Banning 4WD's - article in todays's SMH @ ExplorOz

AnswerID: 5324 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Member - Sam replied:

I agree. Lets just hope someone can see through all this rubbish and work out a logical and practicle solution for all. I personally would like to see a special class of licence for 4WD owners/drivers. One that would incorporate mandatory off-road training. This would mean anyone wishing to drive a 4WD, would have to demonstrate they have the ability to control these vehicles. Everyday I see 4WD's that I just know have never seen anything other than concrete or bitumen. And the number of people driving 4WD's that can't even do a simple reverse park. Its the minority of inexperienced 4WD owner/drivers that are causing most of the problems. Thats also not to say that there is also a minority of pedestrians who aren't abiding by their obligations to double and tripple check before they walk out onto a road. And in addition to this, large 4WD's are in effect light trucks and should be given the courtesy by other road users aswell. The cannot stop as quickly and require more room. Ban 4WD's and you may aswell ban trucks and semi trailers and B-Doubles. And the implications of such an act would be imense. Lets just hope that such a rediculous and impractical approach makes way for a more logical and beneficial solution for all parties concnerned.

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FollowupID: 2291 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Graeme posted:

Sam, look I agree with your views, but where in the law says that 4wds must be driven off road. It doesn't. Some people buy them for more reasons than driving them off road. for example, In reality to tow anything of any size really requires a 4wd. A caravan, boat or horse trailer needs more than your average sedan can cope with.

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FollowupID: 2294 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Member - Sam posted:

Graeme, I had neglected to consider those additional points. You are correct. I spose what I was trying to say is there are a lot of people who own/drive 4WD's that do not require such a vehicle. As you stated, towing large trailers, boats, and horse floats etc does require a vehicle with the engine capacity and ability, and large 4WD's are the only vehicles capable of such a task. So I stand corrected. cheers, Sam.

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FollowupID: 2295 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Troy posted:

ok - first let me say this - I agree with the mandatory additional driver education for drivers of cars over a certain mass (much like a stay upright course that motor bike riders must complete her in NSW). Also my condolences to the effected parties - this accident occurred at my former school.

However, I do not think it is appropriate to say who can and cant drive what sort of car, for whatever reason. Sure there should be requirements of those who do choose to drive larger vehicles, but lets be careful when we say that only people who need things for a purpose should drive certain types of cars (off roading, towing, etc etc). As a single person does this mean I must only drive a car with one door as I dont have a purpose for the other 3 ? (ok, extreme example!)

Besides being impractical - do we not live in a free country ??

Make whatever choices you want - but be prepared to be accountable for those choices, and deal with the consequences (ie additional driver training)

You can pick the slow news days - bullbar debate and whales take the front pages !

Troy..

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FollowupID: 2297 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Graeme posted:

Sam, certainly wasn't having a go at you at all. I just seems that this is one of the things people, including other 4wd drivers forget about. There are other uses for 4wds, other than purely off road.

Using another extreme, why does anyone buy a Ferrari, you cant legally use it anywhere near its design capacity other than a racetrack, but people still buy them.

Cheers

Graeme

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AnswerID: 5330 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

Damien replied:

There is a large thread on this very issue on the Overlander forum.

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AnswerID: 5345 Submitted: Thursday, Aug 01, 2002 at 00:00

kezza replied:

lets look at the big picture here - how many people die in cars? - Far too many. - so do we ban them No! - its not just 4wds - it has to come down to the nut behind the wheel. Far too many people dont take driving seriously enough, many are poorly trained and some are aggressive,egotistical (ie have a big vehicle so watch out! ) Sorry -its true - just plain bad drivers - trouble is that they get to be worse drivers in a big vehicle

kezza (ex truckie among other things)

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AnswerID: 5583 Submitted: Sunday, Aug 11, 2002 at 00:00

Rob replied:

Sounds like another journalist using an unfortunate accident to push one of their pet topics. They tend to rank pretty low on the scale of morality, might be trying to push for a job on 60 seconds or minutes or whatever it is. To use incidents like this to sensationalise for their own gain and their selective use of statistics and descriptive terms just helps to confirm the opinions of many - how do they sleep at night?

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