Senseless and Stupid

[LineLefty]

Being only 25, I'm still paying the hefy insurance because of the idiotic driving of my contemporaries. Even though I puttputt around in a the camry with the babyseat in the back.

It too was a bot of a nincompoop when I was seventeen. I had an old rotary Mazda Capella that went like he proverbial shower of sh**. Luckily for me I rear-ended another pizza driver while I was fidlding with stereo, and perving on a girl while driving into the sun in the reight hand lane on great eastern hwy.

In all seriousness, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Scared the living daylights out of me. I was still a passenger however in many a V8 commodore doing stupid things.

Unfortunately, I really don't know how to get thru to these tough guys. Some times I jsut feel like grabbing them and saying:

"Your VN commodore is a piece of **** that will get out of control and kill you! Chicks arent impressed with your stereo or your driving. Get a brain and stop being an immature loser ahhh!"

Also I really don't think limiting power is the problem. Any car will go 120kms and thats enought to ensure your death. How many hotted up POS hyundai excels have you seen driving like idiots?

The greatest bumper sticker I've ever seen was on the back of a Triumph TR7 which read, Your hyundai is NOT A sports car.

[barnsey]

My first car was a Morris Minor - geez I did some silly things in that but speed was not one of them

And that was in the days when you had to drive coz you were too rotten to walk :eek: :eek: :eek:

Reduced speed capability, training and perhaps a curfew are all elements of a program that would have some effect but to allow any one without the others is like plugging up one hole in a colander

Until a human has the opportunity to see what the car will do in different circumstances and they understand the dynamics they will push it till they loose it. If it is done under guidance then you take away the chance that a telephone pole is in the way when they cross the threshold. Speed and training in a controlled environment in that case are an obvious selection.

We all know the power of peer groups, believe the curfew option is a good idea then. But without the other two the point will still come where the urge to feel the need for speed will surface and all you've done is changed the time of the potential accident.

I've got two on the verge too! :eek: And frankly their inability to see anything beyond the axis that goes in through the top of their heads and comes out their rectal passage scares the out of me but you have to rely on the fact that you have done your best to train and expose them to the dangers so that they know the potential of the situation.

Good luck to us all and that fate shines on all favourably.

[craigb]

The greatest bumper sticker I've ever seen was on the back of a Triumph TR7 which read, Your hyundai is NOT A sports car.

Neither is a TR7

[TassieKiwi]

I heard on the ABC this am that there is fairly conclusive new information that the human brain doesn't fully develop until the early twentirs - and the last part to develop is the frontal lobes, which are responsible for judgment, analysis, control, and by inference recognition of cause and effect. So a 16 year old in a car maybe unsafe at any speed:eek: after all. I certainly was. I shudder to think that at 15 I had a full license, after a run around the block and a 3-point-turn.

No training for wet roads, ice, night driving, skid correction, emergency stops, following distance, not eating/texting/ferken with cd's...........:mad:

Surely education must help - and compulsory use of professional driver trainers.

I worry to death about my teenage children's safety on young yobbo's cars - and they're only 3 &5! Maybe it will all be fixed by then, as petrol will have run out.

Den

[PAH1]

Neither is a TR7

I dunno, a mate dropped a leyland p76 v8 into one and regeared it. 300kph easy. Yes this guy was an idiot, very good accountant but an idiot.

[jackiew]

I think tassiekiwi has hit the nail on the head ... we let kids have control of a vehicle just because they have reached a certain age ... we don't recognise that some of them aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility. Realistically some small percentage of individuals are NEVER going to be mature enough to handle the responsibility.

I know that quite a few years ago when they were examining the structure of driver training in the uk that I saw a sample questionnaire which was designed to test driver attitude rather than driver knowledge. I doubt if they ran with the idea ( far too controversial ).

Maybe we should be scaring them stupid at primary school age - visits to the car graveyard to look at vehicles which have been in crashes - then they have to go back and write a story about what it is like to be in a wheelchair after a car accident etc etc. Use accident statistics in maths class. Look at the effect of being hit by a car in biology etc.

