Driven to Kill

[Moonrat]

yea theres a lot of accidents out here...people think they're invincible

[turbogirl]

I think a lot of people really underestimate the dangers of driving and become complacent.

The most dangerous or risk taking thing we can do is actually jump in our car and drive!! Yes that's right it's not sky diving or rock climbing, a fact I was not aware of till I saw a presentation from the mother who introduced Jets Law (http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/Licen ... ochure.pdf).
There was not a dry eye in the room, some people were sobbing.

I have a great book, it's old, printed in 1975 but still relevant today called "motoring skills and tactics" by Peter Wherrett who use to present Torque on ABC in the day. I picked it up at the markets

[shadow-vex]

Well if those video was around in 1948, saying they have the exact same issues on the road as we do today, why is it that this is no longer an issue, you would think after 66 years of advertising they would have been able to addresses the issue. So just my 2 cents is that we are not providing the right type of driver education, eg: we teach "if you try to overtake a truck on a curve, even if you are an experienced driver, you can not predict how other traffic will react, and can end up killing someone" like in the video, also are defensive courses aren't the best, as they only boost the ego of the driver, as they now know they can drive at speed and control their car. So what if we were to teach, the "innocent driver" tactics, like this is what to do when a car is coming head on with you, and U will be forced to go off-road, this is what you need to do, and practice that situation at one of those course places. No one might agree with me, but if the same type of preaching hasn't worked for 66years why will it work now, all of sudden

[Zaphod]

It's called 'human nature' Josh, bad things always happen to other people...

[Zaphod]

...The Bruce Highway in QLD was named as 14th out of 20 worlds worst highways.

A friend of mine drives the Brucey every working day and his wife wants him to quit his job because of the high risk of serious accidents...

[jordan.fuchs]

Yeah there's some pretty bad drivers out there. I was forced to run a red light this morning because some idiot was sitting about 1m off my bumper when it was pissing down rain. I tried to slow down enough to stop at the lights but he was so close he would have hit my car if I stopped. Sure enough he came through the lights with me and went flying past when it went into 2 lanes.

Gonna review my dashcam footage and see if I can pass it on to the police without incriminating myself.

[OldEmmGee]

Really can't recommend doing a defensive driving course highly enough. It's all about having options - most of us in an emergency will panic and drive straight into an obstruction; you need to learn to look around and aim for the gap (not the tree/car/pedestrian/kangaroo). It is amazing how much having the confidence to swerve off the bitumen onto gravel at the side of the road, and back onto bitumen (in the case of an on-coming vehicle) means there is a chance you will elect to do it in a real emergency. Don't get me wrong - I'm no fantastic driver (and have a usual selection of poor and bad habits) but do yourself a favour and get on a course!