International Left Handers Day – Are we celebrating evil?!

People drive in a sinister fashion in the UK… FACT.

Admittedly, we are using a play on words here as if you translate ‘left-handed’ into Latin, it means ‘sinister’ whilst the English definitions of the terms are perhaps a little different!

It is International Left Handers Day on 13 August 2015 and whilst we at Geoffrey Miller do not endorse the suggestion that left handers are ‘touched by the devil’ we did think it worth looking at the pitfalls of confusing the left with the right, or vice versa!

Actually, you’d be breaking the law and probably be driving extremely dangerously if you didn’t drive in that ‘sinister’ way in the UK! That is because you would be driving on the wrong side of the road!

Left hand drive has been compulsory in the UK since 1835. Most countries that drive on the left today are former British colonies. The British stood firm when the growing trend was to drive on the right. In fact, the tendency to travel on the left hand side apparently derives from most people being right handed and wanting to have there right side exposed and right hand free to draw their sword should a violent encounter be necessary!

With about 35% of the global population driving on the left nowadays a lot people will get to experience driving both on the left and the right. Most will go without issue. Some, like Crocodile Dundee on his trip to New York for example, don’t.

Whilst we can take a light hearted look at the different driving systems we do know that for people who are caught, inadvertently or otherwise, driving on the wrong side of the road could face serious consequences with an allegation of dangerous driving likely to follow leading to a mandatory driving ban and in serious cases a risk of a prison sentence.

More common every day occurrences can also lead to a dangerous driving prosecution. Overtaking a vehicle and moving into a lane where oncoming traffic for example. We’ve all seen that potentially extremely dangerous manoeuvre happen or heard of instances where it has. By not driving with care and attention or by not following the rules of the road then even if you manage to avoid sustaining injury yourself or causing injury to others you could still find yourself in trouble with the authorities and your licence could be at risk.

Make sure you don’t drive sinisterly or in a way likely to cause harm to yourself or even worse to others. We deal with cases like these every day and they are far from black and white. Give us a call at Geoffrey Miller for some free initial advice should you find yourself in any situation where the standard of your driving is called into question and you face criminal prosecution.