Victorian toll worst in five years

[platinumXR]

Originally Posted by LTDHO

It started off well (low) and is getting worse.

No shock really.

Well, not necessarily getting worse yet - just going around in circles as they always do (re: no shock). But your right it will invariably deteriorate.

Even detractors and antagonists know or at the very least have an inkling of what is 'the right thing to do' when it comes to driving / traffic / road safety; but will ignore it or suffer the belief that rules / reg's / legislation do not apply to them. Often, said rules may not but they are there to kinda attempt to abate carnage & bedlam.

And they will always have differing opinions on public forums; it's what makes the world go 'round.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by platinumXR

Well, not necessarily getting worse yet - just going around in circles as they always do (re: no shock). But your right it will invariably deteriorate.

Even detractors and antagonists know or at the very least have an inkling of what is 'the right thing to do' when it comes to driving / traffic / road safety; but will ignore it or suffer the belief that rules / reg's / legislation do not apply to them. Often, said rules may not but they are there to kinda attempt to abate carnage & bedlam.

And they will always have differing opinions on public forums; it's what makes the world go 'round.

Very true... in the same way some people think a green light means GO at any cost regardless of anyone or anything else, while others see a green light as "proceed with caution if safe to do so".....

Its all about perception and attitude.

[platinumXR]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Very true... in the same way some people think a green light means GO at any cost regardless of anyone or anything else, while others see a green light as "proceed with caution if safe to do so".....

Its all about perception and attitude.

Exactly.

[kyro_02]

Governments response: We'll reduce the speed limit on that particular road to 60km/h, that way, drivers are less likely to crash at 160kmh

[colossus]

Its fairly simple what needs to be done - driver education in schools needs to be added to year 10 and 11 immediatly. Practical ed would be better but theory ed would be a great start.

It should see a dramatic reduction in young deaths almost straight away.

It shouldn't even cost that much money to implement.

[tranquilized]

Yep better driver education is the only way forward. Its far from a silver bullet, but it would be by far the most effective measure in reducing the road toll. A big component of this would need to be centered around driver attitudes, otherwise, as has been mentioned, the increase in confidence could result in even more reckless driving by certain (young male) drivers.

Increasing fines and the cost of obtaining a license as has been suggested would achieve nothing. People dont drive at double the speed limit because they think the punishment is insignificant, and can easily afford the fine, they do it on the assumption that they wont get caught in the first place.

[trippytaka]

The media and everyone else needs to stop looking at the road toll as a number. FFS, as a percentage of cars on the road the road toll has been dropped dramatically in the past 30 years. The fact is every year there are tens of thousands of new drivers on the roads... so taking the road toll at face value is ridiculous!

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by JC

So many roads now have cameras, that everyone knows where NOT TO SPEED. So when they get on a bit of road with no cameras, they almost take it as LICENCE TO SPEED.

That's why they are now introducing Timed Cameras. they time you along a length of freeway. if you get across it faster than a set time, you get a ticket, because you must have sped.

...were lucky to survive the crash on Anakie Road, at Lovely Banks.

anarkie road, that sounds familiar.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by mik

i agree with you mate, i`m in northern burbs , we do see the odd booze bus and the odd patrol car but no where near often enough for the traffic on this road, i`m not far off mahoneys rd and it has been a speeders paradise for years but not too worry they have put cameras at the traffic lights at its extremities : , i don`t think they will ever let go of the camera`s, they don`t really care about the road toll (the politicians ) they know that as the population increases they will get more revenue, the police are just doing what they are told(the party line).

I've seen a few blitz on Mahoneys rd. Also an unmarked cop car sits near the old Peters factory quite regulary. Or there is a speed camera on the Edgers rd intersection (normally near the Bank west building).

[snappy]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

The media and everyone else needs to stop looking at the road toll as a number. FFS, as a percentage of cars on the road the road toll has been dropped dramatically in the past 30 years. The fact is every year there are tens of thousands of new drivers on the roads... so taking the road toll at face value is ridiculous!

Yeah the only bring out that per capita rule when it suits them

[mik]

Originally Posted by tranquilized

Yep better driver education is the only way forward. Its far from a silver bullet, but it would be by far the most effective measure in reducing the road toll. A big component of this would need to be centered around driver attitudes, otherwise, as has been mentioned, the increase in confidence could result in even more reckless driving by certain (young male) drivers.

Increasing fines and the cost of obtaining a license as has been suggested would achieve nothing. People dont drive at double the speed limit because they think the punishment is insignificant, and can easily afford the fine, they do it on the assumption that they wont get caught in the first place.

you may be right , i was thinking along the lines that as drivers lose their licence, and plenty do every year, after a period of time the hardship suffered by some would put the fear of god into the average driver just by word of mouth,etc,etc through the majority of the population even if it takes some time to fillter into the thicker one`s, the licence would not be taken for granted by most of the population, some would even have to save money to get a brief!!! with 5k for the licence as a spin off they might even give some decent driver training, but yep i concede the hard cases will probably will never learn, but some will i reckon.

