government and it's administrators play a direct role in creating an environment where bad driving is allowed to flourish. Bad driving isn't just about not being able to steer correctly. It's starts with what kind of "attitude" one is going to have even before getting on the road. There is an incredible amount of "I don't give a crap about anyone else" going on. And it's in direct correlation with what the Government and It's Ministers have been showing in recent years.

1: Ministers are allowed to have over-sized cars directly going against what was in the law books. Or even have more than one car. With outriders. Ego's first.
2: Ministers can park their cars wherever they seem to please directly against what's in the law books. Even if they know it's in a dangerous area. Ego's first.
3: Certain Construction companies can skirt the laws and use illegal vehicles for hauling goods and the Head Minister says he's not going to stop it?
4: Trucking companies can haul gravel without proper tops to contain it thus allowing spillage which directly leads to accidents.
5: Numerous walls get hit and are never fixed thus leading to both a dangerous situation as well as giving the sense Government doesn't care.
6: People are allowed to randomly double park cars throughout major congested areas and the authorities just sit and watch them on candid camera.
7: Repeatedly bad drivers are not taken off the road for long periods of penalty.
8: Government has never cracked down on the two, three, four cars that are being used by sons and daughters through the apartment loophole.
9: Government spends millions on "alternative" transportation only to cripple it with ridiculous hours of operation and playing hide and seek with the keys and the Union drivers.
10: $Millions on tourism expense and nadda for all the pot holes. Which can kill you.
11: $Millions for travel expenses but still holding the Police off from paying them square and getting more on the roads.
12: Ring Ring.... do I hear a cell-phone ban?

Can you hear me now?  At the end of the day when you have such an incredibly poor showing from the Government what more would one expect from the dopes driving the road? I've driven throughout the world, Bermuda is the one place where I feel I am in defensive driving mode at all times.

"No, it wasn't right for anybody to 'aim' their car at you. But maybe you need to re-examine your riding habits so that you don't put yourself in that type of situation... people don't go around 'aiming' their cars at riders who are obeying the rules of the road..."

CO - I think you Aced it with that quote..... ;)

I've noticed my dad has been picking up a bit of a bad habit lately. Whenever he's driving and some moron decides to play chicken little with traffic he's tending to let the car drift a little and put a bit of a squeeze on the dufus. Not enough to cause an accident but enough for me to notice and say "Oy! don't scratch the car!"  :-\

I beg to differ.

CO is great with the advice (especially on how there should be mutual respect on the roads) but I suspect she isn't the saint on the road that she makes herself out to be.

I don't claim to be perfect and the original post proves that, but I find it suprising that so much is made of my *bad* driving (based on this one incident) and only lip service is paid to the person with all the road rage...the woman who decided to aim her car at me. 

People shouldn't aim their cars at anyone on purpose.  If you think they should, or have the right to if a bike is microscopically on the wrong side of the road (while stationary and trying to avoid someone baring down on them), then you are part of the problem and shouldn't be lecturing anyone.

LOL - knew that would get you onboard! :P

Dude - I think you are taking things a little too personally. From what I'm seeing, others, such as CO, are in fact largely agreeing with you. The lady (or anyone like her) who aim their vehicles at others are in the wrong as well. The point they are trying to make is that "you" also were in the wrong and thus have to own your own "wrongship" and whatever knock on effects it might cause. Two wrongs do not make a right so to speak.

You just seem to have a difficult time getting your bike around that.

The lady was definitely in the wrong. She obviously was either fed up with all the previous bikers who had been doing the same as you, or much worse, which is more likely the case as you were at a standstill and trying to pull in out of her way, or maybe as Mr. Mussenden would suggest, she'd just had her heart broken. Maybe that explains "Why" she acted in such a foolish, belligerent and potentially dangerous manner.

As I said earlier, "Defensive Driving" is the only way to go in Bermuda. And aiming your vehicle at someone, or putting your vehicle in someone else's path are certainly not a form of defensive driving. They are the total opposite.

