Tag Archives: road safety

Seeing red: have your say on NSW’s worst roads

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NRMA Seeing Red on Roads Annual SurveyHave you ever been behind the wheel and found yourself frustrated by congestion, a detour due to roadworks, pot holes or other delays?

More than 15,000 frustrated Members had their say last year in our annual Seeing Red on Roads survey. In 2013, both a federal election year and the third of our campaign, we want even more people to get behind the survey.

Over the last two years of the campaign, our Members have consistently flagged the Pacific and Princes Highways as the worst roads in the state. In response, we’ve seen record levels of funding committed by the government to start fixing both these roads.

In fact, since NRMA’s first Seeing Red on Roads campaign in 2011, governments have committed over $1.8 billion to fix the Pacific Highway and $240 million to fix the Princes Highway.

The NSW Government has also announced its WestConnex Project to fix the road NRMA Members voted as the worst in Sydney – Parramatta Road.

These major announcements show that our campaign works!

Although we’ve made a great start in getting these dangerous roads upgraded, there’s no better time than an election year to ensure NSW secures its fair share of federal road funding.

We encourage every NRMA Member to take part in the Seeing Red on Roads survey. With your support we can help make sure NSW gets much needed road investments.

Are the pot holes on your local street driving you nuts? Is the snail paced traffic during peak hour on your local motorway frustrating you? Whatever the issue, have your say here.

Will the Pacific Highway come out number one again or have the recent upgrades provided enough relief for North Coast motorists?

Below are the Top 10 Most Frustrating Roads in 2012 as voted by you. Click on the image below to enlarge.

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Keeping kids safe around cars

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Megan BlandfordThis week’s guest blogger, Megan Blandford, is a former career girl, now work-at-home mum and writer. Megan is mum to a preschooler and has a tiny one still inside her. Megan says she likes writing so much, she made it her job. She also loves to travel, daydream, bake sweets and make lists for everything. She blogs at writingloud.blogspot.com

Crossing the road

BABY STEPS: Being there with young kids as they navigate their way through road safety is important, as is providing them with the building blocks for future safety when you’re not always there.

When my daughter was what she considered to be a grown-up and independent two-and-a-half year-old, we had a very real and very loud argument on the side of a busy road.

My parenting philosophy is quite focused on choosing battles, so I’ll let a lot of things go. However, this particular day the argument was over her refusing to hold my hand across said busy road.

Road safety is most definitely a battle I believe to be worth fighting.

That day we stood at the side of the road as she threw the most enormous tantrum (I think it still holds her record for the worst one), and I waited it out until she decided to calm down and listen to me. Okay, so that never happened – instead I eventually picked up my still-tantrumming toddler and carried her across the road – but it was so memorable that she’s never again made a fuss about the rules for crossing roads.

When it comes to kids and cars there needs to be not just vague boundaries, but very definite rules around what is and isn’t safe. Here are some we use in our family:

Holding hands across roads

As mentioned above, this is one we have always stuck to, and will do until our daughter is a bit older. As well as holding hands I always ask her to check roads before we cross, to get her into the habit of checking for herself rather than always relying on mum or dad to decide if it’s safe. Being there with young kids as they navigate their way through road safety is important, as is providing them with the building blocks for future safety when you’re not always there.

Don’t trust your life on a light bulb

This is a pearl of wisdom from my Dad, and applies to drivers as well as pedestrians. When a light turns green, it is not a signal to be blindly trusted. Always, ALWAYS take a couple of moments to look around you before entering any intersection, and make sure your kids are aware of this little – but vitally important – piece of knowledge. When that little man turns green when you’re about to cross a road, you and they still need to look in every direction to check the cars have stopped.

Driveway safety

Seeing someone arrive at our house is always exciting to my daughter, but the rule in place is that she isn’t allowed past a specifically set point (there’s no room for error if you remove the vagueness) until the car’s engine is switched off. We also have our front door bolted high enough that she can’t reach, so that even going outside to that set point requires an adult’s supervision. When it comes to keeping kids safely away from cars in driveways, no precaution is ever too much.

