Speeding - Dangerous?

[Lone Ranger]

I did an advanced driving course and thought it was great and should be compulsory. One thing in particular comes to mind ... it was amazing to think that the emergency braking they had us do was the first time I have ever been taught this. Think about it ... you can get a licence without ever learning how to brake in an emergency.

[Joel]

The posts before this one were split from the Cloke Discussion in General Discussion, I think they deserve their own topic.

[CQ]

Yeh ive done those emergency braking things and that too. and defensive driving course.


That motorbike ad the TAC had on a while ago pissed me off. about how 'these attitudes' saying 'bloody motorcyclists', well fk me but why put all the responsibility on car drivers?
The way some of those fools swerve in and out of heavy traffic, it's no wonder they get hit. They seem to think everyone knows where they are, well we don't if you're changing lanes into the all famous WHITE LINE LANE, which doesn't actually exist, they just decide to make their own lane.

[Culprit]

That makes to much Sense Lones, hence they don't do it.

[bokka]

Can anyone whose done one of those skilled driving courses describe how to brake in an emergency?
All I know is you brake just hard enough before the wheels start to skid. Also if you do skid on back wheels it's not to bad, you ease off a little, but if front wheels skid you steer in direction the car is moving and take foot off the brake until they grip again, then quickly but carefully apply brakes again. But I haven't done one of those courses, just learnt from hooning around on dirt tracks on a farm.

[Eunos]

Bokka, ABS will do the same thing, thats why its fitted to so many vehicles.
Though a word of warning for those relying on ABS to save you, beware of it on loose surfaces. It does not work!
The real trick is to make sure you do not lock up your wheels. Any lock up makes your tyre an object just going in one direction, with your vehicle following. You must allow the wheel to turn to enable steering.

[CQ]

yeh if u lock em up quickly ease off on the brakes for a sec til they unlock then put it back on. if it locks up again then do the same thing. if you're sliding and have the brakes locked your vehicle is out of control.

[bokka]

I must admit I nearly got killed once though it wasn't my fault, but probably was going over the limit. Roaring along a sub-suburban road (outskirts of town) towards a green light when a moron drove straight through the red light into the intersection across my path. Car in front braked but when I braked my 60's mercedes immediatley aquaplaned - it had just started to rain, worst possible time to have accident. All I could do was take foot off, steer straight ahead and wait. I felt Front wheels grip just before we got to the car in front, I imediately flicked the wheel and we literally just hugged around the car in front into the next lane. Thoght I was safe then heard more skidding and saw a car lurching around in the mirror behind me, so I accellerated and navigated to side of the road slipping and sliding all the time. OF course the idiot drove off quickly before I had recovered enough to want to chase them.
Looking at this accident, speed was a factor. But it seems the age of the car was also a big factor given the modern car in front of me seemed to stop OK. Also the tyres were most probably old with hardened rubber since I usually got 2nd hand tyres, and the wet oily road condition was probably the biggest factor of all. The other factor was I knew how to handle the situation. An average driver would have certainly been doomed since they would have kept the brakes on and slammed into the car at 80 to 100 kph - serious injury at the least.

So it's quite a good illustration of most of the points that have been brought up. Good tyres are very important, driving skills even more important, and road surface must be allowed for. And driving is dangerous full-stop since there is always the occasional retard that does something moronic in front of you. In fact freeways are much safer since you don't have crossroads and can more easily keep well away from other cars.
Absolutely agree that if the TAC was serious they would mandate better driver training, much more important than squeezing the speed limit all the time.

