Austrailian Kia Stinger police car-dash cam footage

[Stinger GT SS]

Yeah, but speed and safety are not mutually exclusive. Look at Germany and the autobahn. Something like that would work well in Austrailia (maybe with a few less kangaroos though)

Yes, it’s not good hitting a Roo at speed they can really cause some damage especially the big ones. Wombats are also bad, they can rip the underside of your car out if you hit one at speed they are solid buggers.

 

[MerlintheMad]

When I go into the Uinta mountains, I keep an eye peeled for deer, and cattle; it's open range up there. Didn't see anything last couple of times. But the two times before that, cattle on and "crossing" the road (that's a joke; more like standing in the road; dumb as rocks, they are); and the time before that, my friend and I were actually talking about the danger of deer, and I had slowed for a blind curve, and bingo! there were three at least, in the act of crossing. I slowed to a crawl, in case any more manifested suddenly. (They are not quite as dumb as rocks.)

 

[stew675]

Seeing if it will let me post now. Aside from wildlife, there's also the matter of well maintained vehicles. The German TUV (annual vehicle inspections) is no joke. Probably half of the cars on the road in either Australia or USA would not pass.

The other biggie is simply driver training. Here in Texas, the drivers here will change lanes into high speed oncoming cars, just because they were 3 car lengths back, and no mind if said car was coming up at +20mph because the traffic in their lane had slowed momentarily. Now make that +100mph, and be prepared to say hello to the driver that pulled in front of you from their front seat!

Then you get the ones that sit in the fast lanes at 50mph in a 70mph zone, and REFUSE to move over. That sort of behavior simply doesn't happen in Germany, and it's a huge factor in what makes travelling at high speed on autobahns safe to do so.

 

[Nasscar]

Most of the time it would've been speeding. Cops in Australia use LIDAR, not radar, speed guns. Speed is enforced very stringently in Australia. If you go over by more than 5kph (3mph) and a cop sees you, they'll likely light up and nab you. On a side note, the rate of vehicular death and injury in Australia is 1/3 to 1/4 that of in the USA on a per capita, and per distance driven basis, so they feel like that's the right approach to take since the national road death toll is usually around 900 mark (for the entire country) in a nation of 26M people.

As an avid motorcyclist too, the road law enforcement there gets pretty heavy handed, but given the figures, you can see why the powers at be feel justified in doing it, even though it's a pain in the arse for those who want to enjoy a little bit of responsible fun.

Not to mention all the revenue they rake in too.

 

[Nasscar]

Cops over there are pretty good at estimating speed. If they suspect you're using some sort of interference device based upon what they think you're doing, they'll pull you over and tear your car apart to find and confiscate it, since all that stuff is highly illegal there, sometimes even going so far as leading to prison time depending on exact circumstances. If they find it, they'll likely tow and impound your car, or what some will do is just pull your car apart, take the device, and leave you on the side of the road with a mostly disassembled car (yes, that really happens). It's a different set of rules there. They take road safety really really seriously there.

They have just made laser detectors illegal here in Western Australia. The fine is $1250 if you are found in possession of one. Good lord.

 

[stew675]

Yeah, but speed and safety are not mutually exclusive. Look at Germany and the autobahn. Something like that would work well in Austrailia (maybe with a few less kangaroos though)

Seeing if it will let me post now. Aside from wildlife, there's also the matter of well maintained vehicles. The German TUV (annual vehicle inspections) is no joke. Probably half of the cars on the road in either Australia or USA would not pass.

The other biggie is simply driver training. Here in Texas, the drivers here will change lanes into high speed cars coming up from behind in the lane they are changing into. They seem to think that just because that other car was 2 car lengths back, then there's zero problem, and no mind if said car was coming up at +20mph because the traffic in their lane had slowed momentarily. Now make that +100mph, and be prepared to say hello to the driver that pulled in front of you from their front seat!

Then you get the ones that sit in the fast lanes at 50mph in a 70mph zone, and REFUSE to move over. That sort of behavior simply doesn't happen in Germany, and it's a huge factor in what makes travelling at high speed on autobahns safe to do so. On the whole I've found Aussie drivers to be a little bit better behaved than the drivers in USA, but still, neither are at the level of driver training and courtesy found in Germany.

