Arrogance on country dirt roads

When I was travelling on the Gibb river road I encountered the same inconsiderate behaviour of some oncoming cars which would shower my 4wd with rocks because they would not slow down.
Anyway I got given a job on one of the stations & was out with the owner in a "Bull catcher" when I commented to the owner that the oncoming vehicle looked like it was approaching way to fast. To my amazement the station owner swung his wheels to the right & aimed head on at the oncoming vehicle. Guess what. It made em slow down to a crawl & we did not get showered with rocks at all. I was told that works on the buggers every time!
From then on when I got back on road again I did the same thing & NEVER got showered with rocks again. You should have seen the antics of the other drivers when I did this. They must of thought I was nuts. Maybe I am!

You are not an orphan in this one, and for me it is usually some twit in a brand new shiny unit having its first? and only? trip off the bitumen. There are a lot out there who think that just because it will do 150 kph that they should.

Hi Paul, it doesn't matter where i drive, i usually meet one idiot every time.

Motherhen

From my own observations, the worst offenders seem to be 4wd's travelling together in a group, often towing camper trailers. Must be a macho thing, if your in the front car, you have to set a cracking pace to show how good a driver you are. If in one of the following cars, you cannot risk loosing face by not keeping up.
I've lost count of the number of times a whole line of cars and campers have overtaken me on a winding, narrow, dirt road usually with everyone blinded by dust and stones, all doing well above a safe speed for that particular road.

Jon

Hi Paul,

I had a newish screen smashed by a 200 series towing a newish Kimberly 8 weeks ago. There are always mental pygmies where ever you travel.

I believe in what goes around comes around.

Cheers Wilko

Paul,

I have posted about this before, it is only a certain section of camper trailer owners that do this and yes they are often in convoy.

I have had a couple of screens broken by the above. I don't know why they travell this great land as they don't see anything at the speed they travel.

I don't mind them hooking in a bit but I do get cranky when they won't slow for someone coming the other way.

Best passing speed on a dirt/stony road is about 40kph to stop damage to both vehicles.

Some days are diamonds and some days are rocks.

have a good one.

My technique
If the approaching driver has not shown any intent to slow down, and im concerned ill get sprayed with stones, i slow down and hog the centre of the road in a 'wobbly' fashion, as is im not too good at driving on gravel.
It works every time.

If you slow down and keep off the road, you often encourage them to maintain their speed and spray you with stones.

Although, i think i would only come across 1 stone throwing idiot every 1000km of gravel.

This sort of driver behaviour has been brought up recently in a couple of threads.

There are always a couple that do not see a problem with their speed and road courtesy seems to be foreign to them. Maybe one day they will be stuck at the back of beyond with a broken windscreen and it may sink in.

In the meantime if it is mentioned enough some might start to think more about how their driving habits can affect others.

Before the north west coastal Hy was sealed in WA, trucks would keep their empty coke bottles (not the pep plastic ones but glass) at their feet.

If an oncoming vehicle did not slow down they simply threw out a coke bottle. Everyone knew the rule and not one speed past. Sometimes hard justice works best. You do something once.

I am more of a pop rivet person myself.

From what I read above 2 stupids do not make a right - wrong side of the road, hog the center and wobble, Coke Bottles?

No need for that type of stuff

Cheers Tony

Hi, saw a Telstra 4wd damage 7 vehicles in one run, from dented body work to smashed lights, passing in the opposite direction at 100k+. They will not slow down EVER. Yes "Telstra values safe driving".

Well sometimes people do the damdest things and if you approach them they might get vicious and attack you! so what do you do?? record it on video??? have three witnesses???

We have all learnt something here! Each person has there own way of dealing with things, i remember a road rage incident on here this year, and the guy was by himself!!!

I do believe in self defense and not being a bloody idiot!!! I understand the concern and frustration.

I think a chicken mesh screen in front of windscreen will hopefully slow down a stone projectile. Also you can get the other person's rego number and report them to police, which they can and will ring the person doing said dangerous driving!!

If enough complaints are recieved for same vehicle then that owner gets a servere talking to, and loss of license.

I don't have that much faith in some police officers and less faith in the police service due to personal reasons.

There are good and bad officers.

Thank you for the tip!!! i planning to do ayers rock in a few years time!!!! so will be driving in the outback alot!!!

Keep safe

At least nowdays everyone has laminated screens so it is very rare that the screen is broken and undriveable.

Remember the olden days when a broken screen resulted in a million pieces of glass over the front seats, between the seats, down the heater vents.

Then driving perhaps hundreds of miles with NO screen at all to get a new one only to have it broken the next week.

No matter how good you thought you cleaned it out there would still be glass around for the next 5 years or until you sold it.

Ahh.............life is so easy now

Bruce

Paul, I agree that with your comments. See post 80200. Unfortunately there are persons Eg. Flindersman. Alloy C/T and Oz Troopy have a different outlook. They think that they are like John Wayne T/P and can`t be advised of what the correct procedure is when approaching on coming vehicles. Regards G.T.