Peter, please don't put words in my mouth. You're implying that I've stated that I'm a perfect driver and everyone else is bad. I have said no thing.
Sure, a helmet and rollcage would be a nuisance, but it *would* save lives. Isn't that worth it? I'm sure you'd change your mind on this if a loved one had an accident, and such safety measures could have saved their life.
I'm not talking about doing 30km/h, that's just silly. 70km/h is a good, solid speed that allows good traffic flow. Our roads really do need improving too. Simple things like gear shift paddles on the steering wheel, rather than a manual shift need to slowly drift into mainstream cars.
There was an article in Brisbane's courier mail today that those going for their P's in QLD are allowed to go up to 10% over the official speed limit, a maximum of 3 times during their test. In NSW it's zero tolerance (my belief), and Victoria had some leeway. This sends a message to most of the P platers (mostly rash youth) that it's OK to speed, as long as you don't get caught. My father has been driving for well over 50 years, and let's just say that he has a saying:
speed thrills, speed kills.
I've been in cars with mates, and saved their bacon several times (heavy rain, they go to merge lanes, miss a car behind them in the heavy rain and almost collide, luckily eage eyes Dave stops them in time). Both drivers were not bad drivers at all, just bad scenarios hampered their vision. Both were extremely grateful for my input - both incidents could have been very nasty accidents. Anyone, including myself, could have missed the cars in question, luckily, as a passenger, I could devote more time to checking behind us when about to merge into the other lane and it paid off.
The main culprits I see with drivers these days are:
1) speeding
2) unsafe distance from car in front
3) not dropping speeds and distance to car in front in bad conditions (rain/fog)
4) talking on the mobile phone (yes, there are LOTS of idiots who do this).
Oh, and another article in today's paper (MX) showed that there is statistical proof that those listening to sporting events on the car radio are more likely to be distracted and either break road rules as a result, or have a crash. I'm not saying rip out the radios in cars etc, but I am saying that people do need to be aware that distractions can, and do happen and contribute to accidents.
What do you say to someone who loses a loved one that could (and should) have been prevented? I feel sorry for the police investigation units that have to go out to some of these accidents. It'd be a horrific thing imho.
You look at things from the point of view of over regulation and inconvenience, I look at things from the point of view of saving lives. Once a life is taken, you can't go back in time and bring it back. Hindsight won't work either. Better to prevent the event from happening in the first place.
I suspect that you've jumped on my posts because I haven't agreed with your line of thought - I guess people on the net expect you to automatically agree with them, rather than show some thought behind your posts.
Anyways, good discussions have ensued, which I enjoy.
Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
Dave... surely you're pulling my chain.
Roll-cages? Helmets? and clearly you believe most drivers (anyone but you?) are idiots.
I'm sorry mate I didn't want to take the piss, but
Can I assume in Plato-Dave's driving republic, we all drive at 30km/hr, with lights on during the day, wearing full harness seat-belts, full face helmets, fire-retardant underwear and gloves roll-cages. 
After all, with driving you can never have enough regulation.
In the usual Sydney peak hour (three hour really) crush, I find most drivers safely get on with it..... my driving day is only very occasionally punctuated by a drongo.. with whom I have no problem, as Marcus said, so long as they are eventually taken care of by the Police, trauma units or Darwinian theory.
Anyway I expect we'll agree to disagree. Probably time to put this one to bed. |