Bull bar blitz: rural drivers fined

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

Funny, I have been touring and 4WD since 1977 and never hit a roo.

Last Month I drove from Mt Isa to Longreach and saw the most dead roos per Kilometer that I have ever seen ( except maybe in 2004 from Broken Hill to Peterborough) . The falcons and crows love it. But didn't hit any.

One has hit me in the LH wheel arch where there would not have been a bullbar.

Luck of the draw I guess.

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In the 7 years I drove my XR8 back and forth from work, I racked up well over 140,000km, mostly on the same 60km stretch of road, and I've hit one Echidna and clipped a 'roo..... and maybe half the distance I travelled wouldve been well over the speed limit.....

2 years and 80,000km in my commodore and I hit at least 5 of the bloody things in a 6 month period.... mostly at speeds between 100-130km/h, and EVERY 'roo strike I drove away from, the worst damage I had to deal with was a spotlight that was damaged when I dead centred a 'roo at 130 and the impact tore the welds on the aluminium mesh in the middle of the bar.

And thats on the same road.....

Phillip your earlier post was about a removable bar...the latter one was about hoops yes I hammed up my respose for you but I knew you could handle it

but mate really the whole thing is just a little bit silly. Lets all just go and polish our bars...be they bull or bumpa. You keep your nylon and I will keep my (non removable) steel. The truth is that lifts will do more damage to a pedestrian or low slung sedan than a bull bar...oh...I have a lift kit too. Bugger.

cheers
cheers

I am so fed up with all the excuses about protecting pedestrians.

I am not far off sixty and I am always breaking pedestrian laws.

Going against don't walk lights, taking the shortest route possible from A to B when crossing the road, which often means on a big angle which equates to jay walking and being too lazy to walk 20 metres to a pedestrian crossing.

I have not come close to being hit. Why? Because I use the bloody things that nature gave me, my eyes and ears, as well as common sense, although after reading this some might dispute the latter.

Just a thought...

in the north of our state, it is common to come across vehicles disabled by roo or wildlife strikes (emu, wombat... cattle/sheep/goat) and literally stuck in the a very solitary or remote spot...sometimes with kids etc and often without decent water or food supply etc...(we were just passing through!)

If I need to remove my bull/roo bar to travel into the metro area, then I believe (for safety) that any vehicles leaving the metro area should have to fit a bar...

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Originally Posted by garrycol

I think that you will find that it is not the lights on roofs that are illegal in themselves - afterall some cars have them as standard - but the setup and how many etc - there is a limit on how many forward facing lights a vehicle can have and usually there are four on the roof in addition to the cars OEM lights on the front and then there are usually two spotties on the front. There are height restrictions as well.

Garry

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Garry,
In SA they are, all spotlights fitted to a vehicle must be forward or equal to the plane of the headlights.

Roof mounted lights are a magnet for a defect and a fine...

and disconnecting them doesnt work as ADRs state "all lights fitted to a vehicle must operate."
(so if they are there and not working, still a defect and the offence is having them installed there not necessarily using them..)

In SA until about March this year (i think) the regs stated must be even numbers of spotlights fitted. This was changed as the lightbar revolution is being configured for now. (so lightbar = 1 spotlight)

Lastly anything that projects forward of a bullbar into the "pedestrian zone" is illegal (rod holders, top mounted spots can be included depending on the install, aerials mounted forward etc etc)

Lucky we have Ricky Muir looking after us in the Senate :p

Seriously, I wish him well, it's good to have some diversity in Parliament, rather than the usual professional hacks.

Philip, haven't waded into this as I agree that a bull bar has no place in a 99% city driven car, but just because you've never hit a roo doesn't mean the rest of us haven't either.

I've lost count of the number of roo strikes I've had over the years, and I only live 4.5 hours from Sydney.

Put it this way, it ranges in the multiple scores of poor macropods whacked in the last decade.

Some area are just riddled with them, and sometimes we have to drive at the times they are most prevalent.

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Originally Posted by digger

Garry,
In SA they are, all spotlights fitted to a vehicle must be forward or equal to the plane of the headlights.

Roof mounted lights are a magnet for a defect and a fine...

and disconnecting them doesnt work as ADRs state "all lights fitted to a vehicle must operate."
(so if they are there and not working, still a defect and the offence is having them installed there not necessarily using them..)

In SA until about March this year (i think) the regs stated must be even numbers of spotlights fitted. This was changed as the lightbar revolution is being configured for now. (so lightbar = 1 spotlight)

Lastly anything that projects forward of a bullbar into the "pedestrian zone" is illegal (rod holders, top mounted spots can be included depending on the install, aerials mounted forward etc etc)

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Not to argue, but as your quote stated, roof lights where an option in some models. The wrangler had a roof bar with 4-6 lights as a factory mopar option. Now maybe they didn't let anyone tick that box in SA but removing a legaly fitted light to enter the state seems a bit silly.

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Originally Posted by digger

Garry,
In SA they are, all spotlights fitted to a vehicle must be forward or equal to the plane of the headlights.

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Originally Posted by frantic

Not to argue, but as your quote stated, roof lights where an option in some models. The wrangler had a roof bar with 4-6 lights as a factory mopar option. Now maybe they didn't let anyone tick that box in SA but removing a legaly fitted light to enter the state seems a bit silly.

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Again not to argue but Roof Lights were a Factory fitment on many Jeep Cherokee Renegade models like this one 2003 Jeep Cherokee Renegade MY2003

So if not legal be sold in SA it was everywhere else in Aust - so i take it if the above vehicle was driven into SA it would be defected even though it complies with ADRs, is an unmodified vehicle and legal in all other States and technically legal in Australia.

Lots of pics here as well https://www.google.com.au/search?q=p...ml%3B800%3B536

Garry

Some model Nissan X Trail's also had factory fitted forward facing lights on the roof as well. Don't think they were useful for anything, but wonder how they fit in with rules regarding roof mounted lights. I've seen a few of these around from time to time (pretty uncommon though).

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/08/398.jpg https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/08/399.jpg