Newsgroups: nz.general
Subject: Re: Holiday Road Period
From: hamish@terra.cs.waikato.ac.nz (Hamish Marson)
Date: 7 Jan 1993 09:46:33 +1300
Distribution: world
Organization: Comp Sci, U of Waikato, New Zealand
NNTP-Posting-Host: terra.cs.waikato.ac.nz

In article <1993Jan6.224456.1904@gaya.gp.co.nz> mdh@gaya.gp.co.nz (Martin D. Hunt) writes:
|I don't want want to comment on the holiday road toll other than to say 
|that it was terrible and ruined a number of families' Christmas time. What 
|I am wondering is, why did the official holiday period end a day early, 
|before a lot of people would have returned home? For some reason the period 
|ended on Monday morning, when normally it would end on Tuesday morning, 
|after the public holiday had actually finished. Anyone have any ideas?
|--

Sorry. No idea. Except perhaps to stop it rising more? Anyway. 

I was one of the lucky few who managed to stay alive over the christmas break,
even though I took my life and that of my family in my hands as I drove south
to spend christmas with my parents. And....

Guess What...

The number of stupid morons who don't know how to drive, except fast, faster,
and dangerously is amazing. Let me recount what I saw in one place on the
way south.

Between Mangaweka and the Marton Turn Off on SH1, is a fairly good road, in
most parts. One or two bad spots, but they are not so bad in themselves. While
driving along here I came across a slow 4WD, followed by another 4WD with a
caravan, and a car behind that. I came up behine (Doing 70k by this time), and
another car (A telstar?) behind me. Along comes a rise in the road. (Can't
see the road ahead), and the telstar behind me and the car in front decide that
they are supermen (Yes they were male drivers), and try to pass the lot.
Needless to say the 4WD with the caravan thinks "Ah! Heres a go", and pulls
out sharply to pass the slow 4WD in front. The result? 4 cars trying to dive
along together on SH1 in the same direction and not a motorway in sight.

Anyway. 1 of the cars goes into the gravel, and all 3 morons passing take off 
into the wild blue with engines a roaring. It was of course a pretty windy day
(Um... 23/12), and the caravan is swaying from side to side like a ribbon in
the wind, going from white line on the left to centre line on the right and
over. Thankfully he turned off soon after that to try and kill somebody else.

So. Now that you all know that, you can see exactly why the road toll was so
high. I even had a fool in a red 4WD (Why do 4WD drivers think they own the 
road? Both sides at the same time?) attempt to pass me on the desert road
north end in the winding parts with a double yellow line and a blind 
hairpin turn 50m ahead.

In short. I wish I had goten all their number plates (Didn;'t think of it till
I got home), and sent them all to the police and the papers. Might wake
some of them up before they kill somebody.

|----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Martin D. Hunt	The opinions expressed above are mine, and mine alone, and
|Wellington	do not imply any endorsement by anyone I work for or know.
|New Zealand	USEnet at home : martinh@gaya.gp.co.nz
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


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