What is Going ON ??

[Gumby]

Yeah, that was crazy stuff. So was having different rules in different states for giving way to people turning right if you were turning left into the same street.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Late last Sunday night, just after pub closing hours, we had a yobbo take a LH bend too fast and end up parking his car in our neighbours bedroom, after taking out another neighbours front and dividing fences. :eek: We live on a highway (3 lanes each way & a service rd each side) so he was doing a fair old whack. Sad to say, this is something we're "used to" as it happens about once every two years; although AFAIK this is the first case where the car has made it into a house... they normally just end up upside down in the opposite lane.

But this bloke went through the centre island, taking out most of the trees & shrubs, a couple of sign posts (one being a speed sign! :eek: ) and left all this debris, along with his propshaft, half a wheel and mega glass and plastic oddments, strewn across the oncoming lanes.

Although 'twas a quiet time of night (fortunately for him) a couple of oncoming vehicles saw the accident and pulled over, with hazard lights, etc. And of course, there were all the rubber-necking locals from neighbouring houses. Around a dozen of us. It was obvious to anybody with eyes that there'd been a serious bingle. Most later traffic slowed down as it passed, I assume to rubber-neck, but 'twas a good thing just the same; with all that debris left on the road they had to "weave" their way through the lanes for about 200 yards.

Most slowed down: there were, of couirse, one or two who didn't bother. They came flying by at well over the speed limit, :mad: horns blaring at the slower vehicles... only to get massive "KERCHUNK KERCHUNK BANG CLANK!" under their cars as they found the debris. Monday morning, when we went to clean up the odds'n'sods the clean-up crew missed in the dark, we found several bits of trim and plastic that obviously didn't belong to the first idiot...

...if any of these pieces belong to YOUR car I HOPE IT COSTS YOU A FORTUNE TO REPAIR, YOU STUPID BARSTEWARD! :mad:

[kiwigeo]

Me too what the hell is with these young girls? I can uderstand boys = excess testostrone - no brains.
Anyhow it could be worse we could live in a lot of other countries.
Road fatalities in 2003
Australia 1,716
Indonesia 30,464
Malaysia 6,282
Philippines 9,000
Thailand 13,116
Thats one hell of a lot of misery.

Figures more meaningful as a percentage of population.

[kiwigeo]

The problems IMO:

1. Young people think they're indestructible.
2. People quick to claim their right to drive but not so quick to accept that most rights come with responsibilities.
3. Driver inexperience....put a 16 year old into a Skyline kitted out for breaking the sound barrier and what do you expect?
4. Penalties for driving stupidly are pathetic.
5. Not enough police on the roads (or anywhere for that matter). Pay the cops more.
6. General lack of respect for fellow human beings...applies to young and old these days.

[Stuart]

Figures more meaningful as a percentage of population.

That's why I added the percentage of population, and also factored in vehicles per capita.

So why criticise something that has been taken care of 3 posts later :confused::confused::confused::confused:

[Andy Mac]

There is all that about young people and speed, no sense of their own mortality, but in my mind there are other issues too.
Seat belts do save lives, no doubt about it, but they also add to a feeling of invincibilty. Strap in and hold on. Way back in the mid-70's a revolution hit surfing: the leg rope. It allowed surfers to pull off stunts that weren't recommended before, because of the consequences (if you fell off, you lost your board and it was a long swim!) Similar with seatbelts, IMHO.
The other one is simply speed. No car should be produced or allowed here that is capable of doing twice the legal speed limit. End of story. The roads here are atrocious compared to Europe, too much total road distance compared to funding and the quality suffers. I may seem like an old fuddy duddy, and truth is I used to be a bit of bevan...but enough carnage already. I've got 2 young daughters and I'm not looking forward to the day they step out with their chosen one in a souped up car off to a party!!:eek:

Cheers,

[Auld Bassoon]

The problem is if you do 80 in a 80K zone then people think that you are crazy.

I disagree that speed, in and of itself, is inherently dangerous (not regular road speeds, anyway), but rather that the woeful skill levels and lack of experience so often demonstrated that is the real problem.

I'm in favour of (sensible) speed limits as it would be impossible or at least impractical to legislate and police at the individual or even group level. However, it would be entirely practical to limit vehicles used by 'L' and 'P' platers to a specified limit, and that this principle of gradation could be applied to classes of licence of, say, "regular", "experienced" and "advanced" testing were established. Modern electronics and a smart-card licence could then easily set the vehicle's speed and, where fitted, electronic control limits.

There is also the vehicle factor. A Ferrari or a Porsche driven by an idiot is just as likely to "have issues" (probably more so) as a clapped-out 120Y is when driven by a drunk. Also, more advanced licence testing should be done in a vehicle with all the ESP/C, ABS and whatnot turned off.

[Auld Bassoon]

You get that in Vic too huh?

What is that all about. How come they get so agressive as soon as they get their 'P's and a Ford Fiesta?

Iain & Craig,

I'm releived to see that it's not only me who seems to see young females being so stunningly aggressive in their Fiestas, Barinas etc.

