Q Police To Clamp Down On Flashing LIghts To Warn Of Speed Cameras!!!!

[camfraser]

Originally Posted by flappist

Now let me have a guess. Generation ME ?

Because that is what a society is for.........

no i mean, shouldn't the blackspots be sufficiently signed. im not saying let people kill themselves, but we should be able to recognize a 'dangerous' section of road by proper signage without being flashed. We shouldn't need to flash someone to make them slow down.

Originally Posted by XR-CHIEF

And you could save someones life, talk about selfish.

Please don't think i want people to die unnecessarily! i just believe people are too quick to blame-shift. Not aimed at anyone here... but "my tyres lost grip in the wet", no you just drove too fast for the conditions, or "he braked quickly so i ran up the rear", no you were travelling too close, or going too fast into a corner and crashing and calling me selfish because i didn't flash them.

[noosacuda]

In the 1980's,one Easter the police had an advertising campaign to encourage drivers to flash to oncoming traffic to warn them about a radar, the police theory was if it would slowed speedersters down it was a good thing,oh this is before revenue raising was so important to them (the government,that is)
I'll always flash- EXCEPT in a school zone,speed there and you deserve to get booked.

[GS608]

Originally Posted by camfraser

Please don't think i want people to die unnecessarily! i just believe people are too quick to blame-shift. Not aimed at anyone here... but "my tyres lost grip in the wet", no you just drove too fast for the conditions, or "he braked quickly so i ran up the rear", no you were travelling too close, or going too fast into a corner and crashing and calling me selfish because i didn't flash them.

Nobody said anything about shifting blame, if someone is speeding and crashes then that is their fault, they should be able to accept responibility, but giving them a flash to warn them about a hazzard or even radar might make them think twice about continuing on at that speed, it is then up to them as to whether they slow down or not.

[Darkr]

As it's revinue raising in 99% of cases and they are put in locations crashes are very very very uncommon, i will go out of my way to flash people that are going towards a a speed camera.

I guess the best thing here in W.A. is that radar detectors are legal. I am not one to speed, but a radar detector just stops you paying money for nothing as speeding has to be one of the most rediculous fines you can get with the pedestrian posted limits here.

Half the time I may as well walk.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by camfraser

no i mean, shouldn't the blackspots be sufficiently signed. im not saying let people kill themselves, but we should be able to recognize a 'dangerous' section of road by proper signage without being flashed. We shouldn't need to flash someone to make them slow down.

You do realise that some of the other states of Australia are bigger than a cattle station don't you?

Maybe instead ow spending lots of money on pretty signs they might actually put bitumen on the road or upgrade a major bridge from single lane or how about make the blackspot safe.

Also quite often the danger is mobile (and goes moo or baa or can fly helecopters and lives with Sonny).

[camfraser]

of course money should be spent on the roads rather than signs... quick fix solutions are only that, but what about the black spots that are dangerous for other reasons?
by the way, smart comments aren't really needed are they; i'm sure neither of us want people to have accidents!!

[irlewy86]

Most of the accidents on the Bruce Highway/Gateway/Pacific motorways are speed related.

Not the sort of speed related where people crash doing 120km/h, the sort of speeding that has created the black spots was people having fender benders at 80km/h in the unexplained bottleneck traffic caused by p*ss poor design.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

................
I go with the philosophy that speed camera's are morally wrong, if they catch someone doing 200 they do NOTHING to stop them when 2km down the road they could cause a fatality or worse. .............

That's a very good point. There's nothing to stop the driver from continuing the stupidity; it may even make him more courageous knowing he's already been pinged.

[4Vman]

Chicken and egg stuff isn't it, did the road cause the accident or did the driver cause it by exceeding a safe speed for the conditions or failing to pay adequate attention to the conditions.....

[flappist]

Originally Posted by camfraser

of course money should be spent on the roads rather than signs... quick fix solutions are only that, but what about the black spots that are dangerous for other reasons?
by the way, smart comments aren't really needed are they; i'm sure neither of us want people to have accidents!!

You may have noticed several people have disagreed with you on here. You have admitted you have had a 4 year suspension and age of 24 and living in a major city in a small state your actual road experience is rather limited.

Australia is a big place and there are lots of different situations that you may encounter. The whole "speed kills" mentality being pushed onto us as an exuse to increase revinue is a major contributor to road accidents.

The NT example is just one, lower speeds more deaths.

Many part of Australia have crap roads where you may be stuck behind slow vehicles for 50 or 100km and when you finally get to a place to over take you get stuck behind some paranoid idiot (often with blue and white number plates) who will not exceed 95 in a 100 zone while overtaking therefore preventing most of the following cars getting through.

Fatigue kills far more than speed and there in nothing more fatiguing than driving for long periods at a speed that you don't want to whether that is faster or slower.

