Another senseless tragedy

news article

A SHOCKING 42 per cent of vehicle occupants killed on South Australian roads in 2017 were not wearing seatbelts.

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Originally Posted by Ean Austral

In the last 2 weeks I have driven about 6000kms on country highways , and it seems to me that we have, to quote a line from a favourite movie of mine " The world went and got itself in a darn hurry ". The main issue I seen , and I seen lots of it , was cars of all sorts , most either towing trailers with roof racks full as well , overtaking without even the slightest idea of what is / could be coming the other way. A lot of the time it wasn't till the cars pulled out they realised how long the roadtrain they were overtaking really was.

Twice I have cars get level with me only for them to have to brake and pull back in behind due to trucks coming the other way. I did notice when it was cars coming the other way they seemed more game to push the issue. Most of those kms driven was in a 3 trailer roadtrain , and people didn't even sit in behind to asses the conditions up ahead they just pulled out and went for it , corners, hills, double lines, it didn't matter.

So my point is , was it people who had holidays and were trying to get somewhere in a hurry and getting stuck behind a roadtrain might cut short their holiday by a few minutes/hours ? Or is this now the norm ??. When we go on holidays and we drive , we treat the drive as part of the holiday , or we transport the car to somewhere and fly in and collect it.

Also , and this may just be me - cars seem to do higher speeds a lot easier these days , hell I remember some of my first cars being 6 cylinder 3 on the tree jobs and to get it up to 100 you needed a cut lunch and water bags , now they seem to reach speeds a lot easier. I wonder if this contributes to those that are in-experienced drivers getting themselves into trouble. There is also a lot more caravans on the road these days it seems and this just adds to the problem of those people who are just in a rush.

I don't think on country roads its any 1 single thing , but impatience is most likely the main cause , but I believe in the city mobile phones certainly are a big cause as it seems everyone tries to run their business whilst driving. As was said , sit in a truck and see how many people are on their phones and its prolly 8 out of every 10 cars.

Just my 2c

Cheers Ean

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I haven't done anywhere near that distance in the last few weeks, but I have done a fair bit of country driving. Generally, I find the drivers have been well behaved - with the occasional idiot behaving as you describe. Even caught up with a few P-platers travelling at their legal 90 in a 110 zone. Had one spell south of Cowra, spent about half an hour after catching up to a load of hay. I was number 5 behind it when I caught up. It moved along fairly well on the level, but dropped to about 20kph on the steep hills. By the time we got to Booroowa there were thirteen behind me. I decided to stop for a break there! By that stage two had got past. Nobody was being silly.

If 8 out of 10 drivers are using mobile phones in the city, and with accident statistics having been generally falling fairly dramatically since mobile phones became common, despite a small uptick last year, it is hard to say that mobile phones are a major issue.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The other day a bloke roared around me on a corner, crossing to the wrong side of the road over unbroken white lines just before a crest, which could have caused a head-on with an on-coming vehicle. Up the road he was stopped by a motorcycle cop, who discovered he was unlicensed. His response was to get out of the vehicle and assault the cop, who ended up in hospital with facial injuries, and drive off. He has since been arrested. Hopefully he will be put away, since he obviously is not fit to be at large.
Harsher penalties don't deter people who will just ignore the rules anyway.

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Dare i say it QUEENSLANDER[tonguewink]

Probably a ex rugby player with a lifetime of brain injury [wink11]

I suspect the next major leap forward in vehicle safety will be automatic substance abuse testing, prior to the vehicle starting, (im not licking your steering wheel )[bighmmm]
Closely followed by mandatory autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles might lower the road toll on defined routes, similar to buses.
Generally it seems to be about the maturity and attitude of the driver. Doing drugs, drink-driving and speeding seem to go together with immaturity.

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Originally Posted by AndyG

Dare i say it QUEENSLANDER[tonguewink]

Probably a ex rugby player with a lifetime of brain injury [wink11]

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Here he is. Not sure of his background. He's been charged and to court.

Coast cop punched, kicked, choked in roadside assault | Sunshine Coast Daily

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Here he is. Not sure of his background. He's been charged and to court.

Coast cop punched, kicked, choked in roadside assault | Sunshine Coast Daily

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Toyota hi ace driver :-o

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Originally Posted by AndyG

Toyota hi ace driver :-o

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Mr De Vroom? really? A blow in from down south, I'm told.

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Originally Posted by bob10

Mr De Vroom? really? A blow in from down south, I'm told.

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Brisbane?

All the news reports are saying he's a Queenslander.

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Originally Posted by justinc

Stuff all the fines and verbal deterrent rubbish and start really punishing a few offenders. Properly.

Can't see any reason why an offender shouldn't be on a 24/7 on call situation for 12months straight to accompany a first responder continually to some horrific fatal accidents and see/smell/feel the damage they cause. Even help the ambos to clean up the viscera and load body parts into a bag.

Maybe, just maybe there will possibly be a reduction in some of these totally avoidable "accidents".

No mercy for this pondlife.

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Way back (more than 40yrs) when I was an apprentice to a gov't electricity board, a road safety session was organised in the apprentice training school. All apprentices were to watch a movie, Canadian police force I think. There was so much gore and viscera, bits of bodies scooped into bags etc, that some ran from the room vomiting.

Not sure it led to any changes to driving behaviours. Certainly didn't change mine.

Reading things like the repeat offender Pat303 posted, 12 times loss of licence in 11 yrs, killed a child etc... No sympathy for these people, habitual/repeat offenders, at all. Can we agree on the point at which an offender is considered a dangerous repeat/habitual offender then Jail them! (It cannot possibly be after 12 offences!)