Australia has lousy driver training for our youth.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
Everytime I land back in Australia after slumming it around Europe or the US or Japan, there's either the remains of a car crash on the edge of the road from the airport or there's some retarded youth in a white Commodore - and isn't that a clue? - either running a red light or coming sideways around a corner.
The state governments have done all they can to milk as much money as possible from these people and have made noises about going even further.
But in their inactivity to make the roads a more professional route, has the greed of state governments opened up potential for blame.
For example, the state government takes money from my daughter when she gets her car licence on the pretence that it believes her to be properly trained to use a motor vehicle.
In fact, the government confirms she is proficient because it takes money from her in return for a piece of paper.
So is the government liable for any damage incurred by my daughter as the result of not properly being able to drive a car?
After all, if you bought a product that was found to be defective and it caused you harm, you are liable to sue the company that provided the product.
If someone performs a service and clearly stuffs it up, you are able to sue to soothe the pain.
Every week there's a giant legal case over a doctor and a patient and generally the latter walks away with a generous, compensating wad of money.
Should every driver involved in an accident sue the relevant state government for insufficient training?
The point is that Australia has lousy driver training for our youth.
That's because driver training is dangerous. It makes everyone drive twice as fast because, the WA State Government Police minister of six years ago indicated, they believe themselves to be bulletproof. Hence, more deaths.
It is also costly and the government isn't here to spend its - er, your - money. This is despite the fact that it is the motorist who will cough up the money for the course, not the government.
Worse, voters may object to a comprehensive driver training scheme and vote in another party.
Germany, Poland, England and even Sweden tend to be a lot harsher on prospective car drivers than the lacks-a-daisy approach of Australia. Most have training to replace a spare tyre.
Most Australians don't even know the etiquette of staying out of the outside freeway lane unless overtaking.
In Perth, this outside lane is more populated than the other two lanes and no-one's overtaking. I caught my daughter in this lane once and after some intelligent conversation - “did not”, “did so”, did not” ... - discovered she hadn't be taught to attempt to leave the outside lane free for other road users.
She also doesn't know a three-point turn, a parallel park or a bonnet release.
State governments don't spend money on training people like my daughter.
They spend money on things like speed cameras and place them in high-density spots around cities, while country roads report higher road deaths.
They are quick to take money from motorists - driver's licence, registration, vehicle purchase stamp duty, duty on insurance, sales tax, GST, fuel excise, luxury car tax and so on - but deny any responsibilities.
There are virtually no penalties - of any worth - to retrain people who have had an accident.
There is no method whereby it looks at an accident, sees the turkey behind the wheel is a klutz or doesn't wear spectacles despite being certifiably blind, and then remedies the situation by sending the said klutz off to retraining school.
Just think what would happen. Firstly, the section of government that looks after road issues would be twice the size.
Second, having the threat of going back to driving school for a week or two may pull some drivers' heads in. Certainly it does a lot more than the WA “hoon laws” that take the retard's car off him - or her - for 24 hours. Gee, that'll hurt!
Third, it should greatly improve the ability of drivers to control their cars.
And that should keep a few more of our children alive.
