By
EWAN KENNEDY
8 August 2007
For years I have harped on endlessly about the importance of
avoiding crashes. My main theme has been about paying attention at all
times, not only to your car but also to what is happening, and may soon
happen, to all those around you.
Many of you will have read my endless mantra that all
drivers should have, "two hands on the wheel, both eyes on the road
and 100 per cent of their attention on driving".
I have watched in horror as many so-called road safety
authorities in Australia have promoted their often bizarre ideas; which
chiefly revolve around having crashes at the slowest possible speed.
You have no doubt seen their very-expensive advertising
campaigns showing us how to crash into semi trailers and survive; and
how we can run into children in such a way that they only need to spend
a short time in hospital.
That’s right, these jokers (because surely they can’t
be serious?) don’t tell drivers how to avoid crashing. Apparently they
are happy for us to keep right on running into things – but to be able
to crawl out of the wreckage at the end of the shocking experience.
Now someone has decided to try and prevent this
nonsensical approach to road safety. A new Australian organisation ‘Crash
Prevention Australia’ has been set up and is aimed at giving drivers a
lot of vital advice on how to avoid crashes in the first place.
The website can be reached at www.crashprevention.co.au/.
The site has been founded as a community service by John
Cadogan. A name that will be familiar to car enthusiasts as a regular
columnist with Wheels and 4x4 Australia magazines. He
frequently writes on the subject of road safety, though he likes to
branch into other topics as well. Television and radio stations also run
Cadogan’s well-researched opinions on motoring, again with a strong
emphasis on crash prevention.
Cadogan is well qualified to talk on the subject, being
a qualified mechanical engineer, with many years experience in the car
business.
Crash Prevention Australia’s website says,
"Speed, fatigue, alcohol and seatbelts - the four official
government road safety ‘key result areas’ - are basically advice for
anti-social idiots. Yet this is the official road safety focus. It means
the vast majority of responsible road users - like you - are forced to
operate without guidance about minimising on-road risk exposure."
And goes on to point out, "Half of road trauma
happens at intersections. Two-thirds of road death occurs at, or below,
the speed limit. What's being done about that?"
He gives a serious of tips on how to drive more safely,
how to be alert for possible troubles, even giving information to
passengers as to how best to sit within the car.
This information and advice will be updated on a regular
basis. But even as it stands at the moment in its earliest days enough
knowledge is imparted to save more than one life on our roads.
I highly commend www.crashprevention.com.au/ to all
drivers, soon-to-be drivers and the parents of the latter. If you read
it and find the information useful you may care to pass web details on
to anyone you feel will gain any benefit from it. Particularly young
learners and provisional drivers who are in the dreadfully vulnerable
first stages of their driving lives.
