Tourists on our roads

[Asher]

I noticed in the press today while waiting for a coffee at bp connect that an exchange student got convicted for killing those 2 bikers on the lindis pass. It got me thinking of all the amazingly stupid and dangerous driving I have seen from cars with a rental company sticker on the back window.
I have never rented a car in NZ so I don't the process but I assume they just throw the keys at anyone who wants them and don't care if they can drive or not.
Surely this is an issue worthy of notice by our law makers and enforcers, or since they bring so much Money into NZ that the deaths of a few dozen locals a year caused by stupid tourists an acceptable price?

[jonbuoy]

Tourists aren't the only bad drivers on the road. Your NZ licence is treated overseas in the same way ie you can jump into a left hand drive hire car with no special test. If NZ decided that it didn't want certain nationalities from driving without a special test you might find those countries stopped accepting NZ licence holders too.

[Paul in NZ]

Plenty of Kiwi tourists cause mayhem in europe and the usa...

Better way is just to give everyone a wide berth and a happy wave...

[unstuck]

They are all idiots out there on the roads, not just the tourists. Like the kiwi muppet who stopped in the middle of the gates of Haast bridge and locked his camper and went for a wee wander with the missus and kids. Just treat everyone as a potential fool when they are on the road, and you should be a lot safer.

[george formby]

Plenty of Kiwi tourists cause mayhem in europe and the usa...

Better way is just to give everyone a wide berth and a happy wave...

Yup.

They have crap drivers in other countries too & they give them passports. Before I sold my shop a backpacker told me about her road trip with some friends in a rented car. Only the named driver drove it. Odd looking sentence that... any hoo. After travelling both islands the highest speed she had seen was just under 80kmh & the driver had gone off the road four times with no injury or damage done. Failed to negotiate a curve. I guess her speed was entirely appropriate.

[ellipsis]

They are all idiots out there on the roads, not just the tourists. Like the kiwi muppet who stopped in the middle of the gates of Haast bridge and locked his camper and went for a wee wander with the missus and kids. Just treat everyone as a potential fool when they are on the road, and you should be a lot safer.

...i ran across that exact same thing on that bridge...two cars stopped...when I said, 'oi, what the fuck are you doin'...a kiwi voice replied, 'we want some photos from down there'...then they wandered off, 'down there' to snap some pics...my wife wouldn't let me kill them...parked up the Goldwing and had a disbelieving smoke and a piss...

[unstuck]

.....parked up the Goldwing and had a disbelieving smoke and a piss...

Hopefully all over their bonnet.

[Road kill]

When I first went to Oz I had a couple of little issues with their intersection rules which ours were like once an then they weren't an now they are again..

Then when I came home on holiday carrying a NSW licence I rented a car using it with no questions asked but did then have a couple of issues with those intersection rules that used to be like theirs then weren't an now are again "but nobody died so it was all good

When I went to the States I never drove a car but I did do a couple of thousand "Miles" on a bike usually in company and behind the other rider/riders.

I did end up on the wrong side of traffic islands once or twice in the first week "but after that I got good at always following people and thinking about what I would be doing well before I had to.

In South Africa I never drove anything,,,there were "other issues" over there and I actually wanted to come home again..

I just love the camper vans leaving Auckland air port and heading down the southern motorway,,in the fast lane

Anyway there's not much we can do about it "other than education at port of landing" and I actually feel for that poor bugger that killed those bikers down south.

[JimO]

most asian drivers would have never driven out side a city so the open road would be a new thing for them

[RDJ]

most asian drivers would have never driven out side a city so the open road would be a new thing for them

and for similar reasons they often have dangerous (to themselves especially, and rescuers) issues with swimming in open water, and bushwalking.

Having spent many years overseas in different countries including quite a bit of car and bike time... many countries punish 'furriner drivers' regardless of fault if there is an incident. And in some places that includes actual lynching. Pays to know the local customs...

[Ocean1]

For years rental companies provided free busses from TeAnau to Milford. Lot of it was gravel back then, and Japanese tourists had no experience with it at all, they'd just drive like they were on a standard blacktop. I heard Avis was losing a car a week for a while. From my last trip down there I'd say things haven't improved much.

[Road kill]

and for similar reasons they often have dangerous (to themselves especially, and rescuers) issues with swimming in open water, and bushwalking.

Having spent many years overseas in different countries including quite a bit of car and bike time... many countries punish 'furriner drivers' regardless of fault if there is an incident. And in some places that includes actual lynching. Pays to know the local customs...

Hell yeah,,in Dubai?? if your an outsider and somebody runs up the back of you while your stopped at a traffic light,,,your in the wrong because you are only there at their sufferage and if you weren't there the accident would never of happened.

And your probably going to jail unless you have some "very good" contacts.

I reckon we should apply that reasoning to anybody from south of the Bombays or north of the Brenderwyns

[Deano]

For years rental companies provided free busses from TeAnau to Milford. Lot of it was gravel back then, and Japanese tourists had no experience with it at all, they'd just drive like they were on a standard blacktop. I heard Avis was losing a car a week for a while. From my last trip down there I'd say things haven't improved much.

Must have been good for the ACC stats?

[scumdog]

For years rental companies provided free busses from TeAnau to Milford. Lot of it was gravel back then, and Japanese tourists had no experience with it at all, they'd just drive like they were on a standard blacktop. I heard Avis was losing a car a week for a while. From my last trip down there I'd say things haven't improved much.

Yup, been to many a crash involving oriental drivers who drove off the end of the tar-seal onto a gravel road at 105kph - and kept that speed until the first bend..whoops......

[Deano]

Yup, been to many a crash involving oriental drivers who drove off the end of the tar-seal onto a gravel road at 105kph - and kept that speed until the first bend..whoops......

If in doubt, gas it out !