Accident on Canberra Avenue today

prhhcd said :

some idiot lost his load yesterday just before 2pm on Coulter drive near nettlefold st as well. Nearly caused about 3 separate accidents as people were trying to avoid some VERY large moving boxes falling off the back of the trailer. Police were at the intersection and should have seen it – I wonder if they did anything. Anyone have any ideas? We were standing behind the trailer at the intersection and you could see it was going to happen, but not enough time (while the light was still red) to tell him.

Hearing stuff like this bothers me. Police need to step in and stop stuff like this.. I really hope they saw what happened and fined the driver. I lose a little bit more respect for the police when i see people doing something illegal and they just stand there and do nothing.

Recently I was almost hit by a car on the pedestrian crossing near the law courts on London Circuit. A police car was stopped on the inside lane, giving way to the 4 odd people on the crossing, while another car zoomed past doing in my opinion was seemed over the speed limit. The police officer copped abuse from other people on the crossing and he just shrugged his shoulders and drove off.

On another note, speeding isn’t necessarily the cause of accidents, its driver inattention. Maybe Stanhope should concentrate on teaching better driving schools, make getting a license harder for teens, or making the P-off course compulsory. Bring in some hoon laws maybe… ahh who knows.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Yes, I agree with the ‘let’s put next-to-free cameras everywhere and have them catch speeders all day ever day and put millions of dollars into our coffers’ approach. No, I don’t agree with the ‘let’s put more capable men and women through Goulburn and then pay them millions of dollars a year to cruise around and maybe catch a handful of offenders each a day.’

You do know that ACT Coppers aren’t trained in NSW, you do know that right?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

I won’t pretend to know … but my guess is

Thanks.

Perhaps we could take an approach that focuses more on improving compliance with the rules, rather than simply catching offenders?

Approaches such as…?

…having marked Police presence that:
a) dissuades breaking the rules; and
b) can identify and fine people breaking any of the rules.
AND making sure people have adequate training and knowledge, verified through semi-regular testing.

The road rules themselves are pretty good, I think, and if everyone followed them our roads would be much safer. Many parts of government actually take the approach of ‘helping people comply’, often with good outcomes. If we turned it around from being ‘we want to catch you and fine you, you evil speeder’ to ‘we want to help you know the rules, and we’re going to take a more active approach to ensuring people comply’, I think you would see some attitudes change.

As I said previously, I realise this costs. As such, there’s going to be more to the story on how such an approach could be realistically implemented.

I won’t pretend to know … but my guess is

Thanks.

Perhaps we could take an approach that focuses more on improving compliance with the rules, rather than simply catching offenders?

Approaches such as…?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

No, I don’t agree with the ‘let’s put more capable men and women through Goulburn and then pay them millions of dollars a year to cruise around and maybe catch a handful of offenders each a day.’

Perhaps we could take an approach that focuses more on improving compliance with the rules, rather than simply catching offenders? Surely this would yield better results. I’ll concede, of course, that this costs money. Perhaps keep the speed cameras, but dedicate the revenue they raise to providing additional road safety measures?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Are you agreeing with the approach Jon Stanhope as transport minister is taking, or do you think we could stand to see more police patrolling the roads?

Yes, I agree with the ‘let’s put next-to-free cameras everywhere and have them catch speeders all day ever day and put millions of dollars into our coffers’ approach. No, I don’t agree with the ‘let’s put more capable men and women through Goulburn and then pay them millions of dollars a year to cruise around and maybe catch a handful of offenders each a day.’

How many cars do you think there need to be to act as a deterrent? Because for those who are actually deterred by a possible police presence – as opposed to almost everybody who just drives five below when they see a car, then speed off when it’s gone – the answer is ‘one’, because you’ll never know where it’ll be til it’s behind you. Go ahead, pick a number, then tell us how you know there aren’t at least that many unmarked cars already.

In terms of return on investment speed cameras clearly win over police enforcement. But road safety is not all about money – or shouldn’t be. The problem with speed cameras is that the only thing they detect is speeding. Police patrols can detect so much more – driving drunk, driving while using a mobile phone, aggressive tailgating, driving unregistered, unlicenced, driving on a suspended licence and so on. In fact, almost all of the egregiously dangerous driving behaviours require the presence of a police officer to be detected and appropriate and immediate action taken. If the police officers aren’t present how are these people being detected?