Here we go again with another lecture.

Smokes...when your dad is nudging over to scare people on bikes what will be the net result if he misjudges and kills someone?  MORE death on the road. 

Incredibly you even suggest that the worst part about him doing this is that he might chip his paint.

Carry on with the lecturing and jokes about making bike riders into hood ornaments ala CO or perhaps even actually nudge someone off the road ala Hare Buddah and brag.

Yup...I am the problem clearly.

 :blink:

Ace - serious? Now you want to lecture me about how I'm not allowed to be facetious? Too funny. :slap:

Dude - Which part of "wrong" didn't you understand? I'm in 100% agreement with you, explain it in great detail, and you still think it's you against the world. By the fact that you're still having nightmares about this whole thing tells me that maybe you weren't quite as innocent as you have portrayed.

Simply put - if you, me or Jeremy Deacon want to get to the print-shop on time and we've left ourselves a little short on time, it's better to run late than make the obit's column simply because we happened to pull out into the path of the worst case of road-rage that's ever come our way. Capice?

I never professed my innocence...in fact I fully admitted my offense.  Why do you, CO and everyone else keep trying to twist what I wrote into me attempting to prove myself blameless?

The point of my initial thread was NOT an attempt to say I was right in any way shape or form.  It was designed to ask a very simple question "WHY" did the woman feel that my actions warrented an incident of road rage which endangered her freedom and my life?  What I got back was a number of fingers pointing directly at me as being the poster boy for the ills on Bermuda's roads.  No real insight...just "yea she was wrong...but YOU......" 

So, when you come out with a funny story about your father is now tending veer over and to scare bike riders and how the worst consequence is that he might scratch the paint on the car...it is like deja vu to June 2008 or as recent as yesterday.  Very hood ornament-like.

I capice....I am probably the most conservative driver out there. 

See...you say two wrongs don't make a right.  I committed the first offense in my little incident....the second wrong was committed by the woman driving the car.  Two wrongs don't make a right.  Her wrong (the second one) is good for a chuckle though I suppose...or perhaps a wee finger waggle before launching into the guy who she almost hit about how he needs to "buck up".

You're getting closer.... I think the psychotherapy is starting to pay off. I'll send the bill later. :)

I'm thinking there are getting to be more and more dopes on the road who used to be good drivers but have just been getting fed up with the bad driving habits of others (deep breath, not inferring yourself) and their patience is getting very low. My dad fortunately knows my sense of humour so my gentle rebuke ala "paint chips" is just enough to remind him to keep over. Trust me - he's not aiming, he's just spending too much time worrying about the moron on his back corner instead of just keeping the car left of center. For all I know it could also be an age factor but in general he's still a very careful driver. Heck it could also just be me expecting everyone else to be a little more defensive in their driving these days. Bit of a stickler for good driving I'm afraid. Oh yeah, and I don't want to see my dad in an accident.... or anyone else for that matter.
 

Some people have that type of writing style.  By putting you in the extreme position (regardless of what you've written), stretching a point becomes easier.  Forgive the unintentional racial reference, but seeing things in black and white all the time only increases the intolerance.

Don't worry about those dim bulbs at BIAW; I'm sure the members here see the absurdity of their statements.  Bragging about nudging someone off the road sounds about right for the most hypocritical pseudo-Buddhist I've ever heard of.    :-\

Sometimes it is a writing style thing...of course when you get told that "you think you can do whatever you want on the roads and feel that laws don't apply to you" (not the exact phrase..but similar) because that is the natural progression of the logic when I "broke the law" but yet when that same person admits to a speeding ticket somehow the same logic doesn't apply.  Oh yes...they got a deserving ticket, but the poster certainly didn't think she can do whatever she wants and doesn't feel that the laws don't apply to her.  She accepted her punishment because that is the consequence of breaking the law.

