Comments on: 2007 Easter Road Toll

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By: alborz

alborz — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:21:59 +0000

Well said david,

but the main issue is Speeding tickets form a large part of each states budget for “road safety”

so its an endless cycle, state governments rely on people to speed in order to… protect them from speeding..

By: David

David — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:11:15 +0000

Kev Cornish said “Speed is the single most contributing factor to fatal accidents on our roads today. If you can’t accept this then you are just plain ignorant.”

Well Kev, if you actually look at the international crash stats (from countries that are game enough to actually look at the causal factors of road crashes … unfortunately, no state in Australia is), you find that between 6.5 and 7.5% of injury crashes involve a vehicle that is exceeding the speed limit (fatals are less than 1% higher). In other words, 93% of injury crashes involve only vehicles that are travelling BELOW the speed limit. Unless that 93% are caused by more than a dozen separate things in very even weighting … then you cannot, statistically, get Speed to be the “single most contributing factor”.

That said, of course speed is the single factor in ALL fatal crashes … basic physics tells us that two stationary vehicles will never crash into each other!

Now this is a pretty poor joke, but it does address the basic problem … SPEED does not mean SPEEDING. The data collection methodology used by NSW Police is flawed … if a vehicle skidded, slid or otherwise lost control – tick the speed box … no consideration of other factors such as road condition. If one vehicle ran into the back of another – tick the speed box … it is simply presumed that the ONLY reason that one vehicle runs into the back of another is that it was travelling at too high a speed to stop in time.

Then this data is “interpretted” by the RTA road safety people. Their interpretation of a tick in the “speed” box is “the vehicle was speeding”. No wonder they come out with stats like “40% of all crashes involve speed … so the answer is more speed enforcement”.

It does not matter how hard we crack-down on the 7% of speeding vehicle crashes … unless we are willing to look into the cause of the other 93% of crashes, we will never get anywhere.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:26:04 +0000

QUOTE = Kids do what kids do because they are kids. Kids might see mum or friends on the other side of the road, they get excited, they run onto roads. They chase balls onto roads, they chase pets onto roads. They are kids. I agree we need to educate our kids to try to reduce the number of horrific accidents on our roads, but kids get excited.

No I DISAGREE… if the kids are taught properly they wont run across the road. I dunno maybe you were braindead when you were young but I was taught to avoid going on the road unless with an adult and at the very least to look both ways. The only child I can see being dumb enough to cross despite being educated is someone around 2 years old… who in which case shouldnt be alone in such a situation anyway.

Im not going to deny that if some uneducated kid runs onto the road speeding wont help the situation, but most people dont speed in urban areas. The issue is speeding on main roads etc where there arent little kiddies who are going to run across the road from behind a car etc. In these situations, which are where most fatal crashes occur (not built up areas!) it has more to do with other issues such as lack of concentration, fatigue, poor road conditions etc rather then speed.

By: Ashley said

Ashley said — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 08:13:56 +0000

Ashley has a little one and has to make himself feel better by driving a big car.

By: Kev Cornish

Kev Cornish — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 14:07:56 +0000

Speed is the single most contributing factor to fatal accidents on our roads today. If you can’t accept this then you are just plain ignorant.
Tonight I heard talkback on the radio, I heard someone complaining about the advertisement they had seen in South Australia, about the child running onto the road and how we shouldn’t be encouraging children to behave like that.
That was the opinion of an arrogant man. Kids do what kids do because they are kids. Kids might see mum or friends on the other side of the road, they get excited, they run onto roads. They chase balls onto roads, they chase pets onto roads. They are kids. I agree we need to educate our kids to try to reduce the number of horrific accidents on our roads, but kids get excited.
Grown men, football players for example, get excited, even though they know it’s wrong, they will punch somebody on the field of play knowing that they are going to get punished for it. It’s human nature. Spontaneity.
Its common sense, the faster you are going in a vehicle, the more damage you are going to do if you hit someone or something.
Think of this analogy. Mike Tyson is going to thump you on the chin, but before he does he gives you the choice, I can hit you hard or I can hit you soft. Which option are you going to take??
Myself, I’d go the soft. It is still going to hurt but I’m betting the damage is going to be considerably less!

The last thing we need is for a respected man in the motor industry, listened to by lots of people, including impressionable young people who think they can drive and will never crash, telling us all how speed limits are stupid and it’s not the driver’s fault, it’s everyone else’s.
Grow up and learn to accept that sometimes you may be wrong.

By: ricky c

ricky c — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:58:57 +0000

there is too many hooning going on on our roads. what do u ppl get out of it?

