The road toll is our fault

Only 4 weeks ago when the Road Toll was the "best in 40 years", the police
were announcing that is was all due to their good efforts. Now that it's not
so good, it's our fault:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Natio...driver-error-PM/2006/01/25/1138066845703.html

""I have to express the view - just watching the news ..."

 

I can only reiterate what the NRMA billboards state down the Hume Highway
.... "Fix the bloody roads".

Even suburban Sydney roads are appalling for potholes, bumps, poor repairs,
cracking.

No wonder 4WD's are almost mandatory around town.

 

The last word is that it's definitely the state police and others
who've stuffed up....
"Mr Howard said he would not propose any commonwealth initiatives in
relation to a particular road toll because it was the responsibility
of state police and governments."

And that's from someone who knows. ;-)

 

Of course our PM is an expert on traffic safety, so his words wouldn't
be politically motivated, would it? I mean, he'd say the same thing if
all the states had Coalition governments, right? he wouldn't *lie*,
would he?

And yet in terms of kilometers driven, the road toll over Christmas/New
Year is lower than other times of year. It's so easy to score points
when you have a populace that gets its 'facts' from FTA news.


-- Phil

 

So I'm confused. Are we supposed to drive carefully and without error,
or drive under the speed limit? While the PM says drive carefully,
every 2nd ad on TV for the last 5 years says drive under the speed
limit.

 

And seeing the population act like children, in the immortal words of
Natalie Bassingthwaighte, "it's the way to go".

Bzzzzzzt, doesn't happen on Playstation

 

Is it hard to understand that you need to do both?

What you cant drive carefully and without error and under the
speedlimit?

 

If you can't do both you shouldn't have a licence

What do the other "every 2nd" road safety ads tell you then?

Things like don't drink & drive, lookout for children, wear a helmet, look
out for motorbikes etc..............

Until we can get rid of this "speed is safe" mentality, what else is there
to do.

 

Sadly yes, it's all about hype. The 2004 road toll was 1596 for the year,
that's 4.37 per day. They keep extending the "Holiday" period and this year
it ran for 15 days. 15 x 4.37 = 65.6, actual deaths were 78. Considering the
extra people travelling longer distances on the roads that is probably close
to expectations. "Huge Road Toll" doesn't describe it for me.

Theo

 

Hard to understand no...

Depends... on some boring wide roads that are really designed for 130
sitting on low legal speeds makes me very very sleepy. Much sleepier
than sitting on say 120 to 130 on those same roads.

I can honestly say that the chances of my having an accident are higher
when I'm well under what my gut feeling says is a safe travelling speed.


G-S

 

"I live in Cairns, and the roads here are certainly not good, get out of the
city and you will find corrugations in the bitumen, pot holes and generally
narrow bad roads, out west it is worse. Many of the roads out there have
only single car bitumen, and when there is a car coming the other way or you
want to pass, it is onto the dirt on the side of the road.

Riding a motorcycle you get jarred from the bad roads all the time.

In parts where there should be no problems, and the limit is 100 Kmh there
is no way you can do that sort of speed because of the conditions of the
road.

A few months ago I went up onto Cape York (The Tip) in a 4 wheel drive. The
trip had 800 Km of dirt road to get up there from Cairns.

Of that there was 160 Km of horror stretch, where you were reduced to first
and second gear driving for long periods. There were washaways both across
the road and running down the road, some of these were sharp trenches 300 mm
deep, hit one that run across the road at any sort of speed and you could
rip out your suspension. It took over 4 hours to negotiate that 160 Km of
road, did I mention that in some parts there were trees down blocking 3/4 of
the road?


The locals tell us that the grader has not been up there for 2 years !!!

Where does all our fuel tax go Mr Howard?

Every time I hear about the road toll, it is always drivers (and riders) at
fault, never our lousy road system.

How many Governments have promised to "Fix" the Hume Hwy, and the Pacific
Hwy, and yet we still have death stretches on them.

Anyone noticed what a fine smooth road there is running between Canberra and
Sydney?

 

If you are feeling that sleepy, don't drive, period.
Especially since most the people whinging about limits are only talking
about 2 hour drives up/down the coast.

 

Did the same trip, no problems, never felt like falling asleep in any of it.

 

An hour is enough to induce sleepiness in me at 100kph... it doesn't
happen at 130.
One hour stops for a commercial driver aren't an option regretably...
(not talking heavy vehicles here at the moment btw).

So, given that an employer can't or won't allow 1 hour stops and given
that many people (not just me) have stated that 100k droning causes
sleepiness (for whatever reason), doesn't it therefore follow that in at
least some cases the 100k limits can increase not decrease the chance of
accidents happening?


G-S

 

In aus.motorcycles on Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:16:41 +1100

really?

YOu are obviously suffering narcolepsy - because if you can get sleepy
in 2 hours after a good nap, you have a problem.

Of course if you were riding a decently fairingless agricultural bike
then you'd not be *able* to fall asleep in 2 hours.

Zebee
- who rode all over eastern australia on a bike with a top speed on
the flat with a tailwind of 110kmh and so doesn't blame this "I
can't cope" shit on the speed.

 

There's your problem right there. Noone is going to die travelling at
40kph. If you completed the trip in under 2 hours, there'd be a much
better fatality rate, it would become a blackspot and you'd get a speed
camera to help improve safety. So simple I can't believe you didn't
think of it yourself!

Nev..

 

Codswallop. Why don't you jump off the roof of a 2-storey building?

We'll leave you lying there for an hour before somebody notices and
calls an ambulance.

Incoherent rambling doesn't constitute an argument.

 

Maybe it's BECAUSE of the 4wd's and their massive weight and
stupid tyres that the roads are stuffed......however, there's always
more money for traffic calming devices, but potholes? Forget it.

Regards, Andrew.

 

WHat a simpleton. No one argues that speeding is safe, they merely
arguie that arbritarily low speed limits, without due reason for those
limits, is silly, and that having changing speed zones every kilometre,
and booking people for a whopping 5km/h over the limit is silly.
Especially when real dangerous driving, like tailgating, notindicating
at roundabouts, running red lights, has far far fewer resources thrown
at them.
Do you think there will be less accidents when we all drive at 40
km/h? I tell you, there won't be, because all the morons sit less than a
car length apart at that speed.....try and get into a traffic stream
doing 40km/h somewhere and you'll see what I mean.

 

So, how about those Germans and their uncannily perceptive sense of
humor...?