Re: [Paddlewise] Safety first...

From: Alex Ferguson <a.ferguson_at_chem.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 11:03:48 +1300
MP -
>No wonder you're all bumping into each other -- you drive on the wrong 
>side of the road!

Actually a large part of the world drives on the same side as us including 
the major car manufactures if you consider the Japanese major. Population 
numbers, Japan and India alone make up a hefty number....

The two accidents I mentioned, a woman (in a 4WD vehicle) drove over a 
cliff on an easy bend after a very tight section and just before another 
VERY slow section (100 metres between the 2 sections). We saw the wreck 
being recovered about 8.00 p.m.

The "professional" tanker driver rolled the empty tanker on a straight 
section of road just after coming out of a speed restricted area, 9.00 p.m. 
on a Monday

!!!!!!??????

Accidents by foreigners make up about 1% and as they surely are less than 
1% of the drivers, not a good record, though our officials didn't look at 
the numbers that way (1% - not a big number). Often the froreign drivers 
aren't used to the narrow windy roads or at times, gravel roads. There was 
one section, recently sealed, where the foreign accident rate was about 50% 
of the accidents on that road and it was not a popular road for tourism 
i.e. not a major route.

Also remember that Japanese drive on the same side of the road as us though 
they have the advantage back home of always having someone in front to 
follow where as here there might not be another car on the same road for an 
hour.

Alex
.
.
Alex (Sandy) Ferguson
Chemistry Department
University of Canterbury
New Zealand

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Received on Thu Mar 15 2001 - 14:04:19 PST

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