Weston fatal

CraigT said :

c_c™ said :

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

Precisely – and the irony of attention-seekers like IrishPete driving around in conditions of unrestricted visibility with their headlights on and thereby *reducing* everybody’s safety is no great comfort to those affected by their selfish behaviour.

Please explain how making my car more visible to other road users reduces other people’s safety.

Please also explain to the numerous government agencies and insurance companies and car clubs (like NRMA and RAC) who recommend it.

IP

Mike Bessenger said :

IrishPete said :

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

If you were to engage in speculation over the cause I’d venture to say that the colour of the Subaru combined with poor conditions and driver inattention are the most likely causes.

Because if neither car had been moving, there wouldn’t have been accident. Hence speed is always a factor.
IP

If this were the case then why would they say ‘It’s certainly too soon to speculate if speed was a factor’

God you say some stupid things.

Or perhaps some readers are too stupid to understand the things I say?

IP

c_c™ said :

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road.

I have. Crossing the Hay Plain, heat haze on the horizon. The road just before the horizon was reflecting the sky, so a beautiful sky blue.

Girt_Hindrance said :

CraigT said :

c_c™ said :

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

Precisely – and the irony of attention-seekers like IrishPete driving around in conditions of unrestricted visibility with their headlights on and thereby *reducing* everybody’s safety is no great comfort to those affected by their selfish behaviour.

It’s a proven fact that daytime running lights reduce the chances of the vehicle using them being involved in an accident. It’s not about ‘look at me’, it’s more about ‘you’ve seen me’. I understand the vast majority of motorbikes being sold these days have headlights that stay on when the motor is running, for the same reason. I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t drive with their low beams on. Cheapest insurance policy around.

Okay, maybe Fact is a bit hard to back up at this present time, but studies have certainly concluded there are benefits to safety of the vehicle with them on.

CraigT said :

c_c™ said :

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

Precisely – and the irony of attention-seekers like IrishPete driving around in conditions of unrestricted visibility with their headlights on and thereby *reducing* everybody’s safety is no great comfort to those affected by their selfish behaviour.

It’s a proven fact that daytime running lights reduce the chances of the vehicle using them being involved in an accident. It’s not about ‘look at me’, it’s more about ‘you’ve seen me’. I understand the vast majority of motorbikes being sold these days have headlights that stay on when the motor is running, for the same reason. I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t drive with their low beams on. Cheapest insurance policy around.

c_c™ said :

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

Precisely – and the irony of attention-seekers like IrishPete driving around in conditions of unrestricted visibility with their headlights on and thereby *reducing* everybody’s safety is no great comfort to those affected by their selfish behaviour.

c_c™ said :

tim_c said :

Try looking through rain covered side-windows and/or mirrors and see how noticeable a road-coloured car is without the headlights on (and I don’t mean parking lights either – most times you’ve already seen the car before you even notice the driver has put the parking lights on).

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

While I wasn’t there, I’d expect inattention would have had a far greater ‘impact’ in that incident than any eye-sight issues. There seem to be a lot of people having trouble “seeing” traffic lights, speed limit signs, parking signs, etc. or “seeing” that it’s not actually foggy enough to require fog lights but IMHO these are not really eye sight issues.

As for your silver/blue roads, I’ve never seen a truly silver car either – they’re invariably metallic grey, and in wet weather, they blend in rather nicely with the rain and, in some conditions, the wet roads. Not to mention that in overcast or rainy or foggy weather, all colours appear less vivid, so even a yellow car will stand out less than it might on a sunny day.

You might still be able to see a grey car in poor light and grey weather, but it will actually stand out if the headlights are on (and most cars made in the last 25 years have an automatic headlight off/reminder function so there’s really not much excuse – even a flat battery is less inconvenient than a collision which may have been avoided but for your insistence that you shouldn’t need your headlights on for other drivers to be able to see you approaching). I used to think automatic headlights were a silly gimmick, now I think they’re a good idea for those who don’t seem to know when to turn on their headlights, are too limp-wristed to use the headlight switch, or think it’s wimpy to drive with headlights on.

