usual. Top cop on TV starts talking about lowering open road speed limits & demerits for speed-camera fines. Dunno about you guys BUT with the road toll trending down & in the last few years jumped up what has caused this? probably not open road speed as its been the same for many years. Probably not the roads as they're better than ever (hell, they've even taken the twisties out of most highways these days) Probably not the cars as they're safer than ever. So what is the cause?. IMO its too damn easy to get a license & careless driving goes almost unpunished while cops fine & demerit drivers for a few KPH over their deemed safe limits. Cops sit by while red light runners go by, people change lanes over & over without indicating, every morning I see drivers going around the LH lane of a roundabout meant for turning left then cutting into the righthand lane to go straight through so they don't have to sit in a queue. Im a firm believer in look after the small things & the big things will look after themselves, so take these guys off the road because if they can't follow the smaller more courteous rules they sure won't give a shit at any time at all, no matter what the speed
esky-tastic,
May 11, 6:30am
never heard hims saying that - but I did hear him say about removing power-poles and stuff like that from the road-sides.
mothergoose_nz,
May 11, 6:33am
there is a thread in general from someone who passed the bulls scene 15min after it happened. they thought sunstrike. knowing the road that makes sense. wondered if car was passing white van and didn't see oncoming car due to sunstrike
whqqsh,
May 11, 6:35am
was watching TV3 news, maybe different guy but the turkey I saw was getting really uppity
butterfly05,
May 11, 6:50am
Weather the copper linked it directly the crash or not he did go down the usuall copper track of speed kills ad nauseum, Personally I changed the channel and didnt listen to the end of it. Im so over this complete and utter rubbish they keep spouting out. Its muppets that crash like that, its got nothing at all to do with speed.
A vote for NZ first will clear it up a bit imo.
henderson_guy,
May 11, 6:57am
There is only one reason for a head on crash. someone did not keep to their side of the road. It doesn't matter at that point if they're doing 95 or 105, the end result is usually going to be serious injury or death. Yep, it's poor driving. dress it up any way you like, but that's the leading cause. As for overtaking into sunstrike, well that's just a no-brainer. "I can't see what's coming towards me, but I'll move into the other lane anyway", it's just lunacy.
tamarillo,
May 11, 7:08am
Poor skills. That's it. Awareness of possible hazards. Poor. Reacting to possible hazards. Poor. Correct reaction to hazards. Fail.
We're crap drivers and this over policing removes more of our personal responsibility it won't change.
bashfulbro,
May 11, 7:09am
Removing trees and power poles FFS ? what next ?
esky-tastic,
May 11, 7:13am
Lower the speed - lower the injuries.
Or something like that.
butterfly05,
May 11, 7:17am
So as usual the response is to penalise the majority for the actions of a minority?
henderson_guy,
May 11, 7:24am
So the solution is to focus on the effect rather than the cause? Sound logic, that.
esky-tastic,
May 11, 7:33am
Hell, you'll never fix te cause - too many numpties with cars.
phalanax,
May 11, 7:41am
I see to many people hugging the centre line. to many people tailgating. to many people not driving to the conditions , to many folk not concentrating on driving (chatting away side glancing,doing their hair or generally arm hanging low out the window busy trying to look cool. ). yep you have to take nothing for granted these days. I time my speed to not enter a bridge when an oncoming car might get there first. I drive as far to the left of the centreline. I dont speed. I let folk pass me . cant be bothered with it all . too busy staying alive to care.
henderson_guy,
May 11, 7:51am
Which is why we need to take steps to prevent these numpties from driving if they cannot do so safely.
morrisjvan,
May 11, 7:51am
extrapolating the 1970's road toll, we should be about 1000 + deaths per year. we are only at about 300 a year at the moment, so things have improved dramatically haven't they? Admittedly we had a bad weekend this one , but many others come and go with no deaths , but the media conveniently don't cover that as it isn't news-worthy. As for the police chief wanting to remove all road side hazards ! what an idiot.
tintop,
May 11, 8:50am
While the risks for the majority remain - why not.?
Your logic escapes me.
tintop,
May 11, 8:53am
Have a look at the Waikato Expressway. Wide berms, long run off areas, not much to hit if something goes wrong.
3tomany,
May 11, 8:59am
lowering the average speed is just cops admitting they are powerless to stop bad driving. They just want to lower the speed to lessen the damage
skin1235,
May 11, 9:01am
why look at the wide berms etc, look closer in to the idiot behind the wheel that creates the 'something goes wrong' element people need to realise that as soon as they turn the key they become responsible for everything that happens between then and the end of their journey - even if the fool coming the other way strays onto your side of the road it is still your responsibility to avoid him, (wide berms come in handy then) can you imagine the Auckland motorway system with 10 mt berms - the idiots would be driving up the grass to get to the front of the queue
purple666,
May 11, 9:23am
They should just wrap us all in cotton wool and roll us to our destinations, SLOWLY.
tintop,
May 11, 9:48am
So things are heading down the wrong track with safer cars and roads ?
skin1235,
May 11, 10:04am
don't be silly tintop, its unbecoming of you the actual driver needs to take more responsibility, for his/her vehicle and where it is on the road at all times, that includes not being where some other driver is trying to drive too
socram,
May 11, 10:17am
You said it all. Couldn't agree more. Wrong focus on safety campaigns targeting speed instead of improved driving. Going slower doesn't mean safer, if the driving is still rubbish. Never has and never will.
tintop,
May 11, 11:24am
I am at a loss to know where this responsibility is to come from.
You do not have to too far on this board to see any number of drongos poo pooing any police or other efforts to change driver behaviour. Although defiantly not a representative sample of all drivers, at least it is some indication of the views of a proportion.
For my own part I have worked with a number of agencies for a period of about 20 years on road safety projects where road environments were made safer - including removal of many objects including trees and hundreds of roadside power and telephone poles and their replacement with underground reticulation and frangible street lighting poles. And incidentally the first round of the installation of speed cameras :)
The reward - one complete year with no fatal crashes in my area, except on the very last evening, just before midnight - a guy was removed from his van after crashing into an unprotected open ditch. ( no seatbelt being worn ether) It was recorded as fatal until the pathologist report said that he was unlikely to have been in control of the van before the crash - he had suffered a massive heart attack.
Anyway - short of full and 100% driver responsibility - it makes sense to reduce the number of near roadside objects.
skin1235,
May 11, 11:32am
I hear you, its not an either or situation, the clearing of obstacles certainly helps - theres less to drive into, there is a great need for upskilling of the drivers, to avoid them driving into the now removed obstacles
just how that can be achieved is beyond me, make the initial test tougher and theres a huge moaning, make progressive licenses and thers a huge moaning, everyone has their own idea, usually anyone not in their agegroup is stupid and should be removed from the roads
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