We have all seen/heard of vehicles being impounded for hooning offences. The vehicle is impounded for longer periods for each subsequent offence until eventually it is crushed.
My question is : Why aren't phones confiscated. We constantly hear of people guilty of multiple infringements and eventually can forfeit their licence due to loss of points.
BUT THEY KEEP THEIR PHONE!! WHY?
Cheers
Hurls
Mike Harding said
05:01 AM Sep 19, 2019
You're too soft!
On the spot execution is the only way!
denmonkey said
09:55 AM Sep 19, 2019
phones are cheap compared to a car, thus less a deterrent. I figure thats the philosophy.
I know which I'd prefer to lose.
'
Dougwe said
11:01 AM Sep 19, 2019
Mike Harding wrote:
You're too soft!
On the spot execution is the only way!
Mike, the braves in my tribe just finished sharpening their scalping knives and are very restless as you can see. Maybe they could be used to solve the problem.
dogbox said
11:27 AM Sep 19, 2019
denmonkey wrote:
phones are cheap compared to a car, thus less a deterrent. I figure thats the philosophy.
I know which I'd prefer to lose.
'
but what an inconvenience they would have to put their lives on hold till they got anew one
Olive Oil said
01:52 PM Sep 19, 2019
Let them keep their phone but make the penalty an automatic one year loss of licence plus a $1,000 fine.
yobarr said
02:45 PM Sep 19, 2019
Olive Oil wrote:
Let them keep their phone but make the penalty an automatic one year loss of licence plus a $1,000 fine.
Loss of licence is a non-event for many people,as evidenced by the number of unlicenced drivers on the road.Many immigrant drivers cannot speak any English.How can they possibly hold a drivers licence? And if the driver is in a borrowed or company car,he will not be too worried if that car is confiscated.I like Mike's suggestion,but the "Do gooders" won't let that happen either! Cheers
And I have just learned how to put an apostrophe into a sentence while using an iPad!!
T1 Terry said
05:23 PM Sep 19, 2019
What about those of us who use the phone as a navigation device with Google maps? We aren't actually holding the phone or using it to speak on, but it's not in a holder as such because it won't fit in the things unless it comes out of its protective cover.
The bit that gets me is it is quite legal to carry on a heated argument on the mobile phone (hands free in a holder) or with the person in the passenger seat yet this must be just as distracting as holding the phone against your ear. I was trapped behind a van (along with quite a few other vehicles) driven by (I'm guessing an Italian) woman was having a heated argument over the phone, complete with the frantic hand waving and swaying from side to side as her weight shifted, also moving from one side of her lane to the other on a 3 lane road and travelling at 30km/h in an 80km/h zone. No one was game to pass either side because it was hard to determine if she was actually about to change lanes without signalling. Finally as she went in one direction each car would dart past on the opposite side, slow down in front a bit to see what was going on, then take off up the road. I reckon everyone thought it was a hen pecked husband that was in the passenger seat and we all felt sorry for him, but when we passed she was the only one in the van but the phone was up in view above the dash and she was going off a treat at it :lol:
T1 Terry
boab said
09:15 PM Sep 19, 2019
how about using a 2 way i recon talking on a phone is an easy money grab
dogbox said
10:02 PM Sep 19, 2019
boab wrote:
how about using a 2 way i recon talking on a phone is an easy money grab
cb radios where illegal to have in a motor vehicle once upon a time (18 channel/23 channel?) them u had to have a licence then they where designated a safety device and legal
phones became a safety hazard when people started texting. talking on the phone was not the problem but to type a text and to read a text people where distracted for to long so the simple answer was ban the phone period. prior to phone one of the biggest causes of distraction was playing with the radio or changing a cd
boab said
11:46 AM Sep 20, 2019
as i said talking in my view is not a problem texting should incur similar punishment as drunk driving
Rob Driver said
09:36 AM Sep 21, 2019
I can not for the life of me, understand why a mobile phone can not have a block out facility that at the least, prevents it from working for both text and talk when it is moving. It cant be that hard when these smart phones have GPS ability built in. The GPS that is fitted to many vehicles from new do not permit using it while in motion. I would have thought this to be a no brainer. Something needs to be done as self regulating there use while driving only works when the user has a brain.
