It makes me so angry when stupid laws are brought in to try and mask or fix the simptom rather than address the real and solve the real problem.
I found this little amusing watching the news tonight.
First Item.
Hoon laws to get much tougher, 40 year old is the worst hoon in vic leaving almost having a high speed crash (about 50kmh).
Police saying that hoon laws will make people walk if they do the wrong thing. Over loading cars to become a hoon offence. First offence loose car for 3 days(i think), 2nd offence 3 months, 3rd time, car crushed.
There are to many young people killed on our roads and this will solve the problem, even if we have to make it toughter yet.
2nd Item
Police cooking the books on crime figures and how many crimes have been solved.
3rd Item
Old lady killed 2 people when not paying attention and crossing onto the wrong side of the road. No speeding , driking or drugs involved.
4th Item
Young guy stabed and killed in melbourne.
Now if you cant follow my thought process, I will come back and explain later.
Comments7
David you can teach English, Maths, Science etc....
But you can't teach Common Sense..!!
As my wife says
"Common sense isn't common"
Last year I was finishing year 12 and the mentality of the kids turning 18 and driving was horrific. They would all do "skids" in the gravel car park and race each other. Beach their cars on embankments and get stuck on roadsigns.
Because of my karting, everyone instantly thinks your a gun driver regardless where and wanted to test their skills against me. If only they knew I couldnt drive a nail into balsa wood.....
I always said "goto the local hire karts and I'll flog you". Often with the comeback "your a pussy, race on the streets" later someone said "the streets are my race track". Funnily enough, this kid has his license 14hours and crashed trying to drift. Almost killed a friend of mine who has the passenger. From the insurance money of the totalled falcon he bought commodore (both pre-2000) and a few weeks later crashed into parked cars and lost his license. Then he could be the cool kid on the school bus, where he belongs. This happened around this time last year.
I also got heckled about being "gutless" for not racing them or doing burnouts. I ended up leaving my car at home and took the bus because I was sick of it. I thought it was just my school, but talking to other mates it was a common thing to happen.
So really it starts with driver education and mentality development when the kids are still in school.
To be honest if people are that stupid to go and wrap themselves around a pole i have zero sympathy for them. Sure it sucks if they take a mate with them but often these guys mates are no better than they are and were most likely encouraging it.
Unfortunately for most of these idiots a big crash would be the only thing to knock some sense into them. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your viewpoint) them seem to do enough of a good job of it to not be able to learn from it.
I remember reading years ago that the QLD department of transport (whatever they call themsleves) weren't doing eye tests on seniors because "visual acuity isn't a leading cause of motor accidents" - yeah right, cos Stevie Wonder is an AWESOME driver...............
I've also watched elderly people hobble out of the earlier model cars they're driving. Ask yourself this question - "Do these people posess the strength required to make an emergency stop IF required?" I say no, even if they recognised and reacted to the situation I strongly doubt that some of them would literally be able to exert the required pedal pressure to achieve maximimum vehicular retardation.
Basically, if you can organise a reverse park, you're good to drive.
What a ridiculous under-estimation of the required skill-set.
My frustration is this.
The laws that are being introduced are not addressing the real issues.
I am a hoon. I have been driving a car since is was about 6 years old and have driven in most situations and conditions and enjoy pushing the limits (when it is safe to do so).
Once i got my licence I made a point of going out on a back road and learning the habbits of the car, how it reacted in emergicency situations, where the limits of the car and also learning what my limits were in THAT car.
The other thing I have learned to do is to look at a siuation and take into account the "what if" situation. If this person does not stop for that stop sign, will I be able to avoid and accident?? If I make a mistake going around this corner at this speed/side ways ect, what will happen. If someone walks out from where I do not have good visability, could i avoid them at this speed?
So tell me, How is it making our roads safer or our drivers safer by just saying follow the laws or it will cost you???
Does speed kill, Definantly not. Is doint a burn out dangerious? NO. BUT there are places and times where it is. There are also time that driving down a 50kmh steet at 50kmh is not safe to do so.
People need to learn "How to drive". This is not just car control, it is not just learning driver limitations, but being aware of the inviroment also.
If the governments are serious about reducing the road toll (which they are not) they would invest in defensive driver traing courses and make it part of EVERY high school program. Teach these kids at a young age that there are limits and where they are. There will still be accidents, there will still be people that speed, No amount of laws will change this so they should atleast teach them how to control the situation.
The problem is people are NOT driving safely on the roads, most are not speeding or "hooning" so why not make them safer, not just slower.
Instead they are to busy being seen to do things by smoke and mirrors rather than adressing the real problem.
Sounds like another organisation we all know of.
This is my Rant to start the week off.
Common sense? Not so commone because we have written policy to cater for the lowest common denominator (dumb #$%&s). Woman burns herself drinking hot coffee at McDonalds and sues because she didn't know coffee was hot, are we for real??