Safety recall

About 20 years ago, I was a front seat passenger in a car in a car with only a driver airbag involved in a nasty accident - not the driver’s fault.

I vividly recall seeing the driver’s airbag inflate and thinking ‘where is mine?’.

Both cars were write offs. Everyone walked away, unhurt.

The driver of the other car had ‘history’. The local police turned up and knew him.

My friend- a work colleague- eventually extracted the money, or his insurers did I suppose.

Nobody ever claimed that nothing the EU did was in fact completely wrong. Just too much of it and a few extremely important issues,

-- “it should be clear by now to everyone that activist environmentalism (or environmental activism) is becoming a general ideology about humans, about their freedom, about the relationship between the individual and the state, and about the manipulation of people under the guise of a 'noble' idea. It is not an honest pursuit of 'sustainable development,' a matter of elementary environmental protection, or a search for rational mechanisms designed to achieve a healthy environment. Yet things do occur that make you shake your head and remind yourself that you live neither in Joseph Stalin’s Communist era, nor in the Orwellian utopia of 1984.”

Vaclav Klaus

Mrs Spike’s car was totalled by being T-boned by a van tearing round a roundabout although he did stop and give his details. She put in an accident report, and only after quite a few months and some prompting did his insurance company finally admit that he hadn’t reported the incident to them, but nonetheless they paid out for her total loss.

The car had done circa 110,000 miles, all serviced by me, and its emissions levels were so low it would have easily passed an MOT for a catalysed car.

? if it waqs registered after 1986 in what way was it a pre 1964 car...?

Ah. OK

TBH if it was my car I'd willingly fit those for road use.

On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:27:31 +0100, Clive Page snipped-for-privacy@page2.eu wrote: [snip]

But if OP is not coverered (by insurance) for driving with a 'dodgy' air-bag, surely it follows he would not be covered for driving with no air-bag protection? Indeed, would he have to declare this as a modification from the manufacturer's original specification?

On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 19:27:59 +0100, Indy Jess John snipped-for-privacy@OMITTHISgooglemail.com wrote: [snip]

Would banning fully comprehensive insurance have a similar effect?

Any clause claiming he is not covered (TP) for driving a dodgy car is invalid.

Haven't they gone out of fashion though now? No one turns them on for the very good reason that they simply dazzle the person behind with glowing red fog and don't help in judging distance to the car in front.

I agree that it wouldn't have been in good taste. But sometimes a statement that is true but in bad taste might be a sufficient of a surprise that it would have useful effects, e.g. in persuading motorists not to follow the example of the People's Princess when they are in a car going a high speed.

Yes but third party is not relevant to the driver, the person most likely to be injured through the absence of the airbag. (I accept the passenger would probably be covered.)

I don’t think we should take the “not insured” assertion as a given. Sounds “urban mythic” to me.

Tim

On Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:12:02 -0000 (UTC), RJH snipped-for-privacy@gmx.com wrote: [snip)

As an aside, we knew someone who had a telegraph pole in his garden. When there was a Labour Government he charged rental but when there was a Conservative Government he waived the rental charge.

My dad was at a conference after Jock Stein was seriously injured on the A74 by a car travelling in the wrong direction. The presenter said Jock survived because he was wearing a seatbelt. Someone piped up: 'But what happened to the driver of the other vehicle?'. 'He was just lucky', came the reply.

Fortunately if they are that dumb, they probably will, Darwin et al.

Don't the number of cars on the road, and the number of miles driven per year also need to be factored into these figures?

i.e. Deaths in 2004-2010 increased from that for 1992-1998 by roughly

Most people don't turn them on because they don't think of it.

The best change ever was when those fog lamps defaulted to "OFF" whenever you turned off the ignition. Prior to that, people would switch them on at the slightest hint of fog, and they would remain on for the next month or so.

I think they are very useful, visible at a decent distance in fog unlike ordinary tail lights.

It's just courteous to switch them off when travelling slowly and close together.

My fog driving rule: if you're finding it easier to see other cars with headlights and fog lights, switch yours on. Otherwise, don't.

nib

Good luck if you're stopped by the police for non-roadworthiness of the vehicle and (on the basis that insurance companies have already stated that cover may not extend to crashes caused by the malfunction) driving without valid insurance.

...collapsible steering columns...