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rainman
3rd January 2008, 18:26
NZ speed limits too high for the roads - police

Posted at 11:08am on 03 Jan 2008

The police say New Zealand's speed limits are too high for its roads after an increase in the total road toll for 2007.

The 2007 road toll was 423 deaths, up 29 on 2006 which was a 40-year low.

Seventeen people died on the roads during the latest official holiday period, which ended at 6am on Thursday.

National operations manager for road policing, Inspector Carey Griffiths says New Zealand speed limits are too high for the roads.

He says the New Zealand roading network is unforgiving compared to international standards.


Copyright © 2007 Radio New Zealand

sAsLEX
3rd January 2008, 18:30
Explain 2006 then!?


More speed limits have reduced since then and the toll goes up. Looking at that data we need to undo these reductions to fix the road code!

Colapop
3rd January 2008, 18:31
The speed limit should be no more than 10kph. Then the only death toll we'd have would be from heart attacks behind the wheel. Perhaps there'd also be cobweb poisoning... :whistle:

Smokin
3rd January 2008, 19:03
I've noticed that the "road toll" seems to be a very broard term, Has it always included quad bikes and motox bike related deaths that happen off formed roads?

It strikes me a bit like ACC levies on bike rego, all motorcycle injuries contribute to the higher rego levies yet a fairly high percentage of those injuries are not from road registered bikes, ie quads and trail bikes.

The Pastor
3rd January 2008, 19:04
bikes are dangerous, ive said it before.

Storm
3rd January 2008, 19:11
So what they are saying is fix the roads and we'd be sweet?

I see no reason to get hot and bothered by that

Oh and whilst fixing the road surface -get rid of the %^##& cheesecutters!

(ok, maybe a couple degrees there:bleh:)

The Pastor
3rd January 2008, 19:13
we knew they were wanting to lower the national speed limit, we went to the meetings.

trumpy
3rd January 2008, 19:21
Didn't work before why should it work now?
The road toll figure cannot be taken at face value, it needs to be measured against vehicle movements. Given the increase of such over the last year, by their own admission, if you do this the toll is roughly the same as the previous year.
Farking public servants!! Trust them not!!

The Pastor
3rd January 2008, 19:22
What? common sence? get out!

We need to have more traffic cops and give out more tickets, ITS THE ONLY WAY!

Hitcher
3rd January 2008, 19:26
It's the silly season. Apart from the road toll and church-fulls of people being incinerated in Kenya, there is nothing else happening apart from cricket. As long as policy-makers and others who don't understand statistics or actuarial risk don't have a mental infarction, all should be well.

swbarnett
3rd January 2008, 19:29
The speed limit should be no more than 10kph. Then the only death toll we'd have would be from heart attacks behind the wheel. Perhaps there'd also be cobweb poisoning... :whistle:
Actually, I think the toll would go up. What driver is going to be awake after half an hour of 10km/h?

swbarnett
3rd January 2008, 19:34
You can't compare two figures and come up with anything meaningfull. If they were really interested in finding out if a prticular measure actually worked they'd only change one thing every 5 to 10 years and quote road toll figures as trend lines in KSI per km travelled.

FJRider
3rd January 2008, 19:38
It strikes me a bit like ACC levies on bike rego, all motorcycle injuries contribute to the higher rego levies yet a fairly high percentage of those injuries are not from road registered bikes, ie quads and trail bikes.

YOU'VE JUST FIGURED THAT OUT ??? ACC's statistics do NOT list, on road or off road numbers, it does not matter to them. THEY ARE ALL MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS. Thus they charge levies where they can. To those that HAVE to pay, or no rego. LOGICAL eh!!!

mowgli
3rd January 2008, 19:44
Seems to me that it's not the speed limit that's too high, it's the increasing horse power available to inexperienced drivers! The graduated scheme should include a power limit for cages like it does for bikers. That would fix a lot of things.

Grahameeboy
3rd January 2008, 19:53
Lets see more cars on roads must mean that we may have a few more fatalities...........

