Tharwa Drive strikes again

Vandam #39: This is not really the topic to be debating on whether he should or should no be driving.
Vandam #43: I can tell you age was not a factor in this collision.

Decide which way you want to go, vandam; you can’t have 20 guilders each way.

seekay, it’s not illegal to use indicators in ACT. It’s also not illegal to make baseless, cyclical, ‘Groundhog Day’ generalisations, so fill your boots.

You’ll find that the death of the driver’s partner has been duly noted and the sadness acknowledged.

Pop next door to the other Tharwa Drive fatality threads for extended coverage on whether circumstances surrounding the accident are (or should be) kosher for discussion/debate/comment.

I can tell you age was not a factor in this collision.

I’ve read that thread, and refuse to comment on that one. Whilst I’d rather not go into it, I hope the kids involved in that collision and their frineds who know what happened, tell the Police the truth, rather than stuff the Police around to protect the driver who killed an innocent person(that I might add should not have been out at that time…..WTF were their parents doing?

Follow me sometime, I was taught to use my indicators and duly do. And although I may not be supposed to have a front fence, I’ve got wire mesh across the front and sides of my block to keep dogs out.

BTW, is it illegal to use indicators in the ACT? No one seems to do it. Is it some weird Canberra thing like no front fences?

vandam said :

regardless of how old this guy is, he now doesn’t have partner. Have some respect. This is not really the topic to be debating on whether he should or should no be driving. He was driving, he was medically cleared. THere are plenty of 20 – 30 year olds that wouldn’t be medically cleared yet still drive, still have accidents and still kill people.

You’ll find that the death of the driver’s partner has been duly noted and the sadness acknowledged.

Pop next door to the other Tharwa Drive fatality threads for extended coverage on whether circumstances surrounding the accident are (or should be) kosher for discussion/debate/comment.

regardless of how old this guy is, he now doesn’t have partner. Have some respect. This is not really the topic to be debating on whether he should or should no be driving. He was driving, he was medically cleared. THere are plenty of 20 – 30 year olds that wouldn’t be medically cleared yet still drive, still have accidents and still kill people.

Mælinar – *spoiler alert* I’ve seen S04E13 said :

Having just come off a flying lesson, the pilots generally agree that its just like driving a car only there are a few more buttons/sensors. Once you know what your doing, its easy.

Just clarifying.

Hmmmmmm. I think I’d rather be pulling into my suburban driveway than bringing her into land at LAX in driving rain, bad light and 100kmh cross-winds!

Cameron – Thanks, do I get some sort of prize?

I understand the intent of your premise, Hamilton, but it’s just not valid.

Lots of things require good reflexes that I wouldn’t expect a 92 year old to be capable of. Doing a four-event rotation in men’s gymnastics at the Olympics, for example. But just because he’s not up to having the reflexes to master the rings and the pommel horse doesn’t rule him out of driving a car. As others have mentioned, there is a testing regime in place for drivers over a certain age, and unless he was driving unlicensed, you’d have to say he meets those criteria, at least to the satisfaction of the RTA.

Having just come off a flying lesson, the pilots generally agree that its just like driving a car only there are a few more buttons/sensors. Once you know what your doing, its easy.

Just clarifying.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

—-

It’s not that irrelevant – Both flying and driving require good reflexes which I don;t believe a 92 year old would have

—-

The comparison I’m trying to draw is that both require good reflexes which I don’t believe a 92 year old would have.

A lot of people post some unintentionally hilarious stuff on RA from time to time, but I didn’t think it was possible for someone to do it three posts in a row… congratulations Hamilton.

The comparison I’m trying to draw is that both require good reflexes which I don’t believe a 92 year old would have.

Hamilton said :

Overheard said :

Hamilton said :

AlpineViper said :

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

That’s such an irrelevant comparison I wouldn’t know where to start to unpick it.

It’s not that irrelevant – Both flying and driving require good reflexes which I don;t believe a 92 year old would have

LOL – there’s a lot more to flying then driving a car… I agree it’s an irrelevant comparison. Going to fly a plane to work tomorrow Hamilton?

