Easter road toll not to impressive!!.

Totally agree Mr Harding, people die on roads I know that only too well........

Bloody bullbleep beatups on long weekends still grates

You do too Bonz - wrong time right now too.

Go well Bonz.

I hope the holiday was good :)

Mike

Interesting figures Mike, But !! whether it be holiday time or not still to many lives lost

Axle.

Of course Axle.

A couple of months or so ago I was listening to ABC radio around Australia Day when various awards are announced for public service (Order of Oz etc) and I listened to the (ex?) head of the SES from Bairnsdale (Vic), who spoke about how the numbers of accidents they had previously attended, over many years, on the Princes Highway had dropped "hugely" (my word - can't remember his but it was similar) since "they had improved the road to four lanes". Trouble is, of course, such things cost money... not weasel words....

Mike Harding

The same situation occurred up where I grew up on the Mid North Coast near Taree. When I was a kid they always had big accidents around Freeman’s waterhole then they opened the freeway to Newcastle and the accidents moved North to Bulahdelah Mountain and the Wootton bends. Then they bypassed that stretch so you can belt along at 110 almost all the way from Sydney and then the prangs seem to happen just to the North of Taree. With the new road to Port and beyond, looks like Grafton to Coffs is now the unfortunate place.
I suppose now people get that bit further before tiredness starts to have an effect and the engineering of the road becomes a lot less forgiving.

It all comes down to the operator and driving within their and their vehicles abilities.

One answer I think is to have the police presence on the roads near that of the holiday blitzes all the time, rather than just at holiday time. There are a lot of fools on the roads that need to be weeded out. The sad part is that when they stuff up, they often take an innocent driver with them.

The ones who "stuff up" are usually innocent too - which of us has not made a mistake on the roads?

Thats right to the guts of things mike!,

< Which of us has not made a mistake on the roads?

Only the perfect operator will answer that??.

Too right Axle, I recall a sanctimonious TOSSER from the local council when speaking of the horror crash that claimed the lives of two of my kids and a great friend also and sayign that they were not going to refer to such incidents as "accidents" in future. If I had been at the meeting ..... well I would most likely have been ejected.... Of course the driver meant to do it, It wasnt an accident what a tosser! Trying to make some obscure point regarding driver error, which most accidents are. I near came to grief on the same corner not 18 months beforehand.

Also heard an idiot polly in Geelong saying that the speed cameras on Geelong to Melbourne rd had reduced the road toll, what a load of rubbish that is too, same time they added another lane and rebuilt the whole road, but hey "Its the speed camera's that save lives" - baloney This dummy also ent on to say that the cameras MUST be doing the job lowering the speed on the road because the camera revenue had REDUCED. What a dill, its only reduced cause the drivers KNOW WHERE THEY ARE now and slow down, just take a drive along the road and see.

Anything to build the waffle that speed is THE ONLY CAUSE of road trauma and that speed camera's and anything other than revenue collectors.

I agree Mike & additionally each year more cars are on the road doing more KM's yet statistics are compared to previous years. If twice as many kilometers are travelled & the toll remained the same as last year, has it not actually improved in comparison?
Cheers Craig...............

dito, and well said

Attitude is right, drive in Canada and you want to merge or change lane and you just stick on your indicator and the driver behind opens a gap, not here..... They have 4-way and 3-way STOP intersections, yes get to a crossroad and 4 stop sighns - the one who got there first goes first - never a problem.

Sadly we are a nation of bad drivers - generally - you should see some of the faces when I let people in and the beeps on the horns of the people behind when I do so???? The waves from those who get in are nice tho

The copper who told the hoons in QLD awhile ago should be teaching the nations highway patrol coppers how to educate stupid drivers. With the plain hard truth, maybe have them throw in a few pics to prove that stupid drivers die.

Kev

Kev! I"ll agree with that one, He was brilliant!!, Lessons from the old school!, if only they could bring it all back.

Cheers Axle.

They still do realism courses for convicted offenders. I was unlucky enough to catch the tale end of one once (while I was there on business), and I don't know what effect it had on the young people but it sure frightened the hell outta me !

Why only for the offenders, Why not have it as part of Defensive Driving Courses and make the course part of getting a driving licence.

Kev

Personally I would of liked to have seen it go on TV. But not while any children are around. The screams of the maimed and dying aren't very nice.

I was walking through a shopping centre in Penang and they had a police shopfront type place with a whole 3m x 2m window entirely covered in 6x4 inch photos of accidents. Real up close and personal type pics too, arms torn off, timber truck V step-thru, you get the idea.
They have an annual road toll around 7000, and I'm told they only count the ones that die at the seen.

I have driven a lot in many different places around the world including Africa and Asia. I have also driven semis and taxis to supplement my wages at times. everywhere the common denominator is the person who takes an enormous risk, both to themselves and the other poor innocent drivers who are going with the flow. These people pass in a suicidal manner and then having got past at great risk, turn off at the next crossroads, Asians in particular. Before I get shot for racism, my wife is Asian and is the one who gets more worked up about it than I do. I just give the fool room as I do not wish to be involved in their demise.
Back in days gone by, 1970 to be exact, it was required for the advanced driving test to be done and passed for a Melbourne taxi driver licence. The common theme is that everybody else is going to do something foolish and you should always have some escape route when it happens, so that you are not going to kill yourself or anybody else around you.
Regards, Graeme

Reminds me of that old joke about old drivers, bold drivers, but no old bold drivers, but a few old bald drivers.

cheers
T.R.

Can relate to that Lionel!., I hr trip yesterday on our local freeway was enough for me!.

Axle

Of Course!! The flow of revenue only!! And knowing our governments they will raise the standard of driver training and the condition of the nation's roads with this money.