Dangerous Driving

[pennybarry]

I have 3 Thai friends here who are all brave. They drive using Thai International license, One died yesterday for car crash and one caught for violation of expired license.
The other one used to drive in Australia but no UK license. Does she need UK license even if she used to drive in Autralia?
I am sad about my friend who died, and this decreases my confidence in driving

[darren-b]

I have 3 Thai friends here who are all brave. They drive using Thai International license, One died yesterday for car crash and one caught for violation of expired license.
The other one used to drive in Australia but no UK license. Does she need UK license even if she used to drive in Autralia?
I am sad about my friend who died, and this decreases my confidence in driving

Did your friend actually get an Australian driving license? If so she could exchange it for an UK one. If she only has a Thai license then it makes no difference where she has driven, she should need to pass a UK test if she is going to drive here for longer than year.

[keithAngel]

You have to be brave to drive in Thai its not just the Fils although you would think Thais would be at a slight advantage as theoreticaly they drive on the left

[nigel]

I once passed an advanced driving test with the I.A.M. It is something worth doing, but the driving lessons can be expensive of course...I have some quick advice for everyone driving..

1 The majority of road crashes are 'rear end shunts' in other words, it's when you crash into the back of someone - or they crash into the back of you! When we have our driving lessons they teach us to keep our distance from the vehicle in front so we've got plenty of braking space when we need to stop. And for good reason! Keeping your distance from the vehicle in front is VERY important, it's rare that drivers realize this though. You might think that all this keep your distance stuff is a fuss about nothing, but it's actually the biggest 'cause of accidents!

2 The second biggest 'cause of accidents is drivers crossing priority, in other words, turning right when your supposed give way to the oncoming traffic, forgetting to give way to the right at roundabouts, and I guess that it probably includes driving through red lights aswell. Turning right is something that scares me a bit, if you forget to consider the oncoming traffic, that could lead to a very nasty smash!

3 The third biggest 'cause of accidents is a loss of control, in other words, you drive round that bend too fast and end up in a ditch!

Stuff worth knowing methinks! Another thing I'd like to quickly to mention, head rests are not there for you to rest your head on! The purpose of the head rest is to protect your neck when someone crashes into the back of you! I suspect that head rests have saved many people from getting serious whiplash injuries (you can get a broken neck!) The top of the head rest should be at the same level as the top of your ear! (roughly)

One other thing, cars airbags have been known to kill children younger than 5, 'cause the airbags go off with such ferocity I presume - it seems these are incredibly rare freak accidents, but it has been known to happen! I think I'd prefer to keep youngsters in the back seats, but you might think I'm fussing too much!

It's always sad when someone dies in a crash, we play Russian roullette with our lives when we drive! If you take note of what I've said here and concentrate when driving, you ought to be ok...

[joebloggs]

and one caught for violation of expired license.

it's not an expired license if they have been in the uk a year, its no license and that means any insurance will probably be invalid, and if they are taken to court, this could effect them getting ILR or Citizenship.

[pennybarry]

Did your friend actually get an Australian driving license? If so she could exchange it for an UK one. If she only has a Thai license then it makes no difference where she has driven, she should need to pass a UK test if she is going to drive here for longer than year.

They can't take the test because they don't know how to read english much. I always advised my friends to study the book about signs and codes and willing to lend them my CD and books. They don't drive for a week now.

[pennybarry]

I once passed an advanced driving test with the I.A.M. It is something worth doing, but the driving lessons can be expensive of course...I have some quick advice for everyone driving..

1 The majority of road crashes are 'rear end shunts' in other words, it's when you crash into the back of someone - or they crash into the back of you! When we have our driving lessons they teach us to keep our distance from the vehicle in front so we've got plenty of braking space when we need to stop. And for good reason! Keeping your distance from the vehicle in front is VERY important, it's rare that drivers realize this though. You might think that all this keep your distance stuff is a fuss about nothing, but it's actually the biggest 'cause of accidents!

2 The second biggest 'cause of accidents is drivers crossing priority, in other words, turning right when your supposed give way to the oncoming traffic, forgetting to give way to the right at roundabouts, and I guess that it probably includes driving through red lights aswell. Turning right is something that scares me a bit, if you forget to consider the oncoming traffic, that could lead to a very nasty smash!

3 The third biggest 'cause of accidents is a loss of control, in other words, you drive round that bend too fast and end up in a ditch!