Regards
Rob
-- Edited by bentaxlebabe on Saturday 21st of September 2019 09:36:40 AM
T1 Terry said
11:09 AM Sep 21, 2019
Can you see the govt acting to cut off a great source of revenue? If they were truly safety oriented all police vehicles would be clearly marked and spend their time being seen in accident hot spots. Do they do that, no, they set up "traps" and put cameras up every where to generate income. In NSW there has to be a sign that can clearly be seen in the photograph when speed cameras are used, the other states put up a notice on TV and radio (and possibly the papers if people still read such things) to tell what areas are being targeted the next day, their loop hole for getting out of the entrapment part of federal law.
Even a cruise control is a back to front device, it should limit the max speed and the drive responsible for operating the accelerator. Every vehicle with cruise control has a speed monitoring device as part of the system already, not hard to tie that to the GPS that can read the road speed for that particular area and it wouldn't be hard to send up a signal to the satellite from each speed sign including road works. they already use the satellite to control the blade on a grader, so they have the technology.
The whole fines and point loss as a safety intuitive is utter nonsense and a very thinly veiled lie, it is revenue collection that all govt now rely on to pay their wages. It would nearly be acceptable is that money went back into improving roads and genuine road safety measures, but it doesn't, it goes into more revenue collection equipment and general revenue
T1 Terry
Stretch60 said
08:02 AM Sep 24, 2019
I refuse to pay a speeding tax, therefore I obey speed limits, simple.
yobarr said
08:28 AM Sep 24, 2019
bentaxlebabe wrote:
I can not for the life of me, understand why a mobile phone can not have a block out facility that at the least, prevents it from working for both text and talk when it is moving. It cant be that hard when these smart phones have GPS ability built in. The GPS that is fitted to many vehicles from new do not permit using it while in motion. I would have thought this to be a no brainer. Something needs to be done as self regulating there use while driving only works when the user has a brain.
Regards
Rob
-- Edited by bentaxlebabe on Saturday 21st of September 2019 09:36:40 AM
What about the other passengers in the car,or people travelling on public transport,or even pedestrians? Cheers
Valkie said
09:08 AM Sep 24, 2019
T1 Terry wrote:
Can you see the govt acting to cut off a great source of revenue? If they were truly safety oriented all police vehicles would be clearly marked and spend their time being seen in accident hot spots. Do they do that, no, they set up "traps" and put cameras up every where to generate income. In NSW there has to be a sign that can clearly be seen in the photograph when speed cameras are used, the other states put up a notice on TV and radio (and possibly the papers if people still read such things) to tell what areas are being targeted the next day, their loop hole for getting out of the entrapment part of federal law. Even a cruise control is a back to front device, it should limit the max speed and the drive responsible for operating the accelerator. Every vehicle with cruise control has a speed monitoring device as part of the system already, not hard to tie that to the GPS that can read the road speed for that particular area and it wouldn't be hard to send up a signal to the satellite from each speed sign including road works. they already use the satellite to control the blade on a grader, so they have the technology. The whole fines and point loss as a safety intuitive is utter nonsense and a very thinly veiled lie, it is revenue collection that all govt now rely on to pay their wages. It would nearly be acceptable is that money went back into improving roads and genuine road safety measures, but it doesn't, it goes into more revenue collection equipment and general revenue
T1 Terry
I'm with you, I believe its a revenue exercise.
You will probably remember when they were called out for revenue raising with the greed $cameras,
The grubberment (RTA) increased the demerit points to 3 points for any speeding offence (x2 for revenue season)
But too many people started losing their licences.
Lost licence = no work = dole = income loss to the grubberment.
So they changed it again and for the 90% of "speeders" in the up to 10klm/hr over the limit, they reduced the demerits to 1 point and increased the fines.
best of both worlds more money = less licence loss = income secured.
