Young Drivers

Safety Tips for Young Drivers.

• Get supervised driving experience in all types of weather conditions and road surfaces (clear weather, dawn/dusk, rain, high winds, dust, gravel, hill climbs, descents, etc.).
• Get someone who is an experienced driver to supervise you lots while driving town/city rush hour traffic, around roundabouts, out on the motorway, changing lanes, urban and rural driving. etc. Don’t just practise in an urban area, make sure you get experience driving on all types of roads with a confident driver alongside to guide you as and when you may need it.
• Be courteous when driving and think of other road users.
• Look as far ahead as possible, and not just at the taillights of the car in front of you, which is how nose-to-tail accidents happen.
• Put your phone away when you’re driving, or at least where you can’t see or reach for it. Driver distraction is a leading cause of crashes.
• Don’t let passengers push you beyond your comfort zone. It’s your responsibility as the driver to stay alert, ensure how safe is safe for you, the safety of yourself, the safety of passengers, and the safety of others while driving.
• When choosing a car, look for solid cars with technology like ABS, airbags, and pre-tensioning seatbelts.
• Get a car with great visibility about the car.
• Parents, family members, and those with driving experience should supervise you (the young driver/learner) as much as possible.

As a parent or guardian, let your young learners drive, even if it’s just for short distances each time. It is so important to help them get experience behind the wheel while being supervised as much as is possible and practical.

In 2008, OECD data revealed that the United Kingdom (UK) had the lowest fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres travelled when compared with other countries who were OECD members.  In this survey, the graphed data showed Australia as being 9th out of the 13 countries involved in the survey.  Where the UK had 4.9 fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres travelled, Australia had 6.9.  Denmark held the highest with 8.22.

Recently, Top Tests, UK, revealed data on various driving statistics.  Top Test’s 2018 data showed that drivers aged 16–19 were still 38% more likely to be killed or seriously injured than drivers aged 40–49, and drivers aged 20–29 were 65% more likely to be killed or seriously injured than drivers aged 40–49.  When 1000 drivers were quizzed in 2018, Top Tests found that 42% of the drivers aged 18–34 admitted to experiencing road rage at least once a week, and 14% of younger drivers experienced road rage every day that they drove.  (Source: https://toptests.co.uk/driving-statistics/)

Across the ditch in NZ, AMI insurance claims data reveal that drivers under the age of 25-years old are most at risk of having an accident.  In the United State, motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of death for U.S. teens.  Here in Australia, the government has kept a close eye on road statistics as well, and rightly so.  According to 2021 reports, there were a total of 1133 road fatalities for the 2021 year, where speeding remained the top cause of accidents; this was followed by driver distraction, and then driver fatigue.  Those aged 17 – 25 year old were the second-highest age bracket impacted by road deaths.  The 40 – 64 age group had the most road accident deaths, however it was young men who were more likely to be involved in a crash.

By March this year (2022), New South Wales had recorded the most fatal road accidents for the year (25), an increase from 2021 with (19). Queensland followed (20), Victoria (18), Western Australia (15), South Australia (7), Tasmania (6), Northern Territory (3), and the Australian Capital Territory (0)

Whether it’s travelling too fast for the conditions, using smartphones, vaping or smoking, eating, applying makeup, checking the texts – all while driving – these are the leading causes for road fatalities on Australian roads.  Driving while fatigued and, of course, drink driving or driving under the influence of some drug also causes road fatalities.

It’s sad that anyone should die, however it is the young drivers that are the top culprits for using their mobile phones while they are driving, which leads to serious and tragic accidents.  In Australia, 18 – 24 and 25 – 39 age groups reported the highest application of using mobile phones while driving.  18 – 24 year old drivers are twice as likely to receive a speeding fine.

Hamish Piercy, Fleet Risk Manager for AMI, and former New Zealand Police Officer with the serious crash unit, has over 33 years of crash investigation experience.  Hamish was unsurprised that, in New Zealand, AMI received such a high number of claims for drivers under the age of 25.  He commented: “There are a lot of great young drivers out there, and some excellent driver education programmes, but these statistics show that we can’t be complacent when it comes to driver safety. It’s an unavoidable fact that to gain experience, you have to drive. So, as a society we need to look at how we can enable that in safe ways.”

