Lucky to survive

[DeeJay]

I just stumbled upon this article- most likely caused by incorrect towball download.


Potholed highway causing near-death caravanning crash reignites debate over country Victoria's roads (https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/potholed-highway-causing-near-death-caravanning-crash-reignites-debate-over-country-victoria-s-roads/ar-AAQMUXN?ocid=msedgntp)

[BradC]

I just stumbled upon this article- most likely caused by incorrect towball download.


Potholed highway causing near-death caravanning crash reignites debate over country Victoria's roads (https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/potholed-highway-causing-near-death-caravanning-crash-reignites-debate-over-country-victoria-s-roads/ar-AAQMUXN?ocid=msedgntp)

Easier to blame someone else though. If a pothole was enough to de-stabilise the train how would they have reacted to a blown tyre?

[scarry]

This should be in the D2 section,not D1.

[AK83]

we have by far the worst roads here in Vic(for a big economy state!).

No road demonstrates this so clearly as does the Monaro hwy from Cann River to Bombala.

Cann River to NSW border is about 50klm of total garbage .. to call this section a highway is joke.
Then you immediately notice that you've entered another world .. maybe Switzerland, and their 'billiard table like' roads .. but you're in NSW.
An absolute dreamland after the grueling 45mins to get to the border.

[Tins]

Easier to blame someone else though. If a pothole was enough to de-stabilise the train how would they have reacted to a blown tyre?

Knew someone would bring this up. I've seen a B-Double fail due to road conditions, but it's always easier to blame the driver. Suits the insurers, and the road authorities like the easy way out.

Roads should be predictable in a First World state. We expect it. Any comparison with a blown tyre and what these folk experienced is spurious at best.

[BradC]

Knew someone would bring this up. I've seen a B-Double fail due to road conditions, but it's always easier to blame the driver. Suits the insurers, and the road authorities like the easy way out.

Roads should be predictable in a First World state. We expect it. Any comparison with a blown tyre and what these folk experienced is spurious at best.

I will retreat suitably chastised.

[JDNSW]

we have by far the worst roads here in Vic(for a big economy state!).

.....

You obviously don't travel round here! Western NSW has thousands of kilometres of roads closed whenever there is significant rain, and not just unsealed roads either. For example, the Barrier Highway is commonly one of these. And then there are the potholes after rain on the sealed roads!

Victoria has far less kilometres of road per head of population than any other state except perhaps for Tasmania, so this is as expected. But of course, this does not mean that specific roads cannot be very bad in Victoria.

[Homestar]

we have by far the worst roads here in Vic(for a big economy state!).


I'm with JD - NSW rural roads are far worse than Victorian roads - even in rural towns the state of the roads is diabolical in a lot of places. Vic has very good roads compared to them IMO or else I'm just unlucky and anywhere I drive in NSW just happens to be the bad roads, but it seems if you get off A & B roads up there, it's an absolute crap show.

[scarry]

They are no better here either.

We travel the Moonie hwy,from Dalby to St George regularly and in many places it’s an absolute shocker.

Sure they have done repairs recently but in some places it’s still pretty bad.

The good thing about the road is they have cleared the scrub away,about 10M each side which makes driving,particularly at night safer.

Other places all over Qld,the roads are shocking,which no doubt increases road accidents.

[V8Ian]

Conveniently there is no photo of the crash inducing road damage. I believe the main contributing factors to the incident would have been, limited or inexperience driving an articulated vehicle, failure to drive to the conditions/inappropriate speed and poor loading. Probably panic braking played a role, too.
Blaming the road condition is far more click bait worthy than the causes proposed by me.

[econti]

With no details as to what happened to the van or pics of the road its hard to judge. Could be that the pothole blew a tyre out on the van and that threw it sideways? Heavy van and a not very powerful car, no time to react and floor it to drive it out of the sway?

Personally I think blaming the driver entirely is a bit bull****. The roads in the country are garbage and should be maintained better. Whether it could have been avoided by a better driver or a better tow car is irrelevant.

[scarry]

The golden rule is never pull anything that is heavier than the tug.

Add a bit of inexperience in there,and it’s a great recipe for a disaster.

Whatever did happen no one will know,only those involved.

We recently ran into a guy who has been pulling a 3.4T van around for over 20 yrs,a retired long distance truck driver.He recently bought a D5,and wasn’t happy with the way it pulled the van,went back to the vehicle he had before,which weighed around 500 KG more.

[Homestar]

With no details as to what happened to the van or pics of the road its hard to judge. Could be that the pothole blew a tyre out on the van and that threw it sideways? Heavy van and a not very powerful car, no time to react and floor it to drive it out of the sway?

Personally I think blaming the driver entirely is a bit bull****. The roads in the country are garbage and should be maintained better. Whether it could have been avoided by a better driver or a better tow car is irrelevant.

Ok, I’ll play devil’s advocate here. I’m sure any Polly would be happy to increase road funding to levels where every road was like a well maintained race track - no dramas at all - just convince 80 plus % of the population that all road taxes need to increase around 400%. Petrol - $7 a litre, rego - $3000 per year per car - without patronage or fuel use dropping. Simple.

Now, back to reality - The simple answer why are roads are so crap is because we have a huge area to cover and build/maintain roads on with a tiny population base. Countries with the opposite issue have lovely roads - look at England - you can barely find a dirt road even if you wanted to as every lane and public access road is sealed and well maintained as it’s a tiny country with a large population.

Based on this we all need to understand that our roads simply WILL throw up surprises and that we should be ready for them.

And don’t get me started on people towing caravans with absolutely zero idea of what they are doing and don’t need any training for this. Chuck a 3.5 tonne van behind a 2 tonne vehicle and you can tow it no dramas, no training or special licence. Need to drive a 5 tonne truck - nope, go get a special licence for that - and the truck is far easier, safer and would throw up less surprises that a caravan ever would. I now have a 5 tonne motorhome and MUCH prefer that to towing my old 1600kg van. Heaps easier and far less hassle, but I need a truck licence - go figure.

The we wonder why people get into this sort of trouble…

[Tins]

And don’t get me started on people towing caravans with absolutely zero idea of what they are doing and don’t need any training for this. Chuck a 3.5 tonne van behind a 2 tonne vehicle and you can tow it no dramas, no training or special licence. Need to drive a 5 tonne truck - nope, go get a special licence for that - and the truck is far easier, safer and would throw up less surprises that a caravan ever would. I now have a 5 tonne motorhome and MUCH prefer that to towing my old 1600kg van. Heaps easier and far less hassle, but I need a truck licence - go figure.

The we wonder why people get into this sort of trouble…

Yep. No training, no need to understand weights, load restraints*, and the tow vehicle is NOT designed for towing. A B-Double is FAR safer.

And my OKA drives like a car but I need LR to drive it.


*Until you have a serious accident, then they are all over you.