New Demerit + Fine System & Radar Dectectors Banned

[Mad Murphy]

Problem is no government is gonna want to do anything major about it. No one's gonna vote for the party that makes them resit their licence (a harder test too) every 5 or 10 years. Farmers won't vote for anything that changes the age for licencing even though 15 year olds prove time and time again that they're not mentally or emotionally capable of having the responsibility to drive. My old man used to do licensing, he said heaps of the kids couldn't even fill out their own forms and that girls would cry over failing and some stupid kids would fail 3 or more times and keep resitting without re-reading the road code. I don't know if kids are getting stupider or not, though judging by today's crop of 15 year olds I wouldn't want any of them behind the wheel of something doing 100kph coming towards me on an open road. Even if you raise the age, with the current system you've just going to wind up with 16 year old idiots with no clue what they're doing instead of 15 year olds, won't change the number who die, they'll just be a year older.

Then of course we have the balls-up that allows old people to renew their licence if they get a medical certificate, how is a GP a good judgment of how well someone can drive? Total rubbish, but removing the law was some easy, cheap vote buying.

Also you need to take into account New Zealand's sh*t roads, look how much of SH1 is one lane, no wonder people do such stupid passing moves when they've been stuck behind a slow driver or truck for 20 minutes. These roads were designed when there were a hell of a lot less cars on the roads, especially trucks.

While speeding does undoubtably kill some people it's not the biggest problem on the roads, most of them seem to be made by people who make bad calls and judgments, aren't paying attention due to distraction, inattention, laziness or inebriation or simply not being able to control the vehicle they're driving. I wonder how many city folk have never driven on a gravel road and don't really have a clue what to do? How many people really understand how speed effects stopping distance and cornering? How to drive PROPERLY down a hill? I think there needs to be some kind of purpose built facility with both sealed and gravel tracks that teaches new drivers these skills before they're allowed on the road. Make it part of the education system, make gaining a driver's licence a set of unit standards, this would get rid of the problem of lousy driving parents teaching their kids lousy driving techniques. It would be a better use of one or two school days a year than all the other crap they give kids days off for (work days, teachers only days, etc.) and it's actually educating kids in something useful that most people in this country want and need to learn and would help save lives. Better to spend our registration money on this than on ACC levies to fix people after they've $&#$% up on the roads.

Perhaps learning some basic car maintainance would be good too? How to check fluids, tyre pressures, identify basic faults, change a tyre, etc. A lot of people seem oblivious to the awful something-is-broken-or-worn-out noises coming from their cars.

[barryogen]

Make it part of the education system, make gaining a driver's licence a set of unit standards, this would get rid of the problem of lousy driving parents teaching their kids lousy driving techniques.

That is one of the best solutions I've heard in some time, it would need to be about 10 different standards, and you'ld have to get all 10 of them, none of this 8 or 9/10 sort of pass.

[Mad Murphy]

Make it part of the education system, make gaining a driver's licence a set of unit standards, this would get rid of the problem of lousy driving parents teaching their kids lousy driving techniques.

That is one of the best solutions I've heard in some time, it would need to be about 10 different standards, and you'ld have to get all 10 of them, none of this 8 or 9/10 sort of pass.

Yup, it's a great way to make sure people have all the skills required and a better way to assess skills than a half hour test.

[MasCam]

Mad Murphy for Prime Minister.



That is all.


Could you please take the time to send this in to parliment

[snwtoy]

Mad Murphy for Prime Minister.



That is all.


Could you please take the time to send this in to parliment

x2!

[Mad Murphy]

Nah, I'd just be corrupt as the rest of them . To paraphrase the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, those who most want to be in power are least suited to be in power.

[slighty_sykotic]

Not that I have ever owned a radar detector, but I just had a brainwave.

someone should come up with a navigation type device (navman etc) with a radar detector built in

Cops won't question a gps.

Actually this would just get GPS units baned too as the police couldn't tell the difference between the radar GPS units and the straight GPS units

That won't work.

99% of radar dectors are dectable with a radar detector dectector. Police around the world can pick up radar detectors. AFAIK only the bell sti XR is invisiable from the detectors.

