“Tailgating seems to be a national disease …..”
Great site and campaign, however, it is not only truckies who tailgate and cause accidents. It seems to be a national disease. Taking photos of motorists who do it does not make any difference. The police will not accept these as evidence. In Germany they have set up speed cameras to catch people tailgating. I think the statistics for accidents and tailgating need to be publicized more …..
Tom
September 18th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
To Lyndal, and all letters such as this one of Tom’s
Good news, tailgating is not a problem, and because of that, this website has become redundant - will save youa lot of effort Lyndal!
It’s official from the Federal Government and I was about to quote but dont have their response to my letter with me, sorry.
But it clearly said that research shows tailgating is not as major contributor to serious crashes. It also said that there isn’t much benefit in increasing current interventions.
So there you are, problem solved, nothing to worry about.
So when the loaded cement truck was so close to my car’s tail in Murwillumbah that I could only see the lower grill, I shouldn’t have worried. When car’s used to tailgate my motorbike I should never have worried either and so on.
It probably means you don’t need to propose the national vehicle reporting hotline either. Probably the (probably sadly demented?) old man who tailgated my bus then tried to kill himself by overtaking on the left hand side where the road narrowed through a pedestrian refuse - well that probably wasn’t a problem either.
And probably the two young guys who tried to overtake either side of a truck on a right turn through a T-junction (three vehicles and two lanes!) -one ended up on the centre island!!. - well that was just a bit of fun, surely not dangerous.
Okay that’s enough of my cynacism, but I do worry about “goverment folk” who don’t ever seem to have ever been out there on the road- and I especially worry when they are making decisions that have an effect on the safety of you, me and everybody we care about.
So good luck with your hotline proposal Lyndal. I read through the paper, and dont think I saw a mention that Victoria Police instigated a “Car Hoon Hotline”, so you might be able to add that as justification. I can give you the date if you need it.
Cheers
Peter Mack