Banjo - You are right they waste money on many things BUT that generally is a one off thing - These welfare for lifers are exactly as I phrase it MOST are a burden on the taxpayer FOREVER.

WE now have over 3,500 boat people in 1.5 months, Stupid Juliar can't see it is not working.

I’ve got to admit that I’m very disappointed in the lack of interest on this thread with improving the policing regime and hence getting bad drivers to become a bit safer with their everyday driving behaviour.

Alright, so what about improved roads then? Do they really help?

Do more overtaking lanes on the highways make them a safer place or not?

Overtaking lanes are effectively road-rule-free zones!!

The speed limit no longer applies, tailgating is rampant and aggressiveness comes right to the fore. And quite often there is conflict and a real hazard at the end of the zone, with stupid drivers who have just got to pass slower vehicles at all costs pushing it to the limit or beyond.

I very often witness one vehicle travelling past me in the overtaking lane at 120 or more in a 100 zone with another vehicle absurdly close behind pushing him to go even faster and to get out of the way as soon as possible.

My conclusion is that no amount of road improvements will make our roads safer in the absence of a much-improved regulatory regime.

Ludwig: You seem to be exibiting a rabid desire for "more Policing" on our roads, and seem to display a very bigotted attitude towards other drivers, whom you seem to think are responsible for ALL the accidents occurring!

I notice you lambasting drivers who passed you on overtaking lanes, whilst doing around 120kmh. I would suggest that in that particular situation you should do what I do, ...slow down a bit to allow overtaking drivers to pass safely without having to exceed the given speed limit, ( most drivers speed up for that reason, not knowing whether the overtaken driver will allow them to pass before the overtaking lane ends!)

Once again I will point out that in many of the serious or fatal accidents, the victims vehicle ( being manufactured from Japanese Alloy of mild steel and plastic, LOL!) is usually reduced to a mangled mess, and in defence of the police investigators, this makes it very difficult to ascertain the exact cause of the accident,eg: blown tyre, mechanical failure or such. It was common knowledge that with most accidents accurring in the NT resulting in run-off and consequent impact with trees, power poles etc, a few years back, were resulting from a certain brand of tyre blow-out, commonly referred to as "Bangl..s"! Some of the other causes were simple cases of driver exhaustion,...sleepiness!

Lets build better roads regardless!

Crackcup, you seem to be interpreting my comments in a very polarised, end-of-the-spectrum, all-or-nothing manner. Life is not like that. If you read my other posts you on this thread, you will see the folly in some of your comments.

For example; I have said previously that better policing will not stop accidents due to blowouts or other mechanical failure or such-like. Crikey, I made these comments in response to you, and now you are accusing me of apparently saying that poor driving is responsible for all accidents.

Please! This is your thread, but you are clearly not concentrating here!

Regarding overtaking lanes, yes you should slow down a bit if you’ve got someone who is passing you without grossly exceeding the speed limit, to assist them in safely doing so. That is, if you are were travelling below the speed limit to start with. If you were sitting on the cruising speed, then there should be no reason for anyone to overtake you, and it becomes a bit rich to slow down and facilitate them in doing so.

If you slow down a bit, it doesn’t stop many drivers from treating overtaking lanes as a free-for-all. And you can hardly slow down a bit if you have traffic behind you that is content not to overtake but which will then be inclined to overtake you, because you could well end up with a slower vehicle in front of you off the end of the overtaking lane.

<< Lets build better roads regardless! >>

Yes, for sure. But we should be putting some of the enormous money allocated to never-ending roadworks into improving the regulatory regime as well!

Ludwig is not rabid or bigoted, never has been never will be.
He takes the stick to my legs now and again but remains one of our best.
However Ludwig, in the short term only can extra police work.
I have spoken of the hell my road was, some did not want to be woken for call backs so failed to see it in its full impact.
Horrible things you could just tell was to take place, right now school holidays was a sure thing.
TWO lanes not divided replaced with 4 lanes divided and middle ground or barriers worked.
Oh some die still, and like in the past it is speed and inattention, not the road that kills.
Crackup is right about the Bruce,and about 100 klm still, of my highway, 100.000 klm of secondary roads,and? a million in this country.
Not being a smarty,just as you Ludwig know trees I know roads, want roads, but understand the costs.
We need to truly consider, how we can cut the costs per klm and build more and better roads.
And what we can go without to do it, a nation building plan, that will pay us back many times.
More freight rail? less trucks on some roads? a start.

Thanks Belly.

<< However Ludwig, in the short term only can extra police work. >>

I don’t understand. Why do you say this?

Just to clarify: I want to see more police NOT out there on the roads but behind desks and doing the follow-up work on complaints from the public. I want us all to be empowered to help with the road-safety effort by being able to make complaints and know that they will be acted on.

I want the police to encourage us to make complaints if we think they are warranted, in just the same way that we are encouraged to support neighbourhood watch by reporting suspicious behaviour, etc.

I want the police to tell the public how to best gather evidence and make the most effective report.

For this to work, I envisage a big increase in staff – some increase in police but largely temporary administrative staff, for a while until the thickheads get it through their thick heads that every one of us can do something very real about rank drivers and that the current very thin blue line will no longer be considered to be wafer thin.

Then after we have ‘traffic-calmed’ all the unruly ratbags, the number of staff can be steadily reduced, as the number of complaints will fall right way.

This is just so obvious to me. How on earth the police can encourage the public to report litterers, smoky vehicles, noise, hoons, etc, etc, but effectively completely disempower us from doing anything about speeders, tailgaters and other dangerous drivers is just beyond me.

I’ve contemplated this point now for some years, and it just makes utterly no sense to me.