[BlakJak]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_detector_detector

[slighty_sykotic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_detector_detector

I was right for once

Go buy a sti fast. (sti driver is the american verison of the NZ sti XR)

[Bling]

*has sat a watched too much discovery channel recently*

i'm sure it bombers can avoid detection by radar and a car could be made to avoid detection, that would be great I reckon, just cruise on past a cop at any speed and him not being able to get a speed on you

[cogent]

one of the issues i can see rising from making radar detectors illegal, is that anyone will be suspect now.

for example

cop sitting on side of road with gun, Johnny Five Aces in his integra (SiR vtax) is cruising along at 100kms.
He knows the new demerit system is harsh so he keeps his wof and reg up to date, and no longer does things half assed with regards to his car. He is constantly consious of his speed and aware of his presence on the road.

The cop spots JFA and thinks 'right, im gonna get this punk' and checks his speed, 100km/h "hmm..little bandit must have one of those radar detectors, ill ping him for that instead". the cop pulls out onto the motorway, lights on and pulls over JFA. The result is that Johnny Five Aces becomes targetted for doing nothing wrong at all.

[Si]

and the other side of the coin:

cop sitting on side of road with gun, Johnny Five Aces in his integra (SiR vtax) is cruising along at 115kms.
He doesnt care about the laws or a fine he can pay off at 20$ a week. so he cuts his springs and neglects his car.

The cop spots JFA and thinks "this guy is going to kill someone". So pulls him over etc etc.

Either way little johnny will be targeted.

[Ae92typeX]

I never liked Johnny anyway.

[Si]

and here is some more info:

Twenty five percent of the vehicle occupants killed last year were not wearing seatbelts.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0801/S00002.htm

Take a look at the tables.

Especialy by region.

[flygt4]

even going off those numbers, we only killed 30 more people last year than 2006, which was the record lowest year.

funny how rural areas which have a lot less population that the big cities seem to have more fatal crashes. i gather thats the point you're getting at.
waikato, bay of plenty, manawatu/wanganui and canterbury all seem fairly over represented compared to auckland and wellington.

isnt it the rural people who want to keep letting 15yo's drive?

[Mad Murphy]

Fark, you still have a one in ten thousand chance of dying on the road. That's pretty bad. Also doesn't help if you're in Auckland, Waikato or Canterbury :S. People who don't wear seatbelts are thick, them dying in accidents is darwinism at its finest. I never drive anywhere unless I know everyone in the car is belted up. Instant loss of licence and car would be a good way to stop it, there's really no excuse and it doesn't take any effort. People think its their right to not wear it, well then its my right for my tax/ACC money to not go towards rehabilitation. In my opinion, if you're driving dangerously and crash you pay the hospital bills. Can't pay? You work it off doing community service (every hour of work = minimum wage) which is deducted from your bill.

[Gonad]

From what I can see, since 1990 deaths have halved per 100,000 people.

I think we have done well - obviously we have been putting in a good effort and all good efforts should be rewarded.

Government please install autobahn from the Cape to the Bluff with 300km speed limit.

[Mr Revhead]

autobahn would suck!
i want corners

[79rolla]

one of the reasons theres a higher death tool in ruril ariers comperd to aulcland is there is corners, and un contriled intersections (compered to trafic lights) so along with worse roads we have alot of auclanders and tourist getting onto the open road and not know what they doin and sometimes driving on the wrong side of the road...

but i do agree on seabelt thing, there is no excuse if youv got one you should be using it, if not its pure lazyness

[flygt4]

what i find amusing is how many fatal accidents are easily avoidable.
i think the number of accidents that are actually genuine accident, ie critical mechanical failure causing loss of control type thing is bloody tiny.

heaps of them seem to be stuff like
-car "left the road" - why does a car just leave the road if nothing breaks?
-people overtaking in stupid places - was it that important to get there one carlength quicker?
-people falling asleep and crossing centre line
-tourists ending up on wrong side of the road
-we had a few people try and race trains through crossings last year - imo this is just natural selection
-as mentioned, dodgy rural 100km intersections where city folk fail to stop

i think humans as a species are just getting dumber sometimes.