Lived in a boarding house years back.. Met a 40 odd something crippled bloke (leg). Was riding his bike in Albany Hwy Vic.Park when a parked car pulled out and hit him. Years passed and compo was around 400k. Peanuts when you consider his injury. A car has a cage offering huge protection, a bike doesn't.

Sorry to bring this unbelievably sad story up. Few years back,think it was Vahland Av in Riverton. Young bloke took his dads BMW for a 200 kmh spin. Problem was he brought a few of his mates with their girlfriends along. Went thru the intersection of High Rd,did a aerial on the slight hill,lost control and crashed into a tree 100 metres or so ahead,all dead. Yeah,speed doesn't kill.

WA71 said..
Normal thinking: speed rarely kills.

Realistic Thinking: Speed is multiplying factor of both likelihood and consequences. It multiply's the risk of an incident occurring as well as the consequences of something going wrong.

WA71 said..Pessimistic thinking: he's going to spin out and kill everyone.

I would agree, but no one has said something WILL happen, just that there is unacceptable risk of something possibly happening. That is not pessimistic, but realistic.

Realist thinking: There is a risk things could go wrong and he could spin out and kill someone. Any risk to an innocent life for random reckless behaviour is unacceptable.

I dunno how fast he was going but at 180km++ he's covering 500m in about 10 seconds.

On a race track that leaves plenty of room for planning but on busy roads any number of unavoidable things could happen. Normal road users being distracted by 2 bikes racing around and not thinking about a car following them.

If you ever done 200-250+ you'll know how long it takes to slow down. Even with carbon brakes, good suspension and decent tyres it still takes some time to wash off speed.

Harrow said..

1. That driver had those bikes for breakfast!
2. All three of them are total idiots.
3. The girl passenger should have kicked that driver in the nuts and punched him in the face until her hands bled. What right did he have to put her life in danger (and everyone else's) after she asked him to stop so many times?

Totally agree.

Maybe the girl needed a 'safe' word.. like, I dunno.. "Fkwit", "Cawkhed" or sumpin?

FlySurfer said..

Wow some of you sure are pessimists.

Approx one in every 90 people in Australia is killed by a car.
If you drive like that your chances are very much worse than 1:90.
Whats more the chances of you killing others is also disproportionately higher.

You seem to think that if you are skillful enough you can avoid this outcome. If you think for just a few minutes about all the possibilities that precipitate fatal accidents you will realize that many of them are beyond your control. One of the few that is, is your speed. You don't have to be skillful or clever to drive carefully. It is not unreasonable to expect that of all drivers.

www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3302.0

146,000 deaths in 2011.

~ 1300 deaths on roads in 2011 (Wiki)

Closer to 1:112

Still higher than I expected.

petermac33 said..

Sorry to bring this unbelievably sad story up. Few years back,think it was Vahland Av in Riverton. Young bloke took his dads BMW for a 200 kmh spin. Problem was he brought a few of his mates with their girlfriends along. Went thru the intersection of High Rd,did a aerial on the slight hill,lost control and crashed into a tree 100 metres or so ahead,all dead. Yeah,speed doesn't kill.

The above story is an example of an all too common tale...

Here in Townsville the most popular place to kite is Pallaranda. Right next to the grass that most kiters use as a 'pump up' area is a large tree. That tree was the impact site of a car crash that killed four teenagers/young adults. Speed was a major factor.
Some time after the crash I shared an office with the father of one of the victims. Even a couple of years after the crash this guy was still very much affected by it. He had periods of depression and periods of aggressive behaviour, it affected him so much that ultimately he could no longer work.
I won't go into the details here, but suffice to say these accidents can affect the lives of more than those in the crash itself.

The entertainment provided by every youtube video of stupid driving ever made is not worth the grief that I witnessed in just this one man.