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Avoid common mistakes!
Learn how! Watch our Animations!
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All in favour of road safety, please raise your right foot ! |
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This week's Road Safety Thought: ON WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? A French driver in Adelaide is facing a long jail term after driving on the wrong side of the road and colliding with a young lady driver. Tragically, she died in the crash. Online newspaper AdelaideNow reports that, in an ironic twist, the young Frenchman had won a competition, creating a video clip used in a road safety campaign. The victim's family is calling for stricter controls on overseas drivers, before allowing them on our roads. Naturally, drivers who in their home country drive on the other side of the road, are prone to kind of mishap. (I used to give my learner driver's this wake-up call, after they had made major mistakes: "When you get your driver's licence you'll be for the first time in your life in a position to kill someone without meaning to." But is the answer a driving test for visitors before they are allowed to hire a car? |
Who could plan a holiday, if there is a chance of failing the test after arrival? The tourist industry would suffer, apart from the bureaucracy it would bring with it. Accidents of this kind are not caused by a lack of knowledge, rather than the driver not concentrating. From first hand experience (I did it once, while living in Europe) driving on the wrong side is mostly done on turning. It's done instinctively, as the driver failed to concentrate in that moment. When a vehicle then approaches head-on, tragically, the natural reaction of both drivers is to swerve. Compare it to exiting a lift. After a moment's hesitation, two people move at the same time. Here it's a brush with the shoulder, on a highway the same scenario causes much more drama. When only one vehicle takes action, the one on the wrong side, both drivers could escape with just a fright and, hopefully a lessons learned. |
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