What the hell is happening on our roads?
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- Aug 17, 2006
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Yeah there's a few possible factors at play there given what we already know: police are already saying they'll be charging the driver, so they at least think he's partly at fault.
It might be that I'm starting to get older, but I find it hard to buy the 'people are more distracted while driving' argument, just going on my personal experience. When I started driving, there wouldn't be a second thought about making/taking a call (without hands free), or even texting (certainly reading a text) on a quiet road. I was never fined. When it came through that you were in trouble for looking at your phone at traffic lights, I was like 'why?'
Now, when I see what the fines are like, I just can't imagine why a regular late-teen/early 20s driver would risk it.
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- May 13, 2014
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If you've never done it, get on youtube and watch Dash Cams Australia, my whole family watch it together, including my 18 and 16 year olds. It's a good educational tool to point things out to them. You can tell when someone is either dozing off or on their phone, it's scary.
- May 13, 2014
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Just speaking with my brother and we're trying to figure out how so many have died and been seriously injuried when it's just flipped onto it's side.
We speculated that maybe those on the side the bus flipped onto just get their heads smashed against the window / ground, particularly those not wearing seat belts and suffer massive head injuries. They also cop anyone and anything from the other side falling down on top of them. Does the bus bounce / rock a little after the initial impact meaning that peoples' limbs have a chance to go through the now broken windows before the bus then settles on top of them as it's still sliding?
35 dead or injuired, 18 uninjured, that's pretty much 2/3s that have been immediately affected.
We speculated that maybe those on the side the bus flipped onto just get their heads smashed against the window / ground, particularly those not wearing seat belts and suffer massive head injuries. They also cop anyone and anything from the other side falling down on top of them. Does the bus bounce / rock a little after the initial impact meaning that peoples' limbs have a chance to go through the now broken windows before the bus then settles on top of them as it's still sliding?
35 dead or injuired, 18 uninjured, that's pretty much 2/3s that have been immediately affected.
peternorth
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Has the AFL made mention of this yet? I wonder if its mentioned at the G today at all given the day is about fighting MND
Nice Swan Brother
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It doesn't seem immediately obvious, i've always felt safe in buses, even well before they had seat belts.
I may be weird, but in times like this I always feel for the driver.
It should be IMO.
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I still can't get over the fact you could own a car (from new) for 20 odd years in Vic and never have to get a roadworthy cert. There are probably hundreds of thousands of vehicles on our roads with bald tyres, shot brakes and knackered suspension but no one in Govt seems to give two shits.
The amount of people driving around with one working headlight/taillight/brake light refusing to stump up the $10 for a new globe shits me no end and the cops likely have too much on their plate to enforce it. Just ****ing legislate a mandatory roadworthy inspection every 1-2 years and you'll save countless lives
The amount of people driving around with one working headlight/taillight/brake light refusing to stump up the $10 for a new globe shits me no end and the cops likely have too much on their plate to enforce it. Just ****ing legislate a mandatory roadworthy inspection every 1-2 years and you'll save countless lives
- Aug 17, 2006
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Similarly, you should probably have to do a basic licence test every 10-15 years. Like I'm still licenced to drive a manual car, but don't reckon I've actually been behind the wheel of a manual in about 18 years.
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If they were serious about road safety and not just the revenue brings in occasionally they'd have red light/speed cameras at every intersection/lights etc. Breatho in every car so it doesnt start above 0.05 and so on
Im glad we dont live in that world though tbh.
- Sep 22, 2011
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Don’t know what happened. Not sure if it was travelling at speed and rolled then slid, or was at relatively low speed and simply tipped onto its side with a single major impact.
It came to test on a metal guardrail, if it landed directly on that and it cut into the bus it could’ve caused carnage - with those hitting it directly and those falling from the other side of the aisle.
I don’t know if all buses have seatbelts these days. Even if so, id suggest that after a big night of drinking there may have been many not wearing them. This could be something the driver is charged with.
