Holiday road toll - are we getting the true picture?

FASTXR · 08-08-2006, 12:48 PM

This is an interesting read:

http://blogs.news.com.au/news/crime/...oad_toll_myth/

Simply put, it seems that despite the government scare campaigns, double demerits etc, the roads are no more dangerous at holiday times than at any other time of the year.

Granted, the low holiday rate may be because of the extra police presence, but its still food for thought...

82XD393.3v · 08-08-2006, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FASTXR

This is an interesting read:

http://blogs.news.com.au/news/crime/...oad_toll_myth/

Simply put, it seems that despite the government scare campaigns, double demerits etc, the roads are no more dangerous at holiday times than at any other time of the year.

Granted, the low holiday rate may be because of the extra police presence, but its still food for thought...

Every year the amount of cars on the road increase so it would be expected that the death toll will increase
These campaigns are only to keep the wowsers happy\
Notice its always a number of deaths on the road not a percentage of deaths per the amount of cars on the road I say road deaths are a hell of alot lower than 10 years ago if going by percentage of registered cars
But i belive this is due to car improvments not police presence or demerit points. Gee if there wasn't or police or double demerits i would have driven head on into a truck

:

**Professor Farnsworth** · 08-08-2006, 02:42 PM

i drove up to my parents place near the border of NSW on sunday, then drove back that night. I've done this trip dozens of times but i have never seen the amount of idiocy in the past, that i did on that trip. It wasn't a holiday weekend, but traffic on the hume is always bad on sundays anyway. People flying along like a cannonball run, people passing me on the right, then slowing down dropping back behind me on the right, then passing again, people passing and pulling infront of me with a couple of metres clearance at 110km/h, just so some other tosser tailing them can speed past all of us.. trucks swinging in and out of both lanes.

But the thing that left me speechless was a falcon wagon infront of me in the left lane, i had cruise control running mind you. It kept slowing down and making me turn cruise off, then powering off again, then i'd catch up again on cruise, this continued for several minutes. in the end, just as a commodore was flying past in the right lane the wagon infront of me changed into the right lane, for no reason, then braked, causing the commodore to swerve and brake, nearly taking me out. It then just sat there, boxing. After a couple of minutes it indicated to come back into my lane, started moving over, then swung straight back in the right lane. The commodore once again nearly took me out. At this point i backed off intentionally as the falcon looked like it had some deathwish. Bear in mind it was a full car, what looked like a family in it. The falcon then swung back into my lane, then the emergency lane, and stopped. As i looked back in the rear view, i saw it do a u-bolt, and started driving THE WRONG WAY DOWN THE ROAD ??????? i didn't see anything else happen after that..... not sure if the car is still in once piece.

what the HELL is wrong with people ? that is honestly the strangest single act of driving i've ever seen.

uranium_death · 08-08-2006, 04:02 PM

Fact is that human stupidity will never be eliminated, meaning that unnecessary accidents will always happen.

Throw all the education you want, all the deterrents...it won't help. People will always be jerks.

IMO, if people drive like idiots, take their car, sell it, give them only half the amount (with the other half put in a state fund to help the families of those killed by idiot road hoons re: funeral and burial costs), and tear up the the perpetrator's license for 2 years. That will make them think, provided they still have a brain.

Oh wait, sorry. We can't do that. I'm too harsh.

Sorry. I'll move to Cuba, where maybe what I say will make sense. :P

Hardtopxb · 08-08-2006, 04:07 PM

I agree with you URANIUM. We have to get fair dinkum with these people..

max · 09-08-2006, 09:55 PM

Drivers will always make mistakes, nature of the human race. Only road /car engineering, education and management will reduce the carnage to some extent. When you think about it a drivers licence is an onerous responsibility.
We make appalling mistakes in all other aspects of life. When we do that as road users in some cases we don't get a second chance!

rag top · 09-08-2006, 10:16 PM

I would prefer to see the road toll expressed as a percentage of registered vehicles.
As the number of cars on our roads increase each year, yet the toll remains about the same, therefore in theory, we are actually improving.

flappist · 09-08-2006, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uranium_death

Fact is that human stupidity will never be eliminated, meaning that unnecessary accidents will always happen.

