Finn finishes Finnish mini-digger odyssey
Crowds cheer 5-day-late, 2mph arrival at Finnish line
By Lewis Page
30th June 2010

A plucky Finn's quest to be the first man to traverse much of the length of Finland riding a small imported Chinese mechanical digger has ended in success.


An inspiration to us all.

To rapturous applause from crowds of fans, freelance excavator repairman and salesman Jukka Mutanen chugged very slowly into the northern Finnish town of Kuusamo yesterday, completing an epic 942-kilometre journey lasting 29 days.

Mutanen made the journey at average road speeds of around 2mph, though his SWE17B one-man digger is capable of 2.8mph going flat out. ...

[brilliant snooty English butler]A telephone call for you, sir. It is Mr Darwin's Driving School, sir.[/brilliant snooty English butler]



Ta much, dear Anneliese

... Police say that she was driving westbound on the Interstate 10 service road and “texting” when she drove through a red traffic light and smashed into the front end of the West I-10 Fire Department truck that was traveling southbound from SH 99. Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries and released. ...



Ta much, dear Anneliese

Muslim driver fined for wearing veil
Woman, 31, accuses French police of attacking her freedom after she was fined for wearing a niqab while driving in Nantes
Lizzy Davies
Friday 23 April 2010

A Muslim woman has accused French police of attacking her freedom after she was fined for wearing a niqab while driving in the city of Nantes.

The 31-year-old, who says she has worn the full veil for nine years and never been told not to wear it behind the wheel, was flagged down by two police officers and told that her niqab – which did not cover her eyes – was a safety risk.

"My eyes were not covered. I can see just like you and my field of vision was not obstructed," [Ed. Note: Yeah, suuurrrrre!] the woman, whose name has not been reported, said.

She was fined €22 by the officers, who argued she was infringing the highway code by "driving in unsuitable conditions". ...

Bless!

Italian Job sat nav driver cops £900 fine

Yorkshire precipice escapade ends in court

By Lester Haines
17th September 2009 08:40 GMT

The Doncaster man who slavishly followed his sat nav to the edge of a West Yorkshire cliff has been punished with a £370 fine, £500 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and six points on his licence for driving without due care and attention.

Robert Jones, 43, was driving his £30,000 BMW 5 Series though the village of Gauxholme back in March, when his TomTom ordered him up a narrow footpath. He only realised he'd taken a seriously wrong turn when he hit a fence on the edge of a precipice.

It subsequently took extraction operatives nine hours and three quad bikes to rescue the vehicle. One local witness commented: "It's like something from The Italian Job, but what a waste of police time. It's all very well and good trusting your sat nav, but how about trusting your eyes?" ...

Jolly good show.

Shocking but true - another new study concludes that driving while texting on a cell phone or smartphone isn't safe - in fact, it can be 23 times more risky in leading to a crash than drivers who are not texting.

What, we needed a study to tell us this? Apparently, we did.

The latest report, which came from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute yesterday, reports that the risk of a vehicle crash can be up to 23 times higher when the driver is texting, compared to a driver who is paying full attention to the road. The report concludes that driving while texting should be banned, and that cell phone use should be banned for newly-licensed drivers. ...



Well, duh!

"I-I am convinced...I am convinced that this is a major contribution to road safety."

I have never experienced rush hour in Kingston, and I don't mind.

The traffic on Market Day near Brown's Town in St Ann, Jamaica is insane enough, thanks very much.

I have experienced rush hour in the following places:
The Greater Lost Angeles Area
"Chicagoland"
Hotlanta, Georgia
Cincinnati, OH (No, WKRP wasn't on the radio at the time)
Seattle (Those lucky folks get a rush hour at Noon, too, also! [more sarcasm]Good thing they have such wonderful cops there![/sarcasm])
The Bay Area of Northern California (San Francisco/Oakland and environs)
NYC - but in a subway (shudder twitch shiver) not a vehicle
The Metropolitan Detroit Area, of course - Midtown, Downtown, East Side, West Side, North Side, Southwest Side, Far Northeast Side, Far Northwest Side. I've tried them all.

The worst?
El Lay. No question.
I may not have given Chicago's traffic hell a real chance since I only experienced it once or twice, while I'd lived inland from El Lay (conveniently located near some of those smog-trapping mountains) for two years. I cannot say that any of my friends from Chicago have mentioned traffic jams that last until after 9 PM like they often have in El Lay.