Weird news - Kid driving a car in New Zealand, training !

The age of driving varies in different geographies and countries, with it being 16 in some places and 18 in some places. The idea is that driving means you are risking both yours and other people's lives, and hence some amount of maturity is required. This rule can be implemented quite strictly with strict fines in the more developed countries, while less developed countries struggle to check this problem and enforce the necessary penalties. But in a country such as New Zealand, one would expect that this is a very strict rule and there would be few people willing to experiment with breaking this rule.
So consider the surprise of this driver when he saw that the car ahead of him was being driven by what seemed like a 8 year old, and with a goat in the car. And it was not just some kid who had stolen the keys for a joy-ride, in fact, there was an adult in the backseat who was fine with the kid driving (link to article):

Video has emerged of a child driving a car packed with other children - and a goat. The footage, filmed in Whitianga by Auckland's Gaz Walden, shows several children in a red Ford Falcon with a boy, about 8 years old, at the wheel. Walden then realises there is a goat in the back seat. "You're f***ing kidding me. What the f*** is going on. This is insane. Look at him, he can only just see over the steering wheel," he says. He pulls up next to the car and tells the boy he shouldn't be driving - but then a middle-aged man climbs out of the back seat to reassure him, saying the boy is "actually training". "I don't care mate - that is ridiculous," Walden tells him.

Weird news - Man drives plane to pub, police go nuts

Going to the pub is a common place enough occurrence. After all, you drive to the pub, park, and then go inside and enjoy. Nothing spectacular in that, right ? But how can such a simple event become more complicated ? Well, one way is to change the mode of transport; and how better to make a splash than come toddling along in a plane, park it outside and go inside. This is known as making a splashy entrance. And when the police arrive, they were a bit puzzled. They knew that something was wrong and they will charge the plane driver, but the exact law or penalty that was to be applied to him was not clear. Finally, it seemed that the police found something; the fuel supply to the plane was visible and not adequately safe, and that is what they charged him with (link to article):

A man who taxied his light plane down a main street in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and parked it outside a pub is expected to be charged. Newman police sergeant Mark McKenzie said the plane had its propeller running, its wings removed and was being steered by foot pedals on Friday. The man parked the plane outside the Newman Hotel and was then interviewed by police.

So, they wanted to charge the man, especially since he left the engine running when he was inside the pub.

Weird news - Apple Maps sending people to a desert in Australia

Earlier this year, the confrontation between Google and Apple only got worse when Apple removed Google Maps as the default maps application and replaced it with Apple Maps (this shows how bad the relationship has got; at one point the Google head was also on the board of Apple before they started competing with each head on after the release of Android). Soon enough, it became clear that the release of Apple Maps was a rushed affair, primarily because the database for the maps was not yet complete. So forget the quality of details in Google Maps, but the Apple Maps application even had some parts of cities being missed, and in one case, even a bridge was not there on the application. So there was a lot of ridicule for the Apple application, and eventually even though Apple rectified some of the problems, they had to do a public apology and fired the head of the Maps application development unit.
In the recent past, the spread of GPS based navigation has been impressive, with a number of drivers using these apps to navigate their way around unknown parts. They are mostly accurate, but every once in a while there is a situation where it shows that people are starting to depend on GPS almost entirely, and end up in strange situations. There have been cases where people have been sent down one-way streets, once a large load was sent down a street where it was difficult to get out of, but even these were seen as somewhat funny situation (although the people directly involved would not see them as funny).
But this particular situation in Australia is pretty bad. Most of Australia is barren land, a sort of desert with very few people and large sections without telecom coverage. So when the Apple Maps started sending people through a dirt road and into a desert like area where there was no telecom coverage, no water, and sand that would cause vehicles to get bogged down, it started worrying the police. They had to keep coming in to rescue people and worry about whether people might die in the heat and without water, and so the police have blamed the app for causing people to get off the highway and threatening their lives (link to article):

The Murray-Sunset National Park is in Victoria's far northwest, a relatively untouched semi-arid region accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicle. Clemence said at least six vehicles had become stuck on the desert park's sandy tracks after being directed by the iOS mapping system to turn off a long and infrequently sign-posted stretch of highway between South Australia state and Victoria. "These people have still been rescuable. But we've just had a 46C day (115 degrees F). If they were out there in that temperature and out of phone range, they would have been in serious trouble," he said.

Weird news - Saudi lady sentenced to 10 lashes for driving

Sometimes we take our independence for granted. The ability to drive wherever we want, live the way we want, and so on. This is particularly true for woman's rights, where many countries had to go through long struggles to establish rights.
Even in the modern western democracies, where the spirit of freedom is taken for granted, rights for women such as the right to drive, and most important, the right to vote were won only in the last century, and too after long struggles. So it seems strange when you hear that in some societies, women are still deprived of the right to drive because of cultural and religious reasons.
But to expect that a woman can be expected to be lashed because she had the guts to drive is something that is totally unexpected, and yet that is the scene in the conservative Islamic society of Saudi Arabia where a religious police governs everything (link to article):

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to be lashed 10 times with a whip for defying the kingdom's prohibition on female drivers, the first time a legal punishment has been handed down for a violation of the longtime ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation.
The driver, Shaima Jastaina, in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission, activist Samar Badawi said. The punishment is usually carried out within a month. It was not possible to reach Jastaina, but Badawi, in touch with Jastaina's family, said she appealed the verdict.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women _ both Saudi and foreign _ from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

In the end, the king over-turned the judgment, but it also showed how far backward the country actually is and the sorry state of women's rights.