These mobile phone $cameras have been rolled out because people are not speeding as much.
$peed Revenue is down, as one poster said "I don't pay tax, I don't speed"
Fair enough, but I have been booked when I wasn't speeding and it took far too much effort to prove them wrong.
No apology, no admission, when they knew they lost they simply packed up and withdrew the charge.
That way I couldn't take out a class action.
I work in an industry heavily reliant on electronics and technical know how.
It would be sooooooo easy to stop people speeding.
Passive Transponders could be placed into the road (at a ridiculously cheap cost)
Sensors on the car could be linked to the computer and as you pass over a transponder, the car speed could be limited.
I would pay to have these things fitted to my car without hesitation, You could never speed again.
But that would cut deeply into the hundreds of millions the grubberment gains from $greed $cameras.
Likewise this mobile phone exercise.
With $peed revenue down, they need a new income, Bingo, mobile phone use.
So simply fixed with an app to shut down texting when in a car, but ZERO revenue.
And yet, if its sooooo dangerous, our highly trained "pleases men and women" can use them? Go figure?
Next, when that revenue stream runs out, it will be
eating
drinking
talking
smiling
perhaps even yawning when behind the wheel.
The bigger problem is our roads, pathetic goat tracks that are seriously deficient.
But keep the pressure on road users and no one mentions the dangerous roads.
dogbox said
12:41 PM Sep 24, 2019
don't drink drive, speed, talk on phone, park illegally, cross solid lines ect avoid paying volunteer taxes
T1 Terry said
12:54 PM Sep 24, 2019
The whole thing will fall in a heap once autonomous vehicles become main stream. No actual driver so who cops the speeding offence? No one is the driver so no longer any mobile phone offences. No one need own a car in the more densely populated areas because it would be easier to arrange transport via an app so never have to pay rego, car insurance, parking stations, police revenue raisers, never even have to fuel up the vehicle or check the tyres and oil etc.
The whole service station and parking station system will fall into a heap, revenue generation from tollways, parking fines etc all gone so Macquarie Bank will be stuck with their parking station and toll way portfolio that becomes worthless virtually over night.
The real money will be in private satellites that communicate with these autonomous vehicles, time leased to the company that runs the fleet or they might even have that as part of their business structure, autonomous vehicles and private satellites. Then autonomous trucks so no more rest stop requirements and log book crap, maybe even a way to put the motorhome etc on the system so it drives to the next destination you plotted in or selected from the drop down menu.
A whole new world, but where will the govt and greedy private enterprise get the dirty money? I guess many of us will see the change within our life time, I wonder if we will look back on these times as the "Good ol' days" before control of everything was handed over to someone else.
No more exciting TV watching the crazy get away driving where twice as many police cars are wrecked as parked cars, yet the offenders seem to be able to keep going.
T1 Terry
Rob Driver said
01:08 PM Sep 24, 2019
yobarr wrote:
bentaxlebabe wrote:
I can not for the life of me, understand why a mobile phone can not have a block out facility that at the least, prevents it from working for both text and talk when it is moving. It cant be that hard when these smart phones have GPS ability built in. The GPS that is fitted to many vehicles from new do not permit using it while in motion. I would have thought this to be a no brainer. Something needs to be done as self regulating there use while driving only works when the user has a brain.
Regards
Rob
-- Edited by bentaxlebabe on Saturday 21st of September 2019 09:36:40 AM
What about the other passengers in the car,or people travelling on public transport,or even pedestrians? Cheers
It wasnt that long ago we all survived waiting to get home to use the phone or email.
The use of phones for texting and talking while driving is a proven cause of many fatal road accidents.
There are even videos documenting accidents that happen while people are texting while walking.
I am not for one minute suggesting to stop all functions of the phone while mobile...only text and phone functions.
To Have a family member or loved one killed or injured while some irresponsible person is texting or using the phone while driving is for me, enough to put in a place a function to prevent the use this technology while on the move.
Fatal accidents are very real in this scenario.
