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Spot on Alan

Phil

If you've ever had to brake hard in an emergency with no shoes on dam sure you'll ware shoes afterwards.

Coming back from a canoeing trip my shoes were soking and I just drove without and I had to perform an emergeny stop when a stray peice of metal was blown onto the road infront of me.

Moving quickly from the accelerator to the brake I cut my foot on the the side of the pedal and it was incredibly sore when having to press the pedal hard.

Shoes for me ALWAYS.

Cheers

Richard

oops, I drive in bare feet all the time,  also drive in flip flops, I hate wearing socks of any kind but don't like my feet to get sweaty especially if I am wearing trainers, so I just take them off when I get in the car,

My OH who is a bus driver went mental at me telling me I was breaking the law when she found out (i don't drive her, and happened to open the car door while she was on the drive,) so I asked her to prove to me it was illegal, so far she has failed too so unless I see hard evidence I can't then I will carry on. Feels perfectly safe to me

 Now how could you drive like this. .i ask you....he he he..

Quote: Originally posted by AlanHardware on 20/6/2011

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Fact , in Australia it is illegal to drive in bare feet , period . They have done studies which show a high proportion of accidents may have been avoided if suitable footwear had been worn . Maybe a lot of Aussies blame the accident on a bare foot not gripping the brake pedal effectively in an emergency .

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I generally drive with shoes on, I dont like wearing flipflops and soft soled shoes as they can get caught/wedged under the pedal and you have to pull them out, but can't see any tangable reason why driving with no footwear would be an different to driving with footwear.

Possibly if you have foot problems a shoe could offer some support, but if you have no problems with your feet, I can't see any problem with it whatsoever.

Tony

Alan is right and you need to take on board all of the words he has used including "could be REASONABLY blamed on driving barefoot". There have been cases of drivers being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention, as they were bare footed. EG  (scroll down to the experience of humpbackmaniac).

You can also be prosecuted for the same offence for driving whilst drinking or eating a sandwich if it can be shown that you are not exercising proper control of the vehicle. Thus it is not illogical that driving bare footed can potentially lead to a prosecution if the facts support the case.

I know of a case of a woman with a veruka driving bare footed and she admitted that when she applied the brakes for an emergency stop the pain was such that she could only apply a light touch to the brake. So she didn't stop. The facts supported the case that she was not in sufficient control and should have worn protection for the infected foot.

These cases are few and far between, but the potential is there.

In many cases what we think isn't an offence, can be if wrapped up in another way. So you don't get charged with driving with bare feet as that is not an offence. You may be charged with driving without due care and attention.

You can be in complete control with bare feet of course.

Phil