Thread: Why Do We Have Crashes

Originally Posted by vnx205

Before I did a trip through NT and WA I was told horror stories about road trains and read about how careful you need to be passing or overtaking them.

My experience was just the opposite. I had no problem at all with road trains. That was partly because of the way I dealt with them and partly because of the commonsense and courtesy of the road train drivers.

On dirt roads I could see them coming from some distance away, so I simple pulled well off the road and waited for the dust to settle.

On sealed highways, I had no problem overtaking them, they were all driving faster than I was.

It was the way that they overtook me that impressed me. It wasn't really an option for me to pull off the road. I worked on the principle that as long as my behaviour was predictable and I didn't suddenly slow down to force them to overtake, they would be able to choose their moment to overtake.

It all seemed to work quite smoothly. They would gradually gain on me and if the road ahead was not clear, they would slowly drop back and then gain on me again to get momentum to overtake when the road was clear. That let them choose their moment to overtake.

I assumed that as the road train drivers didn't tailgate me or indicate in any way that they disapproved of my behaviour that this was the way to handle the situation. I'm sure the truck drivers on the forum will put me right if I am mistaken.

The important thing is that the road train drivers were careful, considerate and safe; the opposite of what I had been led to expect.

I have no way of knowing whether the drivers I encountered were typical of the vast majority of road train drivers or the exception. I like to think they were typical.

Mate you just wrote the text-book about how to drive when being overtaken by a heavy vehicle 100% correct

ONE dAY INTO OUR PEOPLE. 13 AT LAST COUNT DEAD IT IS LUDICROUSE. NEVER MIND THE CARNAGE. NO BODY WISHES TO REMOVE YOUR BODY FROM ANYWHERE, So if you would just all take a deep breath, All I ask is PAY ATTENTION ON all accounts TRY TO MINIMISE THE CASUALITIES. Pay xtra xtra attention, cause im gonna ask questions later.B safe u all.

Christmas is coming and the road toll is going to go through the roof.
No wonder with all those city drivers killing themselves on country road.

WRONG.
WRONG.

This report in the Open Road shows that both of those popularly held beliefs are incorrect.

Holiday Roads and how to survive them

In fact the road toll is just as high during the rest of the year,
So why does almost everyone believe it is higher during the holiday period?
Probably partly because we see death during what should be a time of enjoyment as more tragic.
The most important reason however is the media. They sensationalize the road toll at Christmas partly because people expect to hear about the road toll and there isn't much else happening, but more importantly because a lot of journos are on holidays too. That means the media rely more on the news events that are easily covered with a skeleton crew.

While our instinct might tell us that city drivers are going to have trouble with country roads and higher speeds, the actual figures don't support that belief.

Country NSW makes up about one third of the state’s population but experiences over two-thirds of all fatalities. In the period of 1999 to 2003, speed-related crashes lead to the deaths of 659 people. Of these speeding drivers killed or injured in country areas, more than 83 per cent were country residents and more than 44 per cent crashed in their local area.

In fact given that more people are undertaking longer trips during the holiday period than the rest of the year, it is astonishing that the holiday road toll is not higher and is possibly an indication that they pay more attention at that time to the road safety message.

I don't want to sound as if I am criticizing the plea that victa125 has made for people to take extra care in the next few weeks, but the evidence is that people do take extra care during the holiday period. In fact people need to be persuaded to take care for the rest of the year as well.

I am not trying to downplay the tragedy of the holiday road toll. I am just pointing out the fact that it is every bit as high right throughout the rest of the year.