Registered Vehicles - 2006 was 3,226,614 so up 2.42%
Registered Vehicles - 2005 was 3.150,253

Number of Fatalities up 7.36%. Now that would include that freak accident involving the camper van where 4 were killed.

So it is the roads that are to blame not the drivers then? What happened to drive to the conditions etc.

Basically this country has shit drivers who are badly educated. The speed limit is 50k in town and then 100 out of town so when they get out of town they go nuts.

FJRider
3rd January 2008, 19:58
Seems to me that it's not the speed limit that's too high, it's the increasing horse power available to inexperienced drivers! The graduated scheme should include a power limit for cages like it does for bikers. That would fix a lot of things.

That only works for licensed / registered drivers or riders. EXPERIENCE is the key. And you dont get that untill just AFTER you need it.
More and better driver/rider training. Attitude readjustment in prison by victims family members maybe.

kevfromcoro
3rd January 2008, 20:02
bikes are dangerous, ive said it before.
yes bikes can be dangerous..
so are a lot of other things...motormowers....toasters.irons..curling tongs ..if u hop in the bath with them ..still conectected to 240 volts.a lot of people die from toasters.....
this a biker forum..
no negative please
thats how it is

Ocean1
3rd January 2008, 20:13
Two differences between NZ and most other countries we could reasonable expect to have comparable road accident stat's.

Personal insurance here is cheap and the same cost for everyone.

The roads, as the dude said, are not very forgiving. Some of that is topographical and some is inadequate funding, given that topography.

The fix is expensive: Arsehole the ACC component of registration costs and make everyone pay the real cost of their particular driving/riding risk. And fix the fekin' roads so they're a bloody sight more forgiving.

Like I said, expensive. In more ways than one.

sAsLEX
3rd January 2008, 20:14
Personal insurance here is cheap and the same cost for everyone.


Unless you compare a young male and an older woman...

mowgli
3rd January 2008, 20:23
That only works for licensed / registered drivers or riders. EXPERIENCE is the key. And you dont get that untill just AFTER you need it.
More and better driver/rider training. Attitude readjustment in prison by victims family members maybe.

Perhaps the insurance companies could be bludgeoned into giving discounts to young drivers who have undergone and passed extensive driver education. The discount could ramp up as more experience and training is completed.

While they're at it the govt should make third party insurance compulsory and it should the driver, not the vehicle that is insured. Owner insures the vehicle - drivers insured for the mistakes they might make. It would increase personal responsibility (successive govts are eroding this) and provide another avenue for the fuzz to come down hard on crap drivers.

Ocean1
3rd January 2008, 20:50
Unless you compare a young male and an older woman...

That's my point.

I don't know what the true cost of a 19yo male owning a 250KW car with the suspension sitting on the bump-stops is. Same with kids on 100KW sprotbikes. I do know that insurance companies overseas invariably decline to cover such risk at all, at any price.

They also decline to cover those who cost too much in terms of claims. That's the real world.

We all make mistakes, but here we're exempt from the concequences. We positively encourage dangerous behaviour, (as with a great deal of our policies), by socialising the price of it.

Swoop
3rd January 2008, 21:24
The clear message here, is that the approach taken by the authorities hasn't worked and stated targets have not been achieved.
This smacks of total incompetence in the workplace and all enforcement personnel must be fired immediately!

homer
3rd January 2008, 21:40
Seems to me that it's not the speed limit that's too high, it's the increasing horse power available to inexperienced drivers! The graduated scheme should include a power limit for cages like it does for bikers. That would fix a lot of things.

Oh how i love this point


Your so correct
and its always been my argument why you should only have a 250 for a first bike

think about it
a 250 with say 65 hp
or a say 600 detuned with say 65 hp

ok most 600 are bit more hp about 80
but a 250 will still pull 200 clicks
and a 1000 will still pull 200 clicks

point is you can have any thing you want so long as its a 250

mrchips
3rd January 2008, 21:51
The speed limits are to high cos the roads are shit.

People drive 4WD'S here to compensate for the crap standard of roads & ridiculously high speed bumps that take out your cars exhaust system.

Raise the price of petrol, increase acc levies & the price of smokes + ban loud exhausts, loud lawnmowers & loud music... this will reduce the road toll.

