What is Going ON ??

[Stuart]

I'm not against Dan's point-of-view, and speed etc. I just get completely ####ed off with the ####wits who tailgate me when I am doing the speedlimit. Sitting on my tail puts me at risk. I don't give a #### if he (although more and more times it is a he in a truck, or a she in a car) writes himself off due to high speed, but when he endangers others with bad driving......

I have no doubt speed kills. I have no doubt that the rate of injury and death of 3rd parties decreased at the same time as a focus on speed control was put into place. I just wish that other aspects of dangerous driving were also focussed on.

This state (Vic) not doing compulsory annual roadworthies I think is unacceptable (I came from a country (NZ) where you have to do one every 6 months for vehicles over 3 years old, and 12 months for newer)

Why can we have cameras that instead of pointing down the road, point across it, and catch anyone travelling way too close to the proceeding vehicle?!!

[Guy]

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[/QUOTE]

Dan
Regardles of your personal feelings the law is the law and you and others police are paid to enforce them, so why are they not being enforced. All the road rules are there to save people on the road.
When it comes to hearing about the carnage on the raod all we here is "speed was a factor" but not the actual estimated speed, the condition of the vechile whether it was in a raod worthy manner or whether the road surface was pot holed.

My cousin came over a few years ago and he is a Snr Serg in the Thames Valley police patroling the motorways and highways. He came over on a secondment for 6 months and commented to many time as to why dont the cops do this here.
He did comment that here the police (govt) were infatuated with speed but dont look at the whole traffic law enforcement. They had the unwritten rule whilst patrolling that they would not pull a speedster over if the roads were clear and he was driving safely and in the correct lane. So you could drive at 90mph in a 70mph area safely and they would forget about you, change lanes iratically or your car looked unsafe they would pull you over.

[silentC]

Speed itself is only a small(ish) part of the problem

I think the whole point about this is that when you reduce speed, the other factors that are the actual cause of accidents are diminished. Your average driver has no idea how to react in an emergency. If you slow everything down, two things happen: they get more time to react; and the damage is lessened because the speed of impact (if there is going to be one) is reduced.

It's not addressing the fact that most people on the road think they are the best drivers in the world when, in fact, they are not but it is very hard to do anything about that. Speed can be controlled by imposing penalties. You are always going to have idiots.

[DanP]

Regardles of your personal feelings the law is the law and you and others police are paid to enforce them, so why are they not being enforced. All the road rules are there to save people on the road.

All I can say to this is how the hell would you have the first clue as to what is being enforced and what is not. I personally act on any breach of legislation that I see and so do most coppers. But what I'm saying is, why would I concentrate on people sitting in the right lane when there are much greater issues causing death on the roads, rather than inconvenience to you.

When it comes to hearing about the carnage on the raod all we here is "speed was a factor" but not the actual estimated speed, the condition of the vechile whether it was in a raod worthy manner or whether the road surface was pot holed.

Doesn't that in itself tell you the answer - Speed is a major causal factor in a large percentage of crashes. That's probably why you hear it all the time...

My cousin came over a few years ago and he is a Snr Serg in the Thames Valley police patroling the motorways and highways. He came over on a secondment for 6 months and commented to many time as to why dont the cops do this here.

I agree that the Govt are infatuated with speed and half a billion $+ a year in camera revenue will keep it that way.

He did comment that here the police (govt) were infatuated with speed but dont look at the whole traffic law enforcement. They had the unwritten rule whilst patrolling that they would not pull a speedster over if the roads were clear and he was driving safely and in the correct lane. So you could drive at 90mph in a 70mph area safely and they would forget about you, change lanes iratically or your car looked unsafe they would pull you over.

That's a really good attitude to have. You can drive like a maniac as long as you don't sit in the right lane while you do it. I'm glad were not like that here.

You're hanging shyte that the police don't pull over people for driving in the right lane but you quote your cousin saying you should let people go for doing 30km/h over the speed limit. That is hypocrisy at its finest.

Dan

[Phil Spencer]

Over the last 20 years I have spent about 6 hours on the road every day and over that time I have noticed a steady deterioration in standards on the roads. I have lost count of:

1. The times I have been using the freeway at the legal limit and had a Kenworth come up that close behind that I can count the bugs squashed on the grill.
2. Young ladies in their little cars either eating breakfast from a bowl or putting makeup on whilst driving (multi-skilling)
3. Young male (and female) hoons doing stupid things
4. Tradesmen in their vans in a hurry to their next job exceeding the speed limit and tailgating.

What really scares me is:

1. B doubles doing 100KPH on the free way
2. Small vans that are overloaded and unstable in a dubious state of road worthiness. I saw one go around a roundabout so fast that his right rear wheels lifted off the road
3. Young mothers in their tractors picking the kids up from school
4. Young kids still on their P plates ducking and weaving in heavy traffic.

I can vividly remember being a passenger in a colleges car on a busy freeway when he took a phone call not hands free starts to steer with his knees and with the phone wedged in his ear started to make notes in his diary all at 100KPH. I asked to be let out and I caught a Taxi back to the office, this same person had also been observed with the phone in his ear and using his lap top computer at the same time whilst doing 100KPH on the same freeway.

I am no angle on the road but I don't take risks the only time that I have been booked was for slow speeding I was doing 53KPH and I have the dubious honor of writing a car off in front of a speed camera.

I am starting to think that there are several reasons for the problems on the road:

1. Poverty of time, trying to do too much in the time available
2. Poor teaching of learner drivers
3. The road safety gene switches off when people get behind the wheel, they don't realize that they are in control of a complex piece of machinery that can have a minor component fail at any time having tragic consequences.
4. Lack of regard for our fellow human beings.

