Sean Roberts: his father would be so proud!

[Berries]

Ya gonna sign up KBers?

You have to feel for the lad. There is no way that that girl should have been driving on our roads, she was going to take someone out. If you don't know the full story have a look at this - http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown...-not-competent. I cannot see the testing of all international visitors who want to drive as being practical or even possible though. And for most it won't matter because most international visitors are, I hate to say it, at least as good as NZ drivers. And the whole driving on the wrong side thing that people bang on about is one of the things that no amount of testing will solve.

The one exception to all of this is the Chinese who are, if I may generalise about their driving for a second, shit. If anyone can show me a legal way for a New Zealander to get a licence to enable them to drive in China I'd be interested. It is not possible, making a mockery of the UN Convention about reciprocal arrangements that is always pulled out when the discussion turns to foreign drivers.

We should make the Chinese jump through the same hoops we would have to to drive in China, it would make our roads much safer.

[Nat]

[I]"

Ya gonna sign up KBers?

http://www.change.org/petitions/gerr...nd-roads#share

I would love to, however the interweb site just says there was an error every time I try to do it. Is there any physical way to sign this petition?

[SPman]

Laudable sentiment, I feel sorry for the guy, but, default driving behaviour is very hard to overcome - especially in the intial 2-3 days of being in a foreign country.

I've done the same thing myself in the States after 14 hrs on planes and driving to the hotel, turned onto the wrong side of the road at traffic lights and a three lane highway! Thankfully, the Vegas drivers seemed to be used to it and traffic was light, so no damage was done, but - fucking scary. My brain was saying go this way, but tiredness, and I reverted to default road positioning!

After a few careful miles, you tend to settle into the revised layouts, but, it's at moments of stress or ...relaxation, default settings can come back into play, with, sometimes, horrendous results.

[Berries]

Laudable sentiment, I feel sorry for the guy, but, default driving behaviour is very hard to overcome - especially in the intial 2-3 days of being in a foreign country.

To be fair this one was not default driving behaviour, it was just plain poor driving skills.

We will just have to put up with the occasional tourist on the wrong side of the road killing a local - this one last night looks suspect http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/304237/fatal-coromandel-crash. Like you say, you cannot stop someone reverting to instinct - I've done a u-turn and driven on the wrong side of the road in Europe myself. But we should be able to stop drivers with little to no experience in their own country from getting a car so easily here, particularly those from countries where the level of driving is worse than ours.