Tuesday, Aug 11, 2009 at 01:27
[qote]but be careful who you condemn when you make such broad statements.[/quote]
"If the cap fits" as the saying goes!
Yeah - I do hear you loud n clear - but don't agree and stand by my earlier comments.
Last week my own son hit a roo - no damage except he broke a mount on his spotlight - where the roos head, smacked the light, didn't bust the glass even - but broke the securing bolt flange where it goes inside the llight mount.
His Roo bar is alloy & no damage, he was almost stationary by the time he hit the roo - because he was tarvelling almost slow enough at the outset. Roo ran across in front and from 80 - 85 k's at night he was on the anchors - waiting for it's Joey to follow suit (roos almost always run in two's or more) but this one suprised him and where it had run across, it musta turned round and ran BACK across in front of him, for a second time, where he clocked it.
Like I said - he was almost stationary, but not quite.
My summation?
He's an idiot!
Why?
coz 5 kays less and he'd a missed it!
If the son hadn't grown up 20 years in the bush - then I'd a said he was an inexperienced (idiot) in country driving, but the fact he's grown up a country kid and still hit it, makes him an idiot.
Next,
One of my female rangers - lovelly lass and very smart, called me out to euthaniase a roo she hit in her dept 4wd.
She's also an idiot (albeit a lovely one) - slower and she'd a missed it. She was in a hurry to get somewhere in time for a meeting - the roo paid with its life for her error. That makes her an idiot (in my book).
Me -
well I've lived until recently, 30 odd years in the bush with roos, and never hit one.
Why?
Coz I'm not an idiot - luck doesn't hold out for 30 years!
In that time I've driven maybe 1 million or more km's on country roads including school bus runs day and night in WA's southwest lousy with roos - me n the roos were on a first names basis - I knew every one of them, we met so often.
Why havent I hit a roo?
Coz I drive at no more than 80 - 85 MAX in heavy forested areas prone to roos - a speed at whichI can slow enough to MISS a roo, by taking avasive maneouvers at the last minute, when I've already shed enough speed to do so with safety.
Anyone drives faster than that at night in roo country is an idiot by my definition after 30 years rooless experience.
Closest I came to hitting a roo?
2 roos ran into me when I was stationary - no damage.
Driving a ute with about 1 tonne of fresh cut jarrah firewood home one evening, very slowly becase of the excessive weight, I saw 2 roos on the road ahead. Applied the brakes and came to a halt in between the two roos, one looking in the RH drivers window and one looking in the passengers window.
Both being startled - instead of running off into the bush - they BOTH ran simultaneously into the side of the ute doors, from a standing start about a foot away - bounced off, picked themselves up off the road, shook themselves and then ran off into the bush unharrmed except for hurt pride.
No damage, it was an old HQ holden ute and they built door skins of thicker metal back then, that wasn't smelted from recycled sardine tins.
If I can manage a life time of not running into roos at 50 after living 30 years in the bush - why the heck can't others?.
If you can't - in my book that makes you an idiot.
Yeah - I'm a hard B to please as my lads both constantly lament - BUT, facts are - I let my actions speak for themselves, and expect others to measure up to my standards! Few do, and hence most of the rest of society to me are idiots, until proven otherwise.
I believe it is possible to drive around without killing our wildlife needlessly!
What do i take into consideration when night driving to avoid roos for so long so successfully?
Well - being a Wildlife Officer, things like
water courses in summer, I always expect to see roos crossing a road from just before sundown thru the night - at the bottom of any dip in the road - they are after all nocturnal, and need
water often (with exceptions to desert roos adapated to survivie without
water for long periods, but when it's freely available they will take it often multiple times a day).
Next I also look at things like mans activities that might displace the roos - causing them to travel - (and hence
cross roads) things like harvesting crops or bailing
hay, ploughing for seeding etc all cause roos to travel and hence
cross roads - I pay fricken attention to my surroundings and learn to think like a roo - not EVERYONE fits a roo bar and spotlights, hops in and sets the cruise control to the speed limit and then shuts the brain off while they follow the white line (or vehicle tail lights ahead of them).
Some of us actaully THINK while we drive, about our actual driving, not next weeks works program etc etc.
I laugh my azz off in traffic, women as a species are hard wired different to men - they are multi taskers used to feeding the baby and washing the dishes at the same time, and they are the collectors for the family, of food or clothes, etc - as hunter gatherers men are the hunters - women are the gatherers!
I defy a woman to stop in traffic at traffic lights and actually sit and watch the traffic & lights lest theres a prang they can avoid by actually driving forward or back when it occurs in front of them while stopped or to actually witness the lights change color!.
No - every time the car stops the woman MUST be doing something "useful" to her way of thinking, with that time - such as opening the parcell from the shops with the latest trinkett they have just bought!
They saw it in the
shop before they bought it - they handled it in the
shop when they bought it - but it CAN'T sit in its bag until they get home, to look at it again, they HAVE to open that bag and examine it again while stopped in traffic at the lights, to help justify it's purchase, and prevent wasting the time, while stopped at the lights.
The fact they SHOULD vbe watching the fricken traffic light and other traffic to know when it's there turn to go?....never dawns on them...
It's becase they are multi taskers and gatherers & to them that brief period when stopped at a traffic light, is time "wasted" - they do NOT consider watching the light waiting for it to change - to be a part of the act of driving, i.e. actually watching the damned traffic light, to be ready when it changes!
Thats why they suddently "wake up" as everyone else has moved off, and just get going in time to slip thru the change of lights, while having denied 3 vehicles behnd them the opportunity to do so, - because they were busy "multi tasking". (insert rolls eyes emoticon here).
Simply women either shouldn't have drivers licenses or should drive on roads separate to those which men drive on because they are wired differently to us guys!
Simply put, women drivers fall into a special "reserved category" of
mine, below that of "idiot". Hey I'd be happy to be proved wrong nut I could take 100 phots a day stopped in traffioc to prove my point - its genetic in the X chromosome!
Anyway - As I said at the ourtset - "if the cap fits" etc!
Give the bloody roos a chance eh! It's not so hard if you think about it.
We will just have to agree to disagree on this one I reckon!
Cheers
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