cresta57

Glancing through the 4X4 forums I notice widespread panic that Anthony Albanese [the federal minister for infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government] is planning to bring in new Australian Design Rule (ADR) legislation that would bring Australia into line with a new global technical regulations, effectively banning Bullbars.
Whilst I can understand the safety issue regarding Bullbars in metro/city areas I along with thousands of other road users do not live in a city. I live & work in rural Australia. I use my 4X4 to access job sites & it needs a Bullbar for passenger safety as well as for driving light & antenna mounts, both essential for remote Queensland driving. In the past 5 years I've had four Roo strikes all potentially fatal without a bar. I travel up to 3 hours to a job site often working a full day & travelling home "on dark" & into the night. It would cause me severe financial hardship if I had to take three hours of daylight out of my day to travel home before dusk. Dusk being the most likely time for a "Roo strike" Even limiting travel to daylight hours would still seriously compromise passenger safety in my opinion.
With that in mind the following questions spring to mind:
How many lives are lost in metro areas directly due to bullbars?
How many lives will be lost in rural areas due to animal strikes?
Does anyone really care about rural communities or are we simply to be sacrificed in order to save a few children in metro areas that should perhaps be more closely supervised?

Here's a link to a survey If you take a few mins to complete it the Aussie 4X4 industry will donate a dollar to the Royal Flying Doctor Service for every one submitted. They do provide an essential service to rural remote Australia.

Icarus

Done .

Petals

My parents lived in the Kimberly always had a ute and never had a bull bar. They were involved in an accident on the way to Darwin, hit a bull and neither my Mum, Dad or my brother were hurt. They were told that if they had had a bull bar it would not have been the same scenario as cars are made to crumple. Rigid is not good in high speed accident.

Dad would never have one.

bobbyftm

Also done

Sherlock Holmes

Locally, they are referred to as roo bars. Many people here have to travel 150k round trip just to go to work. In winter, both journeys are in the dark, or worse, near dark. If it is damp, the roos come out from under the trees.

Roo strike is seldom due to a roo being the in the road and being hit. They tend to jump in front of you as they cross the road and you have NO chance of avoiding the collision as it is a split second thing.

If a roo comes through the windscreen, and they do, there is risk of injury or death to the occcupants for the vehicle.

Even without injury, the vehicle is a write off owing to the stench created by the roo which can never be got out.

I could never quite see the need for bars in the UK but in rural Australia, they are a life saver.

Survey done. Comments left re city dwellers deciding rural laws. Roos are not furry bunnies, they are potential killers.

Deutschmaster

It's a shame that they can't ban vehicles for entering metro areas with them and let people have them outside in the rural areas.

In Melbourne there are d**kheads who fly across pedestrian crossings endangering people crossing rather than children on the loose. I wouldn't want them to have bull bars (dangerous drivers I mean).

I can sympathize with rural drivers - nearly every trip I have done through the outback I've had to jump on the brakes to miss roos.

Can't find figures on how many pedestrians were killed by bull bars (perhaps complicated by concluding that their death was definitely caused by the bull bar being fitted), but here's the racv advice:

http://www.racv.com.au/wps/wcm/conne...ment/bull+bars

vulnerable road users
One fifth of all fatalities on Australian roads are pedestrians, with 289 pedestrian deaths on Australian roads in 2001. A further ten percent are motorcyclists and two percent are bicyclists. In total, thirty two percent of all fatalities on Australian roads fall into the category of vulnerable road users. Numerous studies have shown that bull-bars can significantly increase the risk of head, thorax and stomach injuries to pedestrians and other unprotected road users when they are struck by the front of such a bull-bar-equipped vehicle.

eddie007

Stick a fork in me i'm done too

Alfresco

Survey done.

I agree with Alistair.

Besides this is not Europe!

Sherlock Holmes

Further. There are some European standards which Australia could do well to adopt. This is not one of them.

asprilla

Hmm, I do agree that bullbars are extremely valuable (but certainly not essential, as is being made out) in country Australia. Banning them would introduce a whole new range of costs for country folks to consider.

But that doesn't change the fact that vehicles fitted with bullbars, are far more dangerous to pedestrians.

Seems to me that the way forward, is to simply ban bullbars on any vehicles that are registered in urban areas. If however the vehicle is registered in a country area - no problem.

Centurion

Just one more wanky over regulation. Because we needed more

renth

What about people who live on the outskirts of a city?

Gjn200

They tried this before according to my Aussie mates, the best they got was they are no longer allowed to be steel.

I think it's bull (!) anyway, if they were really bothered about pedestrian safety , all the trucks would be banned. Hit with a car and bull bar or a 90 tonne B double. I know my choice.

tartankoala

Will this include the nudge bar on the front of my X-Trail? I assume the Gvmnt will compensate me for it's removal and disposal?

cresta57

It will apply only to new cars from sometime in 2012. Oh & the 4X4 after market sales of bars