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Italian driving standards are pretty high compared to India. Go to any major city in India and see how they drive there. Statistics mention that 25% of the world's bus crashes occur in India. In fact, you open up the daily national paper, and on the front page it lists how many road deaths occurred yesterday, as if it's no big deal.
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A Salesman friend of mine had India as one of his territories. He's told me many tales of the local driving and is always sure to be back in his hotel room before it gets dark. Apparently they don't need to use headlights because some God or other is looking after them. Scary.
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Well the majority of Indians are Hindus and believe in a pre-ordained destiny, so they figure that driving with or without headlights etc. makes no difference, if you are destined to die that day anyway. Actually, once you relax a bit and go with the flow, the traffic flows quite well. The dangerous situations are if you hesitate and stop in the middle of a road, then you are likely to be hit. As long as you go with the flow and keep moving, it's usually not that bad as people think.
I was in my uncle's car and the driver was weaving in and out of traffic, when somebody collided with the back of the car from the right hand side at approx. 20mph. Nobody stopped. When I queried why, they said "it was only a small one", "if it was a larger knock, we would have chased the guy until he got home".
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I have being visting italy on business for many years,Milan area and The South and what amazes me I have never seen an accident in the chaos and the traffic does seem to move unlike here.
I recall once a milan rush hour and a guy literally stopped his car,door open and he stands outside talking on his mobile and no one bothers.
In June I was being driven by my italian friend in the deep south on a so called dual motorway with tractors using it and they were resurfacing one lane-no cones or warning and the freshly laid tarmac was spraying onto cars but the traffic moved,drivers including mine were shouting and waving there fists however at the workmen to no avail.
On another occassion they were painting white lines and again no cones-warning and using a spray it was also finding its way onto cars including ours--could you imagine here.
And you know that italians do not respect traffic lights,once I had an italian colleague visting us and driving around he always ask "why you not go there is no one coming",I told him the light was on red and his reply " ah in italy we do not bother,if no one is coming we just go!"
Don't you just love italy!! I do.
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Portugal is way more dangerous than Italy for driving. From Social Trends official statistics in 2001, Portugal had 21 deaths per 100,000 population, highest in the EU. Lowest was of course the UK, with only 6.1 deaths. Italy was in the middle with 11.1 deaths.
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India sounds a bit like Suadi Arabia, once heard wearing a seatbelt described as heretical - if Allah wants you to die......
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There's a joke about India, given the number of cows and donkeys on the roads. You have to drive around them, and they can wander onto wide carriageways where you are doing 100km/h plus.
Anyway, a young journalist comes across a crowd of people that have gathered after a road accident in rural India. The crowd is ten deep, but he really wants to know what's happened, as it might be a good story. So he runs up to the crowd, shouting "Let me through, let me through, I'm the victim's son". The crowd parts, he gets to the accident scene, and finds a dead donkey lying in front of the car.
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sri lanka the same as India also.
I was being driven by a company driver just outside Colombo,when he slammed his brakes on to avoid hitting a cow-we came to stop of course,if he had being driving slower then it would have be ok.
Behind us was a Landcruiser and the next thing I new was armed police opening the passenger and drivers doors and shouting the driver and I out of the car.
The Landcruiser had a Government Minister and they thought we were Tamal Tiger terrorists.--an experience.
Last year on fast road south of colombo a car driving in the opposite direction at speed hit a dog,the dog was thrown into the air across on to our side of the road--no one stopped or took any notice,I looked behind to see the dog get up and limp away.
Whenever in Sri Lanka being driven around I always hold my breath msot times.
Like India they have a list of daily road casulities.
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One evening, after working in Parco de Medici, near Rome Airport, we were waiting for the last company bus to take us into EUR. As we waited a group of armed men in uniform (the Italians love smart uniforms) arrived and quite self importantly ordered us to move away. I move immediately, but my workmate argued his civil rights. One of the men looked him straight in the eye and pushed a bullet up the barrel of his gun. Alacrity reigned. We had previously noticed a row of bullet holes in the Bank window, so we assumed that it was the security team an advance of the money collection truck. Sure enough an armoured car shortly drew up. It was like a military exercise.
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Well wouldnt you? specially after the brits in minis raided the place.
(yes yes I know it was turin but that would spoil the joke)
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Then there is the police 'tactic' of parking on the pavement. They don't parallel park, but reverse on until the boot is against the wall. Pedestrians then have to walk in the road to get by. I can't imagine what they gain by that. I once saw one policeman in the car lolling on the backseat reading what seemed to be a Captain Marvel comic. Didn't even look at me. (I wonder if he confiscated it fron some kid.)
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It would be quicker to race to a job in either direction rather than turning around.
Silly though.
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:) I love Italy.
8th or 9th biggest ecomony in the world... imagine what they could achieve if they actually gacve a stuff about anything other than not letting anything get in the way of living a good life ;)
Fantastic!
;) JaB
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The Italians are quite relaxed about scrapping their cars. They had to pay a scrapyard to take cars long before the UK did. Park it on the street, take off the plates and walk away. I have watched cars fall apart over several months in front of the Victor Emmanuel monument, one of the greatest tourist attractions.
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I love Italy. Absolutely love it - Southern Italy was the best holiday Mrs P & I have ever had. The views ... the food ... the relaxed attitude ... the food ... the restaurants ... the food ...
But their roads scared me witless.
Especially when you see a Ford Transit coming the other way. At circa 40 mph. In a back street. A back street that is approximately 2" wider than, say, a Ford Transit. And there is nowhere to stand. We found that you just have to close your eyes for a millisecond or so and then the Transit miraculously reappears behind you. No idea how.
Did I mention that I liked their food?
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I like the way that they overtake on a two way road. Basically someone starts to overtake a line of traffic, someone decides they're overtaking too slowly and overtakes them. Meanwhile, you're coming the other way and have to drive into the gutter to avoid a collision. But it doesn't seem to bother anyone and I always lived to tell the tale and enjoy the wine and food in the evening.
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There is a section on the Amalfi coast where a road winds around the sharp headlands and bays. It is essentially a long string of hairpin bends with a vertical wall on the inside and a vertical drop on the outside. One of those hairpins is through a tunnel, as the headland was just too sharp to go round. On the approach, the tunnel walls mean you have no visibility past the first 90 degree bend, let alone into or beyond the tunnel.
Here, we would have a speed camera, double white & yellow lines, the lot.
They have a sign on the cliff side, in English, French, German and Spanish. It says that you should watch out for oncoming overtaking traffic.
!!
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They have a sign on the cliff side, in English, French, German and Spanish. It says that you should watch out for oncoming overtaking traffic. !!
Patently, like you I enjoy Italian food -- it's hard to do better this side of Kashmir. But when in Italy, I prefer eating when I know I don't have a car journey afterwards.
I was wondering earlier whether there is perhaps an inverse correlation between orderly driving and good food? Most Northern Europeans eat boring food, but drive realtively conservatively. The mediterranean folks tend to drive wildly, but eat ell ... and the Pakistanis drive wildly enough to terrify the Italians, but eat brilliantly.
(Just to disprove my rule, when I was a kid the Irish used to drive badly and eat atrociously)
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Sticking with Thailand - when I was driving back from a village in the North East, came across many cars which were parked in the centre of the road whilst the owners were picking rice etc.
The idea of flashing when you want to overtake amused me to - not sure why. Got stopped a number of times out there, but never any fines etc - just think they wanted to see a white person! Maybe it was also down to the car full of Thai people I had arguing my case!! :-D
More fun was in Phuket and Pattaya on a bike though - was more aim and throttle than any other kind of driving.
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