Polish Drivers

Times.

Migrant workers from Eastern Europe are responsible for a disproportionate number of fatal traffic accidents, especially on rural roads, a council has said. The concern is so great that young Polish men will be officially classified as one of the most at-risk groups on roads throughout Yorkshire.

Staff on North Yorkshire Council sought the birthplace of motorists involved in car crashes over the past year in the county after evidence suggested that such workers were putting lives at risk. They discovered that 14 per cent of all fatal accidents involved Eastern Europeans. John Fort, executive member for community safety, said that many were production workers and needed cars because public transport was limited in rural areas.

The TTC Group, which runs a drink-drive rehabilitation scheme, suggests that Eastern Europeans are proportionally higher represented on its courses. A spokesman for the Federation of Poles in Great Britain suggested that companies employing young Polish workers should ferry them around in small buses.

"after evidence suggested" - amazingly the council investigated following anecdotal evidence.

The figures have been released by North Yorkshire council after officials became increasingly concerned with anecdotal evidence suggesting immigrants were putting lives in danger.

Isn't that racist ? I heard some interesting anecdotal evidence (aka hearsay) last week about the free bottled water handed out in Gloucester over the last month (police had to supervise the distribution). But it may just be tittle-tattle. Who can tell ? I'd be amazed if it was investigated.

UPDATE - it's not just North Yorkshire - the North Sea too.

A captain has been charged with being drunk in charge of a cargo vessel which crashed into a North Sea gas platform. Zbigniew Karkowski, 56, was arrested after the Jork hit the unmanned Echo platform 40 miles (64km) off the Norfolk coast on Saturday. Mr Karkowski, from Szczecin, Poland, was one of seven people who had to be rescued from the 2000-tonne ship.

This is interesting.

The vessel, which had been bound for the River Humber, eventually sank the following morning. The vessel had been carrying grain from Lubeck in Germany. Mario Siano, of Yarmouth coastguard, said the swelling of wheat on board the ship caused its hull to burst.

Tricky stuff, wheat, once it gets wet. Didn't Horatio Hornblower have the same problem with a cargo of rice ?