Dash Cam Owners Australia seems to be getting longer and worse by the week and it's making me feel uneasy that I'm sharing the roads with them.
Having mountain of patience and maximum awareness is not enough to keep you safe.
How can this happen? Should there be mandatory psych test with the whole attention deficit plague going on or China style road laws where everyone is subject to lesson and re-test all over again to discourage this behaviour.
User name checks out.
Ok ok I get the joke now. I'm a little slow.
Bikies
Well, unlike pilots, there are no a psychological test or a psychiatric evaluation when getting a driving license. Thank god for that, else our delivery/transportation cost will be x1000.
Confirmation bias I'd say - it's still very very rare for an average road user to experience any one of those events probably (according to my experience).
What sort of whinge is this and who cares?
Who says they have a license?
The left hand side of the statistical bell curve contains drivers too.
Chop the bell curve in half, keep the right side and redistribute on the x axis and you have it
I blame Cornflakes
Perhaps they achieved their goal of clearing sinful thoughts but as a side-effect turned people into shit drivers..
Can’t speak for others but corn flakes really gets me in the mood
Wasn't it Weeties?
This is what my kid said yesterday. The driver in front had a green light and clear way forward but stood there…. then it went amber and drove forward. My kid said "they must have cornflakes in their eyes!"
I believe it is actually a reference to people obtaining their licences from cereal packets.
👍
Never was a cornflake girl
Thought it was a good solution
Hanging with the raisin girls
Too many people think they have right of way.
Am I right @pegaxs?
Nah - too many people putting on lip balm when driving. Guaranteed you this is from ozbargain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_yoLHwNSRU&t=588s
“Yeah well I had right of….”
*Batman slaps Robin meme*
“There is no right of way in Australian road rules, only the obligation to give way…”
This is normal. All the time. Everywhere. For decades.
You just get to see it more due to the increased adoption of dashcams.
I've been watching the DCOA for years. I swear there have been more people driving the wrong direction.
Absolutely, I’ve been driving for 15 years and more and more people are taking the wrong side of roads to overtake when it’s single lane. All in the name of saving a few seconds, often no savings at all when reached red lights.
Patience is at all time low IMO
That's big too. I think there's more poorly designed infrastructure being installed and more elderly drivers too.
@Caped Baldy: I also noticed, in my area, more and more deliberate things are put in place to slow down drivers, which further infuriate those impatience ones.
I suspect because people are speeding more, making it more dangerous….
A few, or are there hundreds of them?
A few in every video nowadays. A couple years ago it was either none or one. That said, the DCOA channel have started the weekly videos in the past couple years so that might explain it.
I know right!
We watch it in our house and have been saying the same thing!
A few things:
More distraction due to phones
People sleeping less
Drugs
Increased age of drivers, people living longer but our brains don't keep up aka dementia
More people and more cars on the road
More dashcams and more readily available footage
Faster and more powerful cars
Higher portion of drivers on the road with international licences where testing isn't as stringent
Higher portion of drivers who only started driving during an older age/after migration
Perhaps more uber drivers where unvetted drivers drive significantly more on a commercial basis.
Must be a great potion of that yearly migrant intake simply switching over to an Australian license /s
Import the 3rd world, get 3rd world traffic.
This
Import the 3rd world, get 3rd world traffic.
This plus our existing, sizeable demographic of bogan/tradie/feral retards with dangerous driving habits (whose driving skills can only worsen with age) leads to an overall decline in safety on our roads.
One of my best mates is a cop. Most migrants do not even switch over to an Australian License just keep driving on the foreign license.
Ironically my first accident in about 30 years a month or so ago I was handed an Indian license by the other party together with an excuse as to why he's driving on it that I did not even ask for. He said he'd been here almost a decade but the license he handed me was from 2022. Hmm. Seems he went back home just to get a license?
If my kid has to spend a year on Ls then 18 months on Ps then surely the rules need to be tightened for countries that have much laxer ways of getting a license?
Not sure whether it's still like that but some part of Indonesia you just used to tell them you can drive and that was it.
It used to be like that in Australia though. When I was a kid in a small country town my father drove for a decade or two before his drinking mate the local copper (we only had one) said he should get a licence - which said copper gave him the next day in return for some minor plumbing work (dad was the region's plumber).
I reckon on average driving in Oz has got better, partly because getting a licence is much more work and partly because an older population means less young hoons.
Over the last decade or two, I DO believe in general our youth is driving better.
I see far less P platers ending up in facing me in a round about in the wet for one example. I see far less hooning.
I think they are generally more aware these days to be fair.
As for your example those were the days, but you DID say small country town. In general discussion here though you wouldn't throw someone who hasn't driven before in the middle of a busy suburb, merging on the freeway or in the city would you?
Until cars become autonomous, I think the current system is working pretty well (although I'd love for an advanced driving course to be mandatory to handle emergency situations), and I think sitting a practical should be madatory for all people who are going to be in this country for more than 6 months.