[AC/DC]

Increase penalties for serious offences.

Drive Drunk - Lose you car forever and go to Jail for 6 months.

Under 21yrs old - 1 Passenger only.

Kill someone in an accident cause you were driving stupid, way to fast or running from the police - 15 years Jail.

People under the age of 20 should drive cars under 130kw. ( yep , tough but realistic )

Get Caught speeding 40k over the limit - lose you car forever and 6 months Jail.

I know what a lot of people will say, , but what the heck, , just build more jails and stop spending government money on looking after illegial immigrants and all the wasteful stuff.

thats my 2c

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Increase penalties for serious offences.

Agree but....

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Drive Drunk - Lose you car forever and go to Jail for 6 months.

Why should a driver who is over .05 loose their car if they a capable of driving. Not everyone is drunk at .05!

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Under 21yrs old - 1 Passenger only.

Do we want more kids street racing? So 5 mates take 3 cars instead of one. Cool, lets race each other.

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Kill someone in an accident cause you were driving stupid, way to fast or running from the police - 15 years Jail.

OK, but speed contributes to every accident. The jails will fill quickly.

Originally Posted by AC/DC

People under the age of 20 should drive cars under 130kw. ( yep , tough but realistic )

per ton or in total? How will it be governed?

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Get Caught speeding 40k over the limit - lose you car forever and 6 months Jail.

Why when 40k over can be done safely by an educated driver.

Originally Posted by AC/DC

I know what a lot of people will say, , but what the heck, , just build more jails and stop spending government money on looking after illegial immigrants and all the wasteful stuff.

thats my 2c

There's ya 2c back ;)
Of course you do realise how expensive jails are to run? Pay TV isn't cheap!

Cheaper alternative is to teach people how to drive.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

There's a pod cast here, the station was so moved by his comments, and over whelmed with requests for it to be relayed they've posted the interview, the poor guy contacted the station as he felt the need to vent and be heard...

http://www.triplem.com.au/melbourne/...-eddie-mcguire

The basic jist of it was he felt the police were doing all they possibly could and it was up to friends, family etc to take a far more active role in stopping it from happening... i.e PEER/Family pressure to say no and intervene when things get out of hand...

Very moving interview.... and to be honest its something i totally agree with and have been saying for a while.

Another father on MMM this morning with his 18yo kid pleading with him to stop doing the wrong thing....
The father who lost his kid on the weekend rang in again to try to talk sense into this kid but it seemed to fall on deaf ears...
Pretty emotional segment...

[4Vman]

Bob Jane will be interviewed at 8.40am on MMM....

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by AC/DC

Increase penalties for serious offences.

Drive Drunk - Lose you car forever and go to Jail for 6 months.

Under 21yrs old - 1 Passenger only.

Kill someone in an accident cause you were driving stupid, way to fast or running from the police - 15 years Jail.

People under the age of 20 should drive cars under 130kw. ( yep , tough but realistic )

Get Caught speeding 40k over the limit - lose you car forever and 6 months Jail.

I know what a lot of people will say, , but what the heck, , just build more jails and stop spending government money on looking after illegial immigrants and all the wasteful stuff.

thats my 2c

1) Agree, but to what extent? Thats fairly extreme, what if it was 0.01 over? I think for totally obliterated and stupid people that is fair though. Who's actually going to stop if they know theyre a bit over and if the do stop they go to jail? Hello more police chases and deaths arising from them.

2) Thats going to cause more problems, as said before me, more cars=likely races

3)Agree, but again to what extent?

4) Thats total crap mate. Sorry but my first car and even my 2nd car, an EB fairmont and an EF gli respectively wouldve been putting out around that power and trust me it was MORE than enough to get you into trouble as I found out a few times. More like make LSD mandatory. What people forget is, p platers with nice cars, say for instance a new xr6 or xr8, worth 40K+, you really think those people are gonna be the ones out being ****************** in the wet when theyve got a lifetime car loan for their shiny new car? Doubt it. A moped can get out of control if you want it to. Power restrictions dont and never will be effective.

5) Thats pretty silly, what if you miss judge overtaking a truck? Its ok, just stay in the wrong lane because apparently hitting 141km/h you are definately gonna crash and kill someone.

It basically comes down to driver training and not being an idiot. Solve those 2 and its all fixed. If an 18 year old wants to take his car out one wet night to do doughnuts, no amount of laws is going to stop him no matter what they are, in his mind he is bulletproof and wont get caught. Laws like these would most likely do what the speed cameras already do, penalise the wrong people.

[Ducati888]

365 deaths in one year, given the increasing volume of traffic, road quality, and the sheer stupidity of 7 out of 10 drivers - I think is an outstanding result.