- May 13, 2014
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Just reading the account of the MC from the wedding who was on the bus (I was friends with his dad back in our school days). He was on the righthand side of the bus, all the badly injured or dead were on the left as far as he could tell.
In late November last year, there was a bus with a driver, 4 teachers and 27 students from Loreto College, Ballarat on the Western Hwy in the early hours of the morning, heading to Melbourne airport for the students to embark on a NASA Space Camp in the US. On the way they had to slow down as there had been an earlier crash on the hwy. A b-double slammed into them and sent them off the road and they rolled down an embankment. There were injuries, some serious, but no one died. They all had their seat belts on.
I get a feeling the seat belt angle will be part of any charges laid.
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- May 13, 2014
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Button was late on Monday charged with 11 offences including 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death - drive manner dangerous, and one count of negligent driving (occasioning death).
- Apr 8, 2006
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I’ve noticed in Melbourne that post covid a lot of people seem to have no concern about running a red. See it a few times a week. Really needs a crackdown.
- Sep 16, 2006
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The West Australian has claimed a few of the surviving passengers told police the bus driver was bragging about how fast he was going right before the crash.
Yes I've heard that passengers asked him to slow down, and he said something like "you think this is fast???"
In a bit of trouble if true.
Looks like the left side fell on a barrier, wonder if that was a factor in injuries.
Not liking all the "unaccounted for" stories about people as well, not sure what that means.
In a bit of trouble if true.
Looks like the left side fell on a barrier, wonder if that was a factor in injuries.
Not liking all the "unaccounted for" stories about people as well, not sure what that means.
- Jan 7, 2018
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I know 5 of the survivors fairly well.
To think they are alive from deciding which side of the bus to sit on has been haunting my thoughts the last few days.
To think they are alive from deciding which side of the bus to sit on has been haunting my thoughts the last few days.
- Jul 8, 2017
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Witnesses on the bus have reportably said the driver was hooning and showing off and some of the passengers asked him to slow down numerous times. Police are saying some of the people will be hard to identify so the driver must have been travelling at some speed. The bus slid into a guard rail apparently. Tragic events.
As for the broader issue of bad driving, I dunno but the general selfishness, entitlement and lack of civility permeating our country these days might have a bit to do with it.
Also demographics - in big cities at least traffic is getting out of control and pissing people off and making them more selfish. Also we probably have a large cohort (baby boomers) who are now starting to enter that stage of decline where reaction times, cognition, vision, etc are getting to a tipping point bad enough to affect driving but not so bad that you really take notice of it.
Also demographics - in big cities at least traffic is getting out of control and pissing people off and making them more selfish. Also we probably have a large cohort (baby boomers) who are now starting to enter that stage of decline where reaction times, cognition, vision, etc are getting to a tipping point bad enough to affect driving but not so bad that you really take notice of it.
There was a line of about 5 cars going very close to each other on the way back from the beach yesterday. Person in front was doing 100 in the right hand lane and everyone decided to tailgate each other behind them. Fair enough needed to move over but I don't like this method as a persuader.
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My friend, who is looks into train and bus crashes in Victoria, so can only speculate on an incident in NSW, says it looks from the photos like the bus front wheels were locked up and skidded into the kerb. It flipped the bus over so the back end of the bus was initially overturned on the road then the whole left side would have smashed into the roadside barriers.
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Apparently the driver has a history of mental illness. How was he allowed to have a bus licence if so?
Plugger35
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Yeah he doesn't sound like the sort of guy who should have been driving a bus and I don't think mental illness is any excuse for driving like a dickhead.
If what some witnesses are saying is true and he was speeding recklessly despite being asked to slow down he should be looking at a long stint in jail.
- May 13, 2014
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I think it tipped a fair way before it got to the curb / barrier, there are scrape marks on the road for quite a distance. If they were having trouble identifying people, I'm thinking, bus tips, all windows on left smash, people are thrown against the left side, the bus slides into the curb, gets a little airborne, enough for people to partially get thrown out the smashed windows and then get mashed between the bus and ground as it continues sliding / slams into the metal barrier.
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