worst/frightening driving
 

Whats the worst/frightening bit of driving you've seen in NZ. We see lots every time we drive to Auckland.
We were heading north on the motorway the other day Just after Auckland Harbour Bridge & saw a car full of teenage lads weeving between all 4 lanes going at a speed of about 110-120kmh, as you see on movie car chases. The last move we saw them make was between 2 cars & they had to actually drive diagonally between them, it was that tight!!! Scary!:ohmy:

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Drive behind me, I'll scare you to death!! Or drive in front of me on the fast lane of the motorway below speed limit...scarier! Until you've seen me drive, you ain't seen nothing! Just got a rental car for the trip to the airport, a brand new Vauxhall Zevira (?), a real 'soccermom' sort of car. I've had it one day and it STINKS!! The tyres are shredded, the clutch is buggered. I'm like a boy racer. Only I'm not young and I'm not male!!

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Excuse me, I have a Zafira, (try fitting 4 kids & 2 dobermans into a Z3!!:) )What's a "soccermom?":confused:

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Oh this post is gonna go down well :unsure:

When we were on our recce that thing that got me most was how aggressive the female drivers were. They were horrendous :frown:

Im sure most of them thought they were in a NASCAR race :eek:

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actually female, middle aged, around 50 plus, were the most aggressive drivers i experienced out there. two tried to run me off the road!

i actually ran a bloke off the road. i was driving a focus automatic. i saw an opportunity to overtake this old chap, pressed my foot to the floor so that the gears kicked down - (engine makes an orgasmic grunting when you do that) - of course this noise of a revving engine must have scared the living shit out this bloke cos he swung over into the 'parking lane' kicking up gravel rocks plants and debris all up into the air, onto our roof and bonnet and the dudes behind us. He looked pale as a tin of dulux when we drove past - swear he was having a coronary there and then.

i wasnt proud.

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i wasnt proud.[/QUOTE] :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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See theres my proof :D

Bloody women drivers :eek:

:rofl:

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When i visited NZ i was following a flat bed truck that had a collision damaged car unsecured on the back, as we were driving along the bumper, bonnet and a door blew off of the back and nearly wiped us off the face of the earth......the debris hit several cars behind us...the truck never stopped.........

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oh, but i did feel rotten about it after.... after I had a good cackle and peed my pants that is.

hope he was ok.

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So that makes it alright then does it? :p

Us poor blokes suffer for you womens cack driving :rofl:

PS I am now ducking :D

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You know, a Mommy's car, adopted from the yanks, the ones that drive their kids to school, soccer practice, etc. Real housewifey types. The car is great for space (I have two kids). But I still can't get out of my sporty car stage. I keep having these great ideas, I'll get a motorbike or, I would love one of the old Porsches, and hubby has to keep reminding, 'where will the kids go?' DOH!

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:lol:

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Carl keeps on calling me Speedy! I just love motor-sports and want to have a go before we leave!

In fact, I'm going to look into it right now :D

Michelle xx

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Listen here you!!!!:mad:

If you bl**dy men didn't think it was your god given right to be at the front of every bl**dy queue on every road in the land, then us bl**dy women would not feel the urge to hunt you down and give you the bird!!!! :p :p

My MIL, who is 64, and drives a Jaguar ( Mrs Bucket the 2nd!!) gave some bloke the bird the other day cos he thought that she was a sweet little old lady who wouldn't say boo to a goose, which is usually true until some t****er tries to run her off the roundabout & then she turns into Ma Baker!!!!:ohmy:

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Shut it and concentrate on the bloody road women :rofl:

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How about...worst experience...driving down the motorway behind a truck with gas bottles, and one falls off the truck and bounces along the road towards you...what saves you? just a lucky bounce that sends it off track onto the verge.

I was shaking!!!!

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Sh*t ... I would have had a coronary!

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Reminds me of a time we were driving up SH1 near Timaru going at 100k+ with oncoming traffic doing the same. Going around a slight corner and this wheel is rolling down the road towards us, very quickly and bouncing a bit like you sometimes see in grand prix accidents. Not sure if it was luck or a bit of nifty driving on my part, but we managed to avoid it, and in my rear mirror I saw it roll into a field.

To this day, I have no idea if it was somebody's spare wheel, or if some bloke pulls in later at a service station and wonders why everyone is staring with mouths open at his nearside.:eek:

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Sometimes have to wonder if there is someone/something watching over and saying "not yet" :D

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I thought all mums (UK and NZ) had 4wds to drop their kids off at school?:D

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They do round here .... all funded through drugs though :mad: I have a little Micra, my new baby, but as eldest' school is one street behind my house and he's 9, he walks with his mates lol.

