One of WA's largest tourism transport operators, Adam Barnard, knows first-hand the safety risk overseas tourists pose on WA's roads.
He is the managing director of one of WA's biggest coach tour companies and one of his buses was recently hit head-on by a car driven by a Chinese tourist on Indian Ocean Drive.
This vision shows how a decision to overtake at the wrong time can have serious consequences.
This crash occurred last Tuesday on Indian Ocean Drive in Nilgen. Around 4:15pm the driver of the Toyota Corolla attempted to overtake a camper van, at the same time a mini bus was approaching in the opposite direction.
Amazingly, there were no serious injuries to the occupants of the Corolla or the ten people on board the mini bus.
Neither alcohol nor speed were factors in this crash, it was simply a case of the wrong decision at the wrong time.
I have no idea if the reports I saw about Foreign Tourists on the Iconic Great Ocean Road in Victoria are Urban Myths or actually True.
I was told that you have to watch out for vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road as more and more foreign tourists forget we drive on the left here.
No doubt someone will enlighten me.
It does work both ways though, with Aussies travelling abroad and driving on the right in most other countries.
My personal opinion is that increased tourism would be good for the WA economy and will certainly reduce the current relatively high rate of unemployment in the aftermath of the mining boom. I haven't seen any real stats to confirm that tourists do in fact pose a greater risk on our roads compared to other factors such as speeding, drink driving or drugs etc.
In any case the solution should should be aimed at driver education instead of of killing the goose.
Another area easy to be caught out by foreigners is the simple road rules for giveway, and stop signs.
From as young as I can remember, we are taught "look to the right, look to the left and look to the right again.
Those that drive on the right of the road of course, are taught the opposite. The GOR is a classic for this simple act, as these drivers return to the road from viewing areas.
This applies equally to pedestrians in high international tourism areas.
I can vouch for the Great Ocean Rd , we frequent the area regularly , I have seen a few incidences of inept driving on the rd , just a fortnight ago a car was slowing down in front of me , then speeding up and slowing down again and again to the point I hit the horn in annoyance , she then slowed almost to a stop and tried to do a u turn in front of me without signalling at all. She was looking for a place to turn obviously but was oblivious to any traffic behind her . I know this may sound prejudice , but its not , every time I see someone driving in an erratic manner like that I comment to my wife are they asian , simply because more often than not they are ( sorry to any asian born readers)
Both as drivers and pedestrians we pose the same risk overseas, nothing different happening here. Many years ago I was nearly killed by a bus in Rome due to a momentary lapse of concentration, I looked right before stepping off the kerb and bus missed me by inches. First roundabout I encountered driving on the right was totally disorientating, concentration has to be seriously magnified to cope with everything being 'mirrored'. And yeah, the dramas on the Great Ocean Rd are no myth, although I believe the 'keep left' stickers on many rental car dashboards are now also printed in Chinese. It's part of life around the world, any suggestion of banning foreign drivers is parochial and isolating, it won't do us any favours.
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Cheers,
Tony
"Opinion is the medium between ignorance and knowledge" - Plato
Foreign drivers also contribute to a high number of crashes in Nth Qld. Perhaps car & van hire companies should give out & reinforce in a statement, a booklet of Australian driving rules to overseas' hirers.
A sticker on the dash would be a good start - preferably in front of the driver.
There was a bad one recently where the car veered to the right (probably as they do at home) for no known reason & straight into the path of another vehicle.
Tony - I agree, we have to have our wits about us when we are on foreign ground.
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Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
I think it's a massive leap to go from one particular accident caused by a foreign tourist to saying we should limit the number of tourists coming in.
I live in Perth and often take the Indian Ocean Drive towing my caravan to get to my favourite camping spots up north.
In my humble opinion, by far the biggest hazards on that stretch of road are fellow Perthites driving an overloaded 4WD, four or five bikes slung precariously on the back obscuring lights and rego (illegal), exceeding the speed limit and performing dangerous overtaking manoeuvres trying to get from home to Kalbarri or Shark Bay in one day's driving.
Should we ask them to stay at home?