[Hugor]

I work on a spinal injuries unit looking after lots of young males who unfortunately are paraplegic and quadriplegic as a result of accidents contributed by speed and alcohol. The common attitudes are "it's not my fault, they cut in front of me or there was a pot hole". They soon realise that though these things might be true they wouldn't be permanently disabled if they were driving at appropriate speeds because they would have seen it and been in a position to avoid the accident, and secondly the airbags/seatbelts/helmets/etc might have had a chance to prevent the severities of their injuries.
Now I was like you Bokka once. I lost my licence for 3 years for going more than a hundred over the speed limit, late at night when there was nobody else on the road in a V8 VN commodore with all the sporty gear. I similarly thought I could drive better than anybody else could and owned a better car so it was my right to do so. I am happy I'm here to type this and look back on this time knowing I was an idiot. I now happily drive my Patrol and get my adrenaline in the bush.
The facts are:
Speeding does make it harder to avoid morons and obstacles on the road of which there are plenty I'm sure you'll all agree.
Australian country roads are not well maintained, narrow, and mostly used by country folk who are not used to the pace of city driving.
If you want to speed there are plenty of clubs around and you can do it on appropriate speedcourses at your own peril. Membership is a lot cheaper than infringements. You will soon also realise than you are not as god gifted as you once thought you were. I did this.
The government does have the right to revenue raise when they pay for your healthcare and disability allowances for the rest of your unpleasant life once you are injured.
A speed limit is exactly that; not the recomended speed, so going 10 over deserves punishment.

[CQ]

"The government does have the right to revenue raise when they pay for your healthcare and disability allowances for the rest of your unpleasant life once you are injured."

The amount of money they'd get from fines compared to what they'd spend on injured people would be way more.

They should be spending it on prevention. Spending it on fixing roads, especially widening country roads which don't have sealed shoulders, theres always a truck coming the other way hogging into your lane and its quite hard to get out the way without driving on gravel.

Taxing the fk out of ciggies is all good though, people know it kills them, still proceed to smoke and heaps of hospital beds are taken up everyday by people with smoking related illnesses.

I feel sorry for people who were hooked on things like the 'all cool' marlboro man, because they've been smoking a long time and it would be very hard for them to quit.
but people who have started smoking KNOWING the dangers deserve all they get i reckon.

[CQ]

BTW 3ks over wouldn't make an iota of difference, thats what annoys me about this revenue raising.

[Hugor]

[They should be spending it on prevention. Spending it on fixing roads, especially widening country roads which don't have sealed shoulders, theres always a truck coming the other way hogging into your lane and its quite hard to get out the way without driving on gravel.]

Reducing your speed does prevent accidents due to these things while road maintenance is prioritised and managed accordingly.

Any idea how many kilometers of country roads there are in Oz and how much money is required to redo the whole lot?
The notorious Pacific highway between the NSW central coast and Qld border is estimated to cost more than 10 billion to redo and so far it has taken more than 5 years to complete less than 30% of it! There is only 18 million of us to pay for that alone, not to mention all the other roads that need an overhaul like the Princes highway or countless minor country roads.

Be realistic mate! Take your fluffy dice down and have a look at the real world.

So what do you want them to do? Let you guys speed for no real good reason while they pay for your healthcare, pension cheques, state housing, and public wheelchair ramps while their still forking out 10 billion to redo just one small bit of it! Young, overconfident, speeding males are the highest risk group and they should pay, just like smokers do for their health costs.

Check your facts too. It costs over 100 thousand dollars to get one severely injured fellow out of hospital. Dont believe me? The bed alone costs about $700 per day and most of these guys take about 3 - 4 months to get out of hospital. We havn't even started on surgery costs, aftercare, your financial welfare, equipment etc, etc, etc and the fact that you will contribute nothing for this or to society for the rest of your miserable life. Do you really think your $100 speeding ticket contributes much?[/quote]

[Dr Alf Andrews]

[CQ]

[Eunos]

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9907568%255E661,00.html

At the moment no suggestion of excessive speed.
Now the debate will start about whether "L" platers are allowed to drive V8's, are allowed to have more than 1 passenger, how they should be restricted to certain times of the day.
My wife says that this young girl should not have been driving in the rain. I disagree. How do you learn to cope with all weather conditions? Do you ban L's from rain, night or country roads? Unlikely.
I do have a suspicion that poor roads may have had a hand in this tragedy. If the car dipped a rear wheel into gravel and the driver, with the aid of power steering, over corrected, the result could be what we see on the link.
We must pour more money into roads and driver training.
Prevention, not penalty is the only cure.