Thread: New Laws in Western Australia

Don't you just love it....there is no extra training required to be a taxi driver, but thats okay! You don't have to listen to our laws! Just keep on hitting that distracting, beeping control console up on the dash of your car. You know, the one that blocks your view, the one that distracts you and makes you swerve all over the road, the one that makes you ignore all other traffic. You can do it because you are driving more often, so therefore you MUST be a better driver!

*sigh*

I think someone called supernanny, and set her loose on the road traffic act.

Looks like car computers are essentially exempt, as functionally they are no different to i-drive, or any other vehicle entertainment system coming out in most cars these days. Hell, imagine the storm if the brand new commodores with their intelligent entertainment system were all of a sudden illegal....

You poor guys - you must have as bad driver training as we do (Victoria).

To think that a mobile phone is more distracting than a passenger or children...
To think that a conversation overrides driver concentration and control...

I'm not saying they don't. I'm just indicating my farken amazement at the alleged reality.
But people are so stupid - ever see anyone interviewed on national TV answer their phone only to reply "Hey, can't talk now - I'm on national tele..."? (Ha! We fear computers & machines taking over - they have already mastered many!)

But what do you expect with our driver training?
120 hours practice is required - that's with ANY richardhead with a (full) licence (probably gained with a 15 minute license test or some bribe...).
Then a 15-minute license test....

Night time driving? Wet driving, skid-pan? No such thing here.
Too many drivers that don't know why they spun out stopping normally at intersections in the wet!
Our biggest killer on country roads is (city) people trying to get back on the sealed road after drifting over onto the side gravel. How pathetic is that?

So what next? Ban passengers, children, music, radio? Gravel?
(Of course a senior Vic Police was stupid enough to give the real reason for not wanting (GSM) phones near the head, but it's now gone further than that!)


But whatever happens, they will NOT improve driver training. They want to keep the accident rate up, but lower deaths and injuries.
LOL - Police here claim that our road toll has gone DOWN because of speeding cameras, Booze&Drug buses etc. But the rate is HIGHER than it should be with current vehicle technology and traffic densities - ie, the toll should be lower as cars etc are made safer, but OUR INCREASING accident rate is overriding that (adjusted for seasonal and traffic density etc etc variations).


But it is politics - or jobs for whoever or the economy - and each life has a price.
And we just ain't worth it.


A car kit is worth it anyhow - then you can flip the pages in the street directory or change CDs. Not that I do that - but I drive a manual and with a hand phone I can't do other hand jobs if steering & talking (my knees are too high if sticking).


PS - seen the ads with the in-car-screens etc where you can select audio tracks etc. Wot - they are legal and ADR compliant? Fark me dead! (Or maybe they are interlocked so they only work while stationary, or by a passenger?)