Dunedin: City of Speed III

[Kiwi XTR2]

Anyone see the news?

8 (?) cars in a nose-to-tail after some 100 (??) were in a high speed freight-train drag down the motorway.

What's in the water down there . . .

[Esprit]

retard juice by the sounds of it..... not only do they drive fast but they can't even do it properly :P

[GravelBen]

they WHAT?

I haven't heard about that, but I hope it doesn't mess up the rally at all.

having been in one of the Dunedin boyracer "drag trains" once (as a passenger in a standard Suzuki Swift ) I can confirm though that most of them are idiots with a distinct lack of driving ability. I've never seen the 50-100 car 'trains' speeding though, generally they stick religiously to the speed limit until away from town, and then queue up and drag down some of the quiet back roads in pairs. (near the airport seems favourite as its actually flat unlike most of Dunedin).

[GravelBen]

was in the paper this morning, big headline "Eight-car pile-up a warning to Dunedin's boy racers". The story there is the cars were in a 'drag train' travelling down the motorway, estimates of speed varying between 90 and 108 kph, a car about 5 in front braked and started swerving around, 8 of the cars following nose/tailed each other. theres also a nice photo of a WRX with a big exhaust and missing rear bumper, and another car parked behind it with a crumpled bonnet and missing front bumper. some serious damage then eh...

there were a variety of fairly stupid comments from the police in the article, including:

cops said:

it should come as a warning to all those involved

-really? I'd never guess crashing could be a warning about your driving.

cops said:

You can see what's capable of happening at a relatively low speed. When cars are going in different directions at different speeds, there's always going to be a crash.

-Is that so? even if they're going away from each other? and why doesn't everybody crash every time they drive if thats true?

cops said:

It is going to happen again

-people are going to crash again? really? but I thought everyone drove perfectly?

cops said:

I think they need to recognise that simply being there places them in a position where they could be involved in a crash

-Bugger, guess I better stop using the roads then.

cops said:

some of those involved in the pile-up may have been doing nothing worse than following too close, but should still think hard about their part in the incident and needed to consider their mortality

-So following too close isn't bad then? It doesnt matter how badly you drive if you're not speeding?

cops said:

police have warned the racing that commonly accompanied the drag trains was a recipe for death

-and does that have anything to do with the accident? nope, didn't think so. has there been a death, or even injury from any of this "racing"? nope, thought not. hmmm, good logic mr plod.

and finally, how is a multicar nose-to-tail crash with no injuries except a couple of sore necks from seatbelts (which they were wearing...) constitute a "pile-up"?


this is not to say that the drivers involved in the crash weren't idiots, or that I like the 'boyracer' culture, but it seems to me the police response to this is just as stupid as the driving that caused it. so what's new....

>> Edited by GravelBen on Monday 8th May 03:43

[Kiwi XTR2]

Well done Gravel . . .

Worthy of a PetrolTed rant