Thread: Road toll rises

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Australia's road toll rose by 53 to 1188 in 2019.
Wheels' February Car of the Year issue has an excellent analysis.

Incidentally, EVs dominated Car of the Year, which was won by the Mercedes Benz EQC from the Tesla Model 3 and the (non EV) Mazda 3, with the Nissan Leaf also in the field. The issue also reveals the Sony Vision-S EV.

Back on the road toll and Victoria performed the worse, with its road toll up 53 to 266.
NSW, South Australia and Western Australia also had more deaths, while in Queensland, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT totals fell.

The figures were:
Australian average: 4.2 deaths per 100,000 population
ACT 1.4
Victoria 4.0
Queensland 4.3
NSW 4.35
Tasmania 6.0
Western Australia 6.3
South Australia 6.5
Northern Territory 14.2

Urban areas are much safer than rural areas.
Country roads with limits above 80 km/h are the most dangerous.
Fatigue in single vehicle crashes is one of the biggest causes of fatalities.

Interesting issue of the magazine.

So much to say, but age is teaching me restraint....

I will say though that IMO COTY awards from magazines are becoming as irrelevant as the magazines themselves, which seem to be becoming advertorials. The vehicles mentioned are all worthy of note, but only one is currently real world.

The Sony Vision-S EV., by Sony's own admission, will never see production ( although in my wilder imaginations I could see Apple acquiring Sony. After all, Project Titan could use the tech, and Apple wouldn't miss a few $billion...). Sony doesn't have Obama to grant huge subsidies the way Musk did.

Lol, so much for restraint, but I haven't commented on the road toll, which was the heading for this thread.

430 died of Flu last year in Australia Mick. Roads are safer than sneezing.

8000+ and more than 29 kids died in the US so far this year in the Northern flu season.

Yeah, I only added the COTY bit as an aside. In 20 years the ICE vehicles will be dying out and the market will be dominated by EVs.

The road toll story is interesting, I thought, because it shows the rural areas are the real danger zones now, and fatigue is the major killer, not speed or alcohol.
If you want to increase your chances of dying on our roads, drive long distances in the bush, particularly the NT.

Maybe the corona virus could be a bit of a bonus in getting the road toll down by keeping some of those dozy Asian drivers off the road

Originally Posted by trout1105

Maybe the corona virus could be a bit of a bonus in getting the road toll down by keeping some of those dozy Asian drivers off the road

...dozy asian drivers are just about dominating every form of motorsport in the world.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Yeah, I only added the COTY bit as an aside. In 20 years the ICE vehicles will be dying out and the market will be dominated by EVs.

The road toll story is interesting, I thought, because it shows the rural areas are the real danger zones now, and fatigue is the major killer, not speed or alcohol.
If you want to increase your chances of dying on our roads, drive long distances in the bush, particularly the NT.

Tell me about it!!!! Unfortunately so many city dwellers are pushing into rural areas after a hard week at the office and we see some absolute cracker behaviour from those who aren’t accustomed to long hours at speed.

Overtaking manoeuvres that boggle the mind are a highlight, I see it all the time.

[QUOTE=Tombie;2971222

Overtaking manoeuvres that boggle the mind are a highlight, I see it all the time.[/QUOTE]

The things i see drivers do around town,and in rural areas,causing so many near misses, on the roads, is absolutely amazing.
Just dumb stupid things.

In fact they are doing roadworks near our place at the moment,and the council have well signed directions,bollards,etc.
Twice in the last few days i have seen drivers completely confused and driving on the wrong side of the road,in the middle of the day.

On a different subject,

"In 20 years the ICE vehicles will be dying out and the market will be dominated by EVs."

Bit of a bold statement there,no sign of that happening in many places,particularly in Aus.
In fact sales of EV's in many countries are not increasing at all.
Or if they are,its a few % a year,which is negligible.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Tell me about it!!!! Unfortunately so many city dwellers are pushing into rural areas after a hard week at the office and we see some absolute cracker behaviour from those who aren’t accustomed to long hours at speed.

Overtaking manoeuvres that boggle the mind are a highlight, I see it all the time.

Actually deaths on country roads are predominantly locals. I see drink as the main factor. Very little random breath testing done in rural Queensland. I have seen this myself. Any small station that gets a new copper who starts testing the locals soon has numerous complaints made in the ear of local members, district inspectors, etc. complaining about over zealous enforcement and calling for him to be transferred. Locals seem to think that the drink driving laws don't apply in the country.