If possible, try to enrol your young family member that’s embarking on getting a driver’s license to run through a local driver training course.  Good driving courses will focus on key areas like core driving skills, reading the road ahead, distraction, inattention, and speed.  Courses that can impart crucial driving skills will enable your youngster to gain confidence, gain good driving skills and driving habits, and get plenty of positive encouragement.  These are all essential for getting out on the road to drive as safely as possible.

Safe driving everyone!

Destination Freedom and Vehicles for the Physically Challenged

There are many wonderful people with some sort of physical disability that they’ve had since birth or from an incident later in life which caused the disability to come about.  All are inspirational people.

Being allowed to drive when you are physically challenged offers you so much more independence and heaps more confidence.  Driving offers a sense of freedom to do what you want whenever you can, so it gives you more opportunity to find a job and get to work, volunteer for others, and go to the other side of the continent solo, or with family and friends, when you want to just as you see fit.

Being physically challenged is on its own a significant hurdle to overcome on all fronts when it comes to being able to do life like a person with a fully functional body.  There are many difficulties for a physically challenged person to deal with, and one of those is simply getting from Place A to Place B on time.

If you were/are a person with a physical disability who wants to be able to drive to your own Destination Freedom, then finding and owning the right vehicle that’s just right for you will be the first box to tick.  Sometimes the vehicle may need to be modified to suit your own unique requirements.  My Uncle Frank, a 2^nd World War veteran who has since passed on, suffered a war injury from flying shrapnel.  This brief fateful moment caused Uncle Frank to become paralysed in his left arm as well as partially in his left leg.  He was still able to walk with a shuffle, drive a car (an always-shiny brown Toyota Corona) with an automatic gearbox, and give everyone a good laugh with his great sense of humour.  A small bracket with a fixed swivelling knob was attached to the steering wheel of the car so that he could turn the car with ease, using his good hand and arm to steer.

Many other people have had accidents that even left them a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair for mobility.  Any accident can be life changing, none more so than a spinal cord injury.  Yet still it is possible for these people to drive.  A former New Zealand equestrian champion, Catriona Williams, who is now a tetraplegic after falling from her horse in 2002, still enjoys an independent life filled with fun.  Enjoying adventurous road trips with family and friends is made possible with her modified Volkswagen Caravelle van, which has been set up for her to be able to drive securely from her wheelchair.

There are clever people who have the engineering skills enabling them to modify a vehicle for many people with physical challenges.

Some of the special equipment you can use to modify a vehicle include:

• Infrared remote control systems that enable easy access and operation of a vehicle from a wheelchair.
• Controllers for wheelchair movement (i.e. ‘Slip and Puff’ systems via sucking and blowing through a straw-like device.).
• Headrest indicators ­ the indicators are activated by head movement on the head rest.
• Mini steering wheels that enable people with limited upper body strength to steer the car with ease.
• Joystick or foot steering, which can be combined for steering, acceleration, and braking.
• An array of hoists and roof racks for various reasons.
• Seatbelt modifications, harnesses, and special seating.
• A left foot accelerator pedal instead of a right foot one.
• Various hand controls that can of themselves incorporate up to seven unique functions – i.e., steering, high beam lights, horn, wipers, indicators etc.

These are just some of the possibilities.  Pretty much any car can be modified, new or old.  MPVs and vans are ideal for a person who is looking to drive the vehicle from their wheelchair.  It’s awesome there are great opportunities out there for enhancing quality of life.

Why You Need a Dashcam (or Two)

Consumer electronics are now embedded in just about every facet of our lives. From smartphones to tablets, watches, health monitoring devices, and much more – as technology has improved, each of these devices have gotten smaller, allowing them to play a day-to-day role in what we do. This has also extended to dashcams, which are now more common than not.

The Rise of Dashcams

Why is this particular piece of tech so important? In certain countries, circumventing the law is so commonplace that without hard evidence, motorists involved in an accident were engaged in “word against word” in order to prove their story.

