Customer offered to put his car down his drive to allow me the space to
park across the front his drive way.

Well he knocked the gas meter and cabinet off the wall with his car
whist reversing down the drive.

One for 0800 111 999 and I'll go back later.

--
Adam

Some days people should have stayed in bed.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"ARW" wrote in message
news
Customer offered to put his car down his drive to allow me the space to
park across the front his drive way.

Well he knocked the gas meter and cabinet off the wall with his car whist
reversing down the drive.

One for 0800 111 999 and I'll go back later.

--
Adam

On Sun, 5 Nov 2017 09:20:29 +0000, ARW
wrote:

Customer offered to put his car down his drive to allow me the space to
park across the front his drive way.

Well he knocked the gas meter and cabinet off the wall with his car
whist reversing down the drive.

I wonder if that's not something he typically does (reversing his car
that far back, not the gas meter bit). ;-)

One for 0800 111 999 and I'll go back later.

Did you notice if they had done much damage to their car? Shame if
they did whilst trying to help etc ...

A (elderly) neighbour managed to crush their gas meter and box against
their front wall when coming in with their automatic car. Didn't do a
lot of good to the front bumper or aircon rad either ...

Cheers, T i m

On Sun, 5 Nov 2017 14:58:07 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Some days people should have stayed in bed.

Ain't that the truth Brian. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On 05/11/2017 19:22, TheChief wrote:

My late mother managed a seemingly impossible manoeuvre.

My mother in law managed impressively, too. She borrowed a car. Stuck it
in reverse and hit the accelerator big time. She managed to write off
the car she was in, the one parked behind her, AND the car on the other
side of the road that she spun into.

ARW Wrote in message:
Customer offered to put his car down his drive to allow me the space to
park across the front his drive way.

Well he knocked the gas meter and cabinet off the wall with his car
whist reversing down the drive.

One for 0800 111 999 and I'll go back later.

--
Adam


My late mother managed a seemingly impossible manoeuvre.
Like most house feeds her gas supply rose up the side of the house
and "T" d through the wall about 2 feet above ground. The
vertical run of pipe continued about 2 inches above the tee and
the whole run was lagged. The vertical pipe was about 2 inches
from the wall.
Somehow she managed to hook the wheel arch of her fiesta over the
pipe upstand and against the wall.

Luckily there were some kind workmen at the house opposite. One
of them had to get under the car and take enough weight so others
could haul the car clear.

Phil
--


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

On Sun, 05 Nov 2017 19:31:37 +0000, GB wrote:

On 05/11/2017 19:22, TheChief wrote:

My late mother managed a seemingly impossible manoeuvre.

My mother in law managed impressively, too. She borrowed a car. Stuck it
in reverse and hit the accelerator big time. She managed to write off
the car she was in, the one parked behind her, AND the car on the other
side of the road that she spun into.

The best one I ever saw was done by the manager of a service station I
was working at.

I had to collect an old Rover 3.5 (this was many years ago) and bring it
in for service. The owner had an artificial right leg, so it was an
automatic, and the accelerator was to the *left* of the brake pedal. I
drove it from the owner's house to the service station, about 5 miles -
no problem, and parked it in the road.

Manager came along and moved it to a short row of cars, parked
perpendicular to the workshop wall. He then decided to inch it forward a
bit, then hit the brake (which needed adjusting...) and pushed the
'clutch' down. Quite a bit of body repair there.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 05/11/2017 19:31, GB wrote:
On 05/11/2017 19:22, TheChief wrote:

My late mother managed a seemingly impossible manoeuvre.

My mother in law managed impressively, too. She borrowed a car. Stuck it
in reverse and hit the accelerator big time. She managed to write off
the car she was in, the one parked behind her, AND the car on the other
side of the road that she spun into.

While visiting my grandmother many years ago, we heard a bang. Outside
was a scene of chaos.

Apparently a Mini (old style) had come down the road at speed, touched
my father's car on his right (literally a tiny paint mark on the end of
the bumper), turned sharply away, lost control and went, head-on, into
the side of a Volkswagen Jetta on the other side of the road. The Jetta
was turned over onto its side on the pavement. Somehow the Mini driver
managed to drive away!