Hamilton said :

Overheard said :

Hamilton said :

AlpineViper said :

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

That’s such an irrelevant comparison I wouldn’t know where to start to unpick it.

It’s not that irrelevant – Both flying and driving require good reflexes which I don;t believe a 92 year old would have

I don’t have any definitive knowledge on this, but I’m guessing the aviation authorities have just a few more requirements other than ‘good reflexes’, over and above the requirements for a driver’s licence, if they expect you to get behind the rather extensive dashboard of a cockpit and put several thousand tonnes of air conveyance at odds to the laws of gravity AND put the lives of several hundred passengers (not just the one) under your care.

Actually, I’m about to nip down the shops to get some groceries and I haven’t filed my flight plan or squeezed those 400 passengers into the back seat!

Wandering off topic again, methinks.

Overheard said :

Hamilton said :

AlpineViper said :

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

That’s such an irrelevant comparison I wouldn’t know where to start to unpick it.

It’s not that irrelevant – Both flying and driving require good reflexes which I don;t believe a 92 year old would have

Hamilton said :

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

ahahahahahahaha!

DJ said :

What about the 92 year old trolly dolly?

Actually, I’ve flown on a couple of regional airlines where I reckon I would have gone close!

What about the 92 year old trolly dolly?

Hamilton said :

AlpineViper said :

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

That’s such an irrelevant comparison I wouldn’t know where to start to unpick it.

AlpineViper said :

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

@ Alpine Viper – Let me ask you this, would you board a flight to LA with a 92 year old Captain and a 92 year old first officer?

Madman said :

tuggers said :

Traffic travelling south on Tharwa drive have the afternoon sun directly in their eyes. The speed limit is 80km and there are no median strips at the sector, only slip lanes.

I don’t think there is even a slip lane at this intersection though mate.

There is a turning lane for traffic southbound on Tharwa Drive turning right into Duggan, and a slip lane for northbound traffic turning left into Duggan, but for cars turning out of Duggan heading north, it’s just straight onto the main lanes.

tuggers said :

Traffic travelling south on Tharwa drive have the afternoon sun directly in their eyes. The speed limit is 80km and there are no median strips at the sector, only slip lanes.

I don’t think there is even a slip lane at this intersection though mate.

It’s not really in my nature to play Nancy Drew on these ones, but the thing that struck me from the report (and my limited knowledge of that area) is that you don’t really turn north or south out of Duggan onto Tharwa. At that point, you’re either going almost due east or west. But the rest of the statement about the relative directions does suggest an inadvertent change of lane.

All of those intersections along that stretch of road can be shockers — I nearly ended up a statistic myself a few years ago because of badly-placed ‘Give Way’ signs and contradictory road markings.

Very sad in any circs, but the death of whom I’m presuming is probably someone’s lifetime partner, and probably a partner for much more of their life than not, makes it even more tragic.

This is a very sad story but letting a 92 year old get behind the wheel is like letting a monkey fly an jumbo-jet.

tuggers said :

Traffic travelling south on Tharwa drive have the afternoon sun directly in their eyes. The speed limit is 80km and there are no median strips at the sector, only slip lanes.

True enough, the sun can be pretty bad on that stretch of road late in the afternoon, but this prang happened at 3:35, and the Duggan St intersection is on the downhill part of Tharwa drive.

I have first hand experience of an elderly driver who got somewhat confused and thought they were pulling onto a dual carriageway, thus ending up on the wrong side of the road, so I guess that’s another possibility.

I vaguely remember seeing an image of the accident scene, but can’t recall whether it was in the CT or local TV news. That might have made it a bit clearer as to which vehicle was on the wrong side of the road, but I wasn’t paying that much attention.

Wouldn’t that make this Tharwa Drive Strikes Back ? (or under the new nomeclature, Attack of the Tharwa Drive)

Traffic travelling south on Tharwa drive have the afternoon sun directly in their eyes. The speed limit is 80km and there are no median strips at the sector, only slip lanes.