As per the ACT Road Rules Handbook:
“Head and tail lights (not just parking
lights) MUST be switched on when you
are driving between sunset and sunrise.
The use of lights at other times, such as
during the day, or in fog, makes it easier
for other drivers to see you.”

laraeddy said :

First of all, thoughts and commiserations to the family and friends of the lady concerned – hope never, ever to get THAT knock on the front door.

Something else to consider. The Subaru driver received ‘minor injuries’ – which can be bad enough – while the unfortunate Getz driver lost her life. This is far from the first time I’ve heard of people having accidents in small Hyundais and coming off second best – a friend’s sister ended up with very bad injuries when her Excel got side-swiped by a Falcon and basically split in two directly under the driver’s seat, dumping her very unceremoniously onto the roadway ! Check out the ANCAP ratings for smaller, older Hyundais – not pretty.

Reckon those things are death-traps and probably shouldn’t even be on our roads. Nice, easy money for some corporation in the short-term – lots of cost for their customers for years after.

If, as appears to be the case, the hyundai was “T-boned” that could explain why the driver of the hyundai sustained fatal injuries, while the driver of the subaru sustained minor injuries.

The human brain is designed to withstand backwards and forwards movement much better than it is able to withstand side to side movement. If the woman’s head hit the window or door pillar after the collision, that is more likely to cause a fatal injury than if she were travelling forwards and was stopped by the seat belt.

tim_c said :

c_c™ said :

miz said :

A sad reminder to people who drive black, silver and blue cars – PLEASE turn on your lights in wet weather, as you are almost invisible to other drivers . . .

Less visible relative to white, yellow and red vehicles, but hardly almost invisible. What’s scare [sic] is that there are people on the road whose eye sight is that poor.

Try looking through rain covered side-windows and/or mirrors and see how noticeable a road-coloured car is without the headlights on (and I don’t mean parking lights either – most times you’ve already seen the car before you even notice the driver has put the parking lights on).

I ain’t never seen a silver or blue coloured road. I’ve never had an issue seeing any colour of vehicle, even with wet windows.

I did however see someone the other day tail end a bright red car in traffic moving below 20km/h in fine conditions. Again, that pesky issue of eye sight and attention on the driver’s part.

switch said :

tim_c said :

Well I guess it is a bit unfair that 98% of Subaru drivers are going around giving the remaining 2% a bad reputation.

Yeah everyone knows what drivers of black WRX’s are really up to…

Probably have their curtains closed……

MrBigEars said :

switch said :

tim_c said :

Well I guess it is a bit unfair that 98% of Subaru drivers are going around giving the remaining 2% a bad reputation.

Yeah everyone knows what drivers of black WRX’s are really up to…

I heard they eat babies.

Um, the context was speeding: ref. “…the inevitable presumptions that the Subaru driver was speeding…“. Just because 98% of Subaru drivers tear past you even when you’re driving at the speed limit doesn’t mean the other 2% of Subaru drivers speed.

switch said :

tim_c said :

Well I guess it is a bit unfair that 98% of Subaru drivers are going around giving the remaining 2% a bad reputation.

Yeah everyone knows what drivers of black WRX’s are really up to…

I heard they eat babies.

tim_c said :

Well I guess it is a bit unfair that 98% of Subaru drivers are going around giving the remaining 2% a bad reputation.

Yeah everyone knows what drivers of black WRX’s are really up to…

Lillypilly said :

Waking the **** up is a simplistic answer to bad intersection that killed someone less than 24 hours ago.

It’s a simplistic answer because it is a simple problem to solve.
If you’re not prepared to give driving your full attention, drive to the conditions (this includes those using the road around you), maintain your vehicle, and follow the rules, then you can expect something bad will happen to you eventually – whether it’s your fault or someone else’s.

There are very few intersections around the ACT that should be considered ‘bad’ or dangerous. This one is a casing example, there is nothing wrong with the intersection itself, just the people using it. 99% of people manage to get through without problems, so why is it the 1% that complain get the notice?
What would make this intersection safe? Traffic lights? A roundabout? A speed camera? A speed limit reduction? These can all calm traffic down a little bit, but they are no substitute for driver stupidity and ill-attention.

