A British woman has finally passed her driving test after 350 lessons and taking the test 21 times. Read more about this in our collection of motoring stories.
21 driving tests later …
A British woman has finally passed her driving test after 350 lessons and taking the test 21 times.
reported that Belinda Harrell from Derby had spent about R72 000 over the years as she battled to get her licence.
She began her lessons in 1998 and had gone for six lessons a week before taking her first licence exam in 1999. Harrell said she failed the first test for hitting a kerb while doing a three-point turn.
She added that she had failed “everything it was possible to fail on. After all the disappointments I’ve had it was fantastic to pass,” she said.
After she passed the test last month her husband presented her with a new Peugeot 206.
Ticketing zeal
A traffic official in Manchester has been sent back to school for more training after ticketing a car that had been written off in a crash.
reported that firemen had pushed the Vauxhall (Opel) Corsa out of the way after an accident. The badly damaged vehicle had been left facing the wrong way on a duel carriage highway and was going to be collected at a later stage. But an over-zealous traffic official came along and ticketed the car for “parking in a restricted area”.
The husband of the driver could not believe the vehicle had been ticketed when he went to collect it. “I couldn’t believe it because the damage to the car was so clear and it was facing the wrong way on the dual carriageway. I don’t think the best driver in the world could have parked it in the position it was in,” he said.
A council spokesman told the newspaper the official had been sent for retraining and the ticket had been cancelled.
Four is a no go
The number four has been banned from licence plates in Beijing because it is believed to be unlucky.
According to , a report in the said that no vehicle registration numbers containing the digit would be issued. The number is regarded as unlucky because the Mandarin word for “four” sounds like the world for “dead”.
Many buildings in China do not have fourth, 14th and 24th floors because of this superstition.