Tim.

I'm not going to enter into a knowledge competition with you. I was stating my belief and experience that insurers will void your insurance policy if certain circumstances arise. I'm not sure that's the same thing that you are talking about in declining their responsibility.

Certainly if you state your car is being kept in a garage at night, and it gets stolen from the road outside your home, you may struggle to get paid out, you may also face charges under the fraud act for making a false declaration. The same as if you leave the keys in the ignition.

I'm not ranting at you, and I'm not an expert in the vagaries of motor insurance so I can be wrong. If there is something you can point to that shows a drunk driver or racing driver will be paid out by their insurer for injury or damage to themselves I'd be happy to look at it.

Regards plasma.

Wow, some big reactions on this thread. I thought one up man ship had been banned in an earlier thread. Maybe i got it wrong?

My sympathies to those that got hurt, but if your going to stand so close, if it all goes pear shaped then your gonna get hurt! Bit like winter car rallies lets get close to the action and boom 1-1.5 tons hits you at any sort of speed. Ouch!!

I do about 26k on the roads each year and it mad without having clowns trying to out do each other at some disorganised meet.. Bring back the 1970's when roads were not full of petrol heads and roads were quiet.

Looking forwards to retirement and flying everywhere.

Bri

The news has just been showing the seconds before the cars impacted. It appears to be not a dual carriageway but having a central reservation and roadsides covered in people when a car slowly pulled out of a side road and a fast car coming down the road tried to squeeze by it. So not racing. With that throng of people cars just using the road (a major through route) should have been down to less than 20mph.

The location is here. The carriageway is just wide enough for one car to pass another if required, but not for two lanes of moving traffic. The side road is a car park, presumably the one where the static event was taking place.

Unfortunately; even the Independent [once a reasonable newspaper] fuels hysteria with a headline like this:

Stevenage crash: 17 injured as ‘boy racers’ ram into crowds during car meet

**LINK**

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/stevenage-car-crash-latest-injured-boy-racers-police-a9011766.html

The facts are disturbing ... but the trend to sensationalise everything is perhaps more so.

MichaelG.

There's nothing new in newspapers sensatioanalising everything - it's their raison d'etre to sell papers. What is new is the amount of private video and the dramatisation of any major or minor incident into an 'existential threat'

I finally took a look at the vid and there are undoubtedly yahoo's showing off their noisy cars driving up and down that section of road at speed even if not side by side racing and outside the official meet boundaries. One could argue that that behaviour might be expected and that such an accident was likely but that is for police and the judiciary to decide.

Irrespective of the above one has to feel sorry for the curious observers who were injured. Folk have come to expect everything is securely organised and have stopped thinking about their own safety.

Alan v.

Thanks for the link, it helps understand the layout a bit better. Certainly not wide enough for two cars to drive side by side, but perhaps to overtake a properly parked vehicle.

It looks like one of those rare beasts, a dual carriageway with only one lane in either direction. I know it's not logical but it is factual, a central reserve is the deciding factor.

However there appears to be a 40 mph roundel sign on this stretch so it's not treated in the same way as a dual carriageway.

Plasma

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True ... but I was making a particular example of the Independent [which I used to buy, and respect]

I have noticed a significant decline [towards 'the gutter press'] in its headline writing over the last year or so.

MichaelG.

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Edit: We left Stevenage in 1988, so I am not aware of the local activity ... but 'the Comet' [local newspaper] reporting should be more reasonable:

 https://www.thecomet.net/motoring/cruise-herts-organiser-on-stevenage-crash-1-6169770

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 20/07/2019 14:11:54

In the aviation world, this is often characterised as "the Darwin Principle" and, as long as those 'damaged' are willing participants, commended for its beneficial effects on the human gene pool! The self-destruct impulse which energises these people is fine when limited to proper competitive arenas, otherwise stamp on it - heavily!

rgds

Bill

i suspect it was built as single carriageway. Then some kind of persistent bad behaviour developed for which this was the chosen solution. But it might have been original. Stevenage has other odd bits of road. We have a short section of two-lanes-each-side dual carriageway, with a 30mph limit. There is an underpass that has never been used. There is even a place where you drive on the right.

How many of those attending the event had insurance they could rely on? ALL modifications have to be notified to insurers, I would bet many have not declared their vehicles correctly.

My estimate of the location on Google Earth: 51°53'31"N 0°11'45"W

Alan V

Sounds like your traffic planners are every bit as good as ours up here. It does look a strange set up with a raised central reserve on a fairly non descript bit of road.

We have a similar road near here and it only has hatched line lane dividers. It's not quite wide enough to be two lanes each direction but it's way too wide for one. So guess what? Lots of head on near misses despite the 40mph limit as people overtake on the hatch markings.

Kwil, I made that point earlier. You're right, insurers frown on any lack of information that affects the price of your policy. But I dont think any if these so called enthusiasts would care tuppence for that, plus the police just use their database to confirm a policy is in force, not if it contains correct information. So "Computer says yes" allows a lot of offences to go undetected.

Looks like the organiser has pulled the plug on future events so hes obviously feeling the heat if public opinion. Trouble is the same idiots will organise their own meets vis soshul meedya and still attempt to gain a darwin award.

Plasma

Very close. Assuming Google Earth is reliable 51°53'20"N 0°11'43"W. Just south of the A602.

Yes quite. I knew a policeman who had his Skoda Diesel chipped to add a couple of dozen BHP and I’m pretty sure he didn’t inform his insurers. Some of these young lads have high enough insurance as it is so I doubt they could afford the “modifications”.

I don’t know how some of these vehicles get through the MOT to be honest.

Will / Vic, All modifications have to notified, I had to notify insurers that I had side steps and a tow bar fitted to my old Land Rover, even though they were factory fitted options. With current Land Rover I had to notify them that I intended towing with it because it has a detachable tow ball and that is considered a modification to the vehicle, I make them write into the policy that I am unaware, and will not be held responsible for any modification or improvement made to the vehicle before the date of my purchase. One insurer told me that even a sticker in the rear window is classed as a modification if the vehicle was not supplied with it by the manufacturer, their reasoning was that said sticker could impair your view and contribute to an accident. I hope I am fully insured but I bet they could find a way out of it if they tried.

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Thanks for the correction Alan ... I was looking near Burger King, not KFC

Not too bad considering I left 31 years ago

MichaelG.