Regards
Rob
Knight said
01:11 PM Sep 24, 2019
New South Wales has just introduced mobile phone detecting cameras that photograph driver and passenger in passing vehicles, cameras all relocatable.
yobarr said
01:40 PM Sep 24, 2019
i
T1 Terry wrote:
The whole thing will fall in a heap once autonomous vehicles become main stream. No actual driver so who cops the speeding offence? No one is the driver so no longer any mobile phone offences. No one need own a car in the more densely populated areas because it would be easier to arrange transport via an app so never have to pay rego, car insurance, parking stations, police revenue raisers, never even have to fuel up the vehicle or check the tyres and oil etc. The whole service station and parking station system will fall into a heap, revenue generation from tollways, parking fines etc all gone so Macquarie Bank will be stuck with their parking station and toll way portfolio that becomes worthless virtually over night.
The real money will be in private satellites that communicate with these autonomous vehicles, time leased to the company that runs the fleet or they might even have that as part of their business structure, autonomous vehicles and private satellites. Then autonomous trucks so no more rest stop requirements and log book crap, maybe even a way to put the motorhome etc on the system so it drives to the next destination you plotted in or selected from the drop down menu. A whole new world, but where will the govt and greedy private enterprise get the dirty money? I guess many of us will see the change within our life time, I wonder if we will look back on these times as the "Good ol' days" before control of everything was handed over to someone else. No more exciting TV watching the crazy get away driving where twice as many police cars are wrecked as parked cars, yet the offenders seem to be able to keep going.
T1 Terry
Hi Terry...and what a boring world it will be! One of lifes remaining simple pleasures is driving sideways in a high powered car,530hp in my case.And I used to love driving 1000km/day in my B-Double,even though the financial rewards were lousy. These days,everything is over-regulated,and there is far too much PC rubbish,with rules made by idiots with no idea of how the real world operates,which is why I'm going bush......forever.In Queensland anybody who is employed by (not working for) the Govt is to get a $1250 bonus,while farmers,who put food on our tables,are screaming for help,desperate for any help they can get.It would be prudent to perhaps build a decent sized dam to help drought-proof the state,but obviously too much thinking involved there.Enough tor now.Cheers
T1 Terry said
04:40 PM Sep 24, 2019
Sadly the whole sorry tale of the previous dam building attempt and the "dammed if you do and dammed if you didn't" with the big dam crap when the floods were on, even talking about building dams is just too hard and creates too bigga stick to get thrashed with these days. Even talk of using abandoned quarries and mine sites for storage water regen plants gets people's knickers in a twist.
Why no govt will bit the bullet and tunnel from one of the rivers that just dump good water out to sea and divert it back into the inland river system that irrigates a huge part of Australia is beyond me ... just too hard maybe? They could even use solar powered pumps and channels or similar, but that takes thought projection beyond the next election cycle and spending money rather than shouting great things about returning the budget to a surplus. What the hell value is money in the bank collecting sfa in interest when it could be providing jobs and something that could protect Australia's future food security.
I think the real problem is we have a govt run by accountants. You know the story about how to build a struggling small business, let an accountant run a large successful big business for 12 mths ....
Remember all those service stations, on advice from the accountants, sacked their mechanic and turned the workshop into a video hire shop, where are they now? Still a lot of mechanical workshops that don't have the guaranteed passing trade the petrol bowsers gave them, so it wasn't the mechanical workshop that didn't make money, just the accountants advising what made the best money didn't understand the dynamics of how a servo works. The pollies we have now seem to be suffering the same thing by not understanding the dynamics of how a govt and infrastructure works, all they see is assets they can sell for a quick $$ and then quick methods of replacing the revenue they lost by selling the asset and funding the snouts now in the trough that sprang up after that sell off money made some easy feed for the top heavy management system that created the problem in the first place.
T1 Terry
Valkie said
07:45 PM Sep 25, 2019
It's a shame e the roads and maritime don't actually fix the real problem
PATHETIC ROADS
I have driven on roads all over the world.
Europe, Sweden, Finland, the good ol USA even China.
And in every case their roads are better than the goat tracks we laughing refer to as highways.