 

[Nasscar]

Seeing if it will let me post now. Aside from wildlife, there's also the matter of well maintained vehicles. The German TUV (annual vehicle inspections) is no joke. Probably half of the cars on the road in either Australia or USA would not pass.

The other biggie is simply driver training. Here in Texas, the drivers here will change lanes into high speed cars coming up from behind in the lane they are changing into. They seem to think that just because that other car was 2 car lengths back, then there's zero problem, and no mind if said car was coming up at +20mph because the traffic in their lane had slowed momentarily. Now make that +100mph, and be prepared to say hello to the driver that pulled in front of you from their front seat!

Then you get the ones that sit in the fast lanes at 50mph in a 70mph zone, and REFUSE to move over. That sort of behavior simply doesn't happen in Germany, and it's a huge factor in what makes travelling at high speed on autobahns safe to do so. On the whole I've found Aussie drivers to be a little bit better behaved than the drivers in USA, but still, neither are at the level of driver training and courtesy found in Germany.

I'm afraid Western Australians have no idea how to drive. Makes driving over here a risky and dangerous business.

 

[stew675]

I'm afraid Western Australians have no idea how to drive. Makes driving over here a risky and dangerous business.

Western Australia is the singular state in Australia I've not driven in, but even then, the driving standards have to be better than the "found in a Weetbix box at age 16" licensing they have here in Texas. The two worst examples I've seen are:

Some guy driving on a freeway, doing 35mph in a 70mph zone, weaving all over the road. The drivers here are impatient at a level that Aussies have zero understanding of. The traffic only has to look like it's slowing down before they all start changing lanes, driving across nature separators between the freeways and parallel service roads all to escape what turns out to be a ten second slowdown.

Anyway, so cars are weaving dangerously everywhere like a swarm of angry bees around this car. Eventually I get up beside him, and he's holding a phone to his head on a phone-call. Yeah, yeah you think. That's not that unusual. Thing is, he's also holding another phone in his other hand watching a movie on his phone, basically steering with his knees, and not even looking at the road.

The other incident was peak rush hour. Cars are on their horns, which is actually a rare thing in Texas, because everyone assumes that everyone else has a gun and will shoot them if you annoy them enough. The problem? This lady was reversing down some 300 meters distance from a freeway merge overpass into the traffic taking the overpass, on a road way that's barely wide enough to fit 2 cars side-by-side. She'd taken the wrong turn off, and rather than doing what most would do, go down to the next side-road bridge over the freeway to turn around to the correct direction, this lady had decided that reversing into 70mph traffic on a narrow bridge 50' above the freeway during rush hour was the better option.

Then there's the moving express lane barricade that gets moved over one lane every single day to make the rush-hour extra lanes. You can drive along that barrier in the morning and see when some 20-40 cars have impacted the barrier and knocked the concrete blocks out of alignment over a 10 mile distance, each and every single day.

So unless Western Australia drivers are doing worse than that, trust me, Texas has you guys beat for bad drivers.

 

[Nasscar]

Western Australia is the singular state in Australia I've not driven in, but even then, the driving standards have to be better than the "found in a Weetbix box at age 16" licensing they have here in Texas. The two worst examples I've seen are:

Some guy driving on a freeway, doing 35mph in a 70mph zone, weaving all over the road. The drivers here are impatient at a level that Aussies have zero understanding of. The traffic only has to look like it's slowing down before they all start changing lanes, driving across nature separators between the freeways and parallel service roads all to escape what turns out to be a ten second slowdown.

Anyway, so cars are weaving dangerously everywhere like a swarm of angry bees around this car. Eventually I get up beside him, and he's holding a phone to his head on a phone-call. Yeah, yeah you think. That's not that unusual. Thing is, he's also holding another phone in his other hand watching a movie on his phone, basically steering with his knees, and not even looking at the road.

The other incident was peak rush hour. Cars are on their horns, which is actually a rare thing in Texas, because everyone assumes that everyone else has a gun and will shoot them if you annoy them enough. The problem? This lady was reversing down some 300 meters distance from a freeway merge overpass into the traffic taking the overpass, on a road way that's barely wide enough to fit 2 cars side-by-side. She'd taken the wrong turn off, and rather than doing what most would do, go down to the next side-road bridge over the freeway to turn around to the correct direction, this lady had decided that reversing into 70mph traffic on a narrow bridge 50' above the freeway during rush hour was the better option.

