! a lady i know well's daughter was about 17 years old, a beautiful girl doing an appreticeship as a jockey.. only a tiny young lady with long wavey blonde hair down to her waist.. anyway she went for a drive with a local dickhead, who decided it was clever to show off how good a driver he was by doind some rediculous speed..
well he crashed and was unhurt... she on the other hand took quite a blow to the head among other things.. the blow caused brain damage and even after years of help and therapy she still speaks very slowly and slurred... she is partially crippled particularly on one side. one arm doesnt work very well at all..
and she lost her sense of smell..
some 5 years after the accident she was living semi independantly in a unit for the disabled when her dressing gown caught fire.. she didnt smell it burning, and once she did, being partialy crippled she couldnt get it off quickly.. she managed to stumble outside half burnt and someone called the ambulance...
her mum found her fingernails in the hallway where she had been wrestling to get the gown off and her hands had been so burnt the nails came out..
she is still alive now confined to a disability motor scooter and is very badly scared..

second story is my son..you have probably heard of my daughter but not him... at 17 he is spoon fed and has to be changed etc why ??? masive brain injury... just the sort of injury cause every day by dickheads with no idea how to drive thinking they are Mario Andretti...
im 42 now and the prospect of still having to carry a growing man around as i age isnt something i look forward too..

no one is impressed with a 14 yo doing 130 on a public road except another 14 yo dickhead who probably only has a few seconds b4 his life either ends or is destroyed..

and if you made the story up who did you think was going to be impressed..

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No longer Ms Westwoods mini outside her original kings road shop

Jeff, that nearly brought a tear to my eye! What do I say.......

I am so sorry to hear about your son. Having kids myself I know how much you love them, regardless of what they say or do. When your child is hurt, you feel hurt.

It takes a VERY strong person to acknowledge the role they will have to play in their child's life, under these circumstances. While I don't pretend that I understand fully, I do sympathise with you and your wife.

The sad truth is that teenage tossers, who love to boast and brag, just don't get the message, and think they are indestructable. I was a complete and utter DICK when I was in my late teens, early 20's. I wrote a few cars off...one VERY badly around a tree.....I am so gratefull that I matured and saw sense.......Let's hope that those young guys who have too much testosterone also see the light before they hurt themselves or the innocent.

Being 21 and having had that anticipation that all testosterone loaded boys have with cars and speed
I'm so grateful that I have an open enough mind to absorb these stories and let them affect me. They do indeed regularly bring me back down to earth and I hope it affects others out there.

"You live life only once" can be smugly said by the person just before an incident, by the person who's escaped only with a scratch, but not by the person who pushed it too far and disables their own life and distraughtingly affects those around them.

Thank you

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Inconspicuously Conspicuous
Appreciation without Depreciation
forever chasing clearer skies...

Man it's getting serious in here.

But that's not a problem, these sort of stories need to be told - and hopefully they might get through to some of the said dickheads.

Like Anton, I too went through a "dickhead phase" in my late teens where I KNEW I was indestructable. Luckily I arsed my way through without killing or maming myself or others, and have now seen that these actions can have consequences far beyond a moment of fun or enjoyment.

One thing that made me sit up and take notice was a friend of the family. It's funny, he has the same surname as us but is no relation. Anyway, him and a mate were arguing about who's route home was quicker so they decided to test it out. Well of course they were both speeding, and out friend (probably best not to mention names) was doing 160 down a suburban road when he lost control over a crest and slid sideways into a power pole. I went and looked at the two halves of the car (which incidently ended up 30 metres away from each other) at the police impound yard and I didn't recognise it as a Commodore anymore. He killed 3 of his best mates and had a reasonable hospital stay himself. He got sentenced to 2 years weekend detention, but the DPP appealed the lightness of the sentence and he ended up with 1 year in Long Bay. His parents nearly lost their house paying for the defence.

Just goes to show how many lives can be lost, ruined or otherwise affected in an instant.

I sympathise with you Jeff, and I hope telling your story on here will make a few people sit up and take notice. Save it for the track I say.

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Bob Slattery
Duffman Says A Lot of Things - OH YEAH!!

Another important issue that Bob has reminded me of is driging unregistered or uninsured!

If you have an accident in an unregistered or uninsured vehicle, the financial consequences are enormous!

Do you like where you live, or do you like your cosy life in your parents house?? That could easily change with one simple outing in an unregistered or uninsured car.......think about it!

14 year olds driving cars at 130km/h + should take note here.....

I agree with what the other guys have said wholeheartedly! ('Cept I never went through a dickhead phase)..

Too sad for words. I lost my brother when he was 22. Though not from a car accident it was devastating enough. But to lose a loved one due to someone else's irresponsible actions I cannot even fathom the amount of anger and devastation that causes the families affected

Kids today don't realise the extent of how their actions affect others Us as parents never cease to worry about our kids..