What other identification should we take note of if presented with eg. Indian driving licence? What if he/she doesn't have a Medicare card?
the name and badge number of the officer that attends when you call them out.
the only car accident i've ever been in was being t-boned by some 20something year old kid, I got out of the car, we went to exchange details - he tells me he doesn't speak much English, pulls out a folded up piece of paper, he tells me it's a chinese license and he's just a student, shows me his student ID and a few other bits of information. Flash forward, the insurance agency tells me none of the details match up to anything. False address, fake number, fake license, unregistered car likely stolen.
First driver was definitely a bogan.
Mustang driver?
.
I do more kilometres in a couple of years then many people will do in their life.
In my experience:
The dangerous over takers, dangerous speeders (doing a good 30kmph over) and general psychotic driving tends to be the “Australians”.
The under speed/ massive speed fluctuations, no indicator, random veering and general lack of confidence is usually ones from overseas.
I see a lot of the second group, but am more afraid of the first.
Mad tradies in 4wds and drug addicts?
Many people do drive like they are indeed on the gear.
More often than not, the worst offenders are in a 4wd or European bit of garbage doing something stupidly dangerous.
@El cheepo: I think you're spot on with your analysis.
The OVER confident tend to be Australian, and the generally lack of confidence are foreigners. I agree.
BUT
I think they're both equally as dangerous to be fair, I've had to do a fair bit of avoidance driving the latter. In the case of the former it's usually a case of just praying they don't hit you on the way past.
I think they're both equally as dangerous to be fair,
I think they are both dangerous but i would rather do this
I've had to do a fair bit of avoidance driving.
Instead of this
just praying they don't hit you on the way past.
As i have a degree of control over the situation with incompetent/ ignorant drivers.
Where as the idiot passing me on double white lines on a bend 1km before overtaking lanes leaves me few options but to risk bining the whole truck or kill someone when another vehicle comes.
And that situation happens at least once weekly…
Give me mr magoo over mr meth anyday.
100% this , the 2nd group are an annoyance most times , the first group is plain dangerous. Entitled (profanity) in their euro cars, or shitheads in their utes . I see both of these equally , then you have these delivery scooters who dont seem to value their lives .
Is there a word for "car racist"?
Do I have to sell my Alfa now? I love my Alfa (sob).
I mean do I have to drive Chinese, Korean, Japanese just to be considered not entitled?
I used to own Commodores but sadly that's not a choice any more.
I’m more afraid of the second. The first lost you can generally keep clear of once you spot them (move left or stay calm and let them go around you). The second lot you literally have to be constantly on guard for with respect to them suddenly veering into your lane when you turn a corner, or not understanding roundabouts etc.
You are welcome to your own opinion.
But to elaborate more on why i said what i said: The first lot are the ones that are likely to kill themselves and or others. Yes they usually do their own thing, but they also take huge and unnecessary uneducated risks.
The second are just inconvenient and annoying, the majority of the time most people who are spatially aware and drive defensively have the ability and response time to avoid them.
Good luck with that when old Mr meth comes at you on your side of the road and a truck coming at you.
This
Oh wow I'm famous now
for sure.100% has to be this.
I never see, for example, Australian born tradies in their utes driving irresponsibly.
Ranger Danger
Are you being sarcastic?
Probably, I imagine first comment was probably saying it's all foreigners behind the world's bad driving
Yes , their deleted comment was blaming all societies poor driving on immigration.
You should go for a ride in a semi trailer or road train in traffic as a passenger.
I guarantee after one drive in medium traffic your blood pressure will be off the charts 😂
I drive trucks, but only up to HR… I have a fair idea, but I often co-pilot for HC and MC drivers, and I don’t know how those guys don’t just go “you know what? F&#k ‘em all!!” And just drive over the top of everyone…
I’ll be honest, there is a large proportion of time i drive where i know that in an emergency, some one is literally at risk of death because of the position they put themselves in and i am at peace with it. If they do it and die, thats on them. I’ll do what i can to avoid it, but if it happens it happens.
If someone wants to squeeze their i20 past me to cross 3 lanes, they better hope they make it the whole way because i will not swerve and risk hitting someone innocent.
I also don’t brake for brake checkers now that i have multiple cameras fitted 👌🏼
Its a good thing there are no swear jars in the trucks 😂
I drove interstate a lot when I had my L's and always wanted to know, when driving uphill does it piss truck drivers off when a learner in a shitbox has to pass them on the way up only for you to have to pass them again on the way down because the learner isn't allowed to drive the full highway speed?
At least in SA the Learner permit does not allow for interstate driving.
does it piss truck drivers off when a learner in a shitbox has to pass them on the way up only for you to have to pass them again on the way down
Short answer: usually…
But its not usually their fault.
It largely depends on whether their parents who are teaching them have common sense or not.
Some hills have speed limited decents for trucks, some dont.
Its the ones without restrictions that are dangerous…
Nothing like coming down a hill at 90kmph in a 90 ton truck on the 110kmph interstate only to come around a slight bend and find a L plater doing under 80.
To be fair its not just L platers that do it.
Other pet hates…
Caravans over taking up a hill and then doing 70-80 and not letting us overtake on the flat.