Then there's the moving express lane barricade that gets moved over one lane every single day to make the rush-hour extra lanes. You can drive along that barrier in the morning and see when some 20-40 cars have impacted the barrier and knocked the concrete blocks out of alignment over a 10 mile distance, each and every single day.

So unless Western Australia drivers are doing worse than that, trust me, Texas has you guys beat for bad drivers.

We're bad but I think Texas drivers win this one.

 

[Crisis]

Most of the time it would've been speeding. Cops in Australia use LIDAR, not radar, speed guns. Speed is enforced very stringently in Australia. If you go over by more than 5kph (3mph) and a cop sees you, they'll likely light up and nab you.

Whoa, that's strict. Up here at highway speed (100kph) we're generally given 15kph of grace. A 5kph buffer would definitely take some getting used to.

 

[bulldozer1984]

Whoa, that's strict. Up here at highway speed (100kph) we're generally given 15kph of grace. A 5kph buffer would definitely take some getting used to.

I think that 5kmh figure was a little over the top personally. I think it is closer to 10. I have never been done for 10kmh or less over the limit. Always 15 or more over. That said, there is a speed bracket 10 or under, so you technically can be fined for that. I think most cops wouldn't bother unless you have a really bad record or are an a**hole to them etc. Fixed speed cameras more than likely have no grace though.

I was pulled over earlier in the year clocked at 15 over and he let me off with a warning. He was a nice country copper though.

In any case, I have fun getting up to the speed limit as fast as I can. No offence for that

 

[Stinger GT SS]

Western Australia is the singular state in Australia I've not driven in, but even then, the driving standards have to be better than the "found in a Weetbix box at age 16" licensing they have here in Texas. The two worst examples I've seen are:

Some guy driving on a freeway, doing 35mph in a 70mph zone, weaving all over the road. The drivers here are impatient at a level that Aussies have zero understanding of. The traffic only has to look like it's slowing down before they all start changing lanes, driving across nature separators between the freeways and parallel service roads all to escape what turns out to be a ten second slowdown.

Anyway, so cars are weaving dangerously everywhere like a swarm of angry bees around this car. Eventually I get up beside him, and he's holding a phone to his head on a phone-call. Yeah, yeah you think. That's not that unusual. Thing is, he's also holding another phone in his other hand watching a movie on his phone, basically steering with his knees, and not even looking at the road.

The other incident was peak rush hour. Cars are on their horns, which is actually a rare thing in Texas, because everyone assumes that everyone else has a gun and will shoot them if you annoy them enough. The problem? This lady was reversing down some 300 meters distance from a freeway merge overpass into the traffic taking the overpass, on a road way that's barely wide enough to fit 2 cars side-by-side. She'd taken the wrong turn off, and rather than doing what most would do, go down to the next side-road bridge over the freeway to turn around to the correct direction, this lady had decided that reversing into 70mph traffic on a narrow bridge 50' above the freeway during rush hour was the better option.

Then there's the moving express lane barricade that gets moved over one lane every single day to make the rush-hour extra lanes. You can drive along that barrier in the morning and see when some 20-40 cars have impacted the barrier and knocked the concrete blocks out of alignment over a 10 mile distance, each and every single day.

So unless Western Australia drivers are doing worse than that, trust me, Texas has you guys beat for bad drivers.

I’ve driven in Texas, San Antonio to Corpus Christi was a bit of an eye opener as to the speeds people drive on the freeway.
San Antonio to Odessa was a great drive as with Odessa to Santa Fe but the real nerve racking drive was in the DFW Dallas area & thankfully I was a passenger then, that was enough for me.
Just a caveat Sydney traffic is horrendous & half of them cannot drive.

 

[stew675]

I was pulled over earlier in the year clocked at 15 over and he let me off with a warning. He was a nice country copper though.

The country cops in Victoria (where I'm from originally) are still generally good guys. I got pulled over on the motorbike by one doing 25kph over. He was a biker too. We had a good friendly chat for a while about bikes and he let me off with a warning, but it was he that told me he knew of a HWP (HighWay Patrol) guy in the area that was such an arse that he'd get people for 5kph over and wouldn't care if it was his own mother either, so just take it easy on that stretch. Maybe he was spinning a yarn for my sake, but I do know of one person it's happened to.