The world needs more people like you Jeff

Exactly why the insurance thread pissed me off!

Sad but too true. I deal with these dickheads on a daily basis and have done for the last 10yrs and every day i'm still amazed at how stupid some people can be. One thing I have learnt is that dickheads come in all shapes and sizes, both sexes and more importantly all ages. Male P plates make the news, but they only account for 1/4 of the fatalitiies the other 75% should have been old enough to know bettter. Having siad all that I still can't understand why its my fault that there life is ruined because they got caught doing something that is against the law.

Thommo

Thats why I like only having 34kw to play with


Seriously though, the way car culture is going in australia (rice), and the laziness of our licencing - this is going to become a more pertinent issue.

Stuff roads, car safety, speeding.. whatever - driver attitudes are whats crap. the p plate guy in his wrx who was doing about 80 up a tiny road through the middle of my uni (lots of pedestrians around) just this morning typifies it - im cool, therefore i cant die... yeah...

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Sadly stories like Jeff's are all too common and until we have kids of our own I don't think we realise how fragile life can be or how much an injured or sick child effects you.

I was a traffic cop for a period in the UK many years ago and saw the result of horrendous traffic accidents, and whilst you get numbed to the experience it only really hits home when someone you know is involved. Without going into too much detail, picking up various remains of an old school friend over a 100m stretch of road who'd been hit by a speeding car will live with me forever.

Lets all just be careful and live to drive and restore many more cars.

Dunc

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1965 Morris Mini 'Woody' Traveller

Guilty of both. I'm also driving without P plates in the window and with an unregistered plate on the boot.
(Don't worry, it's only till I get the roadworthy, and I haven't taken the car to within 10 k of the speed limit yet)

flirting with danger mate......

Hey I am no saint, I have done it.....but just be aware!

In regard to the dickhead phase...it weird to explain...but you kinda dont realise you are acting like a tool......and it's only years later you see the light. I worked for a pharmaceutical company for a year or so, and they reckon it;s a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes irrational behaviour....maybe that imbalabce is rectified with age...who knows....

what really shitted me about this senario is that when it was mentioned hardly anyone thought or felt they could say something against it..
I take my hat off to big willy for making the point that he must be talking crap..
to see so called adults arguing over wether the said offenders mini could rev to 8-10 thou is rediculous
this is a 14 yo claiming to have driven on a public road at 130K's !!!!!!!
and someone says you shouldnt be hard on him, hes only being enthusiastic...

im sure we all did some stupid things as new drivers... but thats with at least enough skill to actually have passed a drivers test.. and a bit more maturity at legal drivers age..

so i can be a hard bastard..well im qualified at it.. better this than having to watch the ambo's clean a kids brains of your windscreen.

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No longer Ms Westwoods mini outside her original kings road shop

I was a dickhead (now 34). I had motorcycles and did ridiculous speeds and fell off 3 times at speeds in excess of 200kmh (Bombala hospital is a very nice place). I was lucky and the worst I got was a chipped bone in my ankle and broken collar bone. All three times I should have died. I feel that the fact is that no matter the level of education (the violent car crash ads have been shown to have little impact) will heavily impact on these young dickheads. It certainly made no difference to me when I was on my bike. So what's the solution.

By the way before I get pummelled your story Danidad is heart wrenching and I can only sympathise at the moment as I don't have kids yet (but intend to soon). I just wonder what the solution is, how do we modify people's driving behaviour (as I agree that it is not simply young drivers, I know alot of people who are their later 20 and 30's who drink and drive).

Cheers

Matt

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225hp atw on 14psi. 1/4 Mile no idea. Take one 1971 Mini Clubman, one Starlet GT Halfcut, Simmer over a warm MIG Welder, and Voila Minstar! www.mpdesign.id.au

I agree with Mistyk here. I see more and more ricer cars out there on the roads driven by Habib and his cousin. Bog stock standard pulsars or corollas with turbos or whatever driving like their cars are Porsche's etc. Their attitudes are that once they bolt on a canon exhaust, their car suddenly becomes a WRX equivalent when it comes to handling and performance.

All too often I see P platers with Auto WRXs trying to be urban rally drivers, or worste, a P plater in a yellow Type R trying to drag every single car at every lights going up burwood road, even a camry driven by a little chinese lady. One time he almost hit a parked car on the left trying to overtake cars after a set of lights.

They think they're invincible! Thank god I never went through that phase. Only now am I a petrol head (late bloomer ) and thank goodness I am mature enough to think before I plant my foot down.

That A Current Affairs story about P platers in high powered cars doing donuts in car parks late at night really highlights the truth about driver attitudes. It's not the roads that are unsafe, it's what's behind the wheel!

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K