Michelle xx

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I was driving behind a guy in a battered old car in the rain, and every now and again he reached out of the window and manually moved the drivers side wiper to clear the window :ohmy:

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Brilliant

Re: worst/frightening driving
 

We almost got killed in a head on collision on our reccie trip!

We were driving up SH1 north of Waikanae, single lane on our side of the road, lane + passing lane on the oncoming traffic side. All of a sudden some numpty pulls out of the passing lane across the double yellow lines to overtake the guy in front of him right in front of us!!! I had to do a vicious swerve for him to miss us and then control 4 or 5 fishtails of our car before getting the car under control again!!

It REALLY scared the sh1t out of me & Clare and I was a wreck the rest of the day - it was a damn close call! I was a well nervous driver for a few days after that one!

Dave

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OMG Dave ,that must have been scary! I'm a very nervous passenger- terrible back seat driver, so it looks as if I'm going to have to drive or wear a blindfold:D
Do those crazy drivers risk assess? - or do they just assume the other drivers will get out of their way!
It's freaking me out!

This is old news - I remember when we were visiting NZ for the first time in '97, a couple of days beforehand The Straits times reported that a Singaporean couple on their honeymoon in NZ were killed whilst driving. What a combination Singaporeans and NZers both overtaking from opposite directions and smash!:eek:
I was a wreck then too!

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Bloody hell Dave, that's awful! :( I'm so relieved you're all OK. xxx

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Cheers hun!
xx

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I see bad driving constantly when I'm out in my little car - it's a Suzuki Alto and has a 700cc engine. This does not stop it from doing 50 in a 50 zone however, but other drivers (notably Toyota Surfs, something to prove, I'm sure), like to accellerate past me... why? I'm doing the limit already!! :ohmy:

Because this little car is so little, when on the motorway, it's top comfortable speed is 80km. It can do 100km, but it's not too happy :o So, I make sure I'm in the far left lane when doing this speed on a motorway. S'fine right? Slow speed, move to the left, that's the rule, yeah? Well, one time a really stressed out MALE :lol: is behind me, flashing his lights and getting really, really agitated. Where should I go? The hard shoulder? He refused to pass me via the two lanes on the right for about 5km and finally decided that he could use the other lanes to pass me... :confused:

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.....yep
The way I see it having been driving in NZ for 2 months and having already witnessed 2 smashes plus loads of reckless driving in/around Auckland, there are several factors here (ie Auckland ares) all making it pretty unsafe on/around the roads:
no insurance requirement (and so no need to worry about no-claims, and no prohibition in terms of cost on young/risky drivers getting into fast/powerful cars, etc)
no test (for some older drivers who qualified on time held for provisional licence)
low driving age
low concern for risk on the part of Kiwis
lots of immigrants with "variable" driving ability
poor maintenance of vehicles

all mean that the carnage (and that is what most Kiwis realise it is) will continue on the roads until someone changes at least one of these factors....

gawd help us, the padestrians and our kids :( :mad:

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A lot of the driving is unbelievable isn't it?
I hate people driving right up your @rse. Overtaking on a blind corner.
I was driving through a level crossing that turns on to a fairly sharp corner. Some eejit overtook the car in front of me on the level crossing and into the blind corner. Just sheer luck nothing was coming the other way. Madness.
Or another pet hate. Driving along at 100ks come to a overtaking lane, guy behind zooms past at 140ks then slows right back to 100. Eh?

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Dave, we had a similar experience when we came over. We were driving back to Auckland on the motorway in our wee hired corolla thingy doing a steady 100. Mr PD saw this car stonking up behind us and assumed it was going to overtake. I wasnt paying any attention at all. Next thing he knew the other car smashed right into us! :ohmy: We both got to the side of the road and the police came and all that - no one was hurt but guess why he'd crashed into us ?? cos doing about 120 along the motorway he was texting a friend and didnt even see us till he hit us!

Then it turns out he didnt have any insurance so we've never got our excess back ( and it was $1500!!) even though it wasnt our fault.

How it works here is the court has said he has to pay $20 a week till firstly he pays off the cost of the damage to the car, then we'll get ours back. Now I know the guy probably cant really afford that - but he should be more careful!

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Just last week, I was parked nicely in a motel carpark. The delivery van driver whacked the corner of my car, smashing the rear brake light. It's just pure carelessness and lack of thought. It's legal to drive and use your mobile phone - so how can a message get across to keep our mind on your driving.

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Did he own up to it? I see so many cars with scrapes on the corners and no-one seems to care.