When I responded that I agreed 100% but that in my case there was no ticket...only a road raging lunatic that felt she should try and run me down....silence.

"Forgive the unintentional racial reference, but seeing things in black and white all the time only increases the intolerance."

I disagree. The fact that CO is both black and white one would assume she sees things from both sides of the street. Who's gonna argue with that? :)

@ ace - no doubt, they can't give you an inch or their self righteous indignation loses validity.

@ gun - does your butt get sore sitting on your fence?

Grass-shopper - The best part about sitting on a fence is you can take pot shots at both sides.  :)

 No. 11... When I read the RG. I thought he was driving a taxi. The picture online mabe confusing me. It doesn't look like a taxi but I stand to be corrected.

Judging by the extensive damage to the offside of the vehicle I would summise that speed was a factor. When will it end.....

Such a young man with so much to look forward too.

Maybe it was mechanical or other related.

My condolences to the family.

 My condolences to the Family of Betheny Heinrichs on her untimely death recently. The 13th road death this year and sad that things like this happen.

Rummy and the Sucks family. :(

Well.....we had another road death. And of course the pundits pick up on it and know all the answers.

Once again, it's a sad event. Cycle meets car. Having been there I can assure you that there is more too it than meets the eye. Maybe an ill person, road conditions, alcahol, et al.

I just drove 2 miles on ice, snow, down 3000 feet and made it back. I was lucky that the truck behind me crashed into a snow bank and did not rear end me. I saw them comming down the hill and pulled into the local bar parking lot because I check my mirrors...............

I did'nt have a cold one but he did.

Prayers to the family. There's a reason. Hope it's it's not the season.

El Rummo...............................

"Limerick"....you joined Customs because you get paid big bucks. Deal with it................Your assinine comments about protecting Bermuda, it's children, is a load of crap.

Reality..........................

If your so adamnent about what you said, you would have joined the Police and made the same comments.

Your inteligent but don't try to pull the wool over "Rummies" eys................................

That should have been in the thread "Oberdear"...........................then again, you be the judge......

Condolences to the family of 23 year old Dareiko Simons. 

Bermuda is a "high risk" area according to the Pan American Health Organization.  The culture of getting on/in a vechicle 'half hot' (or more) must be the most significant factor. 

How about getting serious about a crackdown on drink driving, rather than ticketing taxis for not turning on their GPS (http://www.royalgazette.com/rg/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7da15c630030001&sectionId=60)?

I would mention also the:

• idiots Bermudian teen acting like gangster on 50cc bikes
• the unuseful and stupid exam test that my wife that speaks only french and german was able to pass with teo shots ...

Instead of charging people with 100 bucks of ticket having this crappy vultures looking for your 1 hour park ticket expiring, especially on saturday,  why they don't do more controls about drunk and smoked people on Friday night? ome'n everyone knows that on Friday evening there is a control after 7pm at harbourfront 'spot' ...
Had they ever checked the middle or south road?? I don't think so ....  :-X

Good points Bang.

It is pretty clear there is no real will to enforce the existing laws to make the place safer.

The defacto law on drinking and driving in Bermuda (http://www.royalgazette.com/rg/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7da27b330030012&sectionId=60) is: "don't crash and you won't get busted".   :blink:

It's simply ridiculous ... My wife is scared to drive the bike here, she was hurted twice in the morning by this people that wake up late and then drive like crazy cows in the middle of the road.
Come'n wake up at 6 like I do and you will have all the time to taste a crappy breakfast in Hamilton and you will find also a nice parking slot for you car ...  :slap:
They should something anyway, at least for these teens that drive like crazy. The most funny thing is when you read on Royal Gazette these tearjerker articles about 'another family lost a nice guy on the road' and then you discover that the 'nice guy' was simply driving like a crazy, drunk, at 2 am of Saturday morning. I mean, I feel really sorry for the parents, but I know that it's always better prevent than cure, isn't it?