Blog comments

• hi im garry im an inventor i have put together a plan to reduce the road toll,its a story that needs to be put into a video .

  u can contact me on
  0413 597 754

  thanks garry mallard.

  garry mallard Tuesday 22 February, 2011 - 9:34 AM

• I may be an old f--t but when I was a kid in Gympie the drinking age was 21 and the roads we had to drive on were a damn sight worse than they are today and a lot of them gravel. We learnt how to get out of a skid and drove defensively on the bush roads. The cars weren't as fast nor were there as many. Raise the drinking age back to 21 and put a curfew on P platers.

  Sandy Friday 5 June, 2009 - 11:04 AM

• The Road Toll...is this the only name we can give all these People that have tradgically passed away on our roads..i would personally say its not fair at all..My 35 yo old brother Troy Taylor was taken from us when he lost control of his harley at cooper plains on 11/5/2009...whether he was driving recklessly or not..he is another one gone..and all these people have a right to be remembered other than just another fatality on the roads..how about erecting billboards that have a picture of the victim..a picture of the crash..and a safe driving message..even just a tribute so everyone that drives past wont just say"someone died there"..so they know his name.know there story..and think to drive safely..it may be just one picture that will make ppl realise how quickly our mistakes can turn into tragedy...we see how many"want longer lasting sex" billboards..why not advertise for for safe driving whilst holding tribute to the ones who have passed on our roads..i would love to petition for this to happen...and i am in the slow motions of organizing it.we can make excuses and say..dont speed..dont drink and drive..in the end it is totally up to the driver to be responsible..if one image seen while driving home can change there attitude in driving..i think why not try.

  Jodi Taylor Saturday 16 May, 2009 - 2:50 PM

• G'day,

  Many people call for better roads and everyone who has to pay their vehicle ownership tax should ask Main Roads “why is it that the only halfway decent roads in Queensland are either federally funded or toll roads?”

  Also ask “why is the standard and durability of these federally funded in Queensland well below that of similarly funded roads in NSW and Victoria?”

  The grading of the substrate is sub standard (cheap?) and the road base compaction is also below par. This information comes from a retired roller operator, a retired grader operator th seat-of-the-pants knowledge gained from driving roads such as the M (only) in the Qld side, the Princess Hwy. over in NSW as well as the luxurious experience of driving the Hume in Victoria.

  If you do ask Main Roads these questions, be prepared for a 9 month delay, (which involved the federal members office when it was liberal) only to receive a letter telling you the extent of the road network in Queensland and how registration doesn't cover the maintenance of these ”state roads”.
  This strikes me as an admission that the Queensland government cuts corners on the federally funded roads and diverts the remaining fund into its own (almost non-existent) maintenance programme. Bear in min, mush of the Queensland road network is owned and maintained by local government.

  Best Regards,
  Royce R. Vines

  An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
  -M.K. Gandhi

  Royce R. Vines Monday 11 May, 2009 - 4:20 PM

• Many people, including the government have place much faith in surveys and statistical analysis.

  However, statisticians will always do surveys that support their own preconceived ideas. Like lawyers, they never ask a question that they do not know the answer to. Surprisingly, they rarely make the raw data available for outside analysis. Qld Tpt is notorious for this. THey expect the public to "trust" them. QT make some data available for their Safe Roads 2004 brochure. These figures showed that "speed" CAUSES less that 4% of serious crashes. They never released comparable figures since. THey just say thay "speed" a contributing factor in 27% of serious crashes. They later admitted that this figure was 22% when their inaccuracies were pointed out to them.

  Royce R. Vines Thursday 7 May, 2009 - 4:54 PM

• Every time a tragedy occurs, everyone says the same old things, higher driving age, more fines, harsher penalties, more restrictions. This approach has been going on for years and with our death toll still climbing is obviously not working at all. People need to start looking at the source of the problem. restricting driving more is not the answer, i know plenty of people who are awkward and uncomfortable just driving normally, and if they ever get in a dangerous situation they make all the wrong moves, simply because they don't have the required experience to know how to respond to the situation.

  i had the luxury of learning to drive at an early age because i grew up on a farm, my father began teaching me to drive at an early age and by the time i was 6 (and could finally reach the pedals comfortably) i was quite happily driving solo around the private roads that connected the houses in my area to the public road. So by the time i was 16 and going for my L plates i had already been driving a car for 10 years and could focus on learning how to drive safely rather than just struggling to drive the car.

  More emphasis has to be put on driver training, mabye even introductory courses before Young people are even old enough to drive legally on the road.

  *continued in the next post*

  dave Thursday 7 May, 2009 - 9:31 AM