The Lone Rider
3rd January 2008, 21:56
I have to agree though, a lot of NZ roads are shocking.. absolutely shocking. Badly paved, no safety barriers where there should be, odd routing of the roads, and what the fuck is with streets randomly changing names in Christchurch? There are several streets that "turn" on a slow bend and once on the bend it's a different street, and some little side street turn off is the "same" road you just left.

sAsLEX
3rd January 2008, 22:00
no safety barriers where there should be

And dangerous barriers were none are needed.





Is it me not noticing or has something suddenly changed to our roads? Most are getting better, hell there is even repairs done on 22 occasionally, there should now be no call for reduced limits since when was it raised?

Dooly
3rd January 2008, 22:03
'National operations manager for road policing, Inspector Carey Griffiths says New Zealand speed limits are too high for the roads.'

Cracks me up when I see him on telly now.
He's a biker, or was, when I knew him when he was a Sgt prosceutor here, not too long ago.
He brought my 1200 Bandit, and rode, shall we say........similar to most bikers.......:rolleyes:

Ixion
3rd January 2008, 22:19
Nowt wrong with the roads. You folk don't know what a bad road is.

In fact, the roads are too good. The quality of the roads (and vehicles) has exceeded the competence of the drivers. The nice smooth wide roads make them go fast, it all seems so easy.

If the roads were bad, people would slow down. Or, not drive at all, cos it's al too hard. They need to stop maintaining the roads , save money, let them go back to what they used to be when I was young .

70 years ago we had a 90kph speed limit (universally ignored). Many cars still had only two wheel brakes, suspensions were farm cart epilleptic spring beam axles. No power anything at all. And the roads would be totally inconceivable to you. Imagine the worst road you have ever seen, and take that as the standard of the best. Now imagine the worst. They were worse than that. And then you had the PUMICE. Which is beyond your imagination.

People managed perfectly well. Only bad drivers (or riders) complain about bad roads.

mowgli
4th January 2008, 06:03
People managed perfectly well. Only bad drivers (or riders) complain about bad roads.

Never thought about it like that. I have to agree completely. Trouble is that the govt is trying to protect the idiots in society by constraining the liberty of everyone else. The stats show that this approach is failing. Instead they should let natural selection take it's toll.

riffer
4th January 2008, 07:42
Reported on stuff:

In comparison to every other year it's an average result, but it's a poor result compared to last year," road policing operations manager Inspector Carey Griffiths told NZPA.

The overall trend of road deaths was downwards - "but it's still ... too many ... We can still do better.

"It's very easy to sit back and talk about numbers but when it's one of your family members it really hits home.

"I think it's fair to say drivers can get complacent."

The number of people who died on the roads in 2007 had also increased to 423, from 2006's total of 393, which had been a 40-year low.

Mr Griffiths said most crashes were caused by drivers, with mechanical failure a factor in only about 0.5 percent.

Alcohol was a factor in a third of crashes, speed a third of crashes and not wearing a seatbelt a quarter.

At least 22 lives could have been saved last year, had the person been wearing a seat belt, Mr Griffiths said.

The number of drink drivers being caught by police had increased slightly last year despite extensive campaigns.

The message was not getting through and it was time for people to take personal responsibility, Mr Griffiths said.

Friends and family should also step in, telling people not to drink and drive or speed and be prepared to call the police if necessary.

"As a community we shouldn't be tolerating bad driving and bad drivers ... It's time to say enough's enough."

People also liked to blame the road when someone had been driving too fast or did not have good tyres, he said.

"Any piece of road can be dangerous, if the driver doesn't use it appropriately."

The holiday period had ended but police were still urging drivers to take "extra care" as plenty of people would still be on holiday, Mr Griffiths said.



I would suggest the OP has misquoted or underquoted the original statement in order to fulfil their particular agenda. Not unusual - in fact its learned behaviour based on media practice.

Jantar
4th January 2008, 07:46
'National operations manager for road policing, Inspector Carey Griffiths says New Zealand speed limits are too high for the roads.'