So cam I recommend you get out and about a bit, not just on the geelong-melbourne freeway and in the 'burbs and see what really goes on. Maybe you will understand why you have so many disagreeing with you.

As far as black spots, the most danderous roads in the world are the freeways in Victoria. They must be otherwise there would not be speed cameras would there?

The bottom line is:

I believe is fairness, while the state governments pretend that their road laws are for saftey and not revinue I will pretend to obey them.

[camfraser]

Flappist, i have noticed most people disagree and thats fine, i will never pretend to know all. I do love that last comment of yours though!

[AWD Chaser]

Originally Posted by FTE72

You will find that most HWP officers will give you a friendly "warning flash" if they cop you going a bit too quick, but not quick enough for them to bother fining you, on open country roads.
This has happened to me several times on Qld country roads. I hope they do not stop this in favour of fines!

So will the cops get fined for either flashing their high beams or preventing the course of justice by warning other motorists of their presence? lol. I don't think so. lol

[Trevor 57]

Flashing lights to warn of police has been illegal in Victoria for many years, the offenders are charged with using high beam with 200 metres of an oncoming car - interesting eh?

[dom_105]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

Flashing lights to warn of police has been illegal in Victoria for many years, the offenders are charged with using high beam with 200 metres of an oncoming car - interesting eh?

What if you don't use high beam, can you still get done?

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Big Trev

Flashing lights to warn of police has been illegal in Victoria for many years, the offenders are charged with using high beam with 200 metres of an oncoming car - interesting eh?

Bugger that Trev. I do it when their still at least 500m away

[Cam]

Well from what I understand of QLD law its illegal to flash someone with highbeams within 200m. So, I therefore see no logical reason why a person couldn't warn someone of a Camera, radar, debree on the road, a cow, a sheep, or a wide load ahead by using your lights (not high beam), or even turn on your hazards to warn of an upcoming "hazard", whatever it may be. And on the point, I have had cops in marked cars flash me up north while being a few k's over the speed limit, should we be getting their rego and reporting them for breaking the law??

I dont condone speeding but I will warn someone of an upcoming camera, especially as someone can be fined for doing a few km/h over the limit nowdays.

I will freely admit I lost my licence speeding, by overtaking a road train moving at 80km/h on a straight stretch of road in a VERY remote part of QLD, i got done doing 146 in a 100 zone. Sure i was over the limit, but I thought it safer to overtake rather then have huge rocks flung off the back of the truck at 80 km/h and bounce towards my car (even while at a more then safe distance), or stay on the other side of the road for an extra 100m+ while i overtook him at the speed limit.

I agree not all speeding happend on open roads, but take out the tossers who drive like nutters and swerve through traffic and tail gate (but at the speed limit) and the morons who fall asleep at the wheel, it doesn't leave a huge percentage of people who die by doing 110km/h in a 100 zone while maintaining a safe distance, in a safe car, and in an alert state of mind.

I spose next time i see some 18 year old in a VN doing 40km/h+ over the speed limit, i should think twice before flashing my high beams to slow him down.....

[steve.zissou]

One of my favorite past times when driving in the country is when a cop is behind me (using me as a blocker) and getting oncomming traffic with radar, I turn my Lowbeams on and flash all the cars coming towards him and he doesn't even know.

except for the time I flashed an unmarked car and he flashed all his lights back at me but nothing happened (the guy behind me just did a U turn).

Guess I better use low beam flashes from now on

[Donny]

Im fine with flashing oncoming motorists with regards to 'flash for cash' speed cameras or radar traps, be it in town or on the highways/motorways. I call it a simple courtesy between motorists warning of somthing....anything to be wary of up ahead.....(Not in school zones tho).


When the Transport dept and Cops are out doing spot checks on cars, I will NOT flash, I have no issue with them picking up unlicenced/unroadworthy or my biggest pet hate, unregistered vehicles....Unlicenced drivers or unregistered cars need to be off our roads. Unroadworthy cars I feel should be treated a bit diffrently. If they are blatantly unroadworthy, then by all means, but if its a louder exhaust or somthing minor, then thats a bit much.

Lastly, what I wont ever flash for is warning for RBT's. You get done for over the limit, and I will have zero sympathy for you.

I also agree that the whole speed kills thing isnt the right aim to reducing traffic accidents.
I do beleive excessive speed can kill, but other factors are also very heavily weighted as well and get bugger all attention....
Fatigue is the worst, specially in the trucking/transport industry. The conditions most heavy vehicle drivers must exist in really adds heavily to this risk.
Normal motorists also who live their lives in a constant hurry. This is going to be near on impossible to fix as this is how we are as a society now. Everything going on around you at 100 miles an hour with little time to stop and think.
Poor road conditions, danger spots, driver complacency, poor driver training for challenging conditions etc
When I got my licence in the 80's, I never got any driver training for wet conditions, or nite driving. I only got the basics. I dont know if this has improved at all since then, but I think new drivers need to learn how to drive safely in the rain, and at night.
Hell when I did my training, they didnt even show drivers how to park a car in a normal car parking spot.

