Thread: Bullbars in Victoria

Originally Posted by mcrover

.......... they should just do the sensible thing and make all cars get rwc every year like in NSW and that would sort out ............

Having lived for years in both Victoria and now NSW, I'm sorry, I have to point out that taken over a long term average there is little difference in the accident rates and death/injury rates between NSW and Victoria - and generally speaking, Victoria is better than NSW. Not that it has anything to do with annual RWC inspections - probably more to do with the longer distances and worse roads in NSW. The fact seems to be that vehicle defects are a significant factor in only a very small proportion of accidents, and the most common defect that is a factor, is tyres (bald or wrong pressure), and these can become faulty in a lot less than 12 months! The vast majority of accidents have as their principal factor some act of the driver, with the road conditions the second most common factor.

For example, consider the fact that random breath tests show that way under 1% of all drivers are over the legal limit - yet close to half of dead drivers and drivers involved in fatal accidents are over (and add to that the number of drug affected drivers not detected!); Add to this the fact that a large proportion of accidents can be predicted by the location (e.g. uncontrolled intersections), regardless of vehicle type; It does not leave much room for vehicle defects to be a contributing factor.

Of course, you have to remember that any accident is the result of a chain of circumstances - break that chain anywhere, and no accident. But vehicle defects rarely get into the chain, even if the vehicle IS defective.

Then there is the other factor - just having an annual RWC inspection does little to guarantee that the car is roadworthy - all it does is guarantee that it has a piece of paper. Inspecting garages vary from the one that will issue a slip for a modest under the counter contribution to the ones that do hundreds of dollars of unnecessary work to a perfectly roadworthy car. Even some that carefully check the vehicle, require only the necessary repairs and only charge the legal amount.

But I must admit that the annual inspection does make you check things in detail at least once a year!

John