Liberal liar

[80-85 husky]

Im with pancho, the stopping distance and thinking braking techniques have saved me heaps since attending a brock murcott school.

I took the new 18 y/o hoon from work in his v8 ute along (he seriously fancied himself behind the wheel)
in the first exercise he destroyed a Lamborghini and a roller (that's what they call the traffic cones) by the end of the day he could stop that old HZ ute quicker than the abs commo fords the execs had.

His attitude changed dramatically and his tyre life increased enormously so a usefull exercise. he just spent a fortune at the go karts and was quick in them as well.

I believe its the attitude that needs focus... Two things change a persons persona ...a gun and a car.

New drivers need to be educated more about the attitude to driving... its not  right of passage ala sex, guns and beer.. its a method of conveyance... f*ck it up and you or worse, others die or worse again, are permanently maimed.

All of us here reading this are the lucky ones... we got  through ourselves. its so easy to pick the p platers now as they are always 15 k's faster than everyone else.

I remember when I was on p's, everyone drove 15k's to slow!!

figure it out.

there was a great program on road toll in the US and they thought the roads were the issue so massive road building... more people died. Must be the cars were crook so belt t he manufacturers to improve safety...people felt safer and drove faster .. even more people died.

Driver training that's it ... they studied 20 top racing drivers .... They had more stax than anyone else!!

Speed? 55 miles per hour

That did the trick.

[Nathan S]

What Nathan's post about driver training needs qualification.
 
 I agree tha the level of basic driver training needs to be looked at.
 However there are interesting facts around about the results of driver training courses, for instance you dont see much around these days about so called "Advanced driver"
courses.
  These were encouraged by insurance companies until statistics started to turn up showing more accidents occuring with these 'graduates' than previuosly.
 
I attended two stages of these courses while in govt employment and found the most benefit to me was the stopping distance exercises. As a volunteer with the Rotary Clubs Driver Awarness Programme for school kids I observed that the participants also saw the benifits from this, as well as learning from  presentations by survivors of road accident  trauma.

 My thoughts about an effective means of kerbing the road toll among young male drivers is the encouraging of organised motor sport. In my mad rev head younger days I noticed the more I participated in my chosen motor cycle sport with strong competition the better behaved I became on the road.

 Another very worrying asspect of road accident statistic among the younger(and not so young) is as was also aluded to here somewhere was depression and the sometimes tragic results of 'the black dog'.

Oh yeah. I specifically referenced the Motor cyclist Learner courses, because they've been proven to be very effective.

I've clocked over nearly half a million kays in the last two decades, without so much as a car park dent [*touches wood*]. I reckon this puts me somewhere in a very low risk group...
1. Just before I got my Ls a workmate crashed and killed his GF (and very nearly killed himself). Watching the way that unfolded was a big eye-opener. Before the crash, He'd been boasting to my mum about driving like a forkwit, and she warned him of the dangers - his reply was "it won't happen to me"... He was obviously proven wrong in the most dramatic possible way. It was a demonstration that even a 15yo couldn't ignore...

2. Active participation in motorsport has three main advantages:
a) it makes hooning on the road seem slow, dangerous and pointless;
b) it improves your understanding of vehicle dynamics and spacial awareness;
c) It ensures you recognise driving is a skill, and you will seek to increase your skill level.

[80-85 husky]

Also helps your attitude in that "I don't have to show every 14 y/o school kid im hotstuff" as  im last on the race track and obviously need to learn a lot....

But plenty of budding racers have lost it playing up in the car / bike on the public forum

don't forget that males under 25's have no real mental capacity to assess risk and consequences   ..they only learn from mistakes...if they die, they don't get another chance....

[pancho]

 Your last line there John is very sucinct.
cheers

[80-85 husky]

its the bottom line Pancho... weve all been there but made the lucky choices wether by good luck or inbuilt "natural selection" common sense.... unfortunately government policy and baby bonuses seem to be breeding more of the darwin award winners...