I just hope there’s no political point-scoring over this one..

What AlpineViper said.

Hamilton, generalising just annoys people. There are some very capable, sharp witted and fit 90+ year olds around. He could have easily been one of them.

With all due respect WTF does the ACT Government issue a license to a 92 year old person? Whilst I understand that age may not have been the factor here, surely a 92 year old person doesn’t have the reflexes required to safely operate a vehicle, especially with some of the d!(K heads on Canberra roads.

I live in an older part of Canberra and the demographic is 75+ – I’ve lost count of the number of times an old silver haired person has almost caused an accident and has continued on their merry way without even knowing what just happened. Don’t they get free bus tickets or subsidised cab fares?

Are there any laws in the ACT or anywhere in Australia where they stop issuing you a license to drive arbitrarily based on your age? My guess is no…

I’m pretty sure (from working in a medical centre while at uni and seeing patients coming in for this) that once you reach a certian age in the ACT you need to have a medical assessment before your license can be renewed. However, I can’t remember how often this is meant to happen (i.e., annually etc).

seekay said :

Fascinating that no one here seems to think the “92 year old” driver part might be relevant here. The RiotACT demographic must skew older than I though.

Thats right, we’re all old and above the 100 mark, I even ride a motorbike!

There are rules for drivers over 85, i believe its like a yearly medical for fitness to drive. This bloke would have fitted this description and most likely passed or is starting to slip. An accident is an accident and the same thing could have happened to a 20 year old or a 30 year old and on and on.

My understanding of the stats is that older drivers are much less likely to get into accidents, but much more likely to die when they do.

Forcing them to get driven around by more accident prone younger drivers seems to be a particularly cruel way to approach the problem.

seekay said :

Fascinating that no one here seems to think the “92 year old” driver part might be relevant here. The RiotACT demographic must skew older than I though.

Cameron said :

It certainly has the potential to be relevant, but we can’t assume it was a factor.

Are there any laws in the ACT or anywhere in Australia where they stop issuing you a license to drive arbitrarily based on your age? My guess is no…

I don’t think there are any rules regarding the age you must stop driving. I agree with you Cameron, it could have been relevant as judgment is slower at that age etc. But a lot of car accidents…are exactly that…accidents, and it’s always a shame when someone is injured or dies. My thoughts are with both parties involved.

seekay said :

Fascinating that no one here seems to think the “92 year old” driver part might be relevant here. The RiotACT demographic must skew older than I though.

Just because no one mentioned it, doesn’t mean we weren’t thinking it.
🙂

It certainly has the potential to be relevant, but we can’t assume it was a factor.

Are there any laws in the ACT or anywhere in Australia where they stop issuing you a license to drive arbitrarily based on your age? My guess is no…

Fascinating that no one here seems to think the “92 year old” driver part might be relevant here. The RiotACT demographic must skew older than I though.

I have been struck by the poor night lighting on some of the arterial roads about the place – eg, Johnson Drive Calwell. Sometimes the lane lines are not visible at night, or you can only see the reflection of the stuff they use to cover over an old line where the lane lines have been altered – eg Erindale Drive Wanniassa.

Even a part of the new GDE is practically pitch black – not sure what this stretch is actually called though (could be part of Belc Way or Caswell Drive, the signage is pretty confusing considering I have to take the ‘Gungahlin’ exit to go to Bruce or Aranda – weird).

Someone must have strayed out of their lane. If one vehicle was turning from Duggan and heading north, the only traffic they’d need to give way to is the Tharwa Dr northbound traffic. The white van was heading southbound.

So either the white van has come across or the Corolla has turned wide.

Note to AFP Media:
Proofread your releases first.

Conder is a suburb, Condor is a south american endangered bird.

Playing the devils advocate here, but drivers on the road are already a statistic.

Something tells me he didnt give way….
(even through, there are signs there saying to! arrgh!)

i think i’m now going to have to start praying for my life whenever i drive there…

Not a great intersection, that one. I’m surprised there aren’t more prangs there.