成人快手

Drugs and drivers

Drugs and driving - a potential lethal combination?

Drink drivers are a well known problem, but an increasing numbers of drivers are taking drugs before taking to the wheels of their cars.

Essex Police estimate that one in 20 people drive after taking drugs.

They're seeing more and more cases and accidents including fatalities.

But drugged drivers are harder to convict as there's no clear legal limit like those for drink driving.

Some experts believe that drugs can affect drivers in a number of ways ranging from impaired concentration to poor reaction times.

Inside Out's David Whiteley meets the Mason family from Cambridgeshire whose son Christopher was killed by a driver high on ecstasy.

Inside Out also speaks to the man from Norfolk who claims smoking cannabis makes him a better driver.

Medical experts claim that drugs can have the following effects on drivers, although considerable research is still being carried out to the more specific effects on individuals:

Police attempt to clamp down on drugs and driving

Cannabis

Can lead to impaired concentration resulting in slower driver reaction times. Impaired steering control and co-ordination. Can induce feelings of drowsiness and disorientation.

Cocaine

This stimulant drug can result in drivers misjudging speed and stopping distances. The drug can give drivers a feeling of overconfidence, which can lead to aggressive driving and increased risk taking.

Ecstasy

听

This stimulant drug has hallucinogenic properties and can distort the driver's vision and affect concentration. Drivers under the influence of "E" show a significant decrease in their awareness of road dangers.

LSD

听

This hallucinogenic drug can strongly influence a driver's senses. Drivers may react to objects or sounds that aren't there, placing themselves and other road users in danger.

Opiates

听

Opiates lead to slower reaction time, lethargy, sleepiness and impaired co-ordination.

Tranquillisers

听

In some cases these drugs may impair driver reaction times and can cause drowsiness.

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Doctor Beeching's railways

Oh Doctor Beeching! Axe man or improver?

He has been held responsible by many train lovers for the destruction of the railways.

Now, some 40 years after Doctor Beeching's axe fell on countless railway lines, rail enthusiast and radio presenter Richard Spendlove travels the tracks in Suffolk.

He recalls his fond memories of 26 years working on the lines as he poses the question, was Beeching really a baddie?

Beeching is renowned for publishing the report "The Reshaping of British Railways" in 1963.

Beeching proposed the following major improvements to the railways:

* Discontinuing many stopping passenger services.

* Closure of a high proportion of small stations to passenger traffic.

* Selective improvement of inter-city passenger services and rationalisation of routes.

* Reduction of uneconomic freight traffic passing through small stations by closing them progressively.

* Continued replacement of steam by diesel locomotives for main line traffic.

In the report Beeching concluded that:

"It is proposed to build up traffic on the well-loaded routes, to foster those traffics which lend themselves to movement in well-loaded through trains, and to develop the new services necessary for that purpose.

"At the same time, it is proposed to close down routes which are so lightly loaded as to have no chance of paying their way, and to discontinue services which cannot be provided economically by rail.

"These proposals are, however, not so sweeping as to attempt to bring the railways to a final pattern in one stage, with the associated risks of abandoning too much or, alternatively, of spending wastefully."

As a result of his study, more than 8,000 miles of track and 2,000 stations were closed at a cost of nearly 70,000 jobs.

Thousands of passenger carriages were scrapped, together with a third of a million freight wagons.

Many regarded his actions as those of an overzealous axe-man.

Others believed his recommendations dramatically improved the railway system which was in desperate need of improvement.

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Helmets for babies

Baby helmets - a controversial new treatment

A growing number of parents are spending as much as 拢2,000 on special helmets to change the shape of their babies' heads.

Philip and Karen Saich from Cambridge are two of them.

No one knows for sure why increasing numbers of babies seem to be developing the condition.

The condition causes the baby to develop flat patches on its head - but parents are buying the helmets in large numbers.

Forty thousand helmets have already been sold in the US and now companies are setting up over here.

Yet the treatment is controversial, is not available on the NHS and some doctors believe it to be unnecessary.

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