Don’t Drive Through Flood Waters!
Submitted: Saturday, Jan 27, 2018 at 21:46
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Shaker
How many times do we need to be told the obvious?
ABC News:
At 6:00am a number of people were rescued from a four-wheel drive ute towing a boat which was swept off the Arnhem Highway at Marrakai, 100 kilometres south-east of
Darwin.
A second car swept off the Arnhem Highway at Marrakai was also inundated by floodwaters but the occupants were able to free themselves.
While two other vehicles in nearby locations became stranded when the motorists attempted to drive through flooded roadways.
Reply By: Steve in Kakadu - Sunday, Jan 28, 2018 at 22:45
Sunday, Jan 28, 2018 at 22:45
Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.
Neither car was washed off the road to start with, I drove to
Darwin on that road 14 hours earlier and it was high and dry. The two drivers came to grief 1/2 an hour apart starting at at 5 am Saturday morning in the dark when they aquaplaned off the road hitting the water that had just risen above the culvert.
This particular spot has claimed a few cars in the past, with or without experience.
I chose to go the long way around from
Darwin to
Jabiru today because I was towing a trailer with a motorbike on it,.Otherwise I would have taken the Arnhem Hwy.
All other vehicles that traveled that road since Saturday morning have made it safely.
Steve.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Dean K3 - Monday, Jan 29, 2018 at 18:24
Monday, Jan 29, 2018 at 18:24
Get what your saying Steve, similar happened to a Mitsubishi van (express L300) aqua planed on small amount of water slid sideways and rolled couple of weeks ago post TC Joyce went through the Kimberly
pilbara west of
derby - road was open too.
plenty roads around
tom price been closed or monitored by the hour as a result.
reckon it be like this for some time with wet being avergae or above in WA NT might be
well above so far
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Monday, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:19
Monday, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:19
Bottom line is, though - who, with any form of driving skills, drives through water over the road at high speed?
That's simply asking for trouble. Not only an aquaplaning and loss-of-control potential scenario - but also a loss-of-effective-vision scenario, as the water goes 20M high, and you can't see a thing in front of you.
There's an appallingly low level of driving skills out there - and the frightening thing is, they're coming at you 100 times an hour on the highways, and have little ability to control that vehicle they're driving.
Cheers, Ron.
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Reply By: The Bantam - Wednesday, Feb 14, 2018 at 00:04
Wednesday, Feb 14, 2018 at 00:04
"Don't Drive thru flood waters" is a blanket throw away line for city people mostly in the south.
The fact is, particularly in the north of the country, it is a matter of necessity for people to drive on flooded roads.
Some sections of road and many river crossings are covered in water for weeks, months or pretty much all the time.
Some careful thaught high levels of care ....... preferably experience and sometimes checking with authorities.
Signs and traveling advice to the effect " high clearance vehicles only" are far from uncommon.
One trip north, relatives of
mine traveled on roads axle deep in water for several hours after checking with local police ..... who had driven that road recently.
cheers
AnswerID:
616908
Follow Up By: Member - Warren H - Sunday, Feb 18, 2018 at 22:36
Sunday, Feb 18, 2018 at 22:36
I lived in NQ and the Top End for forty years before moving south, I absolutely agree. There's also a big difference between a flooded causeway with fast flowing water and a road covered with water backed up in swamps, often where the
bridge with flowing water in the channel is high and dry. Before improvements in the roads in NQ, if one didn't travel on flooded roads one wouldn't have moved for much of the wet. In 73/74 I worked on the construction of the Yabulu nickel treatment plant and drove through water up half way up the wheels of my HR ute everyday for 3 months, as did everyone else who lived in
Townsville and worked there. Cost me a set of wheel bearings. While locals are often the ones to come to grief, some local knowledge of roads, underlying road condition possibility of wash-a-ways, and walking the crossing (not in fast flowing water) can allow you to safely use the road. Driving a flooded causeway with a torrent of fast flowing water though, no way.
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