I drive the M1 from Wyong to Newcastle nearly every day.
The road has more patches that a patchwork quilt convention.
More potholes than a teenagers face.
Water pools in several places and it is the single most uncomfortable ride because you are being bounced from pillar to post as you drive down this poor excuse for a road.
They have been working on an upgrade from Wyong to Sparks Rd interchange for 5 or 6 years and are no further along than when they started.
This is simply a rort
I'd love to know which public servants are getting a kickback from the construction company to turn a blind eye, because if I was in charge of the project, heads would roll.
In China they could build that road in less than a year.
In the USA they woukd have it done in 12 months.
It's a total joke, and people are dying on this road.
T1 Terry said
12:24 PM Sep 26, 2019
I won't use China as a shining example, they have dreadful problems with corruption resulting in poor build quality and highways and bridges to no where that have never been used but are failing already.
As far as US highways, there is a reason why they are so big and so well built, they are all aircraft landing zones if needed. These are funded from the military budget, the back roads funded by the local govts aren't super highways by any stretch of the imagination.
But you are right on the money about appalling roads, just look at what was the great bench mark for good highways, the Hume south of the border. If it wasn't for the patches overlapping there wouldn't be a tar surface at all. Once it was such a relief to get off the NSW goat track and onto the Victorian freeway, now it's the other way around.
T1 Terry
Greg 1 said
11:53 AM Sep 30, 2019
Whilst I can get a bit heated over speed cameras nailing people for 5ks over the limit, as speed measuring equipment both in cars and cameras have in built inaccuracies, I have to say that next to drugs and drink driving, distracted drivers are one of the largest causes of accidents in this country, and I support any effort to limit that happening.
Prior to retiring, I spent a great deal of my life behind the wheel for employment and the stuff that I witnessed on a daily basis on our roads was just breathtaking in its stupidity. There should be a law for criminal stupidity in my opinion.
The number of times I have seen people, young women in particular, texting whilst doing 100kph down a major freeway and weaving all over the road doing it, I have lost count. Accidents looking for a place to happen.
The compentency of a large number of drivers on our roads has to be called into question and you would have to ask if our testing regimes for obtaining a license is anything like it needs to be to ensure people are achieving a good enough standard to be let loose on our roads,
Valkie said
01:58 PM Sep 30, 2019
Greg 1 wrote:
Whilst I can get a bit heated over speed cameras nailing people for 5ks over the limit, as speed measuring equipment both in cars and cameras have in built inaccuracies, I have to say that next to drugs and drink driving, distracted drivers are one of the largest causes of accidents in this country, and I support any effort to limit that happening.
Prior to retiring, I spent a great deal of my life behind the wheel for employment and the stuff that I witnessed on a daily basis on our roads was just breathtaking in its stupidity. There should be a law for criminal stupidity in my opinion.
The number of times I have seen people, young women in particular, texting whilst doing 100kph down a major freeway and weaving all over the road doing it, I have lost count. Accidents looking for a place to happen.
The compentency of a large number of drivers on our roads has to be called into question and you would have to ask if our testing regimes for obtaining a license is anything like it needs to be to ensure people are achieving a good enough standard to be let loose on our roads,
An interesting side note.
I work in the mining industry, one of the most regulated and regularly checked industries on earth.
10 or 12 years ago, when I rolled up on site, we were advised that there was breath and drug testing to be carried out that morning.
Approx 20% called in sick.
Of those tested we still had about 10% who went over on alcohol or drugs.
Now, these guys are aware that they may be tested (and today its almost a daily occurrence).
But back then it was only a 50% chance, still quite high in my mind.
And yet 30% of the workforce either didn't turn up (because they knew they were over) or blew big.
Today, testing is more frequent, but the miners know exactly how long specific drugs stay in the system, to the hour sometimes.
Why would anyone need to know that? Unless
Our company does random drug and breath tests on a regular basis, we still get around 10% blowing over and about 2% for drugs each time.
Now, these people know the chances of getting busted are reasonably high.