Stuff worth knowing methinks! Another thing I'd like to quickly to mention, head rests are not there for you to rest your head on! The purpose of the head rest is to protect your neck when someone crashes into the back of you! I suspect that head rests have saved many people from getting serious whiplash injuries (you can get a broken neck!) The top of the head rest should be at the same level as the top of your ear! (roughly)

One other thing, cars airbags have been known to kill children younger than 5, 'cause the airbags go off with such ferocity I presume - it seems these are incredibly rare freak accidents, but it has been known to happen! I think I'd prefer to keep youngsters in the back seats, but you might think I'm fussing too much!

It's always sad when someone dies in a crash, we play Russian roullette with our lives when we drive! If you take note of what I've said here and concentrate when driving, you ought to be ok...

Her car hit the post, there is a huge potato farm in that area and it's always muddy in that area but they always clean their mess. But that day, it was not clean but horrible and muddy. It was happened at 5:00 a.m. She died of chest injury according to other friend.

You're right it's really sad when someone dies in a crash. She was a nice friend who always our peacemaker in the group. She was not that really happy living in the UK. That was she always moan to me. She said her husband works fulltime but wages goes only for house rent, bills and debts. She wanted to land a job but she has 2 year old son.

[andypaul]

Her car hit the post, there is a huge potato farm in that area and it's always muddy in that area but they always clean their mess. But that day, it was not clean but horrible and muddy. It was happened at 5:00 a.m. She died of chest injury according to other friend.

You're right it's really sad when someone dies in a crash. She was a nice friend who always our peacemaker in the group. She was not that really happy living in the UK. That was she always moan to me. She said her husband works fulltime but wages goes only for house rent, bills and debts. She wanted to land a job but she has 2 year old son.

My condolences to her husband and family.

May she rest in peace

[cheesewiz]

it's not an expired license if they have been in the uk a year, its no license and that means any insurance will probably be invalid, and if they are taken to court, this could effect them getting ILR or Citizenship.

My filipina friend's husband (on a dependant visa) driving here in UK for nearly 2 years using international driving license and caught by the police and charge him driving without valid license, insurance and tax. Though, he didn't go to court bec he pay the charge and he got a 6 points in his license and banned for 3 months.

They said it is not a criminal case instead its just a civil case? They applied for ILR last Aug and they got it 1st week of Nov. Is there a question on application regarding traffic offense?

[cheesewiz]

I have 3 Thai friends here who are all brave. They drive using Thai International license, One died yesterday for car crash and one caught for violation of expired license.
The other one used to drive in Australia but no UK license. Does she need UK license even if she used to drive in Autralia?
I am sad about my friend who died, and this decreases my confidence in driving

sorry about your friend for sure she will be missed. I got my UK license last year and just use it for a few months (on and off). Too expensive to run a car so I don't drive right now may be in the future.

[Frances]

I am sorry to hear about your friend.

[joebloggs]

My filipina friend's husband (on a dependant visa) driving here in UK for nearly 2 years using international driving license and caught by the police and charge him driving without valid license, insurance and tax. Though, he didn't go to court bec he pay the charge and he got a 6 points in his license and banned for 3 months.

They said it is not a criminal case instead its just a civil case? They applied for ILR last Aug and they got it 1st week of Nov. Is there a question on application regarding traffic offense?

looks like your friend didn't attend the court hearing, but he was banned by a court, so he has a criminal conviction for driving offences, and it may not have effected him getting ILR (did he declare this on his visa app?, may not have effected him getting ILR if he did),

but i'm not so sure when it comes to him applying for naturalisation, he could take the risk or have to wait until the conviction is spent ( that is 5 years after the date of conviction) and to not mention this conviction on his naturalisation app could be seen as deception.

Driving without a license is not a minor offence. The caseworker guidance makes it clear that its one of the offences that CANNOT be disregarded while considering an application for naturalisation.

in the guidance notes it says that the Home Office may choose to ignore "Minor traffic" offences for Naturalisation, in your friends case, its not minor at all.

so he can wait 5yrs and apply for naturalisation, or take the risk and tell them he has a conviction (which if they check, they can easily find out about from the police national computer) and maybe they will grant him citizenship, or if he doesn't declare it (and they check) he could be banned for deception

if your friend doesn't believe me tell him to phone ukba and check what I've said here is right..