You also mention that the road surface has little grip in the dry or wet, this can be solved easily too (short of re-laying the road with the rubbish gravel surface)… don’t accelerate as heavily or turn as quickly. If that means waiting for an extra few cars to pass before you can pull out more slowly then so be it. Instead, people would try to squeeze for a gap, spin their wheels and cause a crash.

Sadly though I doubt we’ll ever see that actual cause from this one as it would either defame the driver/s or the Government. Instead they’ll just sweep it under the metaphorical rug and continue to preach the speeding message.

house_husband said :

…I read the police comments as an attempt to damp down the inevitable presumptions that the Subaru driver was speeding. You read the police statement an attempt to attribute or at least associate speeding as the cause. Can we be certain that the implications that we read into this story are actually there, or are imposed by our own personal biases?

Well I guess it is a bit unfair that 98% of Subaru drivers are going around giving the remaining 2% a bad reputation.

Lillypilly said :

….When it was double lane southbound, you’d often hear the hard crunch of people thinking that its ok to cross from Namatjira into Streeton because of the car turning left, hiding the car going head on…..

Yes, well you do need to wait until both lanes are clear before pulling out. I was waiting to turn right out of there one day when there was a large truck coming along Streeton in the LH lane. Because the truck was going slowly, the guy behind me who obviously had x-ray vision so he could see through the truck to know that the RH lane was free started honking at me for waiting. It’s people like that that cause standard intersections to be considered “dangerous”.

c_c™ said :

miz said :

A sad reminder to people who drive black, silver and blue cars – PLEASE turn on your lights in wet weather, as you are almost invisible to other drivers . . .

Less visible relative to white, yellow and red vehicles, but hardly almost invisible. What’s scare [sic] is that there are people on the road whose eye sight is that poor.

Try looking through rain covered side-windows and/or mirrors and see how noticeable a road-coloured car is without the headlights on (and I don’t mean parking lights either – most times you’ve already seen the car before you even notice the driver has put the parking lights on).

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

About the same time the media stops doing so? Odds are the officer was just trying to answer all the questions he knew were seconds away from being asked…

Interestingly there was a pedestraian fatality less then a year ago about 100m from this intersection on a different road. What’s going on down there… just an unfortunate coincidence or are there common elements in the accidents?

Maybe research the demographic. Are they older, more culturally diverse, above the common laws???? Don’t know but you may be onto something.

Yes but why is speed the first possible cause they mention after saying it is too soon? They could have said the weather

So, like the part where they said ‘or the weather conditions’?

The problem is a whole industry and social mythology has been built around speed(ing) being blamed for the majority of accidents when the statistics just don’t bear this out.

I don’t know anybody, anywhere, who has ever claimed that speed is the cause for the majority of motor vehicle crashes. The figure regularly quoted by Australian police, which is supported by research, is that “in Australia, excessive speeding has been noted as a contributing factor in up to 30 percent of fatal crashes.” The only ‘social mythology’ here is the one you’re perpetuating – that there’s a social mythology at all.

(And what’s your argument, exactly? We should never discuss a key driver of fatal crashes, because…what, it upsets people who speed and think they’re awesome drivers and something something revenue? Good one.)

just much easier to harp on about speed

Mate, nobody’s harping about speed except you. Maybe go for a walk?

house_husband said :

Yes but why is speed the first possible cause they mention after saying it is too soon? They could have said the weather, poor road engineering, car colour, driver error but they didn’t. Instead they jumped straight to speed. Why mention anything if it is too soon?

Is this Confirmation Bias or the Hostile Media Effect? I read the police comments as an attempt to damp down the inevitable presumptions that the Subaru driver was speeding. You read the police statement an attempt to attribute or at least associate speeding as the cause. Can we be certain that the implications that we read into this story are actually there, or are imposed by our own personal biases?

magiccar9 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Obviously the WRX couldn’t have been at fault as the Getz has to give way if turning right onto Streeton Dr.

While I wouldn’t go as far as saying for sure that the WRX wasn’t in the wrong, it certainly looks like the Getz has failed to give way. From media I saw the front of the WRX was mashed in, which indicates he hit the side of the Getz head on. I don’t think the reduced visibility of the rain was a factor either as the WRX would have hit at close to the full speed limit – judging from the damage – which would indicate the Getz pulled out at the last minute, in which case she would have been able to see any kind of vehicle.