I won’t pretend to know how many police patrol cars, marked or unmarked, are used for traffic duties in Canberra – but my guess is that the number of patrol cars for a given population number has declined over the years.

Most of the fatals have happened at intersections this year. Maybe we need more cameras at intersections!!!! or Maybe people need to slow down and double check rather than rushing through the intersections.

It’s pretty hard to police each intersection to make sure people are giving way to other vehicles.

On Speeding. Speeding does kill: It’s generally not the cause of the collision, but the speed increases the amount of injuries and causes death. A collision at 60km may not kill you, but one at 100km is likely to.

****People need to acknowledge that speeding increases injuries as a result of a collision caused by other factors(fail to give etc)****

some idiot lost his load yesterday just before 2pm on Coulter drive near nettlefold st as well. Nearly caused about 3 separate accidents as people were trying to avoid some VERY large moving boxes falling off the back of the trailer. Police were at the intersection and should have seen it – I wonder if they did anything. Anyone have any ideas? We were standing behind the trailer at the intersection and you could see it was going to happen, but not enough time (while the light was still red) to tell him.

Are you agreeing with the approach Jon Stanhope as transport minister is taking, or do you think we could stand to see more police patrolling the roads?

Yes, I agree with the ‘let’s put next-to-free cameras everywhere and have them catch speeders all day ever day and put millions of dollars into our coffers’ approach. No, I don’t agree with the ‘let’s put more capable men and women through Goulburn and then pay them millions of dollars a year to cruise around and maybe catch a handful of offenders each a day.’

How many cars do you think there need to be to act as a deterrent? Because for those who are actually deterred by a possible police presence – as opposed to almost everybody who just drives five below when they see a car, then speed off when it’s gone – the answer is ‘one’, because you’ll never know where it’ll be til it’s behind you. Go ahead, pick a number, then tell us how you know there aren’t at least that many unmarked cars already.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

It’s a secret to Stanhope, who apparently thinks speeding is the cause of collisions.

Translation:

Waah I got a speeding ticket and it’s Stanhope’s fault I didn’t see the enormous white van parked on the side of the road or the eleventy seven warning signs about the fixed camera.

Speeding fines – revenue raising, an IQ test and Darwinism all rolled into one.

Ah, caught me a big one. Really, you just can’t help yourself, can you? The problem with jumping to conclusions is that sometimes you fall flat on your arse.

I haven’t had a speeding ticket in literally decades – I stick to the speed limits around Canberra, thank you very much. My point is, the transport minister’s approach to road safety seems to consist of focussing solely on speed while even the police admit that there are other more important factors at play.

Are you agreeing with the approach Jon Stanhope as transport minister is taking, or do you think we could stand to see more police patrolling the roads?

Don’t let Woody hear you say stuff like that, he will be all over it about privacy

Aww – except I did, and I didn’t, and you lose – again. At least you’re good at something.

I go through that intersection most days, and got stuck in the traffic that particular day. A large intersection, and not a dangerous one, if you do what you’re supposed. Either someone was driving very recklessly or totally inattentively to cause that collision. If the person responsible for the collision is still alive, I have absolute faith that they will be given a slap on the wrist by our courts.

Me no fry said :

The Canberra Times report has Superintendent Cooke saying ”I don’t think it’s any secret that the cause of collisions generally is due to driver error”. It’s a secret to Stanhope, who apparently thinks speeding is the cause of collisions. Oh, hang on, he probably just pretends to believe that because it’s cheaper and more profitable to bung up a speed camera than to pay for police to patrol the roads.

Interesting. Personally I would think speeding is a driver error.

cranky said :

ACTION bus driver opinion is that the Erindale Drive death was a suicide.

Don’t let Woody hear you say stuff like that, he will be all over it about privacy and blah blah blah…

We were passing through on the way to Fyshwick and thought it looked really bad. It can be a nasty experience turning out from any of the uncontrolled side streets along Canberra Ave. Condolences to family and friends of the rider.