Phil

[Gumby]

I'll tell you what gets me fired up. It's the fact that legislation and general government meddling makes us responsible for just about everything. Take the example of paediatricians. They have to remain insured for life, even years after retirement just in case somebody wants to sue them. The result is that we are loosing them fast - who'd take it on.

In a society where you can sue McDonalds and get 20 grand for having a hot coffee spilled in your lap, where is the accouintability of government?

No to the point of this. Have you seen that intersection where the 7 died? That anybody could design it like that in the first place is a joke. The locals have been complaining for years and no action was taken because there weren't any accidents. But those who drove on it knew what could happen.
Now bracks is going to look into setting up a committee to consider appointing a consultant to advise on changs. :mad:

fair dinkum, why can't we just go back and sue the people who designed it in the first place. Why don't they have to account for themselves like the rest of us? I'm not in favour of all this legal liability stuff - we all pay the price through high premiums. But the rules have to be applied to everybody, not just those in the private sector.

[Wongo]

Everyone can driver fast even the wankers. Driving under the speed limit (but too slow) is much harder. It takes a lot of skills.

Tailgating should be a criminal offence. Bring on the death penalty.:eek:

[DanP]

Have you seen that intersection where the 7 died? That anybody could design it like that in the first place is a joke.

We have about 6 intersections just like it...:eek:

[Tex79]

Unfortunately you could be the best driver in the world but it doesn't stop some other moron from killing you.

Have you ever noticed that most drivers when approaching an intersection will be looking left, they only look right as they are litterally at the intersection and most are maintaining a high speed so they can pull out into the traffic quickley. This behaviour absolutely amazes me every time, as I'm pretty keen to be checking out whats coming from the right first as thats where the biggest threat is coming from.

I think the government has a lot to answer for when it comes to getting tough on drivers who continue to commit driving offences, they seem to slap they offenders on the back of the hand and send them on their way. What about actually following through on theur threat of confiscating their cars? repeat offenders should have their cars scrapped or sold at auction on top of extremely long term or permanent loss of license.
Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.

[Gumby]

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.

Don't do that, the rest of us are still on it

[Stuart]

I think the whole point about this is that when you reduce speed, the other factors that are the actual cause of accidents are diminished. Your average driver has no idea how to react in an emergency. If you slow everything down, two things happen: they get more time to react; and the damage is lessened because the speed of impact (if there is going to be one) is reduced.

Very good point - that makes a whole heap of sense to me. Focussing on speed to control other driving issues is a very interesting viewpoint.

I really like having my opinion modified by a rational arguement (no- I really do - it means someone has taken the time to understand my point-of-view, and constructed a reasoned, valid response)

[lesmeyer]

All this talk brings me to the only conclusion I can make about the speeding situation. Despite all the speed traps etc, the authorities have FAILED in reducing deaths AND other serious injuries on the roads. They are quick to point out that the # of deaths have declined in real numbers, but they never quote serious injuries which 20 years ago would have been deaths were it not for some modern technology in the cars that helps to not kill us. When the youngsters hoon around, only a small fraction are caught because the authorities are too busy catching the sitting ducks with cameras and laser guns speeding at a dangerous 7km/hr over the limit.. They actually think they have hoodwinked the population that they are interested in our safety. What a joke.
Les

[DanP]

Stuart,

All of your comments in this thread are valid and sensible. I felt no need to comment on them. Silent is spot on.

Lower speed = increased reaction time, less trauma and more importantly, less chance of losing control of the car. A lot of crashes are aggravated by drivers reacting incorrectly when they lose traction, which happens in nearly all crashes. If people had the correct reaction to vehicle instability, you would see less trauma from crashes as well.

Dan

[Stuart]

7km/hr? Try Victoria where the politicians want you booked if you are 3km/hr over the limit :mad: (Is that correct Dan?)

My brand new car's speedo is more inaccurate than that - why I still can't figure out- it reads 7% faster than you are actually travelling - some bloody Mazda "we know better than you" crap.

I want a car that tells me what it is doing wrong, not what I am (unless I give it permission). The Mazda even tells me if my seatbelt is not on - (how did I miss that), or my passenger - even when my 'passenger' is some bones from the butcher for the dog. Basically trying to control my behaviour. The most I want a car to do about my behaviour is tell me if I've left the lights on, and only because it will flatten the battery, not because it thinks I'm doing the wrong thing. The rest of the time, I just want it to monitor itself.

My Commodore has some of the same features, but at least I can choose if, and when they activate.

[DanP]

All this talk brings me to the only conclusion I can make about the speeding situation. Despite all the speed traps etc, the authorities have FAILED in reducing deaths AND other serious injuries on the roads. They are quick to point out that the # of deaths have declined in real numbers, but they never quote serious injuries which 20 years ago would have been deaths were it not for some modern technology in the cars that helps to not kill us. When the youngsters hoon around, only a small fraction are caught because the authorities are too busy catching the sitting ducks with cameras and laser guns speeding at a dangerous 7km/hr over the limit.. They actually think they have hoodwinked the population that they are interested in our safety. What a joke.
Les

Mate, you're kidding yourself if you think modern safety features on cars are the cause of the reduced toll.

I am yet to meet a policeman who will book someone for 7 kmh over and most won't even look at cars under 10kmh over. Those sitting ducks wouldn't be sitting ducks if they weren't involved in criminal behaviour.

The only thing I would agree with is that the Govt are interested in your safety. Spot on. What they are interested in is the millions of dollars each death costs and the hundreds of thousands each serious injury crash costs.

Out of each shift I would spend less than 1/2 an hour with a radar in my hand. The two other blokes I work with are the same. The moving mode gets used in transit between towns.

The hoon element are by far the most heavily policed portion of road users. Anything we can get on them is booked. They would make up 70% of my work. Don't go on your perception of what we do because you really have no idea.

Dan