Cracks me up when I see him on telly now.
He's a biker, or was, when I knew him when he was a Sgt prosceutor here, not too long ago.
He brought my 1200 Bandit, and rode, shall we say........similar to most bikers.......:rolleyes:

He sold the Bandit in mid 2006, and had a look over my VStrom as he was considering one to replace the Bandit. As far as I know he still didn't have a new bike when he transferred out of Dunedin 12 months ago.

However, he is just repeating the official line, and I don't think he actually believes what he has to say. Mmmm? Would that make him a dishonest cop?

MisterD
4th January 2008, 07:57
It's the silly season. Apart from the road toll and church-fulls of people being incinerated in Kenya, there is nothing else happening apart from cricket. As long as policy-makers and others who don't understand statistics or actuarial risk don't have a mental infarction, all should be well.

There's the link Hitch, all the people that do understand statistics are using their skills to monitor batting averages...

Dooly
4th January 2008, 08:05
He sold the Bandit in mid 2006, and had a look over my VStrom as he was considering one to replace the Bandit. As far as I know he still didn't have a new bike when he transferred out of Dunedin 12 months ago.

However, he is just repeating the official line, and I don't think he actually believes what he has to say. Mmmm? Would that make him a dishonest cop?

Actually from my memory, he was'nt a bad bloke at all. Hell, even 'normal' for a cop:niceone:
Was part of a group of local cops here who rode big bikes, and rode them 'well':msn-wink:

AllanB
4th January 2008, 08:07
Back in the 80's during the petrol crisis (ha ha its was cheap then!) the speed limit was reduced to 80kmph to help conserve the nations fuel supplies.

Mind you you could fat along on your motorcycle at 120, get pulled over by a cop and get off with a verbal warning. Or so I believe.....:whistle:

I can just see all the litre plus bikes farting along in 4-5 gear keeping to 80.

Regarding the roads - over the past holiday weeks I've been clocking up a few ks on the Hornet on roads I have been riding for 26 years or so and my conclusion is YES they are worse, but its not surprising with the volume of traffic that is now using them, it must easily be ten-fold on what is was 20 years ago. NZ owns a huge number of vehicles per head.

Also there are bits of road I fail to understand why they do not fix them - the CHCH Akaroa run - there are about 3-4 evil bumps on that road that are hell on the bike if you don't avoid them (a virgin on this road on a bike could easily come to grief on one), and very messy in a car. I'm tempted to spray paint the bastards bright orange! :clap:

oldrider
4th January 2008, 08:10
I think these people go to meetings where you would get more sense out of a group of blow-up dolls.

The rantings of people who are devoid of original thought and to whom saying "anything" is better than saying "nothing"!

"Nothing", is really all that they have to contribute but they don't get paid for saying "nothing"!

There are more people killed by the medical profession annually than are killed on our roads!

Are they going to put a ban on going to the doctor or the hospital?

Bureaucratic wankers but there dozens of replacements waiting in the wings to replace this lot.

My guess is, they wont be much difference if they do replace them! (JMOFWIW) :buggerd: John.

AllanB
4th January 2008, 08:15
Also consider the following - the Government and their staff are hell bent of spending zillions on lowering the road toll.

They do not fund NZ life saving
Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death in New Zealand.
New Zealanders drown at twice the drowning rate of Australians.
The most common cause of drowning is accidental immersion (falling into water unintentionally).
The average drowning toll for 2001-2005 was 125, compared to the 1990s average of 140 and 180 in the 1980s.
The national drowning toll hit an all-time low (since records began in 1980) in 2006 with 87 drowning deaths.

7000-8000 a year die from Cancer
6000 plus from heart disease
And they do what to hospital waiting lists.

Just remember all a general election is on its way this year - tell the buggers how you feel - write your MP a letter and vote accordingly.

madandy
4th January 2008, 08:22
I can just imagine all the impatient, tailgating drivers hanging out on the centre line, steaming away under their collars at 90km/h under a new, reduced speed limit...oh wait that's the norm right now isn't it?
Drop the limit to 80km/h then...so when everyone hits a passing lane 90 will be fast enough to overtake the slow vehicle up ahead - so long as it doen't speed up:crazy:
Will there ever be a goverment that tackles a problem rather than a symptom?

