Those Dangerous Roads

In the Barossa Valley there has been a lot of press about an intersection where two traffic incidents occurred within a matter of weeks. As I understand it, nobody was killed, but injuries occurred. 

The intersection has a lot of heavy truck traffic and was controlled by stop signs. The local council, in its wisdom, replaced the stop signs with give-way signs. This was considered to be an error that was increasing the danger within the intersection. After much public reaction, the council was pressured by public opinion to remove the give-way signs and replace them again with stop signs.

Numerous people said the intersection was "dangerous" and that stop signs would prevent crashes from occurring. Good luck with that.

One thing I discovered during 12 years of police service, four of which were spent full-time investigating traffic incidents where fatalities or evidence of dangerous driving occurred, is that it doesn't matter how straight, how good a surface, how many signs or road markings there are on a road, drivers will still manage to crash.

The cause of 99%* of traffic incidents is drivers. Let me say that again; drivers cause crashes. Not roads. Not signs.

There are people who wilfully disobey stop signs and give-way signs in the same way there are people who use mobile phones while driving (inattention), and consume drugs or alcohol before driving. There are also people who have a propensity to collide.

If drivers disobey give-way signs and can't manage to avoid traffic travelling on an interesection road, why would we expect drivers not to disobey stop signs? In fact, everywhere I drive, I see people who don't stop at stop signs.

According to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (Australian Standard 1742) stop signs are used when there is a visibility problem or other feature that requires a driver to stop.

I've attended dozens of traffic incidents (mostly fatalities) where people have failed to stop.

I hope the so-called dangerous intersection doesn't have any more crashes, but I know where I'd place my bet.

Robin

* I'll discuss a fatality I attended that was brought about by mechanical failure next post and two where people weren't wearing seat belts that probably prevented them from dying.