Same goes for the 10 cars that squeeze into the 100mtr gap i left in front of me for stopping (but in fairness i hate the last couple that do it the most as they clearly should realise they are in danger)
This has been my ted talk/rant.
Thanks for reading.
I did a little bit of driving in my early 20's for my parents store. I don't know how the hell truck drivers do it, driving a truck in any city or even medium size town is a nightmare. The number of times I had to jump on the anchors to avoid hitting some (profanity) that pulled in front of me just before traffic lights or so they could then brake to turn and expected me to be able stop, gave me nightmares. I would always be driving well below the limit just to account for the moron drivers.Most drivers have zero appreciation for how difficult a truck is to handle in a city and how far ahead they have to be thinking just to be able to stop safely.
bold of you to assume any of them have A licence
Too many people doesn't know basic rules - like giving a signal for turn doesn't mean you can turn NOW!!!
I'm finding more and more that people think indicators are optional
It was normally the case for people changing lanes but these days I’ve seen people not even indicating when they’re making a turn. It’s just shocking.
And police turns blind eye. Fixing the bad habit of not indicating is a good revenue raiser.
Yep an indicator is meant to indicate to others what you are going to do, not what you are doing right now in that moment.
Falling asleep at the wheel
I have been driving in evening around 6pm to 8pm from time to time lately, and I can spot at least 1 or 2 cars driving without head light on EVERY ride.
no joke stupid drivers are on road all the time.
I think the problem is modern cars that have a dash that lights up and people just don't realise their headlights aren't on as a result. I do agree with you though.
I like the saying "smart devices, dumb users".
But even a 15 year old car more or less has automatic headlights now.
It's just plain dumb as you can often tell the car is modern enough to have them
My 7 year old VW doesn’t have them, I’d argue other brands are similar.
@EFC94: Correct, my 2008 Captiva has auto headlights, my 2016 Rio doesn't have auto lights just depends on make/model.
To be fair, head lights would be to assist with driver visibility and not accident avoidance. And mostly the light turn on could be overlooked as the driver might be driving in a well lit area; if not chances of the driver realising the mistake and turning on surely would be high unless the driver is high
disagree… for example when you want to change lane and the car on the other lane behind you doesn't have light turn on, it can be hard to notice from your mirror because it's all dark ish.
Watching this makes me think I should invest in a dash cam. I always keep putting it off because wiring it in seems diffcult, particularly if you get a rear one as well.
Any recommendations, Ozbargain? I see the Viofo ones seem to go on sale quite a bit. Any good?
They come with a power plug for the cigarette lighter and some sticky pads to keep the wiring out of the way. Easy to DIY. Hardwiring is only if you want it to be neat.
The Viofo dashcams are the ones that are actually any good and not a rip off. You can get some no-name thing for $35 shipped but it'll be almost useless because the camera sensor will be so bad in anything but perfect lighting (and possibly even in perfect lighting…). You can spend $500 at Repco and get something decent, but it's terrible value. The Viofo ones are good cameras and reasonably priced especially on sale.
Wiring: if you want it to work while the car is off it's a whole ordeal. But if you want it to just work when you're driving you stick it to the inside of the windshield the same was as a toll tag, then push the wire under the plastic around the windshield and plug the end into the 12v outlet (cigarette lighter). You can run it inside the dash for a cleaner look, depending how comfortable you are loosening the trim.
it's making me feel uneasy that I'm sharing the roads with them
Then walk.
Unfortunately a fair few of the videos from the channel OP linked (possibly not that specific video) include drivers getting impatient and driving onto the footpath to bypass a queue… or (more often) a crash that involves one or more vehicles losing control and going off the roadway onto the footpath.
You're right. The world isnt safe at all. OP has no choice but to stay inside all the time.
But in all seriousness, how often do you see crashes like this in your everyday life?
at least two pedestrians were knocked to the ground in this video.
Crashes happen daily and without your awareness. Dashcam Owners Australia is simply a collection of captured video of it, it's nothing new sadly.
There are any number of reasons for crashes: skill or lack of, mobile phone, attention or lack of, stolen vehicle, under age or elderly, drunk, etc.
Driving test is kind of hard, but also kind of easy. You can fail at reverse parking and still pass. You can not eye check for oncoming traffic at an intersection a few times and still pass. Though these people just slamming into each other, they don't have P plates up, so they've been driving independently for at least a year. Accidents waiting to happen?
The driving test should be much harder, and as you age there should be re-tests needed to prove you’re still up to it.
Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Dashcams should be mandatory. And if you don't have dash cam footage available to provide the police in the moments before an accident then you get fined $1,000 or whatever. It's madness on the road. People cut lanes all the time, drive too close to people, get panicked in intersections, speed. If everyone thought any particular moment of them driving could be seen by the police (as accidents can happen any time) then I bet people would drive more carefully.
Maybe if we had decent public transport, plenty of people can't even get a bus if they live 10km outside of the city
My fav is when they just randomly pull over to the left and immediately do a U turn.
That's super fun when you're following them in a fully loaded truck. Then you hit the brakes, the truck stops and your load keeps going.
No ideaa