Re the Sophie crash

[[ryan]]

Yet more evidence of old people's stupidity.

Outside my store is a main road with a divider/fence and concrete island in the middle. There's a street a few stores down, and you can only turn left from this corner. There's a big sign, LEFT TURN ONLY, with a big arrow. Apart from that, you can see there's a divider on the road, and theres always traffic so you can see what goes where.

Now, at least once a fortnight I see what just happened moments ago ---- Some old codger in his car decided to turn INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC from this street, ignoring the signs and paying NO attention to what way the traffic is going. He barely missed a head-on colision. He then sat there, dazed and confused as to where to go.

[gxxr]

I have also followed some old dude home from the ferry a few times....he must get blinded by oncoming lights as he stops dead every time another car comes the other way.....this is in a 50 zone where he stuggles to get to 35 anyways.

A bit of an admission here, watched ACA last night, see in some States if you perceive an elderly driver to be an accident risk, you can report them to the authorities for retest. Sort of like an old banger report to the EPA.

And now a bit of perspective from the other side:

http://www.olderdriversnsw.org/index.html

[THE ASH]

I wonder whether it's just that you notice it more, when it's Asian-background people driving.
Whereas for me, I tend to notice the idiot bogan and aggressive young chick drivers quite a lot (if we're going to get into stereotypes).

Have to admit, I have had to avoid quite a few incompetent Asian drivers (speaking as an Asian-background person myself).

valid point that

Though I have to say, the funniest ever parallel parking attempt(s) I've ever seen were by a middle age asian lady - she tried for dead set 20min to park in this spot to pick her kids up from school - in the end she just left it on a diagonal

In general though the airhead chick texting on her mobile is the biggest problem I run across, followed middle age land whale owners, then the elderly, then drunken hicks.

[Captiva Fan]

I wonder whether it's just that you notice it more, when it's Asian-background people driving.

No, it's definitely not a matter of "noticing it more", at least not in comparison to the general populace. It's definitely real. However, I also think that anyone who learned to drive after their teens (or early 20's) tends towards generally crap driving; and I suspect that's why these people just can't drive. It has to be pretty-much a given that the vast majority of immigrants who've not held a licence OS would be from various parts of Asia, wouldn't it? Does anyone middle-class (& sane) in Hong Kong drive?

[ZenithRS]

65+ year old drivers make up more than 12% of the driving population, yet only account for approx. 8% of serious injury accidents.

In Victoria in 2002 the 18 to 25 age group made up approx 14% of the driving population, but accounted for 28% of drivers killed.... not to mention serious injurys.

In the same year, a Victorian in the first year of their license was 4 times more likely to be involved in a serious injury or fatal crash than more experienced drivers.

Victoria mentioned only because they're the figures I came across, not because I think Mexicans are any crapper drivers than anywhere else in the country.

Sounds like a good argument for requiring compulsory retesting of under 25s every year to me... not of 70 year olds.

As for the dude who approached a pedestrian crossing at 40 kph in a 60 zone even when he couldn't see past an illegally parked vehicle and had to make an emergency stop as a result to narrowly avoid a pedestrian, instead of patting yourself on the back for having a decent reflex action you should be learning from the experience and taking more care at pedestrian crossings where your view is blocked.

[Spammy]

Correct for kilometres driven and the oldies (who drive 1km to the bowling club and back once per week) probably don't look so good.

[walkie]

after spending a few days in Bangkok last year I realised that Asians aren't bad drivers, they are just different. Sydney drivers could learn a lot from them. The thing is, everybody is so on edge and must be on their game the entire time they are on the road or they will most likely die. I think we would do well to introduce some of their concepts over here.

A girl I know with was telling me recently about an elderly customer that she had that used to come to their place of business with his wife. He was that blind that his missus had to lead him around, read documents to him and tell him where he should put the pen and what to write if he had to fill anything out. He drove to and from

[Captiva Fan]

after spending a few days in Bangkok last year I realised that Asians aren't bad drivers, they are just different.

Erm ... I doubt many drivers here are from Bangkok. I don't think you can look at someone, see they have Asian features, and extrapolate that they'll drive like someone in Bangkok ... people in Bangkok probably drive more like Parisians than they do like Melbournians, for example.
I know the sort of semi-ordered chaos you're talking about, but that's not the same thing as accidentally wandering out of your lane 'cos you're busy on the mobile; the sort of semi-ordered chaos you're talking about requires people to actually watch what they're doing, whereas most of the issues I'm talking about are a result of neither looking nor caring what they're doing.

[gxxr]

Wouldn't say that Bangkok or Thailand are shining lights in Asia for road safety, if you go around some of the back streets in the area they repair motor vehicles and inspect some of the mangled tuk-tuks and motorbikes you might change your opinion about ever venturing on the road there.

Just a bit too much reliance on Buddhist fatalism for my liking.

Don't know if anyone watched it, this was an interesting story:

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2006/s1576127.htm

[benwmw]

Does anyone middle-class (& sane) in Hong Kong drive?

For sure...that's why there's so many Mercs, Beemers, Audis etc on the road....

Oh sorry, you said sane.

No.

[TonyJZX]

Hong Kong to me seems better than here. I've been all over HK from Sha Tin (new territories) to causeway and I'd say they are more regimented and polite than Sydney.

Of course there seems to be a LOT of exotics... you can't seem to walk down the street without seeing an AMG S-class and the place I was staying had a dude down the road with a 355 AND 360 Ferrari.

My father commented that the HK licensing system is stricted than it is here.
If you're wealthy enough to have a car in HK you probably have the training and enthusiasm to drive skillfully.

I do agree though that Asian drivers generally get what they deserve. Of course there are a selection who truly know what they are doing but they are a minority.

And Asian women are definitely the worst on the planet. I only met one who was any chop.... no lie.

[MartyHusseinXF]

65+ year old drivers make up more than 12% of the driving population, yet only account for approx. 8% of serious injury accidents.

In Victoria in 2002 the 18 to 25 age group made up approx 14% of the driving population, but accounted for 28% of drivers killed.... not to mention serious injurys.

In the same year, a Victorian in the first year of their license was 4 times more likely to be involved in a serious injury or fatal crash than more experienced drivers.

Victoria mentioned only because they're the figures I came across, not because I think Mexicans are any crapper drivers than anywhere else in the country.

Sounds like a good argument for requiring compulsory retesting of under 25s every year to me... not of 70 year olds.

As for the dude who approached a pedestrian crossing at 40 kph in a 60 zone even when he couldn't see past an illegally parked vehicle and had to make an emergency stop as a result to narrowly avoid a pedestrian, instead of patting yourself on the back for having a decent reflex action you should be learning from the experience and taking more care at pedestrian crossings where your view is blocked.

Is this a joke ?

You cant be serious surely... They might make up 12% of the driving population, and they might be responsible for 8% of the accidents, but what (and this is true, even though I have no source/research to back it up ) does that tell you when they only do 0.0005% of the kms done in this country.


You don't happen to work for Monash by any chance?

[XAC15T]

As for the dude who approached a pedestrian crossing at 40 kph in a 60 zone even when he couldn't see past an illegally parked vehicle and had to make an emergency stop as a result to narrowly avoid a pedestrian, instead of patting yourself on the back for having a decent reflex action you should be learning from the experience and taking more care at pedestrian crossings where your view is blocked.

He obviously did by his account...

[Vicko]

Hypothetically - what do you think the reaction would have been if little Sophie had been struck by a 4wd?

[TonyJZX]

Hypothetically - what do you think the reaction would have been if little Sophie had been struck by a 4wd?

or a slav about to lose his license in a wrx?