Being lashed for drinking alcohol

A lot of you would have seen revelries and festivals in many countries. Along with the carnival type of atmosphere, alcohol consumption is an intrinsic part of such celebrations. However, such is not the case everywhere. Alcohol is considered illegal and against religion in many Islamic countries, and people indulging in alcohol can be punished. This happened earlier in Malaysia, and now in the African country of Sudan, a Nigerian footballer was convicted of driving while drunk, and got a double sentence - one for driving drunk, and the other for drinking alcohol (link to article):

The 20-year-old forward, who joined the northern Sudan outfit in October 2008, was found guilty of drinking alcohol and driving under the influence by an east Khartoum court. Alcohol is illegal in the Muslim north of Sudan according to Article 78 of the penal code, although it is not in the semi-autonomous and largely non-Muslim south.
The forward's lawyer has appealed against the punishment for the player who had previously admitted in interviews that he had struggled to adapt to the different culture and religious life in Sudan.

Being lashed for drinking alcohol seems pretty weird, although being punished for driving while drunk is common and should be enforced.

Man charged with unlicensed driving car twice, hits police

When people are charged with a driving offence, they normally obey all the rules and laws, and desist from whatever activity for which they are were charged, since they do not want to suffer further problems (further driving problems could mean points on the license, or problems in getting insurance, and so on). However, once in a while there will be a person who will not care too much about the offence, and is even willing to take offensive action if charged with something (link to article):

A north Queensland man who was allegedly caught driving unlicensed twice in one day and became irate and has been charged with assaulting police. The 19-year-old was given a notice to appear in court for unlicensed driving about 10am (AEST) on Monday, and about 30 minutes later, the same officer saw him allegedly driving the same car, police said.
The officer was questioning the man when he allegedly became aggressive and punched his car's window, smashing it. He then allegedly kicked the side mirror of the police car and punched the police officer. While struggling with the man the officer was allegedly assaulted by a 15-year-old male youth who was in the man's car.

What not to do while driving

When driving, what are some of the key things that people are advised ? You should be sober, capable of driving, and not getting diverted. So this means no driving while under the influence of alcohol, no talking on the phone, and certainly no involvement in sexual activities. People found involved in any of these activities are liable to face action, and maybe even jailed (and these also have an impact on their driving record). So what do you about a person who does more than one of these at the same time (link to article):

A Seattle man was arrested for drinking under the influence of alcohol and having sex while driving last weekend, the Washington State Patrol reported. The incident happened when a state trooper noticed a sport utility vehicle drifting between lanes and driving at unusual speeds, sometimes speeding up then slowing down to well below the speed limit on Interstate 90, near Bellevue’s Bellevue Way, about 1:20 a.m. Friday.
State trooper Jeff Merrill, who wrote the news release, said in an interview Wednesday that „embracing while driving“ is a misdemeanor. In this case, the woman said she was performing oral sex on the driver while he was driving.

This guy was under the influence of alcohol, and was having oral sex performed on him, and was driving at the same time. Not only is he a risk to himself and other occupants of the car, but a serious risk to other people on the road; no way should such a person be allowed to continue driving.

Having sex while driving

When the passion strikes you, there is a strong urge to engage in amorous relations. So, for example, people have been known to initiate sex in varied locations, including different parts of the house, and even in public (there was this couple in Dubai who were prosecuted for having sex on the beach, and had to spend some prison time). However, in some situations, the behavior of people gets downright weird when it comes to sex. Consider the following case:

A SPEEDY lover faces a big fine and the loss of his licence after police caught him having sex with his girlfriend while travelling at 133km/h on a motorway. The 28-year-old man and his 22-year-old girlfriend were caught in the act by Norwegian traffic police on the E18 highway, some 40km west of Oslo, on Easter Sunday.
“It was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man's lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say,” said Tor Stein Hagen, a superintendent with Soendre Buskerund district police. “He couldn't see much because her back was in the way. Why they did it on a highway with such a high risk we don't know.”

This couple was indulging in something that was downright stupid, and will have to suffer because of their actions. Having sex while driving (that too at high speed) is extremely dangerous, not only to themselves, but to others on the road as well.

