Safety in the outback........

darrell
Reason being more people perish in water than sand .

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"they" let them do it in the outback since the do gooders stopped them doing it on the ocean.
Otherwise how else do we clean up the gene pool.

now I'll have the Chief POO Bah on my back!

Perhaps the prime freedom is being able to make decisions about one’s own safety and well being. As an adult I sometimes choose to place myself in situations which put me in risk of injury or death; I don’t have to do these things but I find they make my life more enjoyable and fulfilling.

During the time I was raising my children I often had to prevent them taking dangerous risks, I did this because they lacked the knowledge and maturity to assess those risks for themselves. Today my children are grown men and it is no longer my place to restrict their actions – I may advise, even recommend, they take a course of action but, as adults, it should, indeed must, be _their_ decision. So it should be with governments: they are not our guardians and providing our actions do not place others at risk we should not be censured because some people believe we should be “protected from ourselves” for down that road lies George Orwell’s 1984 nightmare.

And _please_ do not raise the argument of emergency services putting themselves at risk – they chose to do that job.

Or the cost to the public – otherwise ban skateboarding, cricket, etc due to the costs of injury.

Take a look at the website of this man – he seems to know a bit about how it should be done….

http://www.frankfuredi.com/

Mike Harding

I agree that there are plenty of people out there who make us look intelligent and we read about them all the time ha ha.

As for "the outback", where does it start? It's not like the ocean where it land changes from solid to liquid....

My father in law who has done a fair few treks around Oz, said he spoke to a fellow traveller who reached the same campsite as him in the dark of midnight... turns out he helped out a lady on his way, who had decided to drive her newish 4WD from perth to the Kimberlies on it's original factory standard tyres which had 60,000kms on them... she had 3 blowouts and no spares left. Gender isn't the point, its the muppets who have as much idea about outback travel as those who come to Oz who cant swim, never seen the ocean let alone surf, and jump in so they can sink like a rock....

Maybe there should be some sort of regulation and associated training for people who embark on a tour in remote areas, but man it would be hard to policy let alone regulate, let alone police....

Why do I have to spend my hard earned money on equipment that I will never use.....someone else will come along and help me anyway.

It would never happen to me.

I've got a mobile phone so I'll be OK.

I'm only going to be 300 kilometers form the nearest town.

Just some of the excuses people use.

So how much is a human life worth....according to some .....not very much.

On our recent travels heard a good point on the radio.

Why do we have helmets for bike riding?

Because some one discovered it is dangerous, and the skull sometimes takes a knock it can't handle.

Now, think about sky diving. Why wear a helmet sky diving? If the chute doesn't open, is that helmet going to save you? No way. More likely you will hit the ground before the helmet, so the helmet is protected by the nice soft body under it.

So human being do crazy things, and invent a helmet to protect the head to stop injury.
So will some one wake up and say why do we do these dangerous things, so dangerous we need to wear a helmet?
No of course not, we invent better helmets, and more protective clothing.

A boat or 4wd is just an aid to protect us in a harsh environment. Some people don't know how to use them properly and take a bigger risk. But it always a risk, whatever we do.

I'm gunna use the harsh word here because all gets down to "Intelligence" . Correct me if I'm wrong but you don't read about Intelligent people dieing in the desert.? Everytime I hear about one of these tragedies and you look into it it started with a vehicle that never should have left the suburbs let alone the desert. Then it just spirals from there, no water, no communications, no anything.?

So they take off with the thought process that is "she'll be right"", we'll drive the old girl from here to there and thats that.!

But as someone else said before it's the ultimate freedom, you can make your own choices.

I think a compulsory hired emergency epirb or something should be mandatory like it is for the Sydney to Hobart competitors etc.

For the same reason that to operate an HF radio on a boat you have to pass an exam, but to get an Outpost Radio Licence you need no exam.

It's because farmers are represented by the National Party who didn't want farmers to be "disadvantaged" - but boaties have no political representation or clout. A few years ago you even had to pass an exam to use a Marine VHF radio.

Darrell, It wouldn't matter what scenario you proposed. There will always be "the tourist" or the "first timer"etc. No matter what safety procedures are recommended, or made compulsory. There will ALWAYS be the idiot that gets caught out. Not comforting, but a fact of life as we know it!