Like you, I've generally only been done for >15kph over. They do have quotas though, despite them denying it, so they'll chase down the small fry to meet targets if they have to.

Oh, and since we can't paste links here, if you wanna share a ride with me in the hills (on the bike though) look up "Slow Ass Doofus" on YouTube. Filmed under...controlled...conditions of course

 

[Reldas]

Yes, I could not tell on over half of these what the infraction was. Very mysterious.

Aus cops will get you for something 2-3 miles back and just follow you for a while before pulling you over lol.

 

[Ozstung]

Western Australia is the singular state in Australia I've not driven in, but even then, the driving standards have to be better than the "found in a Weetbix box at age 16" licensing they have here in Texas. The two worst examples I've seen are:

Some guy driving on a freeway, doing 35mph in a 70mph zone, weaving all over the road. The drivers here are impatient at a level that Aussies have zero understanding of. The traffic only has to look like it's slowing down before they all start changing lanes, driving across nature separators between the freeways and parallel service roads all to escape what turns out to be a ten second slowdown.

Anyway, so cars are weaving dangerously everywhere like a swarm of angry bees around this car. Eventually I get up beside him, and he's holding a phone to his head on a phone-call. Yeah, yeah you think. That's not that unusual. Thing is, he's also holding another phone in his other hand watching a movie on his phone, basically steering with his knees, and not even looking at the road.

The other incident was peak rush hour. Cars are on their horns, which is actually a rare thing in Texas, because everyone assumes that everyone else has a gun and will shoot them if you annoy them enough. The problem? This lady was reversing down some 300 meters distance from a freeway merge overpass into the traffic taking the overpass, on a road way that's barely wide enough to fit 2 cars side-by-side. She'd taken the wrong turn off, and rather than doing what most would do, go down to the next side-road bridge over the freeway to turn around to the correct direction, this lady had decided that reversing into 70mph traffic on a narrow bridge 50' above the freeway during rush hour was the better option.

Then there's the moving express lane barricade that gets moved over one lane every single day to make the rush-hour extra lanes. You can drive along that barrier in the morning and see when some 20-40 cars have impacted the barrier and knocked the concrete blocks out of alignment over a 10 mile distance, each and every single day.

So unless Western Australia drivers are doing worse than that, trust me, Texas has you guys beat for bad drivers.

Get the hell out of there! Lol. They say we're 15 years behind the states traffic wise.

I remember 17 years ago hiring a car at the airport in London and heading onto the motorway which from memory was 4 lanes. I proceeded to the slow lane within seconds i was getting horned from behind apparently 70mph is too slow! It took awhile to acclimatise but two weeks later i progressed to the second and third lane cruising at 95mph. The outside lane appeared to be for anything over 100. I was there in August when i think all the locals had migrated to Spain, portugal and Italy, the roads weren't as clogged as i thought.

 

[Nasscar]

I think that 5kmh figure was a little over the top personally. I think it is closer to 10. I have never been done for 10kmh or less over the limit. Always 15 or more over. That said, there is a speed bracket 10 or under, so you technically can be fined for that. I think most cops wouldn't bother unless you have a really bad record or are an a**hole to them etc. Fixed speed cameras more than likely have no grace though.

I was pulled over earlier in the year clocked at 15 over and he let me off with a warning. He was a nice country copper though.

In any case, I have fun getting up to the speed limit as fast as I can. No offence for that

6kmh speed tolerance in Western Australia so if you are doing 66kmh/60km zone, you're getting a ticket.

 

[Nasscar]

I think that 5kmh figure was a little over the top personally. I think it is closer to 10. I have never been done for 10kmh or less over the limit. Always 15 or more over. That said, there is a speed bracket 10 or under, so you technically can be fined for that. I think most cops wouldn't bother unless you have a really bad record or are an a**hole to them etc. Fixed speed cameras more than likely have no grace though.

I was pulled over earlier in the year clocked at 15 over and he let me off with a warning. He was a nice country copper though.

In any case, I have fun getting up to the speed limit as fast as I can. No offence for that

It is hard with the Stinger though with the bimodal barking in the rear to stop at the speed limit especially when getting on the highway from an on ramp.