Complaints about bad drivers are probably the third most common topic of every conversation I have, right after poor phone service and dog poo.
It seems to me that there is an ever-growing presence of ‘hoons’ and ‘petrolheads’ in our suburbs who, when you speak to them, have a long list of complaints against ‘normal drivers’ and a great sense of pride in their ‘abilities behind the wheel’.
As a mother of a 16-year-old whose anxiety and fear of driving dangers results in her refusal to learn how to drive, I cannot help but wonder if overconfident and cocky drivers – with or without a licence – are the cause of sensible drivers no longer hitting the wide-open road.
‘Petrolheads’ complain of atrocious driving displayed by ‘normal’ drivers including being distracted, not giving way or giving way unnecessarily, middle lane hogging, driving at inconsistent speeds and excessive braking. All of which we must agree can, and have, caused fatalities on our roads.
However, illegal drag racing, burnouts, speeding and other reckless road behaviour by those who believe ‘they have control’ of the wheel not only pose a road safety risk it affects all members of the public, not just other drivers.
Drivers losing their ‘control of the wheel’ ploughing through fences, garages, home windows, damaging gardens and even worse, taking lives. Despite the illegal activity and zero-tolerance of the community for hooning, Professor D’Arcy Holman of the Road Safety Council of WA stated in a recent The West Australian report that hoon drivers causing the worst havoc on the roads is a myth.
‘Hoon drivers massively increase their risk of a crash, but the bottom line is not many people do that,” says Prof Holman. ‘Whereas you have many drivers going over the limit, which even by 5km/h doubles the risk of a crash.”
In 2014, Sunshine Coast Daily reported RACQ Executive Manager for Technical and Safety Policy Mr Steve Spalding as saying: “High-level speeding has much more severe road safety implications than the largely amenity-based concerns about hooning offences such as burnouts.”
As I strive to teach my teen how to drive safely, and confidently, on the roads – reminding her that accidents can, and will, happen – I personally struggle to understand why our leading experts see hooning and ‘normal’ matters such as drink driving and speeding as mutually exclusive.
Tell me, what do you get when a hoon (regardless of experience) drink drives and/or speeds on the roads? Or worse, in our suburban estates where our children walk along council footpaths because we told them to get off the games and out of the house?
Whether you consider yourself a ‘petrolhead’, ‘hoon’ or ‘safe’ driver, please continue to check you are driving safely regardless of how confident you feel on the road. Our future generations depend on this.