Throw all the education you want, all the deterrents...it won't help. People will always be jerks.

IMO, if people drive like idiots, take their car, sell it, give them only half the amount (with the other half put in a state fund to help the families of those killed by idiot road hoons re: funeral and burial costs), and tear up the the perpetrator's license for 2 years. That will make them think, provided they still have a brain.

Oh wait, sorry. We can't do that. I'm too harsh.

Sorry. I'll move to Cuba, where maybe what I say will make sense. :P

It won't make sense in Cuba, they all speak spanish.......

WizBang · 09-08-2006, 10:53 PM

There is a little truth to this as more people are on the road dueing the easter and christmas breaks ,but that where it all ends .I have found that Friday after noon is the worst time to be on the roads as more people are out there to kill each other alll for the name of getting there faster

drone · 09-08-2006, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fantz

i drove up to my parents place near the border of NSW on sunday, then drove back that night. I've done this trip dozens of times but i have never seen the amount of idiocy in the past, that i did on that trip. It wasn't a holiday weekend, but traffic on the hume is always bad on sundays anyway. People flying along like a cannonball run, people passing me on the right, then slowing down dropping back behind me on the right, then passing again, people passing and pulling infront of me with a couple of metres clearance at 110km/h, just so some other tosser tailing them can speed past all of us.. trucks swinging in and out of both lanes.

But the thing that left me speechless was a falcon wagon infront of me in the left lane, i had cruise control running mind you. It kept slowing down and making me turn cruise off, then powering off again, then i'd catch up again on cruise, this continued for several minutes. in the end, just as a commodore was flying past in the right lane the wagon infront of me changed into the right lane, for no reason, then braked, causing the commodore to swerve and brake, nearly taking me out. It then just sat there, boxing. After a couple of minutes it indicated to come back into my lane, started moving over, then swung straight back in the right lane. The commodore once again nearly took me out. At this point i backed off intentionally as the falcon looked like it had some deathwish. Bear in mind it was a full car, what looked like a family in it. The falcon then swung back into my lane, then the emergency lane, and stopped. As i looked back in the rear view, i saw it do a u-bolt, and started driving THE WRONG WAY DOWN THE ROAD ??????? i didn't see anything else happen after that..... not sure if the car is still in once piece.

what the HELL is wrong with people ? that is honestly the strangest single act of driving i've ever seen.

There are some ****ed up people in this world. I had a guy tailgate me for over 15 minutes on the ring road. If i changed lanes he changed lanes. I few times i'd do it for absolutely no reason just to see if he would. I dropped to 80 he still sat behind slowing down with me.

:

Panda · 09-08-2006, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rag top

I would prefer to see the road toll expressed as a percentage of registered vehicles.
As the number of cars on our roads increase each year, yet the toll remains about the same, therefore in theory, we are actually improving.

I have just the statistics you require -

Panda

rag top · 10-08-2006, 07:23 AM

Thanks for that Panda!!

fmc351 · 11-08-2006, 12:20 AM

Safety features like air bags etc, improved braking and steering etc, crumplezones, more dual carriageways. Its too hard to make useful comparissons to the past tolls, its like apples and oranges. There werent even seatbelts in the 50-60's, so an accident that yesterday resulted in death, today would just be fistycuffs and insurance claims.

More useful data would be accidents of any kind c/w vehicles on the road.

ED Classic · 11-08-2006, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by max

Drivers will always make mistakes, nature of the human race. Only road /car engineering, education and management will reduce the carnage to some extent. When you think about it a drivers licence is an onerous responsibility.
We make appalling mistakes in all other aspects of life. When we do that as road users in some cases we don't get a second chance!

Some really good points in this thread along with the odd usual crap that you get

I agree with you MAX..its a nature of the human race. I am sure nobody wants to have an accident...Some people would do well to look up the meaning of accident in the dictionary.

When you compare the road toll to the amount of cars on the road compared to the comparitive figures of 25 years ago it shows how well automotive enginers have done in turning potentialy serious accidents into accidents with no injuries as FMC351 said or even technoligy to avoid the accident in the first place.