Affected by the Road Toll...

[4Vman]

As the title suggests, who here has been directly effected by the road toll.. how did it effect you? how many friends or loved ones have you lost?

[Whitey-AMG]

We lost a good friend years ago when I was a younger man at Monash University.

She was a young quiet woman with lots of friends loved by everyone.
Didn't feel like going to the year end grad........stayed home.......went out in her car to borrow a video on the night..........got T boned by a drunk driver at an Intersection on North Rd in VIC..........she had green lights and was travelling slowly as the roads were wet..........died instantly.

Funeral was nuts..........family was going crazy and the poor old mum was trying to jump into the grave to get her daughter back out............makes me sick just thinking about it again..............and it was all 20 years ago............still seems so vivid.

[snappy]

I had a friend that used his car as a tool for suicide. But i didn't think this counted as being directly effected by the road toll. so i selected no.

[gtxb67]

the phone call although 8 and a half years ago, seems like yesterday
the night i spent at work instead of in the car, hearing the news service leaving work. the first words i heard were "one person has died and two were injured". i heard where it was and instantly thought my friends would have seen it

even with the phone call, none of it made sense. i was told "there is some bad news" and i thought a mechanical problem. i was told of an accident and it still didn't hit me that it was them. it is a wierd, surreal and horrible time that takes a very long time to come to terms with for everyday life. on the special days, it starts all over again

[Hillbilly F Truck]

Kind of. Went to a funeral on Friday in Brisbane. My brother in laws brother. Whom i had known well. Then i see responses to my other thread like these.http://fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11240408

[MAGPIE]

Thankfully not affected on a personal level, but have had to attend countless fatalities through my job. Some affect you more than others.

[rennie]

very fortunately I havent been effected, I have had several friends who have been. It would be very hard to deal with.

[68XTFairmont]

I'm a Biker (not Bikie) so it gets to the stage where you almost expect to lose another good mate every year.

The last one was almost 18 months ago where a woman pulled straight out in front of a mate on a stretch of 110kph road, He didn't have a chance. It's about time people start looking for bikes

[fordomatic]

i had my best mate pass away in a motorbike accident two months ago, hit a roundabout and then into the roundabout sign, it sucks hard miss him every day. another one of my mates had a head on and passed away when his suspension failed when he went around a corner two years ago. also when i was 16 (22 now) we were following mates in there vl and he got sideways and hit a pole, it killed all four of them in the car, quite hard to take in when your only 16, first on the scene and see four of your mates dead from being stupid.

[Rob]

I've never lost a loved one to a vehicular accident, but I've known people who've died in a car crash.

Hope to never know that kind of pain..

[Mr Hardware]

Affected, not effected. With an A boys. Affected.
also
Yes, a long time ago, a friend of the family was killed when hitching a truck to the back of his tow truck, someone ran into the back of the truck and he got squished between his tow truck and the truck. Very sad.

[tankclare]

Originally Posted by fordomatic

i had my best mate pass away in a motorbike accident two months ago, hit a roundabout and then into the roundabout sign, it sucks hard miss him every day. another one of my mates had a head on and passed away when his suspension failed when he went around a corner two years ago. also when i was 16 (22 now) we were following mates in there vl and he got sideways and hit a pole, it killed all four of them in the car, quite hard to take in when your only 16, first on the scene and see four of your mates dead from being stupid.

That would have to be the worst thing i could imagine. Ive seen one mate rear end another mate in the wet and have also seen another mate hit a bump while speeding and seen him slide sideways for ages down the road before going off the road and hitting one of them big rest area signs. Luckily he was alright.

Just remembered this one and have already said no on the poll. DAMN!

An old school mate of mine lived on a property out of town and was driving himself and two of his mates down his driveway/road through property in an old hilux to catch a bus to go to soccer. They ended up rolling and one bloke was chucked from the car. My mate and the third fella were stuck in the car and the car caught fire burning them alive. The one thrown from the car was the only survivor. Scary to imagine what pain they must of went through.
News broke out at school and the highschool was shutdown for the day and had counsellors etc as my mate was a very popular student and also the child of a teacher there.

Other than that no other driving deaths that have affected me.

[Jason[98.EL]]

am able to vote no thankfully

never had the misfortune of a family member or friend get killed in an accident

although i have been first at scene of one near lake eppalock near bendigo

Jason

[FTE72]

I have lost a brother to a motorcycle accident and another two best mates in a car accident.
I was in the car accident and was extremely lucky to walk away when others died or spent weeks in hospital. I will never forget the scene, or the aftermath this had on our small community.

[GasoLane]

'Loved ones' (?) nope.

Mates...I lost count years ago.

[FTE217]

Touch wood none !......

[Daymoe]

None so far but my sister had a small smash but got out all right.

