Moron Motorists #3

[CmdrBiggles]

Just quickly as I finish up lunch...
My thoughts in hindsight is the truck towing the B&B-sized van might well have been a Chevrolet (?) or something of that ilk, because I do remember seeing the gold chev badge on the front, so that wouldn't be a RAM (?) Or is it a RAM in Chev clothing...??

Maybe a lesson there to not tar all Chevs with the RAM brush, or the other way around...whatev...

[elantra]

I've noticed some strange patterns to speed selection and suspect some drivers drive to the chance of being caught speeding rather than the conditions.

It's not unusual for me to be stuck behind someone doing 50km/hr on a major road with multiple lanes and a 60km/hr limit. Who then turns off and starts doing 70km/hr on a residential street with cars parked down both sides and a 50km/hr limit.

A far more dangerous setting, but far less likely to be caught. My street is pretty much like that - it's not unusual for people in enormous SUVs to be doing 80km/hr+ down it. Never see a speed camera in a back street...

Yes it’s completely perverse and counterintuitive.

I guess that one day the costs of road trauma AND the cost of sporadic traffic policing WILL result in there being a comprehensive network of speed monitoring technology so the miscreants will have nowhere to hide - even on little residential streets.
But that’s a long way off - especially in a pseudo- democratic system where policies are determined by facebook opinions

The current system of road policing is downright infuriating. Enforcement action is based on what can easily be done rather than what should be done.

Several years ago I was talking to a traffic policeman at a social function in Brisbane.
I happened to mention that speeding was a particular problem on a steep street around the corner from my place in Paddington (Brisbane)
He sighted and said that he knew that street issue well but the Police weren’t going back there anytime soon -
Because speeding motorists had successfully challenged their infringements based on the argument that the streets was too steep for accurate use of handheld speed detection radars

[Mr Purple]

Absolutely.

I live on a four way intersection with a stop sign. I'd estimate 80-90% of drivers don't stop at it.

There's a certain proportion who don't even slow down or look. They'll literally do 60km/hr+ through the intersection.

And yet I've never seen a police car enforcing it. Funny that. I'd assume the fact we're in a ridiculously expensive suburb full of middle aged lawyers probably has something to do with it.

Though honestly I suggest the enforcement is based on 'what can make the most profit'. The most likely areas I see speed cameras are wide, well constructed, straight pieces of road, often with an artificially low speed limit. Outside Capalaba on Old Cleveland Road for example they recently improved and substantially widened the road in a 70 zone. And then lowered the speed limit to 60. There's often a speed camera or radar trap there now...

[g-boaf]

Around my area, the locals don't have a lot of respect for the Police.

When one got told off for parking in the wrong place, he got upset, threw the notice away, cursed at the Police "don't you know I run this place!" then jumped in the Panamera (a Turbo S no less) and stormed away...

He wasn't any more than maybe 25-30 years old I suppose. We won't talk about how someone so young could afford that. But they all get around in Porsches, AMG Mercs, Ferrari, Lambos or Rolls Royces. Usually with a fleet of G-Class AMGs in the convoy as "protection" cars.

And red lights among the regular drivers are treated as optional. Hence why there are so many accidents. Street racing is a big problem as well, particularly Friday through to Sunday nights for cars and Wednesday night from 7pm on seems to be the organised regular motorbike street racing. Police can't do anything about them and most of the motorbike riders not involved in it seem to turn a blind eye to it.

Then the parents (mums) in school zone and drop-off and pick up times double-parking, they are particularly cranky and will argue furiously with Police. It's usually a sea of premium-badged "trucks" from Range Rover, BMW, Audi or Mercedes.

[brumby33]

Around my area, the locals don't have a lot of respect for the Police.

When one got told off for parking in the wrong place, he got upset, threw the notice away, cursed at the Police "don't you know I run this place!" then jumped in the Panamera (a Turbo S no less) and stormed away...