SteveW

On 5 Nov 2017 20:25:01 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:


The best one I ever saw was done by the manager of a service station I
was working at.


When the health campaigns started to place advertisements around that
cigarettes can damage your health I doubt they anticipated what
happened to me.
Usual thing of an elderly women in a powerful automatic
losing it and accelerating out of control and this case careering
across a pub car park and striking the building, she hit so hard the
wall was stove inwards and the cigarette machine launched across the
room where and hit a couple of us, fortunately were only slightly
bruised.

G.Harman

On Mon, 06 Nov 2017 01:47:14 +0000, wrote:

snip

When the health campaigns started to place advertisements around that
cigarettes can damage your health I doubt they anticipated what
happened to me.
Usual thing of an elderly women in a powerful automatic
losing it and accelerating out of control and this case careering
across a pub car park and striking the building, she hit so hard the
wall was stove inwards and the cigarette machine launched across the
room where and hit a couple of us, fortunately were only slightly
bruised.

Feck.

Maybe my dislike of cigarettes came from when I was about 12 and was
asked to go and get some by an aunty when at my grans 50th wedding
anniversary. On the way back I was hit by a Jag (I went up and over it
apparently) whilst I was crossing the road and ended up in hospital
(nothing broken, just loads of aches and bruises).

Cheers, T i m

On Mon, 06 Nov 2017 10:01:07 +0000, Tim Streater
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

Usual thing of an elderly women in a powerful automatic
losing it and accelerating out of control ...

Here's a Q. I've never ridden a motorbike (well, been on the back once,
that was enough), but I have the impression that to accelerate, you
twist the handlebar handle.

The twist grip, yes.

Is this the case? If so, d'ye twist it towards or away from you?

Towards (at the top).

I
could imagine that if it's towards, then that could be dangerous as if
the bike starts to get away from you, you'll be pushed back and will
tend to turn it to accelerate more.

Yup.

Does this happen?

It can, something you often see on 'You've been framed' and Youtube
with people getting on their kids twist-and-go bikes, pulling away and
going into hedges and though fences etc.

If so how do
riders counteract it?

On all but the most powerful bikes you are generally 'holding on' with
your feet, your mass on the saddle (friction), you knees on the tank
and sometimes the shape of the saddle (you sit in rather than on it to
a degree), especially one that is stepped to raise the pillion higher
than the rider (or a solo saddle with a 'hump' at the back). You also
balance the acceleration with your body angle and the friction / grip
/ saddle by leaning into it (often before starting off, as seen on
drag-bikes).

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/top-...e-27323289.jpg

Additionally you also 'hold on' to the handlebar (via the twist grip)
in the same way you would hold onto anything that was slippery, where
you form a 'hook' with your fingers whilst also gripping with your
hand / fingers and locking off your wrist.

'Sports bikes' tend to have the rider foot pegs further rearwards to
help offset the affects of acceleration and better suit the more
'forward leaning' riding position.

Tourers tend to set the pegs to give the rider a more upright position
and cruisers have the pegs forward for a more laid-back posture.

HTH.

Cheers, T i m

It was in Cromer that I encountered an elderly lady on a mobility
scooter. This was her first outing on it. The manufacturers had designed
it so that gripping the handlebar made it go, and letting go would make
it stop. She was terrified, and no way was she going to let go! Her
adult kids were running along behind her, trying to switch it off.

On Mon, 6 Nov 2017 10:50:02 +0000, GB
wrote:

It was in Cromer that I encountered an elderly lady on a mobility
scooter. This was her first outing on it. The manufacturers had designed
it so that gripping the handlebar made it go, and letting go would make
it stop. She was terrified, and no way was she going to let go! Her
adult kids were running along behind her, trying to switch it off.


Mum, after hurting her foot or summat took Dads 3 wheeler scooter out
with us down the local park and around some other public open areas.

The 'throttle' was as you mention, grip a control bar to the handlebar
on the right to go forward, on the left to in reverse.

She had been fine on it for a good hour or so (including going round a
fairly tight maze g) till we came back close to her house and a
pedestrian crossing. Just as she should have come to a halt (releasing
the throttle and using the 'electric brake' (shorted motor)), her
muscle memory from cycling kicked in and she squeezed the throttle
thinking it was a brake. As she accelerated off of the pavement and
just into the road I grabbed the buggy and brought it to a halt
(luckily).

