Trevor Knowles, 66, is the first person in Britain to go to prison for causing a fatal crash after developing the age-related eye condition macular degeneration.

He suffered from it in both eyes but continued driving – and hit William Florence, 78, without braking after failing to see the great-grandfather crossing the road.

Knowles said he wept at the roadside after the crash in December 2008. But he was allowed to keep driving as he didn’t tell cops of his illness. Weeks later, he was stopped with his windscreen STILL shattered from the crash – because he hadn’t noticed.

Tests showed he could see barely a few inches in front of his face.

The retired businessman, from Solihull, West Midlands, admitted causing death by careless driving and was jailed for 16 months at Warwick Crown Court.

It is legal to drive with macular degeneration and sufferers do not have to tell the DVLA, but they must be able to read a car number plate from 20.5 metres (67ft). Judge Christopher Hodson told Knowles: “You knew that you had poor eyesight but continued driving.”

This is why taxis and the annual Darwin awards for stupidity were invented.

One London driver went the wrong way down a one-way street to avoid a RIDE check because he thought he was drunk. He wasn’t.

Another London driver caught riding on the roof of his car told police it was OK, he had a designated driver inside.

Police reported those two incidents Monday to warn ordinary drivers to take care on city streets after the bars close.

“Impaired driving isn’t restricted to weekends or after dark, but these two jumped out at me,” said Sgt. Tom O’Brien of the London police traffic unit.

“It’s just something to throw out there as way of educating people (about what happens). . . while we sleep.”

The first incident occurred about 3 a.m. April 4.

An officer spotted a car heading slowly down Pond Mills Rd. near Cleveland Ave., with a man sitting on the roof.

The car pulled into a driveway and the 25-year-old man on the roof jumped down.

“He said, ‘It’s OK, I’ve got a designated driver,’ ” O’Brien said.

After talking to the 24-year-old driver, the officer charged him with impaired driving and dangerous driving.

The roof-riding owner was given a ticket for not riding in a seat with a seatbelt.

The second incident took place at a RIDE check on Riverside Dr. about 2:30 a.m. April 10.

Police had set up the RIDE check near Labatt Park, where Riverside is one-way.

A motorist heading west spotted the RIDE check, stopped, did a three-point turn and drove the wrong way back up Riverside, across the Thames River and onto Queens Ave.

He then turned right on Ridout St., but an officer caught up to him.

The 21-year-old driver admitted he probably had too much to drink.

Turns out he was fine, according to a breath test.

But he was charged with dangerous driving.

Speed is irrelevant. Without wearing a seat belt an accident whilst travelling at 30mph can still kill.

New TV campaigns showing the effect not wearing your seat belt can have, shows the immense damage you can cause to your internal organs.

Despite anyone over the age of 14 being responsible for themselves, the driver of any vehicle should protect themselves and others by making sure everyone is belted up.

Research has shown that around 350 lives could be saved every year if everyone wore their seat belt all of the time. It is such a simple act that can make such a life changing difference.

In 1965 it became compulsory for car makers to fit cars built in Europe with seat belts in the front. However, it was not until 1991 that it became compulsory for adults and children to wear seat belts in both the front and back of the car.

The penalty for not wearing your seat belt is a fixed penalty fine of £60. However, conviction or non compliance can mean a penalty up to £500.

Natasha Simper of Britannia Driving School said: “It is such an easy rule to follow and even if you are only driving a short distance you cannot predict what will happen on the roads. Belt up and keep safe.”

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A packet of crisps is the most dangerous food to eat while driving.

It heads the top 10 foods and drinks which cause motorists to take their eyes off the road closely followed by chocolate and fizzy pop.

One in 20 motorists has crashed or had a near-miss fiddling with food at the wheel, a survey found. But 60% do eat and drink while driving.

“As these results show, eating or drinking behind the wheel causes accidents.”

The price of oil crept up yesterday on the first day of trading since upbeat US job numbers last Friday. However, the jump is likely to put further pressure on petrol prices in the UK as motorists prepare for near-record prices at the pumps.
US light crude added as much as 0.4 per cent yesterday, climbing to $85.31 (£55.85) a barrel, while London Brent crude also jumped by nearly half a percentage point, reaching $84.37 (£55.23). The increases came on the first day of oil trading since the Easter holidays, and after the US Department of Labor said last Friday that the American economy had created 162,000 new jobs in March – the highest monthly number for two years, adding to growing sentiment of an improving US economy.

But the increase in oil prices is also likely to lead to higher petrol prices in the UK. Motorists are also now paying the 1p increase in fuel duty that came into effect last week. Chancellor Alistair Darling said during the Budget that a planned 3p rise in fuel duty would be phased in, with a further 1p increase scheduled for September, and a 0.76p hike in January next year.

Last week, motoring groups warned of record petrol prices on the forecourts.

Visiting hospitals can be stressful enough without paying high parking fees and queuing for spaces. Even those who are visiting people on a semi-permanent basis are required to pay these high rates.

Scotland already has free parking for the majority of their hospital car parks and Wales is heading the same way with charges being phased out by 2011.

You could argue that the NHS have the right to charge as the money is a good source of income and the services provided by the NHS are free to begin with. It is also argued that if parking was free, hospital visitors may not benefit as anybody could park there including local residents.

Maybe they could introduce a scheme whereby once you are in the hospital you are giving some form of token to pay for your stay. Or even by simply reducing the cost and providing more spaces, could save many the heartache they could do without in what can be an emotional time.

Many car parks require you to pay in advance and for a place where anything can happen and appointments can easily overrun this is by no means convenient.

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For many of us our license plate number is there to identify our car to speed cameras and to help us find it in a busy car park. However, there is so much more behind our license number and how much information it can give us.

A normal number plate is made up of 7 figures; two letters, two numbers and three more letters. Most of us already know that the number tells us the year the car was manufactured. But what you may not know is they change twice a year in March and September.

March number plates take the last two numbers of that year – 2008 would become 08 and 2009 would become 09. However, the September plates take the same format whilst adding 50. So 2008 becomes 58 and 2009 becomes 59.

Thought you had the hang of it! Well it changes again now that we are in 2010. It takes a similar format however, you now add 60 for cars bought out in September. So this September will see number plates say 60 and next year in September 2011 it will be 61.

Interestingly the letters at the start of a license plate represent the DVLA office that the car was first registered. The first letter is a wider county or area like London or North.  The second letter is a more local identifier. So if you are out and about, see if you can find a number plate that starts the same as your own.

You will then find the last three letters at the end are a random set to identify the individual car.

U.K. plates will keep the same design until 2051 so if you learn it now, it should see you through most of your driving life.

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Oil prices have risen steadily over the last year, and experts are worrying further increases could snuff out an already-fragile global economic recovery.

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday his plan to open oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The proposal aims to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, which theoretically could hold down prices for U.S. consumers.

But analysts contend that the rise is prices is not a supply problem — it’s a Wall Street problem.

OPEC countries also are convening in Mexico this week to map out a strategy for keeping prices from rising higher.

But officials may face an even bigger problem: The recent rise in prices seems to be driven by commodity investors — not market supply and demand.

Though prices crashed from their peak of $140 a barrel before the recession began in December 2007, they have since recovered substantially. Last year, the price of crude fell to $33 a barrel before a relentless recovery to about $80 by year-end.