ACCIDENTS HAPPEN……….

If you want to take a fatalistic approach to accidents in the belief that ; ‘Sh*t happens, so why worry, what will be will be’

then please read on

According to our stats* a staggering 87%% of serious accidents that are referred to the insurance company are due to DRIVER ERROR!!

87%% of serious accidents due to DRIVER ERROR!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE we are begging you for your own safety PLEASE TAKE IT EASY.

We desperately want you to have a safe and wonderful trip around Australia.

Please remember that when you get behind the wheel of any car you are taking on a great responsibility with respect to the safety of everyone in the car under your control and other road users.

3 people survived this roll-over with just minor scratches and bruises

CLASSIC SINGLE VEHICLE ACCIDENT – DAYLIGHT,STRAIGHT ROAD– Lucky no-one was killed!

Consider these stats

• Head on collision -14%
• Failure to Stop at Right of Way – 27%
• Lost Control – 8%
• Run up Rear – 11%
• Single Vehicle Accident – 27%

Head on Collision – commonly due to Driver’s falling asleep at the wheel

Failure to Stop at Right of Way – Or driving through a stop sign or give way sign – Commonly due to Driver not paying attention

Lost Control – Commonly due to speed, failure to negotiate a bend, wet roads, or drifting to the left and when left wheels hit the soft edge the driver over corrects and starts to fish tail resulting in a roll-over

 Run up rear – Possibly the dumbest ‘accident of all time

Single Vehicle Accident – Usually a ROLL-OVER due to Driver losing control of the vehicle. – Hitting or Swerving to miss an animal, When passing on a narrow road and driver puts left wheels on soft shoulder (verge), over-correcting, and rolling the car, speed, wet roads and going into corners just that little bit too fast

It’s not just your health and well-being at stake! Unfortunately in many of the accidents above the Renters holidays were ruined and many also incurred MAJOR FINANCIAL LOSS – Please understand that the damage liability you have with the vehicle will NOT COVER YOU in EVERY CASE (Negligence, SVA’s, Drink Driving, Breaching Rental Agreement, Breaking the law, etc)

Other Stats

Most accidents happen around 10-11am (29%) and 3-8pm (39%)

And

18-21 year olds are responsible for 39% of all accidents!!!!!

PLEASE HAVE FUN BUT CONSIDER YOUR PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL WELL BEING AND DRIVE WITHIN YOUR LIMITS AND DRIVE CAREFULLY

About the Writer: Chris Stevens is a surfer, photographer and traveller who headed Down Under for a year of living the dream. In his following blog story, he explains to you the pros and cons of renting or buying a camper in Oz and pretty much reflect what we would have told you too. If you are interested in further musings you can read more on his blog on www.backpackerbanter.com/blog/. Also, if you have any further questions in regards to campervan sale or hire, you can directly contact our Online & Sales Vehicle Manager Adam on 02 9360 1225 and he will be more than happy to go through the process of buying a vehicle and its advantages and disadvantages again.

I have just recently been reading an article about the hot issue of campers that are spoiling the most iconic areas with human waste and litter and angering the communities that host them. We at Travellers Auto Barn like many of the other tourism operators know the problems that arise with travellers coming from all over the world who didn’t expect to pay for camping sites and leave their rubbish in the outback whether in Oz or New Zealand but we try to redirect and inform them about reasonable budget expectations as well as handing out guides and booklets such as Top Tourist Park discounts and campsite atlases and we are providing continuous updates over social media in regards to hostel discounts and further deals too.

Nevertheless, we do believe it is exactly this spirit of freedom and independence that makes travellers visit Australia and / or New Zealand.

Are fines and bans on freedom camping really a solution to this problem? The Greens say “Freedom campers are being dumped on unfairly by a new bill allowing instant fines for leaving waste and bans on camping in some areas”, but the Freedom Camping Bill gives councils and the Department of Conservation (DOC) powers to decide where camping is allowed and sets up an infringement regime with offenders facing instant fines of $200 – or up to $10,000 for serious offences such as emptying a campervan sewage tank in a rest area and the changes will even come into effect before the rugby World Cup.

Nevertheless, the number of freedom campers had doubled over the past decade to 150,000 and the number of complaints for polluting picnic spots has grown in areas like Queenstown by more than five-fold.

But isn’t there a better solution than high charges, for example practical measures like the provision of more public toilets and more rubbish bins in these scenic out of the way places would be a much better response than this sledgehammer bill from the National Party.

It is true that this bill seriously undermines the freedoms that travellers have enjoyed for generations, to enjoy the great outdoors without having some council law enforcement officer knocking on the window of their campervan with their clipboard at two in the morning telling them to move on or slapping a $200 infringement notice on their windscreen.”

Oh well, we will see where this all goes but we would like to hear your opinion too. If you have to say something in regards to this topic, please leave a comment and speak up.

Your TAB Team

This is an extract from Lonely Planet, Leif Pettersen, June 22/2011:

“I have two permanent, oddly positioned bald spots on my head. Though my mother claims they’re from a scalp thing I had as a kid, I have it on good authority from my oracle that they’re probably where the Martians attached the electrodes.

Read on and watch our videos screening the adventures of Bree and Fraser, the hosts of VanJam 2011 here …

VanJam was the first music competition for BACKPACKERS as they were hosting jam sessions along the east coast from Melbourne to Cairns!