Road Safety

[PeterNatt]

We had an interesting On-Line BHS Hertfordshire General Committee Meeting last night and Alan Hiscocks of the BHS Road Safety Department kindly joined us and provided us with some insight into the work being carried out by the BHS on Equine Road Safety issues.

Unfortunately, Stat 19 which are the official statistics that local authorities and the government refer to regarding accidents on the roads sadly does not include accidents involving horses.
This is why the BHS created the www.horseaccidents.org.uk web site so that horse riders and carriage drivers could report accidents (including near misses).
It is estimated that only 1 in 10 incidents are reported on this web site.
In November 2020 about 200 incidents were reported so probably there were about 2,000 incidents that occurred around the country.
If the BHS can provide statistics to the authorities, then they are more likely to listen to them in relation to Equine Road Safety Issues.

As regards to the review of the Highway Code:
It has been requested that Ferrell Horses should be included in the Highway Review under section 215.
It has been requested that the ‘2 Metre Rule’ should be included in the Highway Code Review under section 163.
It has been requested that it should be stated that horses should not be undertaken by cyclists.
(Quiet Lanes which have a speed limit of 20.m.p.h are already included in the Highway Code under section 217).

The university of Leicester recently did a review in road accidents and the only reason they did not include horse riders and carriage drivers is because the statistics for horse related accidents are not available
The BHS Campaign ‘Be nice say Hi’ (which relates to cyclists passing horses ) is doing well.
The BHS Dead Slow Campaign which was done together with ‘Brake’ reached 130 Million people on Radio and Television.
It was reported that the ‘BHS Dead Slow’ campaign video was watched 171,000 times.
It was also stated that ‘the safe neighbourhood scheme’ can be used to check the way that vehicles pass horses using the ‘Safe Pass’ scheme which monitors the way that drivers pass horse riders and those that drive badly are stopped and given advice by the police attending it.
If there are any road safety issues that you have then please contact the BHS Safety Department at the BHS H.Q. who will be only too pleased to assist you.

 

[ROG]

Instilling common sense into drivers would be the best thing !

 

[scruffyponies]

The one thing I have found consistently is that people overtake when there is oncoming traffic (occasionally even when there is a parked vehicle on the other side of the road, which is comical, since the overtaking driver is forced to admit his error). Once someone did this when the oncoming traffic was an ambulance with full sirens and lights on - the ambulance was forced to stop for this entitled idiot.

What is it that makes people convinced they have right to overtake when there's something coming the other way?
It happens so often that this is NORMAL, not just a few idiots, and despite our deliberately not riding in the gutter, so that they have to slow first.

 

[Gloi]

The one thing I have found consistently is that people overtake when there is oncoming traffic (occasionally even when there is a parked vehicle on the other side of the road, which is comical, since the overtaking driver is forced to admit his error). Once someone did this when the oncoming traffic was an ambulance with full sirens and lights on - the ambulance was forced to stop for this entitled idiot.

What is it that makes people convinced they have right to overtake when there's something coming the other way?
It happens so often that this is NORMAL, not just a few idiots, and despite our deliberately not riding in the gutter, so that they have to slow first.

That is very true and I am constantly passed by drivers on blind bends. One nearly went head on into the Asda delivery van the other day.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Not horse related but when I wrecked my wheel last week I spent 4 hours sitting on the side of a country lane. In that time I had 3 vehicles come past me when there were vehicles coming the other way. First time it happened there was a 4x4 coming towards me with a car following it. Looked in my mirror and saw a car approaching fast and obviously not going to stop. It shot past my car and only just squeezed between my bonnet and the 4x4 who hooted at it. I really thought I was going to be in the middle of a smash. Drivers like this aren't going to respect horses when they don't even respect their own lives.

 

[ponynutz]

Learner driver here, so thank you for this info first off! Wanted to say that the extent of knowledge on driving near or past horses, riders, and carriages is one single question on the theory paper (and that isn't guaranteed to come up), meanwhile cyclists are a much bigger part of the syllabus. It's a shame and I wish there was more information available to learner drivers, especially as there are less and less truly hacking paths whose access does not require spending some time on the road.

 

[Cob Life]

That is very true and I am constantly passed by drivers on blind bends. One nearly went head on into the Asda delivery van the other day.

