4 June 2011

Totterdell smash

4 June 2011 | By johnboy

One man is in a critical condition at The Canberra Hospital and two others suffered minor injuries following a single vehicle collision earlier this morning (Saturday, June 4).

About 2.45am police were called to Totterdell Street in Belconnen after a car hit a tree. The driver and rear passenger sustained minor injuries while the front seat passenger suffered critical injuries after going through the front windscreen of the white Toyota Rav 4.

The front passenger was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision.

All three men are aged in their mid 20’s.

ACT Policing’s Collision Investigation and Reconstruction Team are investigating the cause of the collision.

Anyone who may have witnessed the white Toyota Rav 4 at or prior to the collision are urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers website on www.act.crimestoppers.com.au. Information can be provided anonymously.

ACT Policing would like to remind motorists and their passengers to ‘buckle up’ when they get in the car; it could save your life.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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creative_canberran3:02 pm 07 Jun 11

troll-sniffer said :

Ah yes the old selective use of statistics/figures trick. While everything you have said has a basis in fact, the basis is in a small percentage of actual events.

Do you also subscribe to the view that all sunlight is dangerous because there is a miniscule risk that the hour of sun you get today will eventually form a melanoma?

Your comprehension skills need some work, lest you read in my comment that it actually said airbags have saved well over 25,000 lives according to the DOT while having been confirmed by DOT as the direct cause of around over 200 deaths.
If you want to ignore the official advice of regulators, automakers and medical professionals, that is of course your choice.

As for melanoma, you need to do some serious research. You sound as ignorant as people who say that carbon is good for the environment and couldn’t possible hurt it.
UV exposure is the major cause of melanoma, and a range of other risk factors including skin complexion and genetics increase the risk on top of UV exposure. Australia has one of the world’s highest rates of skin cancer.
Again, it’s your choice to ignore what the evidence and research has said for decades. If you develop skin cancer however, kindly elect not to take up space in the public health system… it’s crowded enough helping people with unavoidable cancers much less those who just choose to practice ignorance.

troll-sniffer2:24 pm 07 Jun 11

creative_canberran said :

troll-sniffer said :

Complete bollocks. Airbags have been saving lives in seatbelt-less America for years. Of course, a seatbelt plus airbag is the best combination, but an airbag on its own is not lethal. Some research might be in order before hitting keyboard again methinks.

Obviously this is not a subject troll-sniffer knows much about. If he did, he wouldn’t call the US “seatbeltless”, given all but one state has laws requiring seatbelt use and even that one hold out requires belts for children. Seems his knowledge is pre 1980s. Actual usage is above 85% in most states and increasingly above 90%.

.

Ah yes the old selective use of statistics/figures trick. While everything you have said has a basis in fact, the basis is in a small percentage of actual events. Do some more real research that measures the total number of airbag events vs actual seat belt usage vs actual injuries with and without seatbelts for similar events, and you will see a vastly different picture to what your biased selective interprrtation would have us believe.

Of course sun visors are going to warn that the airbag used without a seatbelt can cause injury and in extreme cases death. However, given that the likes of yourself cannot diffeentiate between various classes of statisitics, what it should say is something more along the lines of “Warning. Although this airbag will save a lot more lives than no airbag at all in the vast majority of higher speed collisions, and there exists a small percentage chance of severe injury and death due to the airbag’s operation, the airbag is safest when combined with an effective seatbelt or similar restraint.

Do you also subscribe to the view that all sunlight is dangerous because there is a miniscule risk that the hour of sun you get today will eventually form a melanoma?

what_the10:19 am 07 Jun 11

As a lesser mortal road user I’m not surprised that you think Ayrton Senna was killed by the concrete wall but it was in fact a failure of technology that killed him. He had a tyre let go, this speered him off the track, when he impacted the wall, his helmet was penetrated by the steering components of his car and it was this that killed him. It was a crash that most GP drivers would have survived. A combination of mechanical failures killed him, not a lack of ability.

No doubt if Australian Police were asked to investigate the incident they would say speed was to blame for the accident! 😉

Captain RAAF9:58 am 07 Jun 11

Captain RAAF said :

BenMac said :

Captain RAAF said :

Technology killed Ayrton Senna, one of the best car drivers ever

Actually, I think it was a concrete wall in Imola that killed Ayrton Senna. Same with Roland Ratzenberger.

As a lesser mortal road user I’m not surprised that you think Ayrton Senna was killed by the concrete wall but it was in fact a failure of technology that killed him. He had a tyre let go, this speered him off the track, when he impacted the wall, his helmet was penetrated by the steering components of his car and it was this that killed him. It was a crash that most GP drivers would have survived. A combination of mechanical failures killed him, not a lack of ability.

Good video to watch, Grand Prix ‘the Killing years’. I recommend it to everyone. I’ll post a link later to where you can watch it online if JB doesn’t mind. I encourage you to sit your kids down to watch it, if the think they are bullet proof on the road they will soon think again. It’s sad and very moving.