Youngens will allways be youngens, and will allways experament. In todays society where quite a lot of them only care about them selves, this makes it quite dangerous.
What they need is places locally available where they can do this experamenting under controlled and supervised attention.

A tiered driving setup like truck licences should be looked at, where a basic licence is earned by those drivers who show a basically acceptable level of drivers skill. This should then restrict these drivers to basic non performance type cars and allow little to no modifications to the cars performance.
Then a more advanced type of licence is required to drive performance/sports type cars, where by each driver must show an adequate level of car control in all situations and basically earn the right to have and legally drive a performance/sports car. eg...part of the test would be to complete and graduate from an advanced driving course.

[Brett3158]

[QUOTE=jrckelley]One of my favorite past times when driving in the country is when a cop is behind me (using me as a blocker) and getting oncomming traffic with radar, I turn my Lowbeams on and flash all the cars coming towards him and he doesn't even know.

/QUOTE]


Classic!

[tweeked]

I nearly ran up the rear of a car on the M1 at Taragindi the other night. They were doing 80 in the middle lane in a 100 zone. I was just beginning to indicate to overtake when they came up on the fixed camera and slammed their brakes on to slow down even further, just in case! We need stupidity cameras, not speed cameras.

[Wally]

Originally Posted by jrckelley

One of my favorite past times when driving in the country is when a cop is behind me (using me as a blocker) and getting oncomming traffic with radar, I turn my Lowbeams on and flash all the cars coming towards him and he doesn't even know.

except for the time I flashed an unmarked car and he flashed all his lights back at me but nothing happened (the guy behind me just did a U turn).

Guess I better use low beam flashes from now on

When I turn my headlights on the tail lights come on in sympathy. I would have thought any car driver following would notice this.

[GORDZ]

the flash from the camera is umpteen times brighter than highbeams from a car, and they say that foglights dazzle? well strobe lights friggn blind so what are they really doing.

But also, flappist:

"It is all a load of crap, they have to prove you were interfering and as long as you use LOW BEAM (not high or W lights) and do not admit it on tape when they roll you they are stuffed."

if i'm pulled over for flashing (lowbeam), how do I argue that a) it wasn't highbeam but b) i didn't actually flash? Or is it just admitting on tape. Do cops have wires / mics to record what is said at the drivers window?

[AndrewR_AUII]

OK... so they are pinging people for flashing high beams at people as a warning - and doing it through rules regarding the use of high beams at oncoming traffic.

Then the question is: WHAT is this flash function for if it is illegal to use high beam at oncoming traffic....

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by AndrewR_AUII

Then the question is: WHAT is this flash function for if it is illegal to use high beam at oncoming traffic....

It's so the cops have another way to book you of course!!

[guzzis3]

couple of quick points:

I got done for flashing for a speed camera in Brisbane's western suburbs in 99. As I recall the fine was $95 not $30. 1 point. It was my last day at work so I never bothered to challenge it, but as usual I gave the *** a good solid lecture on why what he was doing was wrong.

Secondly, while I'm bored with arguing this with people, I will just suggest you go bother doing some research. All the opinions in the world aren't going to stand up to the vast amount of credible (note: credible) research on this subject in Australia and across the developed world. The simple fact is that only a very small proportion (5-6%) of crashes have excessive speed as a signifignat contributing factor, and that there is no credible evidence that enforcment has a measureable affect on that proportion.

Having said that I just don't care enough to have this argument over again. You want to believe state government propoganda that's fine. And while all the states efforts are directed at writing speeding tickets they are murdering people by neglect. Good luck with that.

[ZC001]

It's only a $30 fine. Keep flashing everybody.

[AndrewR_AUII]

Originally Posted by ZC001

It's only a $30 fine. Keep flashing everybody.

Maybe.... but I have to pay it...


When I was younger, I used to flash my headlights at passing cars - just so that I could see their brake lights in the rear-view mirror....

[outback_ute]

Originally Posted by Wally

When I turn my headlights on the tail lights come on in sympathy. I would have thought any car driver following would notice this.

Tail lights also come on if you flash your lights, but if they are already on, the car behind won't know your high beams are coming on

[Dragoneletra]

I tend to warn people if it's a speed camera van (all we have in darwin) hidden in the trees or something, but generally I high beam the speed camera van as I go past as well, with a wave out the window.

have to be polite, you know??
lol

Jc

[phoon]

I wish someone could have flashed their headlights at me a couple of weeks ago, but alas, they didnt and Im now $150 lighter in the pocket.