The law of physics at work: ute vs bus = ute lose, motorcycle vs car = motorcycle lose.

RIP, let the pipes sound loud for one of our own and to the team at RMC my heart goes out to you all.

georgesgenitals said :

Very very sad, and indicative that we need to think a lot harder about road safety than we currently are.

Yes very sad, however a high road toll doesn’t mean we need to tighten or rethink safety per se. Sometimes shit happens, unfortunatly in a small place like the ACT when shit happens the raw stats become distorted. I recall a few years back where a family got killed in a van fire near Fyshwick. In one swoop the road toll for the year doubled but did that mean the standard of driving was any lower? Nope, it just mean one accident killed a lot of people. I think this year will be the same, an abnormal year where more people got killed, not a sign driving standards are any worse.

It’s a secret to Stanhope, who apparently thinks speeding is the cause of collisions.

Translation:

Waah I got a speeding ticket and it’s Stanhope’s fault I didn’t see the enormous white van parked on the side of the road or the eleventy seven warning signs about the fixed camera.

Speeding fines – revenue raising, an IQ test and Darwinism all rolled into one.

Very very sad, and indicative that we need to think a lot harder about road safety than we currently are.

OzChick said :

Thanks for the update.

I thought that I’d also mention this. I was driving back from the Southside to the Northside at around 9pm last night and someone, who obviously did not tie down their load, had their single mattress fall out on to the Tuggeranong Parkway causing the car in front of me to swerve and my car to hit to the darn thing. It was stuck under my car for at least 50 metres under my front tyre as I was trying to slowing down. Far out!! There are some real idiots out there. Note to the driver, tie down your load for goodness sake, you could have killed somebody.

I almost hit a brick on the Tuggeranong Parkway the other day. I was changing lanes and it was sitting right in the middle of the lines. I reckon my front right wheel must have missed it by a couple of inches. There is all kinds of crap all over that road. I know a guy who was following a ute with a ladder on the back, the ladder slipped loose, hit the road and bounced over the top of his car before going under the car of the bloke behind. Crazy stuff.

The Canberra Times report has Superintendent Cooke saying ”I don’t think it’s any secret that the cause of collisions generally is due to driver error”. It’s a secret to Stanhope, who apparently thinks speeding is the cause of collisions. Oh, hang on, he probably just pretends to believe that because it’s cheaper and more profitable to bung up a speed camera than to pay for police to patrol the roads.

And I still say that the ACT road toll should be 4 lower than is currently quoted. Why should victims of crime get counted in the road toll just because they were inside a car?

ACTION bus driver opinion is that the Erindale Drive death was a suicide.

We passed this accident on the way to Mancare about 1:30pm yesterday. Traffic was banked up back to the lights at KFC with police still directing traffic.

Thanks for the update.

I thought that I’d also mention this. I was driving back from the Southside to the Northside at around 9pm last night and someone, who obviously did not tie down their load, had their single mattress fall out on to the Tuggeranong Parkway causing the car in front of me to swerve and my car to hit to the darn thing. It was stuck under my car for at least 50 metres under my front tyre as I was trying to slowing down. Far out!! There are some real idiots out there. Note to the driver, tie down your load for goodness sake, you could have killed somebody.

OzChick said :

Does anyone know what happened there?

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/fatal-crashes-take-a-terrible-toll/1888351.aspx

OzChick said :

There was a really bad accident on Erindale Drive on Saturday morning at around 9am. Does anyone know what happened there? The road was closed off for most of the day until at least 4pm. The accident involved an ACTION bus and a white ute. I saw the white ute on the tow truck, it did not look good. It was pretty much split in half.

ABC News said last night that the ute veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with the bus, killing the sole occupant of the ute, and injuring 5 people on the bus.

There was a really bad accident on Erindale Drive on Saturday morning at around 9am. Does anyone know what happened there? The road was closed off for most of the day until at least 4pm. The accident involved an ACTION bus and a white ute. I saw the white ute on the tow truck, it did not look good. It was pretty much split in half.