The repercussions quite severe, from being stood down for weeks to full sacking.
and yet we still get those indulging excessively.
The average Joe we see on the road daily has no such fear.
The chances of being busted are so small as to hardly count.
Extrapolating on the premise that around 30% of drivers could be drugged, drunk or at least affected by drugs or alcohol, it means that one in every three drivers is not working 100%
Add prescription drugs to the mix (yes that warning on the packet is real) and add fatigue from long hours, sleepless kids or simply the unwell.
We could have up to 60% of drivers not being fully in control of their vehicles, this gets worse during holidays.
now 2 in every 3 drivers are dangerous, bit of a worry eh?
And the final stats that will tip the scales.
How many vehicles are fully maintained as they should be?
Older vehicles that don't brake or control all that well.
Older drivers that will not admit that they are not 20 any more.
Young drivers that are bullet proof and love texting
The crap roads that destroy suspension and have no barrier between two vehicles travelling at a closing speed of 200 klm/hr.
Add a bit of rain, oily roads, impatience, anger and we have a ****tail of circumstances that contrive to kill off people.
Its quite a concern.
When I rode motorcycles I was taught to plan ahead.
To expect the unexpected
To think that all drivers were deliberately trying to kill me.
It saved my hide many times, and continues to this day.
My advice.
Trust no one.
Expect every driver to do the most stupid thing imaginable.
Keep a good distance from the car in front
And most importantly, always be on the lookout for an escape route, somewhere to head if things go really bad.
I plan to live until I am a burden on the grubberment, so I never take chances.
Hi All,
We have all seen/heard of vehicles being impounded for hooning offences. The vehicle is impounded for longer periods for each subsequent offence until eventually it is crushed.
My question is : Why aren't phones confiscated. We constantly hear of people guilty of multiple infringements and eventually can forfeit their licence due to loss of points.
BUT THEY KEEP THEIR PHONE!! WHY?
Cheers
Hurls
You're too soft!
On the spot execution is the only way!
I know which I'd prefer to lose.
'
Mike, the braves in my tribe just finished sharpening their scalping knives and are very restless as you can see. Maybe they could be used to solve the problem.
but what an inconvenience they would have to put their lives on hold till they got anew one
Loss of licence is a non-event for many people,as evidenced by the number of unlicenced drivers on the road.Many immigrant drivers cannot speak any English.How can they possibly hold a drivers licence? And if the driver is in a borrowed or company car,he will not be too worried if that car is confiscated.I like Mike's suggestion,but the "Do gooders" won't let that happen either! Cheers
And I have just learned how to put an apostrophe into a sentence while using an iPad!!
The bit that gets me is it is quite legal to carry on a heated argument on the mobile phone (hands free in a holder) or with the person in the passenger seat yet this must be just as distracting as holding the phone against your ear. I was trapped behind a van (along with quite a few other vehicles) driven by (I'm guessing an Italian) woman was having a heated argument over the phone, complete with the frantic hand waving and swaying from side to side as her weight shifted, also moving from one side of her lane to the other on a 3 lane road and travelling at 30km/h in an 80km/h zone. No one was game to pass either side because it was hard to determine if she was actually about to change lanes without signalling. Finally as she went in one direction each car would dart past on the opposite side, slow down in front a bit to see what was going on, then take off up the road. I reckon everyone thought it was a hen pecked husband that was in the passenger seat and we all felt sorry for him, but when we passed she was the only one in the van but the phone was up in view above the dash and she was going off a treat at it :lol:
T1 Terry
cb radios where illegal to have in a motor vehicle once upon a time (18 channel/23 channel?) them u had to have a licence then they where designated a safety device and legal
phones became a safety hazard when people started texting. talking on the phone was not the problem but to type a text and to read a text people where distracted for to long so the simple answer was ban the phone period.
prior to phone one of the biggest causes of distraction was playing with the radio or changing a cd
I can not for the life of me, understand why a mobile phone can not have a block out facility that at the least, prevents it from working for both text and talk when it is moving.
