6 February 2008

Two die in Kings Highway crash

| smokey2
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The Kings Highway east of Canberra has been closed in both directions between Braidwood and Bungendore after two people were killed in an accident.

Two vehicles were involved.

Police and ambulance crews are still at the scene.

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The upgrade that Major Kelly is talking about is between Qbn and Bungendore. It’s a commuter stretch, and HQ JOC is going to add a LOT of cars to the daily mix.

This crash happened nearer to Braidwood.

The road is fine, but so many drivers now are city drivers, used to revving to the next traffic lights queue. Driving on a country road at sustained speed is not something they’re good at.

Crazy Sydney idiots on the snow road are quite amazing to watch, yes.

Caravans…making Australian touring dangerous misery since 1957

Ingeegoodbee3:19 pm 07 Feb 08

Yeah, I think the snow roads far worse. Friday and Sunday nights. Not sure if I’d single out 4WDs as specific culprits though, plenty of crap driving and poor judgement exhibited by all sorts of cars.

I have to agree about the snow road being worse – and the worst driving I’ve seen there is in the lines of traffic returning north on Sunday nights.

la mente torbida2:18 pm 07 Feb 08

@VYBerlinaV8
You may be right…but at least the Cooma road is one way traffic on Frdays & Sundays…I would hate to be travelling the other way

Still, traffic behaviour on that road could be worse. The worst driving behaviour I’ve ever seen is by 4WD owners on the way to Cooma during snow season. Most didn’t have ACT plates.

la mente torbida12:36 pm 07 Feb 08

@very concerned
You’re right…when I was commuting a clear road took me 1:45…on a long weekend full of caravans…2:00 – 15 minutes

One of most inconsiderate things you see on that type of road is where someone drives along at 90 km/h or so until they reach the overtaking lane, when the car in speeds up to 105km/h or so. At that point, people with powerful cars (eg 6 cyl or larger) say bugger it, and pass anyway.

Personally, I tend to overtake on uphill straight sections on that road, as the car I’m overtaking often slows a bit on the hill, and the V8 gets around just as quickly going uphill as on the flat. That way, the car or two behind me can overtake on the next flat straight part. Everyone wins.

very concerned10:22 am 07 Feb 08

I drive this road everyday, and everyday I am amazed at the idiots that pass me by…. It is usually P platers or poeple in reved up cars… What is really the point of owning a car that can do 200kms easily when by law you can only do 100-110kms…. Come on people does it really matter if your trip takes an extra 5 mins….People are speeding, overtaking on blind corners or taking that chance for one more vehicle…. unfortunally it is not them that usually end up dead it is someone else…

My thoughts go out to the families at this very sad time.

la mente torbida10:21 am 07 Feb 08

I used to commute this road between Batemans Bay & Canberra, twice a week for over 8 years and still use it frequently.

The road itself is not to blame (I actually enjoy driving on it!), it is the actions of drivers that can make it dangerous (especially on those long weekends where there is lots of traffic).

Speed is rarely an issue in the many accidents, it normally appears that ‘pilot error’ is the main cause. So many head-on accidents (read: unsafe overtaking). In these cases, even if both cars are travelling within the speed limits, you are looking at a combined speed of up near 200kmh.

Holden Caulfield9:29 am 07 Feb 08

Oops, forgot to close off my URL tag, if a friendly admin type could tidy that up for me I would be thankful.

Holden Caulfield9:29 am 07 Feb 08

Just posted on the ABC news site:


…Federal Member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly says Labor’s election pledge to spend $23 million on the Kings Highway between Queanbeyan and Bungendore, should see work start within a few months.

“That will add a further five overtaking lanes in that initiative so that should also ease the general stress that’s incurred on driving that route which should improve hopefully the situation along the entire route,” he said…

At least it appears as something will get done.

Without knowing the specifics of this incident, and not intending to cause any offence to the families involved, no road is ever going to be good enough if drivers are unable to maintain their concentration.