[caputo23]

luckily enough ,, no one yet,, but my uncle was hit by a semi ( full load ) in his hi ace van .. semi was in the wrong going through a red light..no major injuries .. just bad back.. but hes alright now .. so very very very lucky... anyways we had this RAAP ( road awareness and accident program ) come to school and talk to us show us videos and rip open a car with all there tools .. it opens many thoughts and eyes into what can happen in such a quick time .. i think its a must that every high school should have..

caputo23

[Penelope Pitstop]

My father was killed in a traffic accident when I was young.

I stalled on getting my license because I was scared of driving on my own - but thankfully I quickly got over it.

Does make me super paranoid about the safety of the ones I love. In fact just this morning I heard that there was an accident in an area that one of my best mates drives to daily and I was so worried that I had to ring her just to hear her voice so I knew she was Ok.

I tell Lynton to drive carefully every day even though I know he is super careful, well trained and an above average driver. I always worry about the roads.

[geckoGT]

I can nto respond on the poll as I have not lost a loved one. I do however have to clean up the mess and watch other people lose a loved one, so yes it affects me fairly regularly, more than I would like.

[ToCo]

During December last year I lost a friend on a series of S bends on a wet night, no alcohol in his system, just lost control. The car rolled 6 times and slid on the roof for 60m, was a terrible accident.
I have to drive past that stretch of road everyday I go to work and every time I drive past I think about it.
The funeral is the worst part, very emotional.

It is something that no one should have to go through, but people who have lost loved ones to car accident seem to have a different awareness about the road and the people that travel on it, its just sad that it takes something so bad to make people realise how dangerous car, motorbikes etc. are.

Todd.

[XD 351 Ute]

I've lost two good mates whom I'd consider nearly brothers to me.
Have lost other friends and mate over the years as well.
I get to go and cut people out of prangs which isn't fun, but part of my job.
I've done some stupid things over the years and nearly wiped myself out as well.
It's odd that we as humans just don't learn from some things...........
Well some don't seem to anyway.

Ed

[BENT_8]

I lost my sister when i was young, she was only 15.
Killed whilst on her way with my brother and friends on a horse riding day at Belair park.
She was a passenger sitting in the tray of an old holden ute. They had an overloaded float on the back and were speeding. The woman driver lost control from speed wobble, a horse came out the float, my sister freaked and fell out the back of the ute.
She was on life support but wasn't given much hope.
The machines were withdrawn.

Lost a couple of mates 16yrs ago in a bad DUI involved accident.
My mate had a white P6 off its head, went to Moonta one night , got drunk, nudged a stobie pole as he left the pub, took off upto 180k's coz he was angry, forgot the 50k bend, hit a gum tree upside down as he left the embankment.
2 in the back, girl 18, good mate 21, just hooked up that night.
She died instantly, he suffered on life support for 5 yrs before he passed.
Driver walked as no alchohol was detected.

[manxman]

Dad killed in "Redex" trial 50 yrs ago when I was 5. Has affected me adversely all my life. Early imprinted decisions and ideas are extremely hard to change. Took 43 yrs to figure out what the cause of my trouble was.

[BADan]

Had a close family friend who killed himself and a mate doing 160km/h in an 80 zone after having a few drinks. Ripped a fairly large tree completely from the ground. As you can imagine, his family was devastated.

[Redrum]

I have been lucky and none of my direct friends or family have been victims from a collision, touch wood. I have been to a few fatals though and assisted families afterwards, not at all a pleasant experience.

[bob 351]

i had my best mate pass away in a motorbike accident two months ago, hit a roundabout and then into the roundabout sign,

i had a family freinds son pass away in this type of accident about one month
ago i had known him since he was three years old he was 33 when he passed away will miss him dearly was very emotional at the funeral for all that new him

[4Vman]

Well just 24 hrs into the poll and already its apparent that the vast majority of people here haven't had to deal with the loss of a loved one from a road fatality.. i'm actually quite surprised, but it also confirms a few things, and also shows some areas of opportunity for the authorities to try some different angles too...

[HOEBAG]

i COULD have killed my mate and myself in my car crash earlier this year. thank god it mustn't have been our time...
not that it should be anyones time to leave.

[Grunter]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Well just 24 hrs into the poll and already its apparent that the vast majority of people here haven't had to deal with the loss of a loved one from a road fatality.. i'm actually quite surprised, but it also confirms a few things, and also shows some areas of opportunity for the authorities to try some different angles too...

I think it also shows that whilst even one road death is very tragic, when compared to the entire population it's not something that effects a lot of people directly.

For example I believe in 2007, there was approx 8 deaths from road accidents for every 100,000 people in Australia. That in itself may explain why a lot of people thankfully haven't been directly exposed to the loss of someone close in a road accident.