He wasn't any more than maybe 25-30 years old I suppose. We won't talk about how someone so young could afford that. But they all get around in Porsches, AMG Mercs, Ferrari, Lambos or Rolls Royces. Usually with a fleet of G-Class AMGs in the convoy as "protection" cars.

And red lights among the regular drivers are treated as optional. Hence why there are so many accidents. Street racing is a big problem as well, particularly Friday through to Sunday nights for cars and Wednesday night from 7pm on seems to be the organised regular motorbike street racing. Police can't do anything about them and most of the motorbike riders not involved in it seem to turn a blind eye to it.

Then the parents (mums) in school zone and drop-off and pick up times double-parking, they are particularly cranky and will argue furiously with Police. It's usually a sea of premium-badged "trucks" from Range Rover, BMW, Audi or Mercedes.

Well there is something the Cops can do about it as it's a part of the law that can be upheld, but then I guess it has to do with the will of their superiors but if they are hooning and creating a dangerous public atmosphere, then they can have their cars impounded and even crushed.....their insurances will be null and void.

cheers

brumby33

[Mr Purple]

Moron in a ute today pushed through a stationary line of traffic turning right into Karl Street at Buranda today, and then honked myself and a couple of other cyclists crossing the road at the time.

Not only was it a hideously dangerous unsighted maneouvre, he clearly didn't care or realise he was meant to give way to us in this situation. To make it even worse I'm pretty sure he was part of the team currently upgrading the bikeway there to add an overpass and avoid this exact situation.



Not sure QPS will actually care because he eventually gave way, just made sure he demonstrated he was unhappy about it. Employer might though.

[jasonc]

definitely send it to the employer

[redsonic]

Another thing to worry about when using a bike path:



ABC News

[Mr Purple]

In a similar vein from our local Facebook group.

[queequeg]

I'm not going to post the dashcam footage, but on Saturday night I had a young guy rear end me at close to 60km/h while I was stopped waiting in traffic with about 30 cars in front of me.
Hit me so hard that I was shunted into the car in front, which pushed another two cars down the road.
Car off to assessment centre today, but given I could not open the front doors more than 30cm due to the bent chassis, it's pretty much a certain write off.
Dashcam footage shows the driver made no attempt to brake. He claims he fell asleep. Police issued him an infringement on the scene, so now I just have to go through the insurance process.
Luckily my insurance is new for old for more than 2 years, because this happened 2 years and 1 day from new (I am not kidding!).

Subaru Outback 5-Star rating - it was a very hard hit, I walked away without a scratch on me and just have a slightly sore neck from the impact (seeing doctor tomorrow to get checked out). Cars can be replaced. Sad to lose my pride and joy, but will be getting an MY24 replacement of the same.

[g-boaf]

I'm not going to post the dashcam footage, but on Saturday night I had a young guy rear end me at close to 60km/h while I was stopped waiting in traffic with about 30 cars in front of me.
Hit me so hard that I was shunted into the car in front, which pushed another two cars down the road.
Car off to assessment centre today, but given I could not open the front doors more than 30cm due to the bent chassis, it's pretty much a certain write off.
Dashcam footage shows the driver made no attempt to brake. He claims he fell asleep. Police issued him an infringement on the scene, so now I just have to go through the insurance process.
Luckily my insurance is new for old for more than 2 years, because this happened 2 years and 1 day from new (I am not kidding!).

Subaru Outback 5-Star rating - it was a very hard hit, I walked away without a scratch on me and just have a slightly sore neck from the impact (seeing doctor tomorrow to get checked out). Cars can be replaced. Sad to lose my pride and joy, but will be getting an MY24 replacement of the same.

Ouch, that's bad. Hope you are okay. You haven't had the best of luck of recent times.

That's why cars need automatic emergency braking and need systems to catch drowsy/inattentive drivers. Only relatively modern cars have that. Yes drivers should pay attention or not drive when sleepy, but a lot don't and then stuff like this happens.

[jasonc]

ouch queequeg

[queequeg]

Ouch, that's bad. Hope you are okay. You haven't had the best of luck of recent times.

