Nanny state in the extreme!!!!!

Wonder what the sentence would have been if it was the judges wife that was killed...

He supposedly didn't do anything dangerous, yet his actions directly caused the death of someone... just what is the definition of dangerous according to these people?

It might be technically a road rule, but why does that road rule exist? Precisely because it is inherently dangerous to overtake when you can't see if someone else is coming the other way.

The Armco rails are were the double lines were not, where double lines were, no Armco, just double lines.

Yes, absolutely no chance of getting to zero.
They never seem to take into account (at least publicly) the increase in population and foreign unskilled drivers each year.

The road toll has been dropping in real numbers and as a percentage of population since 1970. In 1970, 3798 people died while in 2018, 1137 people died. In 1970, this represented 30.4 people per 100k of population. The number now is less than 5 per 100k. The breakdown per year is here. They didn't have a column for foreign unskilled drivers so I can't give numbers for that.
The numbers clearly indicate that all road safety measures, including rule changes, infrastructure changes and car design changes, have been spectacularly successful in reducing the number of deaths on our roads.

Malcolm M,

What is the difference between a "foreign unskilled driver" and a home grown unskilled driver?

Macca.

Macca

My sons girlfriend moved to Aus about a year ago. She holds a license for her country and only had to sit a practical test to gain her license. Somehow she was not required to do any theory whatsoever. That apparently is quite common for some of the Asian countries
She can't drive for pooh.

That's a "foreign unskilled driver".
The idiot kid who lives next door is a "home grown unskilled driver"

Hope that's cleared that up now :)

Malcom,

No problem, but I still don't see the difference. Unskilled is unskilled wether foreign or home grown.

Macca.

The origins of stupidity are not based upon race. Stupid is stupid.

" What is the difference between a "foreign unskilled driver" and a home grown unskilled driver? "


A turban ?

Geelong bypass same. Wheel became loose. Traffic 60cm from my van. Passenger side I only allowed 80cm the change the damaged wheel between van and steel wall.
Van shook on the jack everytime a car, truck passed which was every 10 seconds. Next time RACV!! So I have some protection by way of flashing yellow lights.

There is one major and prevalent problem with the "foreign unskilled driver" - who has come from a country where they drive on the right - and the driver has learnt to drive on the right, and has no experience with driving on the left.

That problem is, these drivers from these countries automatically swerve to the right, as part of their ingrained response to road emergencies - just as we, who have been trained to drive on the left, automatically swerve left as part of our ingrained, automatic response to road emergencies.

So, a driver from a foreign country, who learnt to drive on the right, comes to Australia, produces an International Driving Permit - and without any local training or testing, is let loose on our roads.

Not only are these people unused to the high speeds on our often-less-than-national-highway-standard roads - they are also not used to driving for the vast distances that are part of driving in rural and Outback Australia.

Then this "unskilled foreign driver" makes a severe error of judgement (sometimes caused by a severe lack of knowledge of local road rules) by initiating an overtaking manouevre, by crossing double white lines, or before a crest of a hill - and when suddenly faced with an oncoming vehicle in their lane - they instinctively SWERVE RIGHT.

As the oncoming driver is instinctively swerving left, the result is a predictable head-on collision, often with fatalities as a result.

The answer is to ensure that these visitors to our country are brought up to speed, and even given a mandatory driving test, with added instruction, to ensure that they come up to basic Australian driving standards.

I went to Greece a few years ago (and Greece has an appalling road casualty record), and hired cars in various places throughout Greece.
It was "interesting", to say the least, to find Greeks overtaking around blind bends, over the crest of hills, and over double white lines - CONSTANTLY.

In fact, the advice from the hire car people was invariably, "you always drive half in the emergency lane, to allow for the other mad drivers!"

But the best advice came from a hire car bloke on the island of Kos - who asked where we were from - and upon being advised we were Australian - said, "O.K. - there are two things you must get used to here, that is different to Australia".

"One is - you need to give way to vehicles ENTERING a roundabout, the opposite to Australia!" ... and Two is, "There are people from 103 countries visiting Greece right now - and they all use the road rules that apply in THEIR country!!" LOL

Cheers, Ron.

You're spot on with your assessment of Greek drivers Ron :-) It's a scary place to drive. In my opinion the biggest problem when swapping sides is pulling out from T intersections. In Australia the immediate danger is coming from the right so unconsciously you focus your initial attention in that direction and on the lane closest to you. Obviously it's the opposite in LHD countries. I know of several instances off the top of my head, of overseas drivers pulling out from a T intersection and being cleaned up by a car coming from an unexpected position. Before anyone says it, yes, you do check both ways, but in some weird way under some circumstances, a car catches you by surprise because your mind dismissed it as being "friendly" and travelling the same way as you when in fact it's coming straight at you and isn't friendly at all. I've been caught a couple of times but without incident. I've never had the problem of swerving in the wrong direction though, and you do a fair bit of swerving in some countries. :-) But that's just me.

Same applies to Aussie’s travelling overseas. I have lived & worked in the Middle East, driving on the RHS of the road. I have also driven in the US on several occasions. Only once did I enter a carriageway on the wrong side, but as a passenger with other expat drivers, both Aussie & British, I did not feel safe. All I am saying is that you do not have to be “foreign” to be distracted or be a poor driver. There are just as many if not more home grown foolish drivers, or drivers that do foolish things on our roads than “foreign” drivers.

Macca.

Sparra, was going to use that way to get to Bairnsdale, but been a while, thought I would use the highway, came home via Bengworden, will never use that stretch of the highway again.

.
Well Sparra and John, It is good that you have a choice, eh?

Rangiephil,

The "infamous centre turn" is what we all do when turning right. I think you mean the hook turn at maybe five intersections in the city. There used to be signs at those intersections showing the hook turn and the words "No Centre Turn"

The hook turns are there to prevent right-turning vehicles holding up following trams. They are (or were when I lived in Melbourne) only at city intersections where there were tram tracks in both directions on both crossing streets.

Once you know what they are all about and how to do them they're no more difficult that any other driving task in a big CBD. I've done them with my hybrid in tow :-) Raised a few eyebrows, but no big deal, really.

But if you are new to Melbourne it can cause problems. I have seen interstate visitors totally confused.

The other Melbourne oddity is the Uturn bays (which I think are a relatively new development) near traffic light intersections.

In NSW you cannot do a Uturn at basically any lights. It's a PITA having to proceed until you find a roundabout or side street.

Of course the tramlines make it butt clenching on a motorcycle on a wet day also.
IMHO Melbourne traffic is also far worse than Sydney. That Northern bypass that ends in Greensborough at a set of lights, and getting onto the SE Freeway at Heidelberg on an afternoon. Not fun.

.
Are you telling me that there is no signed speed reduction on the approaches to this roundabout?

I would think that it maybe better to wait until it is finished, just maybe they may install some very big yellow flashing lights to warn of a roundabout and a speed reduction. Then again, maybe and think about it would you like a set of traffic lights.

Just sayin.

No, surely you jest?

It's not a black-spot by any stretch of the imagination. They've put bloody big lights up on it and all!

A roundabout....Really?

From what I've been told a near miss occurred when a foreigner turned from the Wemen road onto the highway, but, on the wrong side of the road as they tend to in the area. Basically it was a T intersection now it will be a massive roundabout. I would have expected some merging lanes and better traffic management as roundabouts are for towns and city traffic management aren't they? Anyway too late to worry, it's halfway completed with traffic light control to protect the workers.