Going to work this morning I followed a flossy who crossed three lanes of traffic FOUR times, zig-zagging across dense traffic with barely a flick (if any!) of the indicator and NEVER a look across or behind - to gain perhaps three car lengths. What that mutt was trying to prove, and to whom, remains a mystery.

[DanP]

I picked a good time to start in the Traffic Management Unit....

Sat. three weeks ago, bloke doesn't give way to a truck. One dead, one to hospital with serious injuries. He decided to wait till after I got there to die though..

Sat. two weeks ago, bloke drives home after being at Footy Club, then Pub then a mates place. Forgot that when the road bends, you need to turn. No seatbelt, was ejected and the car finished on top of him.

Thursday following that, two blokes in seperate cars going to the other blokes funeral, one doesn't give way to the other and t bone at 100km/h.

All preventable accidents. The police division that I work in has the highest toll in the state (maybe not after the 7 in Donald). I have personally been to about half the crashes in my area and all of them are preventable. All appear to have been caused by stupidity/inattention/pi55 poor attitude.

I moved to this country 18 years ago and was shocked( and still am) at how bad the driving here is, we have road laws here but it seem PC Plod isnt interested in enforcing those only every now and then when they have a blitz.
Take keep to the left unless overtaking, i travel approx 1500KM a week around town and country and regulary see strings of cars in the right hand lane and just me in the left hand with the centre lane free, whilst PC plod is at the side of road with his speed gun.

Mate, when was the last time you heard of a fatal accident because someone was sitting in the right hand lane. Contrary to popular belief, the job of the TMU is to reduce the road toll, not get lots of tickets. Speed is a major factor in many fatal and casualty crashes in the country. Not much point getting 50 tickets a day for inconvenience type traffic offences and ignoring the offences that cause the big accidents. I know I'd rather get 5 tickets a day for offences that kill people.

Dan

[Sturdee]

That's why I added the percentage of population, and also factored in vehicles per capita.

So why criticise something that has been taken care of 3 posts later :confused::confused::confused::confused:

Either they read but don't understand or they skip half the posts.


Peter.

[AlexS]

Dan, I don't know how you do your job, pretty sure I couldn't.

Interesting that in NSW (& Vic too, I think) the annual road toll is a bit more than half what it was 30 years ago, despite many more cars & drivers, and greater average mileage. Due, no doubt, to seat belts, RBT & improved cars & roads.

I'm not sure that attitude on the roads today is any worse than it ever was. I can remember road rage when I was a kid, especially when a row of cars was caught behind a slow car on a single lane road. Lots of dangerous overtaking, cutting off, fist waving etc. then. There weren't as many women driving then as there are now, so maybe they're more noticeable now.

[Daddles]

A copper at a road safety discussion at the MG car club one night commented that after reading thousands of accident reports over the years, he'd become convinced that the most dangerous speed was the speed limit ... because that's what everone 'claimed' they were doing Of course, he then went on to talk about how they measured actual speeds at accidents sites and compared their results with the claims - funny how often the two didn't match

As a side note, that poor cop wore a lot of teasing that night ... from all the other cops in the audience. At that time, it seemed that half the MG car club were either cops or married to cops. It wasn't unusual to turn up to a club function and find a police car in the car park.

Richard

[Stuart]

I have an opinion about speed, and I'm probably in the minority like always, but I feel that speed is focussed on way too much, vs poor driving techniques, and my pet hate: tailgating.

Speed itself is only a small(ish) part of the problem - the inability to handle the speed of the vehicle, and the vehicle's condition is as much the problem (and I'm not necessarily talking about speeds above the speed limit here- just speeds beyond what is sensible for the conditions).

Speeders make me think "you idiot", Tailgaters on the other hand really boil my blood.

[DanP]

Interesting that in NSW (& Vic too, I think) the annual road toll is a bit more than half what it was 30 years ago, despite many more cars & drivers, and greater average mileage. Due, no doubt, to seat belts, RBT & improved cars & roads.

In 1970, compulsory wearing of seatbelts was introduced. The Road toll was 1061. In 1971 the road toll was 140 less. Coincidence?

In 1976, the road toll was 938 when random breath testing was introduced respectively. Over the next four years, the road toll dropped by nearly 300. Coincidence?

In 1989 the road toll was 777 ( a bad year). Speed camera's were introduced and in 1990, the road toll was a staggering 229 less than 1989 and has steadily decreased ever since. Coincidence?

Speeding is a causal factor in 26% of fatal crashes in Victoria.

The road toll is less than a third what it was thirty years ago.

Dan

[Bleedin Thumb]

Stuart and Dan at a quick glance you seem to be having opposing views but I beleive your both right.
MPO is that I find it more distracting (and hence dangerous) to be constantly watching the speedo to keep my speed under the posted limit than to concentrate on driving at a sensible speed suitable for my car and the prevailing conditions ( road, time of day, weather etc).
Most of the time this speed coincides with the limit, sometimes faster sometimes slower. If I excede the limitations of my own ability and that of my car and the conditions then I am likely to come undone and I am usually smart enough not to do this.
So Dan youre right about speeding but so is Stuart as its not necessarily exceeding the LEGAL speed limit that is the problem