Ross McCarthy

A Mercedes driver high on drugs tried to murder a student during Freshers Week in Birmingham by ploughing his vehicle into a crowd of people outside a nightclub, a court heard.

A video shows a crazed driver ploughing his Mercedes into a crowd of people outside a nightclub in Birmingham in a horror hit and run

A video shows a crazed driver ploughing his Mercedes into a crowd of people outside a nightclub in Birmingham in a horror hit and run

The paper proposes a pavement safety index, the estimated available friction at the expected travel speed, FRS(v), to model the composed effect of low-slip speed friction and macrotexture on roadway crashes. This index seems to capture the relative contributions of microtexture and macrotexture across different operating speeds. Speed-dependent available friction at 40, 55, and 70 mph was estimated using the speed-correction procedure in ASTM E1960-07 and integrated into Safety Performance Function (SPF) development. Comparison of the resulting SPF models suggests that FRS values corresponding to typical operating speeds can capture the combined influence of SFN (40) and macrotexture on expected crashes for freeways and rural two-lane, two-way highways. For freeways, the estimated available friction at 70 mph (FRS113) produced the most appropriate SPF, evidenced by the lowest AIC. For rural two-lane, two-way highways, the estimated available friction at 40 mph (FRS65) resulted in the lowest AIC value, consistent with the typical operating speeds on these facilities. In contrast, none of the speed-specific friction estimates produced satisfactory model performance for urban and suburban arterials, likely due to the wide variation in traveling speeds and geometric characteristics on these facilities. The applicability of the proposed metric was demonstrated through the development of illustrative investigatory friction levels based on observed crash data, and the identification of candidate roadway segments for friction improvement interventions, and the estimation of the corresponding return on investment for these interventions.

Two women who lured men to hotels on dating sites before handcuffing, attacking and robbing them during kinky 'sex games' have been jailed for a total of 15 years.