It doesn’t apply to me of course. 😉

Here is the link;

http://ca.autoblog.com/2011/05/22/vintage-crash-compilation-shows-how-far-racing-has-come/#continued

There is a lot to be learned from this video, especially for those in the community that think ‘it will never happen to me’.

Captain RAAF7:00 am 07 Jun 11

BenMac said :

Captain RAAF said :

Technology killed Ayrton Senna, one of the best car drivers ever

Actually, I think it was a concrete wall in Imola that killed Ayrton Senna. Same with Roland Ratzenberger.

Good video to watch, Grand Prix ‘the Killing years’. I recommend it to everyone. I’ll post a link later to where you can watch it online if JB doesn’t mind. I encourage you to sit your kids down to watch it, if the think they are bullet proof on the road they will soon think again. It’s sad and very moving.

It doesn’t apply to me of course. 😉

farnarkler9:38 pm 06 Jun 11

The passenger is certainly a Darwin Award – at risk survivor winner.

BenMac8:02 pm 06 Jun 11

Captain RAAF said :

Technology killed Ayrton Senna, one of the best car drivers ever

Actually, I think it was a concrete wall in Imola that killed Ayrton Senna. Same with Roland Ratzenberger.

Captain RAAF5:59 pm 06 Jun 11

OpenYourMind said :

Captain RAAF smashed into another car!!!! I remember the good Captain telling us a while back about how he was a driver with skills above that of an F1 driver and how he didn’t even need brakes because his driving skills were such that he could avoid any accident situation whatsoever. He said some other ‘stuff’ too.
And now, I hear he managed to crash an old Ford. Disappointing.

Two words…

Ayrton Senna

Sometimes, a driver comes along who surpasses all others but who is tragically let down by technological shortfalls or stupidity of lesser mortals. Technology killed Ayrton Senna, one of the best car drivers ever and stupidity of a Daihatsu driver killed my GT.

Sometimes, these anomolies occur and only the best of the best survive, Ayrton’s dead, sadly, but I’m still around.

See you on the road!

OpenYourMind4:59 pm 06 Jun 11

Captain RAAF smashed into another car!!!! I remember the good Captain telling us a while back about how he was a driver with skills above that of an F1 driver and how he didn’t even need brakes because his driving skills were such that he could avoid any accident situation whatsoever. He said some other ‘stuff’ too.
And now, I hear he managed to crash an old Ford. Disappointing.

Cantoangel4:24 pm 06 Jun 11

I wouldn’t be surprised if these were the people who were beeping their horns and speeding through Morell Cl in Belconnen at 2.30am that night.

creative_canberran12:59 am 06 Jun 11

troll-sniffer said :

Complete bollocks. Airbags have been saving lives in seatbelt-less America for years. Of course, a seatbelt plus airbag is the best combination, but an airbag on its own is not lethal. Some research might be in order before hitting keyboard again methinks.

Obviously this is not a subject troll-sniffer knows much about. If he did, he wouldn’t call the US “seatbeltless”, given all but one state has laws requiring seatbelt use and even that one hold out requires belts for children. Seems his knowledge is pre 1980s. Actual usage is above 85% in most states and increasingly above 90%.

He obviously missed an article from Harvard School of Public Health in The American Journal of Public Health which said:
“A study by Maria Segui-Gomez, MD, Sc.D., done when she was with the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, finds that the deployment of these airbags in low speed crashes actually increases the likelihood that a driver will be injured. These injuries range from minor to serious and even fatal. Women are more likely to suffer airbag-induced injuries than men.”

In 1998, the US introduced 2nd Gen Airbags to address the injuries caused by first generation designs. Newer systems feature changes to deployment speed and shape to better cope with unrestrained occupants. There was a noticeable decline in airbag caused injuries and deaths following that.

He must choose to ignore the current advisory from the US Department of Transport:
“Air bags can still cause serious injury or death to occupants who are not properly restrained and in the proper seating position. Advanced frontal air bags are a supplemental restraint system, just like earlier generation air bags, and must be used in combination with a seat belt.”

He is right though, airbags do save lives… when used with a seatbelt. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that the combination of safety belts and air bags is 75 percent effective in preventing serious head injuries and 66 percent effective in preventing serious chest injuries in head-on collisions.

But the NHTSA also warns that “Almost all air bag-related deaths have involved unrestrained or improperly restrained occupants.”

The NHTSA also found that to the 1st January 2003, airbags had been confirmed to have caused the death of 227 people. Now compared to the 25,000+ lives directly saved by airbags according to NHTSA, they certainly do save lives… used correctly. When they’re not, they can and HAVE caused fatalities.

Luckily, every Australian vehicle with SRA Airbags has a sticker on the sun visor warning that not wearing a seatbelt can result in airbags causing serious injury and death. In light of troll-sniffers comment, it’s not hard to see why those stickers are in cars.