In my opinion there isn’t anything wrong with this intersection, people just need to wake the f**k up and pay attention. The visibility when leaving this road is ample for anyone with a brain in their head to be able to pull out safely. Even when it was dual lane (before they decided to put in the worlds widest cycle lane), one could easily manage to get across the two lanes Namatjira without trouble.

If you’ve lived in the Weston creek area, you’ll know that trying to get off Namtjira on that intersection, in the wet, is horrendous. The bitumen is so smooth the other thing you hear living in those apartments is the whizzzzzz of tyres getting no traction when people have attempted to cross. Dry or wet.

Waking the **** up is a simplistic answer to bad intersection that killed someone less than 24 hours ago.

First of all, thoughts and commiserations to the family and friends of the lady concerned – hope never, ever to get THAT knock on the front door.

Something else to consider. The Subaru driver received ‘minor injuries’ – which can be bad enough – while the unfortunate Getz driver lost her life. This is far from the first time I’ve heard of people having accidents in small Hyundais and coming off second best – a friend’s sister ended up with very bad injuries when her Excel got side-swiped by a Falcon and basically split in two directly under the driver’s seat, dumping her very unceremoniously onto the roadway ! Check out the ANCAP ratings for smaller, older Hyundais – not pretty.

Reckon those things are death-traps and probably shouldn’t even be on our roads. Nice, easy money for some corporation in the short-term – lots of cost for their customers for years after.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention?

Funny, I thought the first thing they mentioned was that it was too soon to speculate about anything, including speed.

I’d venture to say

Was there some part of ‘too soon’ you didn’t understand?

Yes but why is speed the first possible cause they mention after saying it is too soon? They could have said the weather, poor road engineering, car colour, driver error but they didn’t. Instead they jumped straight to speed. Why mention anything if it is too soon?

The problem is a whole industry and social mythology has been built around speed(ing) being blamed for the majority of accidents when the statistics just don’t bear this out. Nose to tail and side on crashes are the most common in the ACT and these are primarily due to following too closely and driver error. Even the ACT Government’s study of the effect of speed and red light cameras found that there was in INCREASE in accidents after they were installed in spite of average speeds being lower.

Yes we need speed limits and enforcement but the law of diminishing returns applied to them any years ago. I’d love it if we could move on an address more complex issues like better driver training or regularly assessing people’s competence to drive. But those are hard to do and don’t raise revenue so it is just much easier to harp on about speed to give the illusions something is being done.

IrishPete said :

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

If you were to engage in speculation over the cause I’d venture to say that the colour of the Subaru combined with poor conditions and driver inattention are the most likely causes.

Because if neither car had been moving, there wouldn’t have been accident. Hence speed is always a factor.
IP

If this were the case then why would they say ‘It’s certainly too soon to speculate if speed was a factor’

God you say some stupid things.

So why is speed the first thing they mention?

Funny, I thought the first thing they mentioned was that it was too soon to speculate about anything, including speed.

I’d venture to say

Was there some part of ‘too soon’ you didn’t understand?

screaming banshee said :

goggles13 said :

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

judging by the response to an article in this month’s Wheels magazine, never.

sadly as a result of the press release, the Subaru driver is going to be seen as the likely cause of the accident. is it any surprise in-car cameras are becoming more common?

I think it is time that such press releases simply stated facts, not opinions to protect the innocent.

Please do tell, which part of the press release is an opinion.

the article in the Crimes certainly provides a few opinions about possible causes

wildturkeycanoe said :

Obviously the WRX couldn’t have been at fault as the Getz has to give way if turning right onto Streeton Dr.

While I wouldn’t go as far as saying for sure that the WRX wasn’t in the wrong, it certainly looks like the Getz has failed to give way. From media I saw the front of the WRX was mashed in, which indicates he hit the side of the Getz head on. I don’t think the reduced visibility of the rain was a factor either as the WRX would have hit at close to the full speed limit – judging from the damage – which would indicate the Getz pulled out at the last minute, in which case she would have been able to see any kind of vehicle.