By: ricky c

ricky c — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:56:02 +0000

i think ashley is a wanker

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:57:46 +0000

I was wondering if anyone has statistics for previous years? I have been looking but there seems to be a lot of contradicting numbers (I’m just talking about the state by state tallies), even this year some claim 27 and others 26.

By: alborz

alborz — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:58:36 +0000

Thank you Bruce
added to the main article to reflect the misconception that the government has with speeding and deaths.

By: Bruce Josephs

Bruce Josephs — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:54:21 +0000

There were 26 deaths on Australian roads during the Easter break.

1 person was killed after suffering a heart attack at the wheel (ACT)
1 crashed into a tree after being awake for 3 days straight, smoking cannabis and drinking bourbon (WA)
1 pedestrian was killed after lying on the middle of the road after an argument (WA)
1 child was killed by a rubbish truck reversing (NSW)
1 cyclist fell off his bike and was run over by a truck (VIC)
3 army special forced counter terrorism personnel veered off a bridge into the water under what appear to be suspicious circumstances (VIC)

1 person died after hitting the trailer of an oncoming vehicle (VIC)
- Was the driver attempting to overtake and did not see the trailer?
- Was there a severe wind that caused the trailer to sway into oncoming traffic?

Of the other 17 all were in NSW, VIC or QLD where harshest speed restrictions apply
4 were motorcyclists (with less protection than a car)
At least 5 were where the driver was 68yo or older
2 are head on collisions (Did the drivers take their eyes off the road? Perhaps to check their speedos)

10,000 speeding fines were issued by police in QLD alone in this period. $2 million in speeding fine revenue results in 4 people dying from what
may or may not be speed related.

Regards
Bruce Josephs

By: Damo

Damo — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:15:29 +0000

I don’t actually drive around. Normally I take the bus, get driven by a mate or brother, or take a cab. The other time, I usually do the standard stuff, Work, education, then just doing my home so called ‘duties’. It’s all pretty standard stuff to most people, you want to try it. I just prefer night time, because it isn’t as… well, bland.

By: 280ZX

280ZX — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:19:17 +0000

Very interesting article i found in my blogness on speed and the government at http://www.petrolhead.net.au
Gives Bracks a bit of going over and fair enough too..

By: 280ZX

280ZX — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:09:03 +0000

In answer to your question Matt the Macquarie Dictionary defines a hoon as “a foolish or silly person” Hmmmmmm ….

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:16:29 +0000

But what is a hoon? People who modify their car, legally, often have their cars in better condition then people who don’t?

By: 280ZX

280ZX — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:54:05 +0000

Just interested Damo as you mentioned you like to drive around Adelaide at night and i was just wondering what you do for the other 9 hours ? Also it doesnt matter what type of person you are now days if your young and behind the wheel expect a bit of attention from the cops as when it comes to young people Unfortunately the cops will throw you all in one basket Hoon or not… bugger!

By: Damo

Damo — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:33:55 +0000

I agree with Paul, because we need to get these hoons off the road, but for me, turning 16 in not too long, it will be unfair because I do love going around Adelaide at night, driving around, parties, ect. I am sensible and respect cars and am not the “VL turbo” type which is becoming a popular hoon car. Hope it stops all of the deaths though, but I still hope that for sensible people like me they may consider benefits for when you make it to P1 or P2 there may be less curfew or whatever restrictions.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:32:11 +0000

Woops, I meant John not Paul :)

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:31:44 +0000

Ah but Paul, education would cost the states money. And if people stopped having accidents, then they wouldn’t catch anyone on these double demerit speeding ticket frenzies which earn them money =). It’s just playing politics, people who don’t have a clue in the community think restrictions will stop people, hasn’t anyone noticed it isnt?

By: John

John — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:31:17 +0000

Driver education and training is what is required. punitive actions have had no affect at all. The one dimensional approach (better detection)taken by every State is simplistic and is not working. Well respected motoring journalist and commentator predicted the outcome of this Easter 2 months ago on National Radio on ABC, Will Hagen put a plan together to avoid the problem and the NSW Transport Minister didn’t even look at it. Driver attitude starts with education. For all there expertise on law enforcement Police are not experts on Human behavior and as such know nothing about modifying people’s behavior. Yet whenever the Governments put a working party is put together to tackle the road toll key people are missing ie: Youth Workers, Behavioral Scientist, Educationalists and experts in traffic management. Yet the Police are always at the front of the class, I say get them of the working parties and the quicker the better.