[HappyHammer]

Look at the effect of being hit by a car in biology etc.

Bloody hell ! Not even safe in the classroom.

Apologies for being flipant in a serious thread couldn't help myself.

HH.

[DaveInOz]

Traveling long straight country roads at 190-200km/h was no big deal because I knew it was relitivly safe (100% vision, fair road, no side roads or drives, good bike) any faster and the bike would start to misbehave so that was a nice cruising speed. However doing 60km/h on a freeway with rain, at night can be terrifying - when you realise you are going to fast for the conditions, or in a machine not up to it.
Speed isn't the problem, it is knowing the time and the place.

on Cars ...
My dad taught me to drive when I was 12ish, in shopping centre car parks on Sundays. He taught me to start, stop, doughnuts, line lock spins, slides etc it was a blast, I bashed a few paddocks as I grew up (not many as I'm a city kid).
The result once I was driving on my own was I was bored of all that crap, and of driving in general, ever since cars have been a mistreated tool, not a toy. Cars and driving bore me.

[bitingmidge]

Here's another take:

The "Bloomberg Caveats" refers to Section 43.7(ii) of Local Law 879057694053485735 which requires a car dealer to explain to any new owner all possible consequences of not operating a car safely.* The Caveats must be recited before the new owner is allowed to take possession.

For the full ramifications of this read This Story

Now there's a thought.....make the vendor responsible!!

P

[Rocker]

SilentC,

I am inclined to think that is is a good idea to encourage teenagers to engage in a pastime that has a certain amount of obvious danger in it, such as rock-climbing, or hang-gliding. If a teenager's thirst for an adrenalin rush is satisfied in this way, he is less likely to seek it by driving cars dangerously. When I was a youngster, rock climbing, at which I was a pretty poor performer, gave me a healthy respect for the possibility of death. I would suggest, though, that rock-climbing is best done on coarse-grained igneous or metamorphic rocks, suck as granite and gneiss, rather than sedimentary ones like sandstone, as I believe you have already learned to your cost

Rocker

[Termite]

Now there's a thought.....make the vendor responsible!!
P

No offence intended, and I'm sure you put this up to be ridiculed along with the following
Prisoners rights
Gay rights
Criminals right to sue you because you hit him while he was robbing your house.
Free shooting galeries.
Free needles for junkies while diabetics pay.
etc etc.

I dont know what the answer is for the young ones, at their age (if I remember back that far sonny) I was bullet proof too.

[bitingmidge]

No offence intended, and I'm sure you put this up to be ridiculed along with the following
.

Yep!

and for those who don't read the link: it's basically the story of a lady suing a car dealer, because she slipped on a banana which was on the footpath as a result of an accident which involved a car that HE sold (a Jag), claiming that he probably didn't give the new owner an adequate instruction on how dangerous those things are round the city!


Cheers,

P

[BigPop]

I s'pose one other aspect we should also look at is the driving habits/behaviour of some of us 'more experienced' drivers too.
Some drivers leave a lot to be desired that's for sure.
One thing I have noticed is how some drivers on a 110KPH 3 lane freeway drive the same as if they are in the city - only they are doing over 110KPH usually 120KPH or thereabouts - tailgating other cars, chop & change lanes without indicating, cut in front of other cars etc etc and then they wonder why they have/cause collisions.
No wonder some of our youth drive the same they are only taking a leaf out of the book of some of their so called mentors.

[Sturdee]

My two kids obtained their licences as soon as they turned 18 but untill they SAVED up the money to buy their OWN cars they could only drive our cars on our conditions and our supervision. This allowed them to borrow cars to go to Tafe or Uni but not for driving at night to pubs etc.

When they had saved up enough money to buy their first cheap car they were to proud of it to risk an accident. To this date they haven't had a major accident.

Peter.

[LineLefty]

Come sit on the couch:

I ask you all the question then. When you see the young guy in his hotted up commodore with the sunnies and baseball cap, music blaring, driving like an idiot. What exactly is his motivation?

Impress other road users? Impress females? Is it adrenaline? Establishing manhood?