She hasn't ridden it since and I'm not sure we would be happy for her
to do so on her own, not without plenty of practice anyway.

When I have allowed people to ride any of my (smaller) motorbikes who
may not ridden for a while or I've not actually seen them riding with
my own eyes ... I will push them along (on some private road / long
drive) and then say 'front' ... or 'back', with the test to see how
quickly / accurately they apply either brake (mixing up the
repetition to keep them concentrating). 100% positive result normally
means they know what they are doing. ;-) [1]

Cheers, T i m

[1] Years ago when IT training I met another trainer who was from SA
and his family were still there, waiting for him to 'get settled' and
buy a house etc. He was obviously homesick and missing his family so
whilst we were chatting he mentioned he had a motorbike in SA and used
to ride it quite a bit. Long-short, we were going away to a bike rally
/ long weekend and offered him a spare bike and camping gear if he
wanted to join us. He was really taken aback and after doing the above
'quick check' and getting him on my insurance, off we all went. He
said he really had a good time and it seemed to cheer him up for a
while. ;-)

On 06/11/2017 10:50, GB wrote:
It was in Cromer that I encountered an elderly lady on a mobility
scooter. This was her first outing on it. The manufacturers had designed
it so that gripping the handlebar made it go, and letting go would make
it stop. She was terrified, and no way was she going to let go! Her
adult kids were running along behind her, trying to switch it off.


Recently used a quad bike at local stables, surprised to find it didn't
have a twist grip but rather a little thumb lever on the right
handlebar. Not easy to control. I'd like to see someone try to control a
scrambler or speedway bike like that.

On Mon, 6 Nov 2017 12:58:41 +0000, newshound
wrote:

On 06/11/2017 10:50, GB wrote:
It was in Cromer that I encountered an elderly lady on a mobility
scooter. This was her first outing on it. The manufacturers had designed
it so that gripping the handlebar made it go, and letting go would make
it stop. She was terrified, and no way was she going to let go! Her
adult kids were running along behind her, trying to switch it off.


Recently used a quad bike at local stables, surprised to find it didn't
have a twist grip but rather a little thumb lever on the right
handlebar. Not easy to control. I'd like to see someone try to control a
scrambler or speedway bike like that.

Similar setup on the jet-skis I've used and some electric bikes and
buggies and I think more typical on things where the transmission is
automatic (CVT / jet nozzle) and unlike as you say on a road going
motorbike or scrambler etc.

It does alleviate the issue Tim raised re acceleration causing one to
accelerate harder but that might also happen with a thumb-throttle if
people grip harder (in a panic) in general?

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote:

Just as she should have come to a halt (releasing
the throttle and using the 'electric brake' (shorted motor)), her
muscle memory from cycling kicked in and she squeezed the throttle
thinking it was a brake.

The UK arrangement for trains of the Master Controller handle
moving forward for brake and back for power is the exact opposite
of UIC(1) requirements.

This is the most probably explanation for a collision with a
static vehicle involving a British Electrostar unit on the Czech
Republic test track. From the recorded data, at the point when
braking should have been initiated, power was taken. The local
driver must have unthinkingly reverted to his usual technique.

(1) UIC - Union Internationale des Chemins de fer

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

On Mon, 06 Nov 2017 13:39:41 +0000, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

T i m wrote:

Just as she should have come to a halt (releasing
the throttle and using the 'electric brake' (shorted motor)), her
muscle memory from cycling kicked in and she squeezed the throttle
thinking it was a brake.

The UK arrangement for trains of the Master Controller handle
moving forward for brake and back for power is the exact opposite
of UIC(1) requirements.

Ok.

This is the most probably explanation for a collision with a
static vehicle involving a British Electrostar unit on the Czech
Republic test track. From the recorded data, at the point when
braking should have been initiated, power was taken. The local
driver must have unthinkingly reverted to his usual technique.

Interesting (from a UI POV). ;-)

I had similar when I bought a Royal Enfield Bullet (350). I never rode
any 'old British iron' so had no previous experience with having the
(foot) gears on the right and the foot brake on the left with
anything.

