Thread: Why Do We Have Crashes

Interesting
WA Police report ALL vehicle prangs as CRASHES,not ACCIDENTS!!!!
Andrew

Originally Posted by Ian

I spend a lot of time on the road & see some amazing stunts & antics. I have come to the conclusion that of all the fools, and there s no shortage, on our roads 10-15% need further training/experience; the rest have major attitude/manners issues. I believe this goes beyond driving. Does anyone else in my age bracket (grown up kids) think that there are more random acts of violence, stabbings, bashings & road rage etc. than when we were young? Or am I just echoing my ol grandad?

I too spend alot of time on the road, mainly in and around Melbourne, and i could'nt agree with you more. Everyone is always in such a hurry that they do their best to pass you, cut you off or abuse you just to get one more car space ahead
Really irritatates me.......................



..........................untill i cut someone off, then i feel better again

Originally Posted by Ian

I spend a lot of time on the road & see some amazing stunts & antics. I have come to the conclusion that of all the fools, and there s no shortage, on our roads 10-15% need further training/experience; the rest have major attitude/manners issues. I believe this goes beyond driving. Does anyone else in my age bracket (grown up kids) think that there are more random acts of violence, stabbings, bashings & road rage etc. than when we were young? Or am I just echoing my ol grandad?

I tend to agree, i drive the western ring in Mel NE every day and it amazes me the amount of crashes there are on a straight 2 or 3 lane section of freeway, the only conclusion can be as you say lack of training/ stupidity or attitude.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Interesting
WA Police report ALL vehicle prangs as CRASHES,not ACCIDENTS!!!!
Andrew

Accidents are unavoidable, most prangs are avoidable meaning 1 or more people are at fault for some reason; careless, incompetent, ignorant,need I go on?

I reckon it's no one thing but a combination of things :
1. new drivers ( mainly teenagers ) with cars way too powerful for their level of experience.
2. truckies with too much pressure on them to deliver on time
3. modern cars with power, comfort and quietness levels isolate people from the real world outside. ( except if you've got a Defender of course )
These are all new factors coupled with the age old reasons of carelessness, inattention.
I also think the old "Defensive Driving" techniques that were drilled into us had a lot going for them i.e always assume the other drivers will do the wrong thing and be prepared to take evasive actions.

On the plus side of course there's the reduction in the number of drunk/drugged drivers on the roads and these new electronic stability controls make up for the lack of driver abilities - only on very few cars still however.

It's interesting, as I see significantly more stupid acts on the road around me when in a car as opposed to the 4WD. Car owners may whinge and bitch about 4WD's but they stay away.

I had a goose bust his ar*e to overtake me ,over double lines only to lock the rear wheels of his Cruiser to turn into the servo infront of me, luckily I have ABS & nothing oncoming or 42 tonne would have run right over him. A grade 3 graduate would know you can t stop a truck from 80k in 20 feet. Obviously his attitude was "#$@* you I m going here!" He was very fortunate I was on the Bruce Hwy, a couple of hours later I had 3 trailers & couldn t & wouldn t have missed him. Then the headlines would have read "Truck slams into car"

Originally Posted by Ian

...... I believe this goes beyond driving. Does anyone else in my age bracket (grown up kids) think that there are more random acts of violence, stabbings, bashings & road rage etc. than when we were young? Or am I just echoing my ol grandad?

This is a common perception, but statistics do not support it. Road safety has actually steadily increased since about 1970, not even masked by the increasing number of cars on the road and the fact that they do a higher mileage (Main reasons are seat belts, random breath testing and better roads). Similarly, almost all acts of violence are down on a per capita basis compared to any period you care to name in the past, albeit not as much, and perhaps distorted by variations in reporting rates. Overall, the probability of violent death for people 18-35 has halved in the last twenty years according to a news item from a month or so back (mostly due to the increase in road safety).

What has increased, is the media coverage, better communications, and increased population density.

I doubt that the problem is mainly training or education. It is partly attitude, but some statistics suggest what the main problems are. When random breath testing was introduced in Victoria thirty years ago, I remember one of the significant things that came out of it (apart from the deterrent effect) was that while around 2% of randomly tested drivers were over the limit, around half the dead drivers were, implying that 2% of drivers were responsible for 50% of fatal accidents. Recent figures from memory are that the number of drivers picked up in random tests is a little over 1%, and the number of drivers in fatal accidents (they now test everyone driving in an accident) over the limit has dropped to about 30%. This does suggest that this is still by far the most disproportionate contribution to accidents (although these figures are for fatal accidents, it is likely the figures are reflected in non-fatal ones). Of course, it is quite likely that the behaviour you comment on is often from drivers who have had a few drinks!

It is worth noting as well that more people die from suicide than die in road accidents, a figure that is far less publicised.

John