The speed kills line is a dishonest and convenient furphy. Sure speeding, especially excessive, should be frowned upon, but it would be nice if other aspects of poor driver behaviour received the attention that speeding does.

Anyone who has driven in Europe would know that consideration for others on the road is generally at the forefront of drivers’ minds.

Here? Most struggle to know when turn their lights on be it a foggy day or even dusk.

People have no patience on the Kings Highway. Waiting for the nesxt overtaking lane could add precious minutes to the trip time. Most drivers seem these seconds are worth risking your life for.

The difficult thing to understand is that accident happened on a very short double lined stretch between two passing lanes, east and west bound, both well signposted.

interesting to find out how the crash occurred

I suspect that both vehicles attempted to simultaneously operate within the same horizontal plane of the space-time continuum.

the lack of apparent damage is amazing

Indeed, and any old-fart who still attests that old cars are safer because they’re made of ‘real metal and stuff’ should be shown a picture of this crash.

Like others I also suspect that the driver of the Rav 4 died as a result of something other than crash trauma. The drivers section of the Rav 4 looked relatively intact.

Having said that, a piece of metal coming through the firewall or originating from the dashboard, and occluding something like the femoral vein, would be life threatening if not treated quickly.

Given the remoteness of the accident scene, a person could die before help arrived in the aforementioned situation.

Not saying about this accident but I have seen others where people were knocked unconcious with their head forward which kills them. Ignore the neck injuries and get the head back so they can at least breath. Unconcious, head foward then get a body bag.

It’s be interesting to find out how the crash occurred.

Deadmandrinking1:53 am 07 Feb 08

Totally agree Nyssa, my mother, myself and my sister were almost killed by some jackasses on this same highway.

The sad thing is Ingee, they won’t give a rat’s…

One person dying on that road is one person too many.

Those idiots who think they can drive at 200km/ph and overtake 5-6 cars on a whim should be knee capped and have their licences taken away.

Ingeegoodbee9:59 pm 06 Feb 08

A sad day for all involved and their families.

It should give pause for thought to all those who travel that road.

There was certainly an enormous ammount of energy required to cause the damage to the Holden. If it was absorbed by the 4wd, the lack of apparent damage is amazing. The crumple design must have worked as intended – brilliantly.
Pity humans arn’t built the same way.

The issue is not how damaged a car is after the accident, it’s how much energy, and rapidly this energy, is transferred to the occupants of the vehicle. Modern cars are much safer than older ones, and this accident is sad indeed.

Maybe it was hit side on so it doesn’t appear to bad but those side impacts are the worst by far.

In any collision, no matter how minor, the driver of the Rav4 will always die. Chuck Norris said so, and it became the 11th Commandment.

Vic, this adds to my puzzlement. The driver’s section of the 4wd appeared undamaged.
Perhaps the result of medical rather than accident trauma?

Vic Bitterman8:52 pm 06 Feb 08

Driver of the Rav4 died, passenger of the HQ died.

Yeah doesn’t really matter how good the cars are when they come together at 200kmh there isn’t much hope. These things happen sad as it is human error is always going to be a factor when driving cars at any speed when we evolved to operate at about 6kmh walking speed.

WIN has covered this accident in some detail.

An apparently benign curve in the road, and yet a disasterous coming together by an HQ/HZ Holden with (I think) a Subaru Forrester.

The left hand front quarter of the Holden was destroyed, apparently causing fatal injuries to the passenger.

Puzzling that the passenger of the Subaru was apparently also fatally injured, given what appeared to be less than major damage, the probable presence of air bags, and the driver aparently inflicted with minor injuries.

The powers that be have done a sterling job in raising the crashworthiness of modern motor vehicles, and fatal results such as this are to be wept at. May the investigating Police add additional information to the pool of knowledge so this type of result is reduced even further.

My thoughts are with the victim’s families.

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