HenryDorsetCase
4th January 2008, 08:33
I heard that too and frothed at the mouth a bit. As others have said over the last five or so years the number of cars on the road (and vehicles of all descriptions) has increased, as has the population, as have the number of kilometres travelled. Yet the road toll (number of deaths per km travelled) has decreased.

While I will give the cop the benefit of the doubt and say he is sincere in a wish for better-er road safety (and he presumably has attended a lot more fatal wrecks than I have, chapeau! to him). what this looks like is someone who should know better taking advantage of the verrrrrry slow news situation and using their position to make a political point while they can get their message out with even less opposition or critical thinking in opposition than they usually face.

My point which I will reiterate is that NZ drivers are unsafe at any speed, so speed limits are irrelevant. If however a driver is careless, or reckless, or dangerous in any given situation then that behaviour should attract consequences, not just a random velocity picked arbitrarily.

I reckon there is a good book somewhere waiting to be written about speed limits and speed enforcement thru the ages. If anyone cares to send me a decent advance cheque, I'll get right on it.

HenryDorsetCase
4th January 2008, 08:35
I think these people go to meetings where you would get more sense out of a group of blow-up dolls.



I hardly get anything done at THAT sort of meeting.......

Jantar
4th January 2008, 08:38
...Drop the limit to 80km/h then...so when everyone hits a passing lane 90 will be fast enough to overtake the slow vehicle up ahead - so long as it doen't speed up:crazy:..
It appears that politicians and policy makers can't do simple math.

To go from 2 seconds behind a vehicle to 2 seconds in front of a vehicle with a 10 kmh speed differential (ie 90 kmh vs 80 kmh) will still take 36 seconds with over half of that on the wrong side of the road. Increase that overtaking speed to 120 kmh and the manouver only takes 8 seconds with 5 seconds on the wrong side of the road.

Ummm, Which is safer? :scratch:

disenfranchised
4th January 2008, 08:49
They do not fund NZ life saving
Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death in New Zealand.
New Zealanders drown at twice the drowning rate of Australians.
The most common cause of drowning is accidental immersion (falling into water unintentionally).
The average drowning toll for 2001-2005 was 125, compared to the 1990s average of 140 and 180 in the 1980s.
The national drowning toll hit an all-time low (since records began in 1980) in 2006 with 87 drowning deaths.


A very valid point considering this holidays drowning toll was pretty comparable to the holiday road toll.

They're wanting to lower the speed limit, but how many speed related accidents occur at or just over the speed limit? Most likey they're all up at the 130+ mark

They're also wanting to lower the legal drink driving limit, and again, how many alcohol related accidents occur at or just over the limit? Bugger all...they even said it on the news. Most accidents where alcohol is the contributing factor involve around 5x the legal limit.

They don't need to lower the current limits at all.
They just need stricter penalties for people exceeding the liits by dangerous amounts
And not just fines cause they don't work....at least some of the new measures they're taking seem to reflect that they understand this.

vifferman
4th January 2008, 08:53
I'm tempted to spray paint the bastards [evil bumps] bright orange! :clap:
What a capital idea, Sir! :niceone:
That's what we need - people taking responsibility for things, instead of just bleating, "There should be a law against it! The Gummint should do something!"

TOTO
4th January 2008, 08:57
Seventeen people were killed in 15 crashes over the holiday period, including six drivers, five passengers, two motorcyclists, a tractor driver and a horse rider

NZ Herald

I didnt know they counted horse riding and a road toll... is that a first or always been like that ?

madandy
4th January 2008, 08:59
It appears that politicians and policy makers can't do simple math.

To go from 2 seconds behind a vehicle to 2 seconds in front of a vehicle with a 10 kmh speed differential (ie 90 kmh vs 80 kmh) will still take 36 seconds with over half of that on the wrong side of the road. Increase that overtaking speed to 120 kmh and the manouver only takes 8 seconds with 5 seconds on the wrong side of the road.

