Fatality Free Friday - this Friday 28 May

[Buller_Scott]

Seeing as this thread's turned to the ****ter, I'll add my rant.

The other day while at QT, I saw a newly landed immigrant go straight from his native license to his OPEN AUSTRALIAN license. I mean WTF? Someone who doesn't know the local laws goes straight to an unrestricted license without having to perform a written or practical driving test, and these are the people that are permitted to drive our taxis! While I, born and raised in the state of Queensland has to go through 3 years of restrictions when I'm fully aware of the laws and regulations when it comes to driving.

sorry- this has nothing to do with ethnicity, but i would COMPLETELY agree with that.

why? because of experience. as in, when i was 14 years old, and on school holiday in indonesia, i sat a written test, and did a brief driving test, and i was awarded my license.

had i been 20 instead, say, it mightnt have been very hard to come over here under an international drivers license, if not transferring it to a full license.

but yeah. cash on the table buys 14 year old boy a proper, not provisional/ learners, license. this, despite him [me] having trouble with hillstarts, not being able to understand most of the written element of the test, not being able to reverse between the slalom-cones, etc. but knowing how to do donuts on mine site roads.

wonder how difficult [i.e. expensive] it is to get a full license in some of the birthplaces of our cabbies? my indonesian one cost about $15.

[Maverick]

My issue is there should be mandatory drivers tests every few years and for international tourists that visit. E.g. Lake Leake H'Way in Tas. I have driven that road and been the only "local" car (give or take a few log trucks), on my occassional drives along this highway almost every time there is a tourist doing a 3 pt turn on a bind corner, there is a car on my side of the road coming around a blind corner or there is a rental car down an embankment. My husband drives that road every week and I can't start my day properly until i get the phonecall to say he has arrived safely.

Isn't that a little OTT? What are the chances of being killed on the road? They are minuscule and not worth worrying about.

I think Fatality Free Friday is a great idea - whether it is going to be effective or not is up to each individual. There are always going to be terrible drivers out there, and it is unfair that the ones that do drive safely get caught up in their mess. However, i know that when i drive i pay attention and i know that I am the best chance I have of getting to my destination in one piece.

I would bet there is no driver who can claim they are always well rested, able to pay full attention to the road and in a good state of mind before they go driving.

When i did my defensive driving course i was told that nearly all "crashes" can be avoided, the only "accident" is when a car is stationary and gets hit.

It's not necessarily an accident if your car is hit when stationary, plenty of people pull over in inappropriate yet legal places and are hit and at least they are partially responsible for the accident. Any accident on the hard shoulder where a car is hit is really the fault of the driver who pulled over, the majority of the time people have pulled over for pointless reasons and they should have pulled over on a road off the highway/motorway. The only valid reason to pull over is if your car is disabled and the car should be vacated if safe and the occupants should relocate somewhere safe.

Surely if someone has an undiagnosed brain aneurysm and crashes head on into another car this is an accident whereas if someone pulls over because their child has to peepee on a highway and gets collected by a truck this is at best partially the car drivers fault.

[maca]

sorry- this has nothing to do with ethnicity, but i would COMPLETELY agree with that.

why? because of experience. as in, when i was 14 years old, and on school holiday in indonesia, i sat a written test, and did a brief driving test, and i was awarded my license.

had i been 20 instead, say, it mightnt have been very hard to come over here under an international drivers license, if not transferring it to a full license.

but yeah. cash on the table buys 14 year old boy a proper, not provisional/ learners, license. this, despite him [me] having trouble with hillstarts, not being able to understand most of the written element of the test, not being able to reverse between the slalom-cones, etc. but knowing how to do donuts on mine site roads.

wonder how difficult [i.e. expensive] it is to get a full license in some of the birthplaces of our cabbies? my indonesian one cost about $15.

Oh yeah, I'm not targetting one particular race. The rules are the same regardless of what country you come from.

[Buller_Scott]

lol no worries- i was simply highlighting that a ''full'' license obtained overseas, which can be used in support of obtaining its ''equivalent'' here, is sometimes anything but!

tomorrow's the day, folks. i'll bet $10 that there ARE fatalaties, just like any other day.

if it turns out that from tomorrow, i dont ever post on vwwa again, then i'll have become a statistic and people who take up the bet will owe me 10 bucks in cold, hard cash......

[Rocket36]

okay, i was speeding by 3kmh. maybe i would have had more time to stare at the speedo and wipe off that extra slow-walking-pace amount of speed, if i felt confident that no, someone wasnt going to pull out from a side street and force me to brake heavily, no someone isnt going to merge left F1 style and then try to cut a quick u-turn right in front of me, no someone isnt going to jam on the brakes in front of me, wanting to turn right, having me wondering what the hell is going on, only for them to go "oops! forgot to put the indicator on- i want to go down that street, and i've forgotten that it IS possible to miss my turn, go down a block, turn around, and come back to my turn".

Is it just me or does this make absolutely no sense? What are you saying? That no they're not going to do anything of those things? Or that you would like to KNOW if they're going to?

[mikepologti]

i hope its fatality free tomorrow, its my birthday

[maca]

i hope its fatality free tomorrow, its my birthday

Happy birthday for tomorrow, Mike!

[Buller_Scott]

i hope its fatality free tomorrow, its my birthday

happy birthday mike! it's today!

what are you gonna get up to?

[Treza360]

Awesome lets aim to not have an accident which by its' very definition is something that you didn't plan on doing in the first place. I find the organisers of this day very patronising and insulting. What a joke.
Cheers,
Trent

[maca]

Doesn't this organisation realise that no one plans on accidents? Sure they can be avoided but no one wakes up in the morning and says "let's go crasssssshhhh!".