Ive had this when long reining the driving pony on a quiet lane. They couldn’t see round the bend. I could and there was a car coming. i stuck my driving whip out in the road to stop them as they were going to hit them with me and pony in the middle!

there is a road here that I refuse to hack down as it’s so fast, people come round a blind bend accelerating and you cannot see around that corner at all. Our summer field leads onto it and despite being a 10 minute hack we trailer them as it’s too risky

 

[Caol Ila]

Haha... Yeah, watched two drivers nearly have a head-on a couple days ago. One zoomed past myself and my friend riding on a narrow road and just about dove back to his side of the road before hitting the oncoming car. I'd pulled my horse to a stop at that point, anticipating bad things happening, but luckily the oncoming driver stopped as well.

 

[Lots of Gift Bags]

Instilling common sense into drivers would be the best thing !

I think patience is more important to be honest. Most of the problems I see on the road are due to drivers always being in a hurry. They take risks to save themselves seconds of time.

 

[asmp]

I confess I stuck my whip out the other day and let it hit a woman’s windscreen as she tried to squeeze pass me over a narrow bridge the other day. What really riled me what that we were trotting over it to get out of her way. She could have waited 5 seconds.

 

[scruffyponies]

I confess I stuck my whip out the other day and let it hit a woman’s windscreen as she tried to squeeze pass me over a narrow bridge the other day. What really riled me what that we were trotting over it to get out of her way. She could have waited 5 seconds.

I do this too... sorry, I meant to say that 'it is quite common for this to happen as you position the whip to correct the horse in the event that the actions of the irresponsible driver cause it to startle (officer)'.

It may well save someone's life if that tap on the windscreen puts them off doing it again.

 

[Bernster]

Think I’m going to get a flappy hi vis thing to hang off my whip to see if that helps. hopefully won’t send horse loopy! I’ve moved yards and now have more road work. Drivers are generally pretty good but have had them overtake into oncoming traffic and the odd 1 drive too fast.

At my last yard someone drove at us on purpose - I assume cos he thought we shouldn’t be out at sunset (we did get caught by the dark and were trotting home on the last part of the hack). Am wondering if I should have reported it in the website! It was Herts in too.

 

[scruffyponies]

Maybe we could suggest that as well as 'pass wide and slow', much more needs to be made of the need to overtake ONLY when 'it is safe to do so', and what that means.

While we are at it, perhaps reminding people that an arm sticking out right doesn't mean 'please overtake me' would save a few trouser accidents.

Sadly I have no hope of teaching the general public how to interpret whip signals. Total waste of time.

 

[PeterNatt]

Bernster! You can still report it now as it helps with the statistics and shows the geographical area and time and date of the incident.
www.horseaccidents.org.uk (Please also report near misses).

 

[Rowreach]

I was annoyed by the recent video promotion where they stated that cars should pass horses at 15mph, rather than at a maximum of 15mph, and slower if necessary.

I ride on the roads most days, and I find drivers are either brilliantly considerate or utterly inconsiderate. The worst ones are the district nurses, who seem to want to add us to their patient lists

I asked an oncoming cyclist to slow down the other day, and when I thanked him he replied "It's ok because I've finished my workout" - does this mean that he would have whizzed past and put me in the ditch for the sake of Strava if he hadn't??

 

[Tiddlypom]

The BHS have had so many requests for their ‘Pass Horses wide and slow’ car stickers that they’ve had to print a second batch.

Overtaking on blind bends seems to be just normal round here (narrow country lanes). I did report the near miss that I had last year when me and the horse were ever-so-nearly rear ended on a bend by the driving school car, with just the driver/instructor in the vehicle . Me and horse correctly positioned on the road and both wearing hi viz as per my avatar.

 

[Gloi]

I do this too... sorry, I meant to say that 'it is quite common for this to happen as you position the whip to correct the horse in the event that the actions of the irresponsible driver cause it to startle (officer)'.

It may well save someone's life if that tap on the windscreen puts them off doing it again.

I'll admit to turning the whip over and accidentally hitting the car roof with the knob.

 

[Nudibranch]

The car stickers are quite good, I have one.
But those awful signs they've been putting up are absolutely rubbish. Fussy, overly complex graphics, and tiny little arrow with the 2 metre overtaking distance. I'm sure with all their resources a much more effective sign could have been developed.

 

[scruffyponies]

In fairness to our local drivers, I have only once had a near-death incident, and we do spend a lot of time on the roads. It was a school bus, speeding from behind. I was in a cart on the far side of a bend with a young pony. The bus missed us by mm as he swerved around. He was easily doing 60mph in a 50 limit which is only suitable for 40mph in a car!

Fortunately the pony was the steadiest I have ever come across and so early in his training that he didn't know it wasn't normal. A more experienced pony would probably have freaked.