Basic courtesy would stop a lot of accidents and near misses. I spent a lot of time on the Newell Hwy in NSW, and the roadworks on the road cause the most horrendous situations. There have been traffic lights just north of Parkes for probably near 12 months (and I applaud the fact that the hwy is being upgraded here, because it needs it badly). But it is a busy road, and by the time the lights change there is usually a huge bank of traffic, including trucks, caravans, farm utes and cars. The next 100-200 kms are spent jockeying to get around the slower vehicles, with impatient drivers doing the most idiotic things. One very memorable occasion about 6 months ago, was just after this section of roadworks with a line of slow vehicles moving along a winding section of road. From 2 cars behind me a B-Double pulled out and proceeded to overtake me (and he 2 cars behind) and then 3 cars in front of me also, whilst going around a blind bend. I cut my speed right back as soon as I could see he was going to go past me, both to give him room to pull in, and then once I realised he was going further I slowed down even more to avoid getting tied up in the accident that I was sure was going to happen. I have seen a lot of stupid things - that one takes the cake though.

An idea - give people at say 20 a simulated driving test. Give them 50kms of road to cover and put things like caravans and road works in the way. Give them a deadline to meet and see how they respond. use a simulator rather than a real situation and have the computer record their responses and risks. Grade them, with different education requirements for different grades. Those that get a fail grade, require them to go to a fatal collision and see the results themselves.

“...A B-double pulled out and proceeded to overtake… whilst going around a blind bend”

Country Gal, I’m amazed that any driver could experience something like this and then not go straight to the police and report it!

Well ok, I would have been amazed a few years ago. But after my experiences with making a few complaints to police about the worst of dangerous driving incidents like this, I understand why people don’t go to the cops!

This sort of complaint is effectively discouraged! With five complaints I made in as many years, I got responses from police ranging from enthusiastically helpful to just not interested. The three middle responses were all along the lines of: ’oh well, if you insist, then ok, but I really can’t be bothered’

None of the five complaints went anywhere. I never heard back about any of them.

So the public has been effectively disenfranchised of their right (and responsibility) to make complaints about unlawful and dangerous antics on our roads, unless they are of a very serious nature. And by a very serious nature, and that essentially means: having caused an accident!

Surely we could make huge advances in road safety if everyone felt empowered to make complaints, and have them treated seriously. Of course this would have to go along with education on how to make effective complaints. There is an awful lot we can do with a mobile phone camera or camcorder for example.

Even if just a small portion of passengers in vehicles on our highways had their camcorder ready to use to gather evidence of dangerous tailgating and overtaking and were then willing to go to the police, who enthusiastically supported their efforts, then a huge impact could be made on unlawful and risky driving.

With just two steps –

1. inconspicuous police and

2. encouragement and facilitation of the general public to do their bit to bring law-breakers to account, by way of making credible complaints with associated evidence,

our terrible national road-safety record could be very greatly improved.

Ludwig, had the truck in question had a company name and number on the back I would have reported it, and rung the number to give the owner a verbal beating. However, I had my own survival in mind at the time and was concentrating on creating a decent space buffer around my car in case of a crash up ahead. Too much to do and get the number plate at the same time. The next town with a police station was 50km away, so not much use reporting by the time I got there, given the sheer number of B-doubles on that road.

That's probably the craziest thing I've seen. I did think afterwards that perhaps he had radioed a truck around the bend to see if the road was clear, but even if this was the case it sets an appalling example. I know that trucks do these sorts of things to give them a chance to pass slow traffic, and in certain circumstances I can understand it - the general public is just so rude when it comes to sharing the road with trucks. A truck stuck behind a caravan has little enough chance to pass it, but is completely hamstrung if at every overtaking lane it has cars whizzing around both it and the van. I prefer to travel in a vehicle with a UHF, so I can talk to the truckies around me and let them know that I am happy for them to go first, etc. Like I said originally, a little courtesy goes a long way.

The biggest problem in NSW is the people that deride the use of speed cameras as 'revenue raising' tools for the government. For crying out loud, there are three signs before a fixed speed camera saying "speed camera in use". The worst one is when people then say they didnt see the signs!! If they miss three signs, God help them if a young child runs out onto the road.

What I noticed on the Easter weekend was that there was basically no police presence on the road at all. Double demerit points dont matter if there is no chance of being caught. Also, there is a limit to how much you can spend trying to create awareness and educate.

If I had my way I would install more fixed speed cameras and remove the warning signs. I think the police resources are drained as it is, so I would employ pople to operate mobile speed cameras. Teams of two or so, and they could work in their local area. It could be great for people who need a part-time job, or long term unemployed to start getting back into the workforce etc. It would probably pay for itself very quickly.

Now if people did stop speeding and no one was caught, it would probably still pay for itself. I'd like to see a costing of how much a death on the road actually costs, not to mention the loss of future productivity when young people are killed. I know that may sound detached, but I do not feel sorry at all for people who kill themselves due to speeding on our roads, because I bet they dont care about endangering my life through their recklessnes.

d

I’m with you Deryck.

Maximised speed cameras, no signs to indicate their presence, and perhaps an organisation quite separate from the police to take care of them. Sounds good to me.

Just one thing: we need a greatly increased frequency of speed limit signs so that the limit is always obvious.

All too often I find that I am not sure of what zone I am in, especially in areas that I am not fully familiar with. When travelling through a lot of changing speed zones, when the last sign is a long way back or when turning into a road and not encountering a sign for some distance, you are left not knowing what the bloody speed limit is!

I reckon speed limits need to be painted on the road just past every intersection and perhaps every 100 metres along urban roads and every couple kilometres on the open highway. Something like that anyway.

The bloody idiots in this equation are the bloody bureaucrats that set our rediculously low speed limits.
By the end of easter it was 13000 motorists booked for trying to drive modern cars at sensible speeds, which probably equates to 1,300,000 motorists who exceeded these limits.
In this case I think the Is have it. The limits are artificially low, & incredibly, getting lower, for no reason. Most motorists feel this way, & have no resoect for speed limits. Revenue raising, you bet.

Take my area. A country road I used daily to get to work, for 12 years, was narrow & rough, & a bit hilly, & twisty, in one area, with a speed limit of 100 KPH. Occasionally some dill drove off into the bush, generally some hoon doing 150 KPH.

They widened & resurfaced the thing, but then incredibly, with the safer road, they reduced the limit to 80 KPH. some dills still drove off into the bush, generally hoons, etc.

They then did a real job, with a wide good surface, easing a couple of curves, & adding an overtaking lane on the steepest bit of hill. Great, except they then lowered the speed limit even further to 70 KPH, & some of the road on the flat to 90 KPA. This is all in the bush.

The same number of drivers still drive off into the bush, & more people get fustrated, because the 70 KPH overtaking lane is useless.
Those of us who try to drive near the speed limit get tailgated, because we're going ridiculously slowly for the improved road.

One stretch of 12 Km, which had 10 dotted line overtaking places, where one could pass a slow farm truck or such, is now all double lines. WHY? With cars getting better all the time, why is it no longer safe to do what once was safe?

I have no interest, or need to speed on the public roads, but I do not wish to have some fool public servant tell me I may not drive faster than the average incompetent twit.