I recently returned fron the UK where I drove the length of the country, and spent a week in London and lots of time driving in both the country and the cities.
The first thing I noticed, and it's not to be underestimated, is the difference in skill level and common sense on the motorways, left lane slowest, right lane fastest, and people consistently(?) moving to let you merge on, then either tucking in behind you, or overtaking and ducking in front. I don't remember 1 "rolling roadblock" the whole time I was over there! I know that over there you can get booked for being in the wrong lane, and It's illegal to overtake a slower vehicle on it's left side, and boy did it make a difference!
I think the australian "she'll be right" has gone further and become "I don't care about anybody else, as long as I'm right"
I'm amazed at how many times I've been on the freeways and it's 3 lanes wide, very light traffic, and there are 3 cars doing 90K's alongside each other, and no-one can pass.

Another thing, here in Melbourne there seems to be a whole plan to make driving one's car in the inner city as un-attractive as possible (I don't know if it's to get cars onto the toll roads or not) but I live in Carlton (inner city) and there are 3 parallel roads down to the city that used to be 2 lanes each way and they have gone and put bicycle lanes in all 4, and reduced the traffic to 1 lane. all this for very few cyclists. all this does in my opinion is increase driver stress. and while I'm having a rant, traffic lights!!!! they are now putting them on the silliest intersections in residential streets that have never had a problem.

Enough of this,

Rant over!

Fraser

Originally Posted by fraser130

..... I know that over there you can get booked for being in the wrong lane, ....
... I'm amazed at how many times I've been on the freeways and it's 3 lanes wide, very light traffic, and there are 3 cars doing 90K's alongside each other, and no-one can pass.

In NSW on a multi-lane road with a posted speed of 80K or greater, it is illegal to be in the right lane when not overtaking. However there aren't enough Police* out there to book anyone on the roads. When they are there are a dozen Police in the one place doing RBT (on every car that travels on that particular road during the Operation)

Originally Posted by fraser130

Another thing, here in Melbourne there seems to be a whole plan to make driving one's car in the inner city as un-attractive as possible (I don't know if it's to get cars onto the toll roads or not) but I live in Carlton (inner city) and there are 3 parallel roads down to the city that used to be 2 lanes each way and they have gone and put bicycle lanes in all 4, and reduced the traffic to 1 lane. all this for very few cyclists. all this does in my opinion is increase driver stress. and while I'm having a rant, traffic lights!!!! they are now putting them on the silliest intersections in residential streets that have never had a problem.

Enough of this,

Rant over!

Fraser

How many people have traveled on the M7 in Sydney - it is only 2 lanes each direction, there is no dead lane for breakdowns, the verge slopes away into a concrete wall and for much of it's length there are 4 cycle lanes. Has anyone ever seen a pushbike on any of the cycleways. I haven't.

Diana

* NSW Police are losing more officers through resignation and retirement than they can recruit and train through the Academy and the average experience level of the Police Service is reducing.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

* NSW Police are losing more officers through resignation and retirement than they can recruit and train through the Academy and the average experience level of the Police Service is reducing.

Yeeha! Over half of NSW police are deployed in Traffic (Revenue) Branch.

Originally Posted by fraser130

Another thing, here in Melbourne there seems to be a whole plan to make driving one's car in the inner city as un-attractive as possible (I don't know if it's to get cars onto the toll roads or not) but I live in Carlton (inner city) and there are 3 parallel roads down to the city that used to be 2 lanes each way and they have gone and put bicycle lanes in all 4, and reduced the traffic to 1 lane. all this for very few cyclists. all this does in my opinion is increase driver stress. and while I'm having a rant, traffic lights!!!! they are now putting them on the silliest intersections in residential streets that have never had a problem.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here . I am a firm believer that they are creating heavier traffic on roads parallel to new tollways (eg Stud Rd from Knox to Dandenong). In these days of super-great technology and sensors at lights etc, why are entire groups of 50 cars getting a red light, then just as the first in the group gets to the next lights, IT TURNS RED. I've seen this happen for half a dozen lights in a row. 50 cars all creating pollution accelerating from 0 to 60 just to stop again in 200m, over and over again. And i'm not talking about peak hour traffic in the city. This is the outer suburbs.

Reply-to-rant rant over

Maybe they are sponsored by the oil companies.