Driver disqualified after travelling at 20mph on M1 while trying to reset sat-nav

[Retro]

I can't believe this one. Not only 20mph, but in the middle lane, too!

The article is very short, so I'll quote it all:

A woman has been banned from driving for 12 months after dashcam footage showed her cruising along a busy motorway at 20mph while trying to fix her sat-nav.
Thap Quan, 48, was filmed driving slowly in the middle lane of the M1 last August, as other cars swerved to overtake her.
At one point, she even stopped the vehicle to use her mobile phone and call a friend asking for help resetting her sat-nav.
Quan has since been disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £450 for her actions.

Driver disqualified after travelling at 20mph on M1 while trying to reset sat-nav

A woman has been banned from driving for 12 months after dashcam footage showed her cruising along a busy motorway at 20mph while trying to fix her sat-nav. Quan has since been disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £450 for her actions.

uk.yahoo.com

I'd have given her a longer disqualification, perhaps even a lifetime ban. Anyone who can stoop this low is a total menace on the roads and shouldn't be allowed to drive a car.

 

[Tiffany]

Wow, that's insane!! Are you allowed to pullover on the shoulder of a highway, like in the US? That's what she should have done. What a disaster.

Last century, when I was much younger, I had an old 1978 Ford Thunderbird, mega-boat sized car. I was on the highway coming home from work and it caught on fire. I was in a middle line. There were flames coming out of my hood. I popped the hood, got out, looked at the flames coming from my battery and decided the only way out of this in major 5 o'clock traffic was to push the car on fire off of the highway so traffic can keep moving. In my dress and heels, I put the drive in neutral, grabbed the steering wheel and pushed my flaming T-bird off the road. Nary a driver helped me. That was high drama that day, now it's just a funny story. FYI, my battery did catch on fire....I don't remember much of those mechanical details because all of the drama was pushing that behemoth off of the highway. That was on I-635, going eastbound, not too far from reaching the "mix master" at I-635 and I-75; the pic I shared of that major highway intersection.

 

[Retro]

No, in the UK, you're not allowed to stop on the hard shoulder other than for emergencies such as a breakdown of car or occupant(s).

Your Thunderbolt experience sounds really scary! Lucky you didn't get injured, but shame no one stopped to help though. I'd have just stopped the car and legged it.

Was the car a write-off, or were you able to get it repaired? It's not often one sees a battery fire, you'd normally expect it to be a ruptured fuel line instead.

 

[Tiffany]

No, in the UK, you're not allowed to stop on the hard shoulder other than for emergencies such as a breakdown of car or occupant(s).

Your Thunderbolt experience sounds really scary! Lucky you didn't get injured, but shame no one stopped to help though. I'd have just stopped the car and legged it.

Was the car a write-off, or were you able to get it repaired? It's not often one sees a battery fire, you'd normally expect it to be a ruptured fuel line instead.

I did get it repaired....never a convenient expense when you are just getting out into the working world. It was the battery and "digging deep into my aged brain cells" I want to say it was an alternator too, unless that was a repair at another time? It was pretty crazy that people just stayed in their car, at least they maneuvered their cars so I had a path and I could push it off the road. I feel certain, somehow, someone got me some help...funny though, I'm blank after that, because I don't remember how I got home. That T-bird didn't last too long. After that, I got a compact car and Isuzu I-Mark. Then after that, I wanted a sporty car and got the Pontiac Grand Am. Of course, Pontiac is no more. Pontiac made the awesome Trans-Am's.