So, whilst I could generally 'manage', it was far from intuitive as my
left foot was only used to short / binary actions (clicking up and
down gears) and my right foot was only used to pushing down and in
analogue to apply the brakes. I finally sold it because I started
taking our daughter pillion and I was concerned that in an 'emergency'
situation, any and even fractions of seconds of delays or lack of
finesse on the controls could have a bad outcome. ;-(

(1) UIC - Union Internationale des Chemins de fer

Cheers, T i m

On 06/11/2017 13:39, Chris J Dixon wrote:
T i m wrote:

Just as she should have come to a halt (releasing
the throttle and using the 'electric brake' (shorted motor)), her
muscle memory from cycling kicked in and she squeezed the throttle
thinking it was a brake.

The UK arrangement for trains of the Master Controller handle
moving forward for brake and back for power is the exact opposite
of UIC(1) requirements.

This is the most probably explanation for a collision with a
static vehicle involving a British Electrostar unit on the Czech
Republic test track. From the recorded data, at the point when
braking should have been initiated, power was taken. The local
driver must have unthinkingly reverted to his usual technique.

(1) UIC - Union Internationale des Chemins de fer

Chris


The A470 going into Cardiff has reversible lanes with an overhead
gantry showing a big red X to indicate traffic coming towards you
and big green arrow to indicate your lane. However, the arrow
points DOWN, which is illogical. Considering the direction you
are going, it should point UP surely ?.

On 05/11/2017 21:34, Steve Walker wrote:
Somehow the Mini driver managed to drive away!

With his ignition key embedded in his left kneecap ???

On 07/11/2017 17:51, Andrew wrote:

The A470 going into Cardiff has reversible lanes with an overhead
gantry showing a big red X to indicate traffic coming towards you
and big green arrow to indicate your lane. However, the arrow
points DOWN, which is illogical. Considering the direction you
are going, it should point UP surely ?.

I think they are defined that way internationally. Of course that
doesn't explain why. But I'd hazard the guess that it's to distinguish
them from all the arrows that do point up - including traffic signals
that "filter" ahead. After all, there's not much worse than people
using a tidal flow (reversible) lane when they oughtn't.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

Andrew wrote:
On 06/11/2017 13:39, Chris J Dixon wrote:
T i m wrote:

Just as she should have come to a halt (releasing
the throttle and using the 'electric brake' (shorted motor)), her
muscle memory from cycling kicked in and she squeezed the throttle
thinking it was a brake.

The UK arrangement for trains of the Master Controller handle
moving forward for brake and back for power is the exact opposite
of UIC(1) requirements.

This is the most probably explanation for a collision with a
static vehicle involving a British Electrostar unit on the Czech
Republic test track. From the recorded data, at the point when
braking should have been initiated, power was taken. The local
driver must have unthinkingly reverted to his usual technique.

(1) UIC - Union Internationale des Chemins de fer

Chris


The A470 going into Cardiff has reversible lanes with an overhead
gantry showing a big red X to indicate traffic coming towards you
and big green arrow to indicate your lane. However, the arrow
points DOWN, which is illogical. Considering the direction you
are going, it should point UP surely ?.

Take a look at the green running man fire exit signs. Some have the arrow
pointing up to the ceiling, some have it pointing down towards the door.
I know which way I would have pointed the arrow - towards the door.
I once got into a very heated argument with the service manager of the
second biggest fire protection company in the world over this issue. Nobody
won.

On Tue, 7 Nov 2017 20:18:25 -0000, "Mr Pounder Esquire"
wrote:

snip

Take a look at the green running man fire exit signs. Some have the arrow
pointing up to the ceiling, some have it pointing down towards the door.
I know which way I would have pointed the arrow - towards the door.
I once got into a very heated argument with the service manager of the
second biggest fire protection company in the world over this issue. Nobody
won.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_De...veryday_Things

Cheers, T i m

On 07/11/2017 20:18, Mr Pounder Esquire wrote:

Take a look at the green running man fire exit signs. Some have the arrow
pointing up to the ceiling, some have it pointing down towards the door.
I know which way I would have pointed the arrow - towards the door.
I once got into a very heated argument with the service manager of the
second biggest fire protection company in the world over this issue. Nobody
won.

And as we are told not to panic and run in an emergency then why a
picture of a bloke legging it?



--
Adam