23 May 2011

Road toll skips another one

23 May 2011 | By johnboy

A 73-year-old Griffith man who died in The Canberra Hospital following a collision in Fyshwick on Friday, May 13 will not be counted towards the road toll.

The man was transported by ACT Ambulance to The Canberra Hospital where on admittance his condition deteriorated and he went into a coma. He died on Tuesday, May 17.

A post-mortem revealed the man had a heart attack which caused the collision. As such his death will not be included in the ACT’s road toll.

The road toll remains at seven for this year.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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vandam8:44 am 26 May 11

There’s a few good and bad points here.
Yes some older drivers shouldn’t be on the road, but there are some younger drivers who also shouldn’t be on the road.
Once someone hits 70 (I think) they are required to undergo a medical test each year.
The ‘medical’ death collisions generally only result in the death of themselves and don’t normally cause significant injury to other parties.
The older driver’s aren’t committing any offences when they crash (due to medical) where as younger drivers do.
Lastly, when your getting old, to take their licence away also takes away their independence. What a miserable way to spend your last years……

Whilst some older driver’s do die on our roads, it never exceeds the amount who die as a result of negligence/alcohol/drug/stupidity.

colourful sydney racing identity8:16 am 26 May 11

Mr Gillespie said :

They reported it in the media and were were keen to bump it up to 8 before the post-mortem revealed the man had a heart-attack and so had to concede it now remains at 7.

Who reported this, when did they report this and where was it reported?

AdventureTime10:58 pm 25 May 11

It seems to me that stupidity contributes more to the road toll than advanced age. Perhaps all drivers should have to pass an IQ test? Or even better, a test of common-sense….

keepitup7:55 pm 25 May 11

wildturkeycanoe said :

Do the doctors actually get in the car with these persons? Do they test how fast they can react to a red light, or how close to the speed limit they can drive? No. It’s one thing to be healthy enough physically, but another to be mentally fit.

Ridiculous . . every day I see several seemingly healthy young motorists who are incapable of reacting to a red light, or an orange light for that matter.

cranky6:23 pm 25 May 11

Mr G @31,

You had better believe that the AFP were very circumspect about claiming this as a road death statistic.

In the past, they have certainly been guilty of assigning fault to unfortunate deaths occuring on the road to a range of driver failures.

However, it is to be commended that over the past year or so, discretion has been shown in suspect cases, and, from memory, all of these have been shown to be death caused by natural causes, not from road trauma.

dvaey6:21 pm 25 May 11

colourful sydney racing identity said :

Mr Gillespie said :

Another less round of ammunition in defence of speed cameras.

Yes and another less round in the amunition in defence of breathalyzers.

Seriously what are you on about? How do you turn every post about traffic/driving/accidents/heart attacks into another example of your Jihad against speed cameras?

How can you compare breathalyzers to speed cameras? Breath testing has been proven to have a dramatic affect on the road toll, as have seat belts.. speed cameras on the other hand, have hardly been proven to do anything other than generate revenue with very little outlay. A police officer talking to a driver for a breathalyzer will detect more offences than a camera in a box on a post.

Jethro said :

Old people have heart attacks when driving, therefore police shouldn’t enforce traffic laws.

Wow. Your contributions to rationale debate are…. just… wow.

Maybe the contribution to the rational debate was stop claiming that automated financial penalties are a suitable road safety substitute for proper enforcement. By the way, stop thinking the speed cameras have anything to do with the police, they are run by a private business contracted to the ACT government. If they WERE operated by a road-safety-conscious group, they would be placed in high accident areas rather than areas where the law is broken but road safety generally isnt affected..

Mr Gillespie4:41 pm 25 May 11

They reported it in the media and were were keen to bump it up to 8 before the post-mortem revealed the man had a heart-attack and so had to concede it now remains at 7.

Jethro4:35 pm 25 May 11

Mr Gillespie said :

Jethro #17

You got the wrong end of the stick *again*

What I am saying is pretty much like what JC (#21) says about the Government using speed/the road toll as an excuse to justify deploying yet more speed cameras. Then when someone dies on the road, they are all too keen to jack up the magic number aka the “road toll”, blaming speed to bolster their case for more heavy-handed speed enforcement, before the post-mortem later on finds the single-vehicle fatal was as the result of nothing more a medical condition/heart attack.

My goodness navigating life must be difficult for you.

The OP is about the fact that the death has NOT been counted towards the road toll (and fair enough.. cause of death was a heart attack so no real reason to count it as a road death).

ScienceRules4:11 pm 25 May 11

Based on your logic, people could also argue that young drivers are responsible for a higher percentage of accidents and should also not be in charge of a 1.5 tonne vehicle ….. just saying

Not so. The young ones by and large will get better with more experience, after all we have to start somewhere. The oldies, only worse…

colourful sydney racing identity4:03 pm 25 May 11

Mr Gillespie said :

Jethro #17

You got the wrong end of the stick *again*

What I am saying is pretty much like what JC (#21) says about the Government using speed/the road toll as an excuse to justify deploying yet more speed cameras. Then when someone dies on the road, they are all too keen to jack up the magic number aka the “road toll”, blaming speed to bolster their case for more heavy-handed speed enforcement, before the post-mortem later on finds the single-vehicle fatal was as the result of nothing more a medical condition/heart attack.

Take the tin foil hat off for a minute and read the origianl post ‘As such his death will not be included in the ACT’s road toll.’