Police find drunk mother has child at the wheel

Seems like a scary scenario; imagine the horror of police when they stop a car and find that the car is being driven by a drunk lady. Finding a drunk driver already is a bad offense because of the danger to other drivers on the road, as well as to the person driving the road. And when this happens in the case of lady who already has a suspended license because of a prior drunk driving offense, it gets even more worrisome. And to compound matters, there is a 1 year kid sitting on the mother's lap and steering with the other children in the back of the car:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A patrol officer stopped a car for suspicious driving and found to his surprise that a drunk mother had let her one-year-old son take the wheel, the Ohio state police department said Thursday. Marya Green, 29, of Goshen Township, near Cincinnati, was arrested late Tuesday and found to have a 0.11 percent blood alcohol level -- well above the 0.08 percent legal limit.
Green had put her infant son behind the steering wheel, while two other children aged eight and five were also traveling in the car, she added.

This was very dangerous, given that in the case of any impact, the infant would have taken the impact of the steering wheel, with the lives of the other children in the car also at risk.

Woman found in car after car towed away

Mighty strange occurrence this. One day after a car had been towed away from the scene of an accident, the body of an elderly woman was found under the deployed air bag of the car. Rescue services had already been through the car, and her injured son had been picked from the car earlier, so it is all the more strange as to how she came to be missing:

The presence of the body of Shirley Lee Williams, 72, came to the attention of investigators Sunday after family members said two relatives were missing, not one.
"We conducted a follow-up to the tow yard, and we discovered the woman inside the vehicle," said police Officer Mike Lopez. "She was dead."
Doctors will investigate whether Williams died instantly or was alive when the car was towed away, an official said.

This incident could get much serious if it was found that she had not died during the accident, but was alive when the car was towed away; in that case, she could have been saved if she had been found.

Wheelchair man gets long truck ride

Not as simple as it sounds. This was actually a pretty scary thing that scared a number of observers. Imagine if you will, a truck speeding down a highway, with a man in a wheelchair being pushed by the truck at high speed, with the man hanging on for dear life.
They moved along like this for some time, with the man in the wheelchair whizzing by at a high speed, but thankfully, after some time the truck pulled over and bystanders came and rescued the man. What probably saved the man in all this? The good quality of the wheelchair and the seat belt that kept him safely in the wheelchair. This actually happened:

A wheelchair user has been taken for a high-speed ride along a US highway after his handlebars became tangled up in the front grille of a lorry.
The driver was completely unaware that he had a new passenger, kept in his wheelchair by a seatbelt

Elephant robbing motorists

You must have heard of elephants sometimes running crazy, destroying crops and maybe humans as well. But in another sign of how closely we have managed to get wild animals to integrate their life style with us (not a very good sign), an elephant in India that has got old stops cars and does not let them pass until the inhabitants have given it food. Refer this article:

An elephant in eastern India has sparked complaints from motorists who accuse it of blocking traffic and refusing to allow vehicles to pass unless drivers give it food, a newspaper has reported.
The Hindustan Times said Monday the elephant was scouting for food on a highway in the eastern state of Orissa, forcing motorists to roll down their windows and get out of the car.
"The tusker then inserts its trunk inside the vehicle and sniffs for food," local resident Prabodh Mohanty, who has come across the elephant twice, was quoted as saying. "If you are carrying vegetables and banana inside your vehicle, then it will gulp them and allow you to go."

Yet another sign of how much the human civilization has encroached on the domain of wild animals, where the elephant has chanced upon this technique to get easy food. This is a very imperfect balance, because there is a very real chance that one of the car inhabitants will irritate the elephant, and then the situation could turn ugly.

Alligator blocks traffic

Traffic can choke on freeways for any reason, but an alligator being the reason for the choking is something that is unusual. In Texas, an alligator moved onto a busy freeway, and stopped traffic. Police responding to the scene were puzzled; after all, their training certainly does not cover this.
Police tried their sirens to scare the alligator off, didn't work; they threw orange traffic cones at the alligator, it just snapped at the cones, but couldn't care less otherwise; in fact, at one point, the alligator even assaulted a police car, but no one filed charges against it.
In the end, they use lassos and metal poles to force the alligator off the road, and into a drainage ditch leading to a lake. Read the CNN story here.

Police officer tickets himself

In an interesting touch about honesty, a police chief in Wisconsin (US) had committed a traffic violation by driving past a stopped school bus that had lights flashing. No one seemed to notice, except for this guy's honesty, since he wrote himself a ticket, fined himself $225 and docked some points off his driving record. And the way the story seems to originate is through court records and getting slowly picked up by the media.
This has naturally put a lot of people interested in such a honest person. He has got emails from far and wide, and got offers by people to pay off the fine as well. Read the full news here.

Using a snake to scare police

A drunk driver, when threatened by police, used a snake to scare them. A young person, swerving across the road in Australia was spotted by police. They stopped him, did a breath analyzer test and concluded that he was indeed drunk.
At this point, he found that there was a snake slithering pass; and showing tremendous presence of mind, he picked up the snake and threatened the police. In the confusion, this guy managed to escape.
This is however not going to be the end, to his misfortune, he is known to the police, and they will pick him up somewhere else.