Thursday 3 September 2015

Drive Dynamics - Justin Wilson death: Drivers stage touching Golden Gate bridge tribute to British racer.

Wilson's teammate Marco Andretti led a procession of cars over the famous US landmark to honour the 37-year-old, who died this week from injuries sustained in a freak accident last Sunday.

Andretti drove the late racer's number 25 car in front of four other vehicles.

Wilson, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, was fatally injured after a piece of debris from a fellow racer's car bounced directly into his open cockpit.

Wilson was airlifted to hospital from the Pocono Raceway, Pennsylvania, but died on Monday after not waking from a coma.

His team, Andretti Autosport, have announced that Indycar veteran Oriol Servia will drive the Briton's Honda at Sonoma Raceway this weekend.

Servia said: "It's hard for the words to come out the right way.

"I have known and raced Justin for more than 10 years. I have an enormous amount of respect for him as a racer, but his qualities as a human were definitely an inspiration to anyone who ever met him.
"I am honoured and emotional with the opportunity of driving his car this weekend."

Wilson raced in Formula 1 in 2003, starting the season with Minardi before moving to Jaguar.

He went on to have a successful career in the United States, winning seven races in the Champ Car series and then tasting his most recent success in the IndyCar series.

F1 drivers have also paid tribute to Wilson, with former world champion Jenson Button describing him as a "great person and racing driver"

Honda have also announced a contribution to a fund established this week to benefit the two daughters of Wilson and his wife Julia.

A donation of $50 (£32) will be given for very lap completed at Sonoma by each of the 13 Honda entries - which could bring to total contribution to more than $55,000 (approximately £35,600).

For more information visit - http://www.express.co.uk/

Wednesday 2 September 2015

Drive Dynamics - The world's most dangerous and safest places to drive

Eritrea - Least Safe Place to  drive
On the map above, each country is colour-coded to reflect the number of road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
Most of the bottom 10 - including Eritrea, the deadliest driving destination, according to the World Health Organization's figures (with 48.4 deaths per 100,000 residents), Libya (40.5) and Iraq (31.5) - are unlikely to feature on the travel itineraries of most Britons. But a couple - Thailand (38.1) and South Africa (31.9) - are popular holiday destinations.
Relatively risky roads can also be found in Ecuador, Vietnam, Brazil, Paraguay, Kenya and Laos.
Other notable findings include the fact that Portugal is less safe than the rest of Western Europe and the US is twice as dangerous as Canada.
San Marino - Safest Place to drive
The safest places to drive include the Maldives (1.9 deaths, though the lack of roads probably helps), Norway (2.9), Denmark (3), Sweden (3) and Switzerland (3.4). Britain is just behind, with only 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year. But they are all outshone by San Marino, which recorded not a single death for the year in question (2010).

For more information visit - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Drive Dynamics - Police cars with no sirens risk response times, federation says

West Midlands Police has a fleet of 109 Vauxhall Corsa cars intended for neighbourhood policing.
The Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the vehicles had been used for more than 100 urgent calls in the last 12 months.
The West Midlands force said the Corsas were "not intended for response work".
'Frustrating'
The Federation's health and safety official Pete Harkness said: "Officers are ordered to drive the Corsa at patrol speed and obey the rules of the road.
"But the absence of a siren means they often cannot get traffic to move out of their way and this, in turn, can delay them getting to an emergency situation.
"This is very frustrating for the officers and they feel they are letting the public down by not getting to them as quickly as possible in a crisis situation."
The union blames cost-cutting for the use of cars without sirens.
Superintendent Kerry Blakeman, from the force's operations department, said officers who respond to call-outs in cars without sirens have to follow the Highway Code and cannot break the speed limit to cut through traffic.
He said: "Incidents graded as 'immediate' are responded to as soon as possible, usually in a matter of minutes and on many occasions require the use of lights and sirens.
For more Information visit - http://www.bbc.com/