It cant be that hard when these smart phones have GPS ability built in. The GPS that is fitted to many vehicles from new do not permit using it while in motion.
I would have thought this to be a no brainer. Something needs to be done as self regulating there use while driving only works when the user has a brain.
Regards
Rob
-- Edited by bentaxlebabe on Saturday 21st of September 2019 09:36:40 AM
Even a cruise control is a back to front device, it should limit the max speed and the drive responsible for operating the accelerator. Every vehicle with cruise control has a speed monitoring device as part of the system already, not hard to tie that to the GPS that can read the road speed for that particular area and it wouldn't be hard to send up a signal to the satellite from each speed sign including road works. they already use the satellite to control the blade on a grader, so they have the technology.
The whole fines and point loss as a safety intuitive is utter nonsense and a very thinly veiled lie, it is revenue collection that all govt now rely on to pay their wages. It would nearly be acceptable is that money went back into improving roads and genuine road safety measures, but it doesn't, it goes into more revenue collection equipment and general revenue
T1 Terry
What about the other passengers in the car,or people travelling on public transport,or even pedestrians? Cheers
The whole service station and parking station system will fall into a heap, revenue generation from tollways, parking fines etc all gone so Macquarie Bank will be stuck with their parking station and toll way portfolio that becomes worthless virtually over night.
The real money will be in private satellites that communicate with these autonomous vehicles, time leased to the company that runs the fleet or they might even have that as part of their business structure, autonomous vehicles and private satellites. Then autonomous trucks so no more rest stop requirements and log book crap, maybe even a way to put the motorhome etc on the system so it drives to the next destination you plotted in or selected from the drop down menu.
A whole new world, but where will the govt and greedy private enterprise get the dirty money? I guess many of us will see the change within our life time, I wonder if we will look back on these times as the "Good ol' days" before control of everything was handed over to someone else.
No more exciting TV watching the crazy get away driving where twice as many police cars are wrecked as parked cars, yet the offenders seem to be able to keep going.
T1 Terry
It wasnt that long ago we all survived waiting to get home to use the phone or email.
The use of phones for texting and talking while driving is a proven cause of many fatal road accidents.
There are even videos documenting accidents that happen while people are texting while walking.
I am not for one minute suggesting to stop all functions of the phone while mobile...only text and phone functions.
To Have a family member or loved one killed or injured while some irresponsible person is texting or using the phone while driving is for me, enough to put in a place a function to prevent the use this technology while on the move.
Fatal accidents are very real in this scenario.
Regards
Rob
i
Hi Terry...and what a boring world it will be! One of lifes remaining simple pleasures is driving sideways in a high powered car,530hp in my case.And I used to love driving 1000km/day in my B-Double,even though the financial rewards were lousy. These days,everything is over-regulated,and there is far too much PC rubbish,with rules made by idiots with no idea of how the real world operates,which is why I'm going bush......forever.In Queensland anybody who is employed by (not working for) the Govt is to get a $1250 bonus,while farmers,who put food on our tables,are screaming for help,desperate for any help they can get.It would be prudent to perhaps build a decent sized dam to help drought-proof the state,but obviously too much thinking involved there.Enough tor now.Cheers
Why no govt will bit the bullet and tunnel from one of the rivers that just dump good water out to sea and divert it back into the inland river system that irrigates a huge part of Australia is beyond me ... just too hard maybe? They could even use solar powered pumps and channels or similar, but that takes thought projection beyond the next election cycle and spending money rather than shouting great things about returning the budget to a surplus. What the hell value is money in the bank collecting sfa in interest when it could be providing jobs and something that could protect Australia's future food security.
I think the real problem is we have a govt run by accountants. You know the story about how to build a struggling small business, let an accountant run a large successful big business for 12 mths ....
Remember all those service stations, on advice from the accountants, sacked their mechanic and turned the workshop into a video hire shop, where are they now? Still a lot of mechanical workshops that don't have the guaranteed passing trade the petrol bowsers gave them, so it wasn't the mechanical workshop that didn't make money, just the accountants advising what made the best money didn't understand the dynamics of how a servo works. The pollies we have now seem to be suffering the same thing by not understanding the dynamics of how a govt and infrastructure works, all they see is assets they can sell for a quick $$ and then quick methods of replacing the revenue they lost by selling the asset and funding the snouts now in the trough that sprang up after that sell off money made some easy feed for the top heavy management system that created the problem in the first place.
