I still think the rough-looking man at local filling station who was smoking while filling up takes some beating for obvious stupidity.

Yes that does take some beating, reminds me of the days when Mechanics smoked while using petrol to clean off parts of engines and gearboxes, yet non ever caused a fire, amazing really

There was a theory that the coating of ash on the end of a cigarette insulated it so that the surface was below the ignition temperature of petrol vapour (unless you took a deep drag on the cigarette.)

I gave up cigarettes 30 years ago, but Imay borrow one from the wife, light it and stick it in the end of a tube and see if it ignites a small dish of petrol a) just smouldering b) given a hearty suck on the tube.

If I get round to it I'll post the results.

Saw 3 incidents last week on the Scottish trip, one very nearly involved us.

A9 at Gleneagles. On the A9 cars can simply turn across traffic when leaving in a few places despite it being a 70 mph trunk road. We are well aware of this and slow down when we see a car waiting, b***** good job we did. New Renault Captur stationary in the centre presumably waiting for us to go past, no, he was waiting for us to get closer and then played chicken at walking pace. I had to brake pretty hard (the emergency systems did not activate so must have been "reasonably" safe) but it still woke me up. The elderly couple in the car seemed oblivious to the fact they were perpendicular to fast traffic and would have been seriously injured or even been killed if stuck by a vehicle doing 70 mph (or worse if it had been an HGV).

Tesco car park in Aviemore. As we stood at the pelican crossing a brand new Vauxhall Crossland was indicating to turn into the car part at less than walking speed. An elderly lady was driving with her equally elderly husband sat beside her. We crossed the road, walked across the car park and as I opened to boot heard a loud crunch behind me. In an area of the car park that was pretty empty she had somehow hit the back corner of a parked Fiesta hard enough to destroy the front bumper, bonnet and N/S wing on the Crossland. A chap parked 2 spaces away was getting into his car and said something to the chap as he got out of the passenger seat who then started shouting angrily at him seeming to be insisting it was a "brand new car thus could not be the drivers fault", we left but I was tempted to tell him it was a brand new car no longer.

Forton Services M6. on one double row of cars the end spaces are for blue badge cars. When we walked into the services those 2 spaces were empty. 10 minutes later we came out and a car was "parked" across the 2 blue badge spots at a 45 degree angle and when we got closer we could see that the car had hit both cars that were parked correctly in the end 2 spots.

Lack of practice during lockdown or simply rubbish drivers?

Indeed - petrol vapours are far more dangerous that petrol. After all, it's why cars can do 400+ miles on one 50L tank of it. 14.7:1 air to fuel.

Indeed - petrol vapours are far more dangerous that petrol. After all, it's why cars can do 400+ miles on one 50L tank of it. 14.7:1 air to fuel.

Not so dangerous as ether vapour: some years back a bottle of ether was knocked over at one end of the lab, a few seconds later a big flash- back from a lit bunsen burner a good 10 yards away. (No injuries, thanks to prompt response with CO2 extinguishers)

I've always wondered about those BOC small trucks loaded up with gas bottles for labs and industrial sites (one that gets a delivery about twice a month behind my flat block). Hopefully they are VERY careful drivers! I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one of them if it had an accident.

I watched in amazement yesterday as a child in passenger seat or rather wasn`t, hanging out the window trying to touch parked cars as they drove past,

I was at a vintage car event some time ago. A child was running its fingers along the radiators of the parked cars. I pointed out to its mother that some of the cars had just been run, they were radiators not radiator grilles, could be hot and the child may get burnt. The mother told the brat to find a stick if it wanted to do that.