Friday, Mar 19, 2010 at 20:53
Had a bit of a back and
forth with the shire engineer
My last comment-
I note your comment about locals who die on
Cape York roads as your reason for the maintenance of them.
I am interested to know, how many people died on the Starke Wakooka Kalpower road in the last 10 years? -could you let me know the number please- since you use this reason as justification for the work done.
I can guarantee what ever number it was (zero I suspect), if the kind of maintenance that was done on it in the last two years continues, a stack more will die or suffer serious injury. Can you please leave the road between Starke river mouth and Kalpower as it was for the last 30 years, a nice compacted minor bush road, without interference from graders, before someone does die?
As I said previously The state that road was in before the grading was near perfect for a bush road. Those people who drove on it prior to grading knew it was a minor bush road and expected it to be a bit rough. It was however, apart from a few soft sandy spots a dream to drive on. Since it was graded, it fell to pieces. This is a typical outcome. I worked in earthworks supervision for QLD Govt for many years and saw this many times. Such
well compacted minor roads are best left alone or touched up at
creek crossing only. I drove the road for many many years and was horrified at the state of it once the
Cook Shire Council "improved" it. Near the Starke river mouth, I ran into a bulldust hole created by the grading (which had not been there any years prior) and despite my low speed damaged the underside of my Nissan Patrol on a stump which would have in the past been covered by feet of soil. The damage to my car is still unrepaired, I entertained the thought of confronting council over it. Had council not graded the road, I would have considered myself responsible for any damage. So council actually made the road LESS safe.
My business does far more
driver training than it does touring, and we spend many hours training people to understand that as human beings, we externalise and blame others for our mistakes, and that as drivers the less we do that, the better we are as drivers. Education is the key to safe driving on all road surfaces. Turning all roads into highways only raises the travel speeds and does not adress the undelying issues
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