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Yeah, he had no choice, it was witnessed by a few motel guests - but none of them thought to inform the owner. We didn't know about it until the next day, when I went to the car. The driver had left his card on the windscreen.
Apparently a second hand job would have cost only $130, but the delivery company started to gets arsy - so now it's going through the insurance, car now in garage and I have a hire car - paid for by my insurance.

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$500 car
$1000 phat exhaust
$3000 chrome wheels
$5000 sound system
$0 insurance

There was the very recent case where DADDY bought 15 year old a brand new V8 for his birthday, that very night 15 y/o took out a three year old DEAD.

My point:
First of all giving a 15 y/o a 200KW car, what do you expect? These teenagers (and some can hardly see over the steering wheel) should not be allowed to drive such powerful cars. Plus the ATTITUDE they have on the road is scary it all adds up to potential death on the roads. That is whether you are in your car or on the pavement.

But let’s carry on saving the trees and the ants and let’s go off to the artic in a rubber duck to save the whales blah blah blah.

Not sure if it is like that with the kids in the UK but most Kiwi’s want to be rally drivers including the adults. You notice how the V8 is such a big thing here.

Many folk say to me, how come one minute you say you love NZ and the next your are ranting on. These are things that NZ NEEDS to address. Get rid of the tree-hugger PM and maybe that’s a good place to start.

One of the very early things I noticed about NZ is a huge variety of contradictions. For example: You drive from Auckland to Tauranga and on the edge of most villages you will signs reading “ no engine breaking”, this is for trucks and to keep noise levels down. Every Friday and Saturday night you hear the hoon ( teenagers driving hotted-up cars) brigade from around 21:00; they have their roaring exhausts and redline through every gear. Its amazing how the police don’t grab nab them as they are so noticeable. The cops are probably strategically positioned at the zebra crossings waiting for old ladies in their zimmers to speed.

Ok while I am on a roll here. Anybody like to discuss the lack of road signs? Do something about global warming, save petrol, help people to get to their destination – put up road signs. I think we are talking basic stuff here.

All this stuff is a formula for problems and until people stand up and say “enough” people like Helen Clark are going to get paid for running the country. Personally I like the Ozzies as they take the hard stance on the boy racers and all the crap that goes with it.

Who is going to be the first to respond to my comments saying, if you don’t like New Zealand why are you here?

That’s the attitude that will fix the problems. Maybe they should change their names from Kiwi’s to ostriches !!

Have a nice day , see ya later. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Still love the place :)

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New Zealand is a great place to live and there's nothing wrong with wanting it to be a safer place to live.:thumbup:

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So is the problem mainly in Auck. or all over NZ?

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no idea (yet) but as soupie said the whole driving thing here is out of control......funny how these really polite kids turn into peroxided sunglass wearing 4WD dashing loons or V8 revving dribbling bass-hungry louts.
IMHO this is a massive cartell run by the brake pad manufacturers, panel beaters, St Johns and prosthetic limb makers............ :frown: :sneaky: :frown: :eek:






......or is it???

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This honestly happened to us...
Our car had been hit by a SA woman fairly new to the country who didn't give way in the car park next to our office, we hear an almighty crash and next thing our car appears outside our door! She was hit buy the person who did have right of way and shunted into our car.
A few days later at the insurance assessors. Bloke with noteboard walking round the car making notes of the damage. I was still sitting in the passenger seat, hubby outside chatting to the bloke. An asian lady pulls in and reverses into the spot next to us in a Rav 4. She reverses too far and knocks our car, not badly but a small shunt. She then pulls forward and repeats this twice more! We are too gobsmacked to speak at first, then we all jump into action at the same time. I get out the bloody car! Husband goes up to her window and shouts stop, and the assessor licks his pencil and makes further notes of the damage she has just done, shaking his head in disblief.
OK, not very dangerous just plain stupid.
I have seen some very near misses and have only experienced road rage in myself since being here. I have made my kids hold off driving for a while, simply by not buying them one! My son is now 18 and he is a few weeks off being out on the road on his own. He will have insurance, I have insisted on it. My daughter will be the same. She is 16 but in my opinion not nearly mature enough to be behind the wheel of a car. Not being awful, she just isn't.

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I saw a car this moring pull into a space on the side of the road and nearly take the front wheel off a cyclist, never saw him. He was wearing a reflective jacket and had flashing lights on his bike. I suspect that car now has a dent in the top of the boot as the cyclist thumped it rather hard when making his prescence known.

Got to the next roundabout, going straight on and a car coming the other way decided to start indicating right when they were halfway round the roundabout, I nearly set off and drove into their path!

I then ended up behind a BMW driver who drove at between 35 and 40 km/h in 70 and 50 zones and still braked for the corners!!

You have to be alert!

Oh, and what's this kiwi habit of indicating right to go straight on at roundabouts? Bloody annoying!