Happens every day on the Pacific Highway particularly the stretches from Ballina to Grafton and Woolgoolga to Urunga. Main offenders are geriatrics towing caravans or driving motor homes.
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You guys missed the point and main problem with the survey.
They asked PASSENGER CAR drivers about 4 wds in cities.
Why didnt they ask 4wd drivers about 4 wds in the cities or truck drivers.
The survey was done by a insurance company who would love to levy extra charges on 4 wds.
Another point is I live in the city of the shoalhaven.
Many years ago due to govt handouts the shoalhaven shire was turned into a city to get more funding.
The city I live in is a large country area.
The whole thing is unworkable crapp.
I don't see it as a sweeping generalisation.
You don't have to live with idiot Melbourne drivers breaking every rule in the book just so they can get to the snow before it melts. And it happens every day, especially on weekends.
In nearly all cases it is an innocent local that is killed or seriously injured because of the actions of these people, and we are getting pretty sick of it.
I agree on the doof-doof cars. :mad:
ahh there's lots of things i'd like banned from our roads, but the one common denominator across all of them is still the driver.
I can't speak for other cities, but in Melbourne, i'd say the most dangerous drivers are taxi drivers and young people in their li'l pink hatchbacks.
This is almost as useless as the P-Plate "no turbo, no V8" laws. There's no point changing cars when the drivers are still dickheads!
This makes sense since accidents on country roads are more likely to be at high speed and therefore more likely to result in a fatality. The statistics may be different if number of "crashes" was researched. I would expect the smaller proportional number of fatalities in cities is just a result of more low-speed crashes resulting in only damage or injury.
I for one have been frustrated by just as many country drivers driving slowly on country roads. The usual scenario involves farmer Joe pulling out of one of his driveways into a 100km/h stream of traffic and dawdling along in his beat up 'Cruiser or Hilux at 70km/h before pulling into another driveway or stopping in the next town. I think some contry folk deliberately drive slowly on highways near their places as some sort of passive-aggressive protest against interstate traffic. Alternatively some country townsfolk seem to get some perverse satisfaction from driving through their town at 50km/h on the main highway when the speed limit is 70km/h. Maybe they think they are doing it as a public safety service?!?
But the real problem here is not the grey-nomads who are probably going as fast as their Kia Sorrento will let them towing a Jayco Expanda, it's the travesty of a highway that is the Pacific Highway which after all these years is still only two-way in most parts - especially around the NSW north coast.
Coffs Harbour bypass my arse! I'll believe it when I see it.
The stats reveal that it is rural locals who are the most killed in country areas. Visitors/tourists/through commercial traffic are not a major part of the figures. Probably due primarily to the drinking habits of locals who go to town to get a skinful, then drive home. Lax dui enforcement in country areas should take a lot of the blame. Local coppers tend not to want to upset locals as they and their families have to live in the community. One country sergeant once told me he only pinched locals for dui who were a menace to others by consistently getting full as a goog and driving. Others who "just had a few too many" were left alone. He said he may one day have to call on a cockie for assistance and did not want to be told that "you are the big tough copper, do it yourself".
Briefly, in Queensland, RID teams were sent without notice to country towns where the dui arrests were well below average and the local wallopers were made to man the roadside whilst one of the imports minded the station and phones so the pubs and clubs did not get a heads up from the station. Costs caused the cessation of this programme.