Two die on Fraser Island - Speed?

I was thinking exactly the same thing, loaded to the roof with passengers, low tyre pressures and probably too fast. as we say though we can only speculate as we may be completely wrong??

Being a Local to this Area ,It is time the 4x4 Hire companies realised the danger of letting Back Packers hire these trucks with out the experience to use these Trucks as there are many hidden dangers travelling these beaches specially with so many young people in one truck,
These young people like us all. When we all very young have no fear.

Driving skills, commonsense and respect for the rules.

I know it's easy for us oldies to criticise youngsters but in some cases it's deserved (not all so don't jump on me).

On the way home this morning a young guy in a Commodore (naturally) was pushing himself into tight spaces between vehicles, immediately eliminating any room for error. Overtakes another car, sees a space, squeezes in.

Then Karma.

Tail ends some innocent young girls minding their own business when the whole lane had to come to a halt because of something happening a dozen cars further on. He reduced his own room for error/safety by squeezing and then crunch.

He's at fault.

From what I have seen of Fraser Island on quite a few trips, this has been a while coming. You cannot strew debris over 50 metres and tip the things over several times when travelling at a reasonable speed.

This should be a wake up call to the rental companies who just want the vehicles out of the yard and the signature on the rental agreement without any real advice on sand driving ... but it won't be.

CJ got it in one when he said " that if common sense prevail and one drive to the then the chance of damage (both vehicle and tragically in this case, life) will be less ". But what we do know about common sense is that it is not common.

So sad for the families of those who were killed.

Jack

Agree with all of that.

Then, there's the insurance companies who put a statement in the hire companys' contracts saying that if the hirer runs tyre pressures below the manufacturers spec's, the policy is null & void. Of course the first thing these poor bugga's see when they hit the sand on Fraser is a Nat parks sign advising reducing tyre pressures. Thy can't down pressure or they'll lose insurance ..they get fed up with paying premium rip-offs to the locals to pull them out of sand traps ..so they go like the clappers to avoid going down.

I also reckon the some fourby manufacturers need to take a good look at the messages they send out. Advertising their vehicles doing stunts in the sand, drving at high speed below the waterline on beaches, charging up vertical gravel roads ..generally doing things that no responsible 4X4 driver would do.
A few years ago one of the major manufacturer reportedly wrecked 5 vehicles to get the shots they needed for one of their commercials. They all hire professional drivers to choreograph the shots, many of which are dangerous.
Now, along comes some poor bugga who's never driven anything with a short stick, they give him one of those 'bullet-proof, go anywhere' trucks to drive, and the only tution he's ever had is what he's seen on tele.
And we've just seen the end result.

Was on Fraser a couple of weeks ago and there are dozens of hire troopys all with exactly eleven occupants and all under 30.

Did not observe any speeding over the 80k/h limit but did have to pull a couple of them out of soft sand. Also saw several others dig themselves down, then eventually the rear doors open and 8 young things pour out and start pushing. Saw a couple of close ones when the driver decided to try reverse while there were still people still trying to push!

From what I understand the hire company requires the driver to sit through a short training video then off they go.

I was also told that they were not permitted to lower the tyre pressures at all. I could not determine what pressure they were running but from observation of a couple whilst standing on a hard surface it looked at least 25psi. I guess the hire company is concerned about having a tyre roll-off.

The ones we talked with were exuberant and lovely young people.
This accident is such a shame.

Allan

Hi
Matt and I were on Fraser Island in 2008 and we came across a bright pink troopy full of OS backpackers - they were seriously bogged - we pulled them out and got them to safety -(go the 80 series!!!) however they had no idea with regards to 4WDriving ect - Matt gave them a few tips ect. I think if they are going to hire a 4WD they should know how to get out of a situation

So many experts !!!!

Please leave the conjecture and let the real experts put the evidence together.

May the deceased rest in peace. Leave them be

Saw the footage on tonight's TV news.

Wow, what a mess !!

We were at Fraser for 9 days and left the day before the accident. We travelled up and down the beach a number times where this accident happened and it was not a bad streatch. I would say that they were not exceeding the advised speed limit of 80kph as when we were driving on the beach between 60 and 80 kph we over took lots of back packer troop carriers but were NEVER overtaken ourselves.
As for the wreckage being spread over 50 mtrs..........thats nothing. It could happen at 40 kph or less, 11 people inside and all their gear stacked on top..........lots of weight up high and unstable.
While I don't agree with inexperienced drivers renting these troopys and self driving, they are usually a great group of people to talk to and are always williing to help push if anyone gets stuck.....it's part of the experience. Sure ....they get stuck and you have to tell them what L4 means but so what!

I get more worried driving on the beach with all the old DH's cruising around permantly bleep , never driving with out a stubbie in hand.....it's really ugly!

Most of the back packer troopys are driven by young females who seemd quite capable and responsible, as one said to me it wasn't much different to driving on snow.

Any way a very sad situation that will not be solved by lowing the speed limit.

We saw similar, on the Merinee Loop a few years ago, came across a rolled hire 4wd rolled, no radio, and of course no phone reception out there(atleast then) 5 german tourists, who could barely speak a word of english. (My then 9yr old tried to converse in his limited primary level german...LOL)

We were able to pull their vehicle back upright clear the smashed windows, and they there were able to continue the journey to Kings Canyon (as we were heading the other way) going about 20-30km/hr with 2 wheels wobbling.

They were lucky, no-one was seriously hurt, and they made it to Kings (we phoned from Alice to check if they arrived ok)
but just scared the pants off them, and served as a good warning to us and the other vehicle we were travelling with. But we commented at the time, that it seems irresponsible for these hire companies to hire 4WDs to people with no 4wd experience, and for these people, they had never seen roads like ours before. Lord knows what the repair bill was like !!