Ummm, Which is safer? :scratch:

That's too bloody right...a simple enough defense for speeding while overtaking that I'd hope Police would be able to understand!
I've had to back right off during an overtaking manouver (as I'm sure many here have) due to either my Bel. warning me of an oncoming HP vehicle or me sighting a Cop. Partly thanks to the 'passee' speeding up and mostly because I have no faith that the Cop'd wave me on while doing 110-115 overtaking said 'passee' on a nice, wide, flat passing lane etc.
I generally cruise around 110-120 both in cars and on bikes unless traffic or conditions dictate otherwise. In my car, I'll usually grab 2nd or 3rd gear , use full throttle and shoot up to 140-160, pass the slow vehicle and be back down to an accpetable speed with in a few seconds. I figure the quicker the job is done the less likely I am to be caught both on the wrong side of the centre line and the law. I like the acceleration a lot :) On the bike there's less need to wind it on as much as being so narrow I perceive much more room to work with.
I'm a terrible law violator I know :innocent:

madandy
4th January 2008, 09:07
I didnt know they counted horse riding and a road toll... is that a first or always been like that ?

Horses have been used as transportation for a looong time. If the incident ocurred on a public road then I accpept that statistic as one worthy of inclusion in the road toll.
Pretty unrelated to issues regarding speed limits & driving a car though :stupid:

NighthawkNZ
4th January 2008, 09:20
It appears that politicians and policy makers can't do simple math.

...

Ummm, Which is safer? :scratch:

Yeah but Malcolm...

What the hell do we know, just because we are out on the roads every day and not being driven around in new limos, just because we can do our math and actually went to school, and just because we can see a safer route (which for bikers does become a sixth sense in a sense :scratch:) and can see better options, like better driver education, better roads etc... what the hell do we know...

What we do know is this, that they are not truly worried about bringing the road toll down at the end of the day and that it is about money.

Politicians think we are dumb, but we KNOW they are stupid...

2007 road toll up by x amount of % than last year 2006, how many more road users were on our roads over that period of time and if there were 1000 more road users than last year and only 29 more deaths on the road, does that not mean the over all road toll percentage is lower.

The same police stats also show that even the though there are an increase in road users, there were less deaths percentage wise. They should be saying that on the news. last year the lowest in 40 years... heck forty years ago what there were 2 drivers on our roads for every 100 km of road... and now how many road users per km.

I actually hate the way they present these stats on the news it irks me...

If the govenment truly wanted lower road toll, they would use the stats to show that it is actually lower for a start... They would be introducing better driver education, introducing that many roads will be upgraded, correcting the camber, and fixng many of the truely dangerous parts of the road... heck finally get rid of many of these silly one lane bridges on main routes like the on at Beamont... They wouldn't be worried about radar detectors (heck when I had one years ago it reminded me to keep my speed down... i didn't say I could go faster) Zero tolerance for alcohol and driving and if caught harsher laws to deal with it. (and a zero tolerance is easier and probably cheaper to plolice too)

Tougher laws on what cars and vehicals are allowed on NZ roads... change the laws on what vehicles new drivers are allowed. ie; no V8, or turbo charged this or that etc... possibably introduce a similar scheme of power rating that learner bikers have... (which incidentally I would change... and including ridding the 70km learner law) introduce a strike 3 law and your out (not prison but never allowed to drive and then if caught driving then prison time)

Then again what the hell do I know... I'm not a politician... Im just a peasant...

Swoop
4th January 2008, 09:30
I didnt know they counted horse riding and a road toll... is that a first or always been like that ?
Beaches (or at least some of them) are classified as a road.

Ixion
4th January 2008, 09:40
I didnt know they counted horse riding and a road toll... is that a first or always been like that ?

I bet the horse was speeding!

EDIT: They DID ! The horse bolted out of sand dunes in front of the car. And that imbecile Cary Griffiths says "its not your typical crash" then rabbits on about alcohol and speed ! Wherer do they find these morons, he's even stupider than his predecessor, the moron Cliff, who I thought was the lowest level of organism capable of having enough sentience to keep breathing.Iwas wrong the Griffiths takes stupidity to new depths.