In my opinion there isn’t anything wrong with this intersection, people just need to wake the f**k up and pay attention. The visibility when leaving this road is ample for anyone with a brain in their head to be able to pull out safely. Even when it was dual lane (before they decided to put in the worlds widest cycle lane), one could easily manage to get across the two lanes Namatjira without trouble.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Obviously the WRX couldn’t have been at fault as the Getz has to give way if turning right onto Streeton Dr. There are thousands of intersections in Canberra, you always give way to traffic coming from your right [and your left if you are entering a T-intersection] so visibility or driver error could be the only things I can see as possible causes. Very sad for both people concerned and the family.

No, speed of the car in the Subaru’s situation could potentially be an issue – one pulls out on the assumption or judgement that an oncoming car is doing a certain speed, and if it was doing 200km/h then the other driver’s calculations would be wrong. You mightn’t even see a car coming if it was doing that speed as it would be so far away.

Loss of traction by the Getz (wheel spinning in the wet), maintenance of one or both cars, the list goes on and on. There are numerous potential contributing factors.

I am not making any inferences about the cause of this particular accident, but one should never close one’s mind to any potential factor. They need to be assessed objectively. Police seem to jump on speed very quickly, so I am not convinced they are objective.

I heard a senior Victoria police officer interviewed on the radio about the Wheels stunt, and he was incoherent. Not with rage, he was just incoherent. Raving on about speed without actually addressing the point that Wheels were trying to make (which is that those speeds are legal on overseas motorways, and there’s a possibility, borne out in the Northern Territory, that lower speed limits can result in more accidents, the mechanism being fatigue).

IP

wildturkeycanoe said :

Obviously the WRX couldn’t have been at fault as the Getz has to give way if turning right onto Streeton Dr. There are thousands of intersections in Canberra, you always give way to traffic coming from your right [and your left if you are entering a T-intersection] so visibility or driver error could be the only things I can see as possible causes. Very sad for both people concerned and the family.

Sad but true. The Getz was supposed to give way, but didn’t. The reason for this will probably never be known.

I’ll a +1 to turning your lights on in poor weather.

Obviously the WRX couldn’t have been at fault as the Getz has to give way if turning right onto Streeton Dr. There are thousands of intersections in Canberra, you always give way to traffic coming from your right [and your left if you are entering a T-intersection] so visibility or driver error could be the only things I can see as possible causes. Very sad for both people concerned and the family.

goggles13 said :

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

judging by the response to an article in this month’s Wheels magazine, never.

sadly as a result of the press release, the Subaru driver is going to be seen as the likely cause of the accident. is it any surprise in-car cameras are becoming more common?

I think it is time that such press releases simply stated facts, not opinions to protect the innocent.

Please do tell, which part of the press release is an opinion.

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

If you were to engage in speculation over the cause I’d venture to say that the colour of the Subaru combined with poor conditions and driver inattention are the most likely causes.

Because if neither car had been moving, there wouldn’t have been accident. Hence speed is always a factor.

But it just demonstrates the simplistic approach that our policy makers, and their flunkeys (in this case the police) have to everything.

Just like the person who simplistically implies that headlights shouldn’t matter. I once pulled out into the road and had a car run into me. It was pitch dark, though there were some streetlights, and the other car didn’t have their lights on. The driver didn’t even argue – it was 100% his fault. There was only minor damage done, I didn’t care about the scratches on my bomb, so we went our separate ways.

I drive with my lights on all the time, whether I’m in my bright red car, or my white 4wd with steel bullbar that will probably just plough straight through you if you pull out in front of me. It’s not hard to do, and it reduces risk. There are no excuses for not doing so.

I watched some pretty dodgy driving yesterday in the rain – from the Vic plated car in the right hand lane all the time, well under the speed limit (and when the road widened and there was another lane to her right, she went into it – this on a road with no right turns for kilometres). Or the elderly couple who were just all over the place. I actually checked the accident photo to see if I recognised their car (but it wasn’t them). Or the guy who switched lanes suddenly in front of me approaching a junction, apparently oblivious to the fact that braking distances increase hugely in the wet, especially in a 2.5 tonne 4wd with mud tyres.

IP

This is the second fatal accident that I’m aware of at that intersection. Roads ACT identified this as dangerous intersection and in 2009 the intersection was modified so that there was only one Southbound lane. A form-on-lane section was added further North on Streeton Drive, traffic islands were installed and they painted a very very wide bike lane on the road.