If it weren't for the high level of safety features in most modern cars now the toll would likely be 1365 per year. People's driving is not getting better - it's getting worse. They get lazy & complacent as they put their trust in their onboard computers to get them out of trouble or protect them in an incident. That way they can spend more time on the phone, playing with Ipods or generally existing in their cretinous bubble of self absorbtion, oblivious to the fact that there's other people on the road.

I don't think that driver education will help. How many Commodores wrapped around poles would not be now, if their dumb-**** drivers had been to driver education? More likely it would give them an even greater sense of invincibility as they would probably think they can actually drive after a weekend of driver training.

Will driver education get people to service their cars, check that their brake lights & headlights work (even use their damn lights before it's pitch black), check 400m ahead on the road instead of just over the end of the bonnet, put air in their tyres so their brakes will work effectively, stop tailgating, learn to use god-damned indicators & mirrors, do head checks, slow down and smell the roses and stop hurrying everywhere? Nope.

[mik]

AC/DC restricting kw`s does`nt work, i gaurantee you that, , about all it does is lessens the tree impact from 200 kph to 160 kph.

[Franco Cozzo]

My Fiesta is a massive 88Kw, still does 185km/h (restricted) (wheels magazine review).

[zdcol71]

Frightening thought for me is that the problem is so much bigger than a lot of suggestions being made here will ever fix.We seem to be coming up with all sorts of suggestions relating to penalties and solutions based on the fact that these are "motoring" or "car" problems.
Listening to Shane(?), it seems like he and his ilk are going to be a burden( of some sort) on society for a long time to come.
I have 2 teenagers, who I do not regard as "kids" any more, they are making their own informed decisions, and finding their way in a "grown up" world.(They were not afforded private school education or any sort of easy ride through out their upbringing)
I also have a dog, who offers up more insight and intelligent conversation than Shane seems to be able to muster. You will not change one problem in the world, IMO, until we can address the reasons behind why we are producing young adults, (who at 18 years of age should be entering society as it's new thinkers and leaders),who can not string together two intelligent words, let alone justify why we should allow them to share road space with us.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Will driver education get people to service their cars, check that their brake lights & headlights work (even use their damn lights before it's pitch black), check 400m ahead on the road instead of just over the end of the bonnet, put air in their tyres so their brakes will work effectively, stop tailgating, learn to use god-damned indicators & mirrors, do head checks, slow down and smell the roses and stop hurrying everywhere? Nope.

You might be right, but after driver education classes for all new drivers and I would suggest current licensed drivers, it sure would be a hell of a lot harder to claim you were "victimised" or "booked for a trivality" if a police officer books you for any of those things. You know the rules, causes and the consequences, because you were trained about all three. You are expected to take more responsibilility and take driving more seriously.

Yes I know you are suppose to now, but far too many brush that off with a "didn't have an accident in x years" or "everyone does it", as if that explains it away.

You know better, because you were taught better, could be the new message from authorities.

Hard to argue with that and it might get the cops away from the radar for a bit.

Dan
P.S. Can we also book the idiots who never leave the car running or the keys in the ignition, except when parked over several thousand litres of fuel at their local servo. What brains trust made that the thing to do!

Dan

[JC]

What ever happened to "natural selection"? I realise that some of those killed on our roads are innocent, but if only we made cars that would kill the driver in a high speed accident, at least we'd be removing the problem off the roads. Too harsh? Not when it's these drivers that kill innocent families and shatter lives, but then get to survive and live their life.

[dave289]

I think the increasing road toll and pedestrian toll for that matter has been increased due to immigration and will continue to get worse, just as drownings have increase and the many rescues you see on bondi rescue, 90 + percent on that show are people born overseas. I also think young females and there mobile text syndrome will increase the road toll ,why do I have to share the road with people who either dont know better or are incapable to the point my life and many others is put at risk :

[Ducati888]

Good point Dave289.

Also, why do all of Melbourne's taxi drivers have to sit in the right lane all the way to the airport?

[platinumXR]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

That's why they are now introducing Timed Cameras. they time you along a length of freeway. if you get across it faster than a set time, you get a ticket, because you must have sped.


anarkie road, that sounds familiar.

:Up_to_som :eclipsee_

[kezzer]

Only possible solution is to restrict cars and speed limits to 60km/h.
P platers should only be allowed to drive cars with less then 100kw, and 300kg of bricks in the trunk.

People caught speeding by more then 5km/h should have their car blown up and have their balls cut off so there is no chance of them breeding.

[z80]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

.

Also, why do all of Melbourne's taxi drivers have to sit in the right lane all the way to the airport?

because at certain times of the day the RH lane is a designated transit lane.

Unfortunately most of the taxi drivers are straight off the boat from india and pakistan and cant read to tell what the operating hours of the transit lane are.

they were able to get their drivers' licence though... : :