That's why cars need automatic emergency braking and need systems to catch drowsy/inattentive drivers. Only relatively modern cars have that. Yes drivers should pay attention or not drive when sleepy, but a lot don't and then stuff like this happens.

In 30 years of driving I have had only one at fault accident when I was in my 20's (low speed bingle driving due west with sun in my eyes). On the flip side, I think this most recent accident is the 7th or 8th time either myself or my wife has had to make a claim for being hit whilst stationary. At least four of those times was when the car has just been parked with nobody in the car. The other times (in my 20's) I was first reversed into a set of traffic lights (not kidding), got that fixed and not long after I was rear ended at about 50km/h. Really not had a whole lot of luck with cars, but I am still alive.

After seeing the damage to the Outback, I am definitely getting another one. For the size of the hit I am really surprised. The cabin was 100% protected.

Driver had a 2014 Rav4. No idea if that has AEB in it or not.

[Mr Purple]

'Fell asleep' sounds a lot like the standard 'medical issue' which translates to 'driving without due care and attention and probably on a mobile phone'. I think people vastly overestimate how often a true 'medical issue' contributes to a car crash/bike crash. It annoys me.

Sounds like your car did its job. I've been relatively lucky and never had an at fault crash, and the last four times my cars were damaged I wasn't even in them (truck hit one at a mechanic, a patient reversed into one, and my wife was driving the other time). Not much you can do in a rear ender like that except not be there in the first place.

[am50em]

AEB for RAV4 came in 2015 and not standard across the range. Being rear end while stationary is probably my biggest fear. Not much you can do. Glad you came out relatively unscathed and the Subaru's protective shell worked!

[mikesbytes]

I'm not going to post the dashcam footage, but on Saturday night I had a young guy rear end me at close to 60km/h while I was stopped waiting in traffic with about 30 cars in front of me.
Hit me so hard that I was shunted into the car in front, which pushed another two cars down the road.
Car off to assessment centre today, but given I could not open the front doors more than 30cm due to the bent chassis, it's pretty much a certain write off.
Dashcam footage shows the driver made no attempt to brake. He claims he fell asleep. Police issued him an infringement on the scene, so now I just have to go through the insurance process.
Luckily my insurance is new for old for more than 2 years, because this happened 2 years and 1 day from new (I am not kidding!).

Subaru Outback 5-Star rating - it was a very hard hit, I walked away without a scratch on me and just have a slightly sore neck from the impact (seeing doctor tomorrow to get checked out). Cars can be replaced. Sad to lose my pride and joy, but will be getting an MY24 replacement of the same.

Thank goodness you weren't on your bike

[queequeg]

Thank goodness you weren't on your bike

This is why I get nervous in traffic making turns. It's sometimes a lot safer to just do a hook turn. In this case, I was in line at a T-Intersection where the left lane can only go left, and the right lane can only go right. On the bicycle I never go down this road for this exact reason.

[elantra]

'Fell asleep' sounds a lot like the standard 'medical issue' which translates to 'driving without due care and attention and probably on a mobile phone'. I think people vastly overestimate how often a true 'medical issue' contributes to a car crash/bike crash. It annoys me.

Some people these days just think that any untoward event in their behaviour can be passed off as being due to some medical condition.

Probably hundreds of years ago the medical excuse was something like being possessed by bad spirits or demons or something like that.
The Village Pastors or Priests were no doubt very busy as a result.

I really feel sorry for our forum member queequeg.
That must have been a huge shock to the system - both physically and emotionally.
And now he has to go through the potentially complicated process of insurance claim and replacing the vehicle.

Perhaps what modern cars need is a character assessment algorithm. Which detects any personality tendencies to deviate from a truthful recollection of events in the event of a crash.
Of course in addition to all the other technologies like automated emergency braking and whatever else is necessary to remove distractions to driving.

[g-boaf]

AEB for RAV4 came in 2015 and not standard across the range. Being rear end while stationary is probably my biggest fear. Not much you can do. Glad you came out relatively unscathed and the Subaru's protective shell worked!