The Weston Creek Community (WCC) council was rather upset about this. They managed to get Jon Stanhope, Tony Gill and Gary Byles down to the intersection one morning (2009-02-19). I happened to walk by the roadside meeting so I stopped to see what was going on. Tony Gill was trying to explain to the WCC reps that the intersection was dangerous and that Roads ACT felt that making it one lane would improve the safety. The WCC reps were very upset that one of the car lanes had been turned into a bike lane. They claimed it impeded the flow of traffic, that the line markings were confusing and that they felt it didn’t make the intersection any safer. The WCC seemed to miss the point that having to cross one lane was safer than crossing two and that a bike lane was just a convenient thing to do with the extra few meters of road.

Shortly after that the WCC got their way – the bike lane was removed and replaced with a very wide left turn lane (the turn lane is now wider than the southbound lane). The change made no difference to the traffic flow but it removed the easy target for complaints.

I do hope they find a way to improve the safety of the intersection. What does it need, traffic lights, reduced speed limit?

Interestingly there was a pedestraian fatality less then a year ago about 100m from this intersection on a different road. What’s going on down there… just an unfortunate coincidence or are there common elements in the accidents?

I fine it really unfortunate that two out of the three ways into Coleman court has now taken lives.

For a brief time, years ago I rented in the flats near that intersection. When it was double lane southbound, you’d often hear the hard crunch of people thinking that its ok to cross from Namatjira into Streeton because of the car turning left, hiding the car going head on.

Nevermind the crunches of people crashing, again turning out from Namatjira, into from nth travelling streeton folks turning in and it’s hard to tell they’re in the slip lane to turn into namtjira cause the grass is often high obstructing the signal lights of the car.

Turning it into a form one lane before that intersection has worked to a degree but won’t hold. The intersection will only get worse as Molonglo develops, that the Weston servo is the only one servicing 5 suburbs and the roadworks will inevitably end and more traffic, again uses that route.

TL;DR Seen the carnage, surprised it took this long for a fatality, expect more bad accidents unless until they seriously revisit that intersection

c_c™ said :

miz said :

A sad reminder to people who drive black, silver and blue cars – PLEASE turn on your lights in wet weather, as you are almost invisible to other drivers . . .

Less visible relative to white, yellow and red vehicles, but hardly almost invisible. What’s scare is that there are people on the road whose eye sight is that poor.

Many reds are low vis too. It’s not just eyesight, its also bothering to notice what your eyes see.

house_husband said :

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

judging by the response to an article in this month’s Wheels magazine, never.

sadly as a result of the press release, the Subaru driver is going to be seen as the likely cause of the accident. is it any surprise in-car cameras are becoming more common?

I think it is time that such press releases simply stated facts, not opinions to protect the innocent.

miz said :

A sad reminder to people who drive black, silver and blue cars – PLEASE turn on your lights in wet weather, as you are almost invisible to other drivers . . .

Less visible relative to white, yellow and red vehicles, but hardly almost invisible. What’s scare is that there are people on the road whose eye sight is that poor.

A sad reminder to people who drive black, silver and blue cars – PLEASE turn on your lights in wet weather, as you are almost invisible to other drivers . . .

Where to start? An old lady still driving? Was the WRX speeding? Crap intersection design?

“Police will be speaking to the driver of the black Subaru to ascertain his version of events. It’s certainly too soon to speculate if speed was a factor, or the weather conditions, but it is a stark reminder for all Canberrans to drive to the conditions.”

So why is speed the first thing they mention? When will the police get over this almost Pavlovian desire to mention speed when anything bad happens on our roads?

If you were to engage in speculation over the cause I’d venture to say that the colour of the Subaru combined with poor conditions and driver inattention are the most likely causes.

I drove past this accident around 2pm and it didn’t look pretty. We’ve had a family member knocked off a bicycle at this location. The intersection is an accident hotspot and I’ve seen or been involved in several near misses. Also driven past many accidents here. Now… a fatality. Many in the community have been calling for upgrade options for several years. It is most unfortunate that another has now been added to ACT statistics. Perhaps something will finally be done to fix up this area. My thoughts are with the persons and families concerned.