T1 Terry
As far as US highways, there is a reason why they are so big and so well built, they are all aircraft landing zones if needed. These are funded from the military budget, the back roads funded by the local govts aren't super highways by any stretch of the imagination.
But you are right on the money about appalling roads, just look at what was the great bench mark for good highways, the Hume south of the border. If it wasn't for the patches overlapping there wouldn't be a tar surface at all. Once it was such a relief to get off the NSW goat track and onto the Victorian freeway, now it's the other way around.
T1 Terry
Whilst I can get a bit heated over speed cameras nailing people for 5ks over the limit, as speed measuring equipment both in cars and cameras have in built inaccuracies, I have to say that next to drugs and drink driving, distracted drivers are one of the largest causes of accidents in this country, and I support any effort to limit that happening.
Prior to retiring, I spent a great deal of my life behind the wheel for employment and the stuff that I witnessed on a daily basis on our roads was just breathtaking in its stupidity. There should be a law for criminal stupidity in my opinion.
The number of times I have seen people, young women in particular, texting whilst doing 100kph down a major freeway and weaving all over the road doing it, I have lost count. Accidents looking for a place to happen.
The compentency of a large number of drivers on our roads has to be called into question and you would have to ask if our testing regimes for obtaining a license is anything like it needs to be to ensure people are achieving a good enough standard to be let loose on our roads,
An interesting side note.
I work in the mining industry, one of the most regulated and regularly checked industries on earth.
10 or 12 years ago, when I rolled up on site, we were advised that there was breath and drug testing to be carried out that morning.
Approx 20% called in sick.
Of those tested we still had about 10% who went over on alcohol or drugs.
Now, these guys are aware that they may be tested (and today its almost a daily occurrence).
But back then it was only a 50% chance, still quite high in my mind.
And yet 30% of the workforce either didn't turn up (because they knew they were over) or blew big.
Today, testing is more frequent, but the miners know exactly how long specific drugs stay in the system, to the hour sometimes.
Why would anyone need to know that? Unless
Our company does random drug and breath tests on a regular basis, we still get around 10% blowing over and about 2% for drugs each time.
Now, these people know the chances of getting busted are reasonably high.
The repercussions quite severe, from being stood down for weeks to full sacking.
and yet we still get those indulging excessively.
The average Joe we see on the road daily has no such fear.
The chances of being busted are so small as to hardly count.
Extrapolating on the premise that around 30% of drivers could be drugged, drunk or at least affected by drugs or alcohol, it means that one in every three drivers is not working 100%
Add prescription drugs to the mix (yes that warning on the packet is real) and add fatigue from long hours, sleepless kids or simply the unwell.
We could have up to 60% of drivers not being fully in control of their vehicles, this gets worse during holidays.
now 2 in every 3 drivers are dangerous, bit of a worry eh?
And the final stats that will tip the scales.
How many vehicles are fully maintained as they should be?
Older vehicles that don't brake or control all that well.
Older drivers that will not admit that they are not 20 any more.
Young drivers that are bullet proof and love texting
The crap roads that destroy suspension and have no barrier between two vehicles travelling at a closing speed of 200 klm/hr.
Add a bit of rain, oily roads, impatience, anger and we have a ****tail of circumstances that contrive to kill off people.
Its quite a concern.
When I rode motorcycles I was taught to plan ahead.
To expect the unexpected
To think that all drivers were deliberately trying to kill me.
It saved my hide many times, and continues to this day.
My advice.
Trust no one.
Expect every driver to do the most stupid thing imaginable.
Keep a good distance from the car in front
And most importantly, always be on the lookout for an escape route, somewhere to head if things go really bad.
I plan to live until I am a burden on the grubberment, so I never take chances.