Aug2015_Dear Editor _3 of 4

I would have liked the opportunity to have thanked the writer of the letter to the Editor in last month’s edition of Grapevine titled “Ease Up Turbo”.  The response was to my letter that appeared in the previous month’s edition of Grapevine regarding comments made by a Sergeant X appearing in a Sunday Mail column some months back; unfortunately I cannot thank the writer due to the fact that the he/she requested their name be withheld.

 

The comments as to distances between Dayboro/Petrie and Dayboro/Samford and the times taken to travel and as to where one can pass (if able to safely do so) were quite impressive in particularly, the approximate 2 minutes extra it would take if having to follow a motorist sitting on 80 kph as opposed to those who desired to travel at the maximum limit of the various speed zones along both respective stretches of road.

One cannot argue with some of the comments and statistics put forward by the writer (specifically the one that applies to the RTM in NSW) however, I do believe that as a result of life and other experiences I have gained over my nearly 70 years I may be able to add to the discussion.  One particular experience that does comes to mind pertains to my extensive background relating to motor vehicle accident (MVA) rescue.  

Further, I thought the comments made by Sergeant X would be of interest to readers of Grapevine but in hindsight, maybe I should have included why I made comment in the first place.

After 12 years (in the 80s and 90s) of teaching Remote Area MVA Rescue to Police and Fire Emergency Response Groups in the NT and also being a qualified responder, I always had difficulty in coming to grips with the terrible loss of life associated with the various accidents I attended over the years (I can still recall one accident in particular between a semi and a small over crowded commuter bus resulting in 7 deceased and 9 critically injured).  What really used to get to me was those accidents that were attributed to driver impatience and many of these type of accidents often combined excessive speed (in the NT, all fatal accidents are investigated by the Police Accident Investigation Units (AIU) in order to determine the cause).  In the NT there used to be no speed limit once outside most towns, therefore just imagine impact damage to vehicles and their occupants involving high speed.  I can assure you, it is not a very pretty sight for the faint heartened.

However, like most Emergency Responders, one can only take so much and after 12 years and after several episodes of the “black dog”, there comes a time when one has to decide to move on, a new state and a new town and that was my birth state of Queensland and the Town of Yesteryear being Dayboro. 

In conclusion Police AIU statistics (in what ever State) prove that slow and impatient drivers can directly or indirectly be the sole or combined cause of many an accident, therefore, in pointing out this fact, I don’t believe any more needs to be said.  

Adrian Surplice

Roderick Street 

Dayboro