Strangely enough, the use of dashcams have also provided us with footage of other incidents and events, such that they now play a much broader role in capturing things than originally intended. This has only fuelled their popularity, with online communities even sharing dashcam content with one another.

The Basics of Dashcams

Like just about everything these days, the more you spend, the better a product you’ll get. So when it comes to dashcams, which are video cameras affixed to your windscreen or dashboard, one of the first things you should focus on is the camera’s resolution.

Think of digital cameras like new televisions. The higher the amount of dots the camera will see, the better quality the footage. You’ll see terms like 720P, 1080P, and so on.

P stands for progressive, as in progressive scan – showing one line of picture after another. The numbers mean how many lines from top to bottom, as in 720 lines or 1080 lines. So 1080P means 1080 lines of picture information. You generally need to buy a memory card for storing video footage from your dashcam, and the more gigabytes, the more space you have to store footage.

Depending on the sophistication of the dashcam, it may record footage in one continual file, or break it down into smaller chunks. However, one you run out of space on the memory card, new footage should overwrite existing footage, starting with the oldest footage first.

How Dash Cams Function

Quite a few people buy two dashcams for their car – one for the front, and one for the back.

The benefits of this effectively boil down to the wider field of view you have, which in insurance terms, gives you more vision to prove your claims should you have an accident.

Take note, some cameras enter standby mode when you turn the engine off, before restarting when your car kicks back into gear.

If your dashcam is one of those that includes a speedometer reading – you typically need a GPS unit built-in – then this will provide you with even more data to justify any claims you might have.

The Bottom Line

It is a sad indictment of our society that dashcams are a necessity, rather than a luxury. But given the legal nature with which so many disputes are settled these days, and a general willingness for people to avoid responsibility, dashcams have become vital for the majority of drivers.

One upside, albeit unintended, is that car insurers are generally offering lower premiums due to the fact dashcams make it easier to conduct accident investigations and come to a conclusion.

Just make sure you do your research before buying a dashcam, which should save you time and money.

How Much is Too Much for EV Driving Range?

How long should an EV be able to travel on a full battery?  ‘Neue Klasse’, from BMW, suggests that 1000 kilometres is about right.  BMW’s New Class of vehicles are not far off the runway now, said to be arriving in 2025.  And they are going to be the first BMWs-ever that have been designed from the ground up to be specifically all-electric, EV through-and-through.

That does raise an interesting question: How far should we expect our brand spanking new EVs to go on a full charge (a full tank of electrons instead of a full tank of gas)?  Should we be able to drive from Sydney to Melbourne (877 km), Sydney to Adelaide (1374 km), Sydney to Cairns (2430 km), Sydney to Perth (3932 km), or just Sydney to Wollongong and back (about 175 km) on a full battery?

Most of us are probably sick of driving non-stop after 6–8 hours max in a day.  So, say most of that was done at 100 km/h, then 100 × 8 hours would get you to 800 kilometres before you’d be needing a proper cup of coffee in a proper coffee cup!  It would be then you’d want a rest and a sleep, right?

Perhaps Neue Klasse has got it bang on then.  1000 km would cover an all day blast up the coast from Sydney to Brisbane, which is approximately a total of 911 kilometres via the coastal route.  Get to the end of that journey, and you could pull up at a mate’s place for tea, or a motel, and plug in your EV overnight ready for the long drive back home.

According to Thomas Albrecht (BMW’s head of Efficient Dynamics), in 2025, New Class EV BMWs are set to have “thirty-percent or more” range than what’s currently available now.  That means that the brand-new BMW EV platform with lots of fresh pieces of technology, including 46 mm cylindrical battery cells, should push the Generation 6 batteries out to around 1000 km before they run out of electron juice.  Even though BMW could go further than this 1000 kilometre range, Albrecht suggested that this would be the maximum that BMW will offer because they don’t think that such a long range is necessary.

BMW will debut the new Generation 6 batteries in the 2025 BMW 3 Series EV.  How much do you think we should be able to get out of the battery packs in any new EV bought in 2025–2030?  I’d be interested to know – remembering that battery tech and recharging times will likely have vastly improved by then.