Man killed in car accident on Barry Drive

Howdy – how is this a first hand account?

Are you the police ?

If so I would tread lightly – there has been police under pseudonyms here before. They dissapear as mysteriously as they appear – even though they quite often began their posts with “This is my personal opinion. not professional opinion”.

In my industry your personal opinion is constantly scrutinised and if I say anything that may adversly effect my professional opinion – its still my opinion and I could be judged as unworthy for my occupation based on that…

Just a warning…..for your sake…..

First hand account : ( The man died of a heart attack whilst driving and his wife grabbed the wheel to drive them off the road and avoid hitting anyone else.

Best wishes to his wife, lovely woman.

Actually what was odd is that I’ve been to that page three times and that story has been edited three times. The first time mentioned a woman with kids driving behind them who tried to help but could do nothing. They cut that out for whatever reason, along with the ‘police quote’. The third time the quote is now back in.

I think this also suggests – Don’t trust everything you read : )

Maybe the ABC just grabbed the quote from another story, or it was just a general statement (by that officer) that the media use when there’s an accident. We would hope the Police are doing more for us then talking to the media all day no?

It’s not really an in depth story and it looks like the ABC were struggling to pad it out a bit.

It could’ve been a lot worse, it occured right near the bus-stop on Barry Drive that is very popular with ANU/surrounding residents.

I also saw the Police put their little spin on this crash. Its really pathetic. World Champion driver Denny Hulme suffered a heart attack on Mt Panorama while driving in the Bathurst 1000 and even a driver of his skill couldn’t keep the car on the track, what chance did this poor bloke have?

The gentleman’s driving appeared to have nothing to do with this event.

As noted above, witnesses were describing what looked to be a medical emergency prior to the car leaving the road.

My annoyance is the Police then subtly attributing the result to poor driving.

My nature, number of eyes open and ability or otherwise to drive like Brock similarly have nothing to do with it.

A tragic accident, I hope the family get the support they will need.

It looks like the message Police were passing on is that driving is inherently dangerous and regardless of the time of day or the weather conditions the unexpected can and does occure.

Cranky, I’m not sure what’s annoying about this kind of message – something about your nature? If more P plate drivers took notice of the statistics as opposed to being annoyed like you then perhaps a few tragedies could be avoided? No doubt some of the hardliners that believe that they can drive like Peter Brock clamped up after his accident… does it take the death of a loved one or an Aussie icon to cause you to open both eyes?

What a rotten way to go, and for the lady also. A real shame.

I realise the Plod are doing their best to minimise death/injury/accidents on the road, but when every ‘accident’, as in this case, is treated as an opportunity to berate drivers for their perceived faults, it becomes both annoying and self defeating.

My sincere condolences to the family.

On one of the news services witnesses said that the man seemed to be clutching his chest immediately before the accident and his wife was trying to grab the steering wheel. So it sounds as though he might have had a heart attack which then caused the accident.

Watched on the news tonight. Appears as though the car has veered off the road and hit a tree near the university. At least that’s where it looked like on the TV. Why the car suddenly veered off is a mystery, maybe he had a heart attack or something.

Speaking of Barry Drive, I have always found one part of it incredibly dangerous. As you head uphill to Belconnen from Civic, the road takes a slightly off-camber left turn. The left hand side of the road is at an elevated level to the right and a car could quite easily lose it and cross the gravel/dirt median strip literally flying into oncoming traffic. They need to extend the dividing fence to cover the whole corner.

Thats my two cents

i saw lights and units as i turned off clunies ross up towards belco; what happened?

Saw the aftermath from the bus after 12 sometime. Looked pretty bad. Poor bloke.

Ah Shite.

Condolences to their family : (