-- Edited by Mamil on Sunday 28th of October 2018 04:09:44 PM
I think it's a massive leap to go from one particular accident caused by a foreign tourist to saying we should limit the number of tourists coming in.
I live in Perth and often take the Indian Ocean Drive towing my caravan to get to my favourite camping spots up north.
In my humble opinion, by far the biggest hazards on that stretch of road are fellow Perthites driving an overloaded 4WD, four or five bikes slung precariously on the back obscuring lights and rego (illegal), exceeding the speed limit and performing dangerous overtaking manoeuvres trying to get from home to Kalbarri or Shark Bay in one day's driving.
Should we ask them to stay at home?
-- Edited by Mamil on Sunday 28th of October 2018 04:09:44 PM
Absolutely right. Other hazards we might like to ban permanently from all our roads before we worry about foreign tourists would include hoons, boozed drivers & drugged drivers.
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Cheers,
Tony
"Opinion is the medium between ignorance and knowledge" - Plato
If Australia did ban people from countries who drove on the opposite side of the road then logically those countries should do the same to us when we go over there - I know who is going to lose out on that one. There are not too many countries that drive on the same side as us but changing over now would be almost impossible just due to cost alone. Be careful what you wish for if you start doing things that turn tourists away from those popular tourist areas mentioned then the locals will be the ones who pay the penalty. No doubt there have been some foreign drivers involved in accidents but to me this seems to be an overreaction. As Mamil suggested there are plenty of other things we need to address in our own behaviour to reduce risk rather than just banning foreign visitors from driving here.
We can't even get all the states to agree on having the same road rules or what railway gauge to use so if we tried to changeover we would probably end up having to swap sides at each state border....
If Australia did ban people from countries who drove on the opposite side of the road then logically those countries should do the same to us when we go over there - I know who is going to lose out on that one. There are not too many countries that drive on the same side as us but changing over now would be almost impossible just due to cost alone. Be careful what you wish for if you start doing things that turn tourists away from those popular tourist areas mentioned then the locals will be the ones who pay the penalty. No doubt there have been some foreign drivers involved in accidents but to me this seems to be an overreaction. As Mamil suggested there are plenty of other things we need to address in our own behaviour to reduce risk rather than just banning foreign visitors from driving here.
We can't even get all the states to agree on having the same road rules or what railway gauge to use so if we tried to changeover we would probably end up having to swap sides at each state border....
Cheers
BB
Exactly. For many obvious reasons changing the side we drive on isn't an option. As you say, we'd never reach consensus anyhow!
We're an island, it's not as if we have cross-border vehicle traffic to consider. Europe does have that to contend with and it works without a fuss - UK & Ireland drive on the left, continental Europe on the right, and for decades they've been crossing each others borders with their vehicles as a part of everyday life, add to that the thousands of other overseas tourists they have flying in and renting cars. Storm in a teacup.
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Cheers,
Tony
"Opinion is the medium between ignorance and knowledge" - Plato
I have driven many 1000's of kms on the right in my motorhome as well as driving a LHD on UK and Irish roads. What I did was purchase a transparent screen sticker showing the correct way to go round a roundabout and it could be reversed for LHD or RHD, had it in front of me permanently. Should have them here.
BTW I drove in Japan on my Australian licence, they drive on the same side as we do. My American colleague was most annoyed when he was told he had to pass a driving test as the USA drove on the opposite side!
I was thinking too, the advertising could mention safe driving on long country roads and safety instructions in the tourists own language provided by those hiring vans and cars to tourists. We need something else innovative to support our economy in the West. A fair bit of understanding and consideration by us locals on the road towards tourists would be helpful. I have been hosting international tourists via Air B n B for 3 years and have found all the people to be lovely and clean and tidy and polite and respectful. They are just nice families, like us, wanting to see a bit of the world.
I was thinking too, the advertising could mention safe driving on long country roads and safety instructions in the tourists own language provided by those hiring vans and cars to tourists. We need something else innovative to support our economy in the West. A fair bit of understanding and consideration by us locals on the road towards tourists would be helpful. I have been hosting international tourists via Air B n B for 3 years and have found all the people to be lovely and clean and tidy and polite and respectful. They are just nice families, like us, wanting to see a bit of the world.