Ocean1
4th January 2008, 10:58
Nowt wrong with the roads. You folk don't know what a bad road is.

Why do you always remind me I'm so fuckin' old.

A lot of roads on the west coast used to be paved with... OIL. Quick lick with a dozer, a smear of clay, add a mixture of whatever old fuel oil and engine oil was available, and roll. Done.

They were always uphill in both directions too. <_<


Are they going to put a ban on going to the doctor or the hospital?

Fuckin' dangerous places dem hostibules, 100% of people in 'em die y'know. :blink:


Beaches (or at least some of them) are classified as a road.

Anywhere with vehicular access is considered public road, for the purposes of taxation.

swbarnett
4th January 2008, 12:43
Mind you you could fat along on your motorcycle at 120, get pulled over by a cop and get off with a verbal warning. Or so I believe.....:whistle:
A close friend was let off at 150...

swbarnett
4th January 2008, 16:58
Horses have been used as transportation for a looong time. If the incident ocurred on a public road then I accpept that statistic as one worthy of inclusion in the road toll.
Pretty unrelated to issues regarding speed limits & driving a car though :stupid:
Not if the fatality was as a result of another vehicle colliding with the horse.

tl_tub
4th January 2008, 17:09
Im almost certain he has a vstrom now


'National operations manager for road policing, Inspector Carey Griffiths says New Zealand speed limits are too high for the roads.'

Cracks me up when I see him on telly now.
He's a biker, or was, when I knew him when he was a Sgt prosceutor here, not too long ago.
He brought my 1200 Bandit, and rode, shall we say........similar to most bikers.......:rolleyes:

James Deuce
4th January 2008, 17:28
Makes a good point. The majority of Kiwi road users shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel/bars because they don't take it at all seriously and spend most of their time traveling between traffic lights. Consistently averaging 80 km/hr on the open road is beyond most people these days and not because of congestion either.

We're about to get an open road speed limit drop chucked at us because of the price of oil. This "Carey" person has been a bad boy and his punishment is to soften us up by declaring us all too stupid to drive at 100 km/hr.

HenryDorsetCase
4th January 2008, 18:59
Holy shit, we drove up to Hanmer and back today. I now wholeheartedly support a speed reduction from 100kph to 60kph on the "open" road. I literally lost count of the number of SUV's that tailgaited me, or people carriers doing the same thing, or heroes who saw the gap I left in front then simply had to fill it, the STUPID places people passed, the obvious inattention, the "family" wagons with all manner of outlandish shit haphazardly tied to them, the complete muppets who had NO idea and were looking three feet in front of their front bumper when they were looking ahead at all.

The classic was the middle aged couple in the FAIL-mobile (a people carrier)... we were coming back up Johns Rd, and some guy in a white 4 dr Jap import sedan was doing (get this) 40-45kph, when the limit is 80, and the safe travelling speed is more. The builder in the ute in front of me towing the trailer spotted it, and slowed, and I slowed, but our FAIL people didnt. I was preparing myself for the Liberace but he managed to not hit me by about half a metre. All I could see in the rear view mirror was the female FAIL waggling her sea of chins, and Mr FAIL had managed to turn on the windscreen wipers when applying the brakes. Perhaps the extra air resistance slowed it up some more? Almost as funny as her gums flapping as she was obviously displeased by her choice in life-partner's driving ability.

But if I do 120kph on the "open" road when there is no traffic, I'm dangerous? Yeah, right. I see how that goes.

Renegade
4th January 2008, 20:48
we are so fucked, the government are just gunna keep stitching us up, it dosnt affect the polliticians cos they dont pay for a dam thing any way, we dont even want half the polliticians in there but bugger me we cant get rid of the cunts, its getting to the stage where im at a complete loss with this country.

i havent been pulled up bya cop in 4 years, i dont think im going to pay rego any more, mite just put it on hold, then there goes insurance i guess, anyone able to confirm no reg = no insurance??

R6_kid
4th January 2008, 21:37
then there goes insurance i guess, anyone able to confirm no reg = no insurance??

confirmed...