Car parks

Car park safety is similar to driveway safety; that is, children and moving vehicles shouldn’t be together without constant adult supervision or restraint. The aim is to get the kids strapped into their car seats before you unpack things like shopping bags and prams. The NRMA recommends never leaving children alone in the car, so only do this if you’re still around the vehicle.

Keep the kids with you

One of the NRMA’s messages is to keep your children with you at all times when you’re out and about. Leaving kids alone in the car can be a dangerous decision, so even if you’re walking away for just a few minutes you should take the kids with you. Better options, though, include using petrol stations where you can pay at the pump or, if you’re more organised than me, ducking out when the kids are with another carer or at school to fill up the car.

Who’s in and who’s out?

If you have more than one child you should give some thought to the order in which you place them in and out of the car. As a general rule, younger children should be the first out if they’re easily restrained or held and all kids should be in and out of the car via the door closest to the kerb.

Inside the car

Being around cars outside is a real danger; however one that is often underestimated is having children inside the car without an adult. Child safety locks on doors are vital, as is protection against kids locking themselves in. Keep your car keys on you at all times, and if you have a child who loves playing with them consider having a set of keys that are unrelated to the car (old keys, for example) for toys instead.

What rules do you set for your kids to keep them safe around cars?

Tweeting while driving

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woman texting while driving

Do you tweet while driving?

Nowadays, a handheld device can do a whole lot more than just call or text. You can use it as a GPS, keep up with online traffic reports, see what people are tweeting about, or check the status of your friends via social networks.

In a survey of 500 drivers by NRMA Insurance, 10% admitted to using social networking sites to check their Facebook or Twitter profiles or post updates while they were driving (and those are the ones that actually admitted it!).

It follows a similar survey which found almost 50% of drivers admitted to talking and texting on their mobile phones while driving.

The desire to always be mobile and accessible is growing despite the fact that using a handheld device while driving is illegal. The offence carries a heavy fine and the loss of three demerit points.

Do you use a mobile phone while driving to tweet or update your status? Do you think it impairs your driving or is any more dangerous than using your car stereo?

NB: The NRMA advises drivers who need to use their mobile phone for either texting or using a social networking site, to pull over before using their phones.

Bullbars – dangerous or essential requirement?

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car with bullbar

photo credit: poppalina

The Federal Government is considering adopting an international requirement which would include the mandatory redesign of vehicles that could see bullbars outlawed.

The new law would require the fronts of vehicles to be designed to reduce the severity of injuries to pedestrians in a collision.  Under Australia’s current system, this would apply to vehicles before they are sold and registered.  It’s common in Australia for bullbars to be fitted after the vehicle is sold.

There is a strong case, based on accident data, that bullbars should not be fitted to vehicles used mainly in urban areas, as animal collisions are rare and not often dangerous to the driver.

Country residents on the other hand, see bullbars as essential as they reduce damage to their cars from collisions with large animals.

NRMA believes there is no justification for the use of bullbars in urban areas.  What do you think?

Long weekend road toll raises the question of a Bells Line upgrade

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The road toll for New South Wales this long weekend reached 8, more than double the previous year’s toll for the same period.

Four members from the same family were tragically killed, after their sedan collided head-on with a semi trailer on the Bells Line of road at Bilpin.  Police believe the accident was triggered after the car overtook another vehicle.

A 2003 audit by the NRMA showed that in the previous 10 years, 129 people have died and 2984 people were injured in accidents on Blue Mountains crossings with 23 of those deaths on the Bells Line of Road.

According to an NRMA study, drivers on the Bells Line of Road are unable to overtake slower vehicles for over 80% of the 81 kilometre route unless they attempt dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.

Some have suggested building a four-lane Bells Line Expressway is the best way to improve safety on that route while others believe smaller-scale plans such as improving the worst sections of the existing two-lane road and/or installing more passing lanes would be more achievable.

Do you drive the Bells Line of road and do you find it a dangerous road on which to drive?  What do you think could be done to improve conditions?