You can see them coming (if you happen to look in the mirrors) and nothing you can do but brace for impact and hope for the best.

[jasonc]

AEB for RAV4 came in 2015 and not standard across the range. Being rear end while stationary is probably my biggest fear. Not much you can do. Glad you came out relatively unscathed and the Subaru's protective shell worked!

I got rear ended while stopped in a queue of stopped cars at traffic lights . i was on the bike. not the greatest feeling. thankfully speed was low

[Mr Purple]

Some people these days just think that any untoward event in their behaviour can be passed off as being due to some medical condition.

Probably hundreds of years ago the medical excuse was something like being possessed by bad spirits or demons or something like that.
The Village Pastors or Priests were no doubt very busy as a result.

You're probably right, this is the modern equivalent.

I think it's part of a natural human tendency to ascribe things to unknown factors outside our control. Like when the high powered scooter rider in South Brisbane went into a pole in the middle of a bikeway and high speed 'medical episode'. I could imagine it was the natural tendency of the family to explain the unexplainable, but can tell you the medical episode that occurs after you hit a stationary object at high speed with your head (i.e. a seizure) is not the cause.

Even when it is a medical episode (the diabetic who ignored multiple low sugar readings from his continuous glucose monitor and proceeded to mow down a group of pedestrians in Daylesford) it is almost always only the result of a the long chain of calamitous decisions made by the person responsible.

There are always the exception and I have seen a few genuine medical episodes causing terrible episodes. But like drink spiking (very rarely actually proven, and even then usually with extra alcohol) the perceived threat and how common it is bear little resemblance to reality.

I'm sure it's part of the natural tendency to externalise responsibility for foreseeable and preventable outcomes. 'The car hit the cyclist'. No, the driver of the car hit the cyclist.

[warthog1]

I'm not going to post the dashcam footage, but on Saturday night I had a young guy rear end me at close to 60km/h while I was stopped waiting in traffic with about 30 cars in front of me.
Hit me so hard that I was shunted into the car in front, which pushed another two cars down the road.
Car off to assessment centre today, but given I could not open the front doors more than 30cm due to the bent chassis, it's pretty much a certain write off.
Dashcam footage shows the driver made no attempt to brake. He claims he fell asleep. Police issued him an infringement on the scene, so now I just have to go through the insurance process.
Luckily my insurance is new for old for more than 2 years, because this happened 2 years and 1 day from new (I am not kidding!).

Subaru Outback 5-Star rating - it was a very hard hit, I walked away without a scratch on me and just have a slightly sore neck from the impact (seeing doctor tomorrow to get checked out). Cars can be replaced. Sad to lose my pride and joy, but will be getting an MY24 replacement of the same.

Thank goodness you weren't on your bike

Absolutely!
Glad your car did its' job Que.

[g-boaf]

Wonder who the owner of the barber shop was:

https://www.drive.com.au/news/nissan-na ... hop-arson/

I could guess...

[queequeg]

AEB for RAV4 came in 2015 and not standard across the range. Being rear end while stationary is probably my biggest fear. Not much you can do. Glad you came out relatively unscathed and the Subaru's protective shell worked!

You can see them coming (if you happen to look in the mirrors) and nothing you can do but brace for impact and hope for the best.

Having reviewed the footage, I can actually see and hear the Subaru Pre-Collison detection going off when the car in front of me braked quite hard. I was already on the brakes well before this because it's a downhill run. I came to a complete stop behind the other car, and I was hit maybe 1.5 seconds after I stopped. You can see in the footage that the whole time I am slowing down, he is just maintaining speed.
I don't know what he was looking at, but it wasn't the road. He did not see me until his airbags went off. It will make the insurance claim go a lot smoother because he admitted fault to the police officer on the scene and was issued an infringement (I guess for negligent driving).
Car was towed out to Manheim today for assessment so hopefully I know by the end of the week what the next step is.

[Andy01]

That is a bugger. Do you have an opportunity to upgrade to the 2.4 Turbo XT this time ?