Newbie has a self inflicted "moment".
Discussion
Hi, new member from New Zealand with a cautionary tale. Please don’t think this happens to me often… it’s utterly atypical but a real wakeup call.
Out on a Sunday drive with my wife. We’d had a spot of lunch in Palmerston North and decided to head back down to Wellington via the Pahiatua Track and the Wairarapa.
The Pahiatua Track is an old coaching road, I presume, that heads over a low spot in the Tararua Ranges and has long been superceded by other more direct routes. It’s moderately windy and generally has little traffic on it. Not a bad driving road.
As we head through the foothills towards the ranges we’re slowly catching up to a Mazda 6 that’s about 500m ahead. We’re both making good progress without speeding or doing anything dramatic. When I’m about 200m behind he signals left, pulls over, and I drive through. My wife says “That guy pulled over to let you past” now in NZ this is such an extraordinary occurrence that I couldn’t resist looking back in the RV mirror and sure enough there he was pulling back out and resuming his journey. Outstanding!
Unfortunately while I’ve been so surprised and impressed with this courtesy I’ve not been looking where I’m going and when my eyes finally come back to the road ahead I’m presented with the first real corner of the track. Left hander, 25 Kph advisory speed limit and it’s time to turn in NOW! We’re doing at least triple that… and everything starts to happen in slow motion….
Starts out tight, off camber and then it gets REALLY tight and the apex is covered in rippled tarmac and I can just imagine losing grip and sledging out wide. My wife seems to be trying to reverse climb up the passenger side B pillar, the interior of the car seems huge and I’m remembering youthful motorcycling follies on a CB750 with everything touching down and the road still out turning me.
Aaaaaand… absolutely nothing happens. We roar around the corner like we’re on rails and drive on our way in a kind of stunned silence. Thankyou Subaru, thankyou Goodyear Eagles. Never see the Mazda 6 again.
Which brings me to the moral of this story.
Down here we’ve got the same “Speed Kills” excuse for a road policing policy as in the UK minus the oppressive scamera oversight. Basically speed is a primary contributor to every accident where the vehicles are in motion.
Looking back on this event, if it had all gone pear shaped, if we had drifted wide and into the path of something large and heavy, the conclusions drawn would have been of the “reckless speeding case closed” sort. Which kind of completely misses the actual cause… distraction, distraction, distraction. I’d decided that there was something more deserving of my attention than simply looking out of the rectangular glass thingie two feet in front of my nose and I was wrong.
Mortifying and humbling. Will do better :-)
Chris.
Out on a Sunday drive with my wife. We’d had a spot of lunch in Palmerston North and decided to head back down to Wellington via the Pahiatua Track and the Wairarapa.
The Pahiatua Track is an old coaching road, I presume, that heads over a low spot in the Tararua Ranges and has long been superceded by other more direct routes. It’s moderately windy and generally has little traffic on it. Not a bad driving road.
As we head through the foothills towards the ranges we’re slowly catching up to a Mazda 6 that’s about 500m ahead. We’re both making good progress without speeding or doing anything dramatic. When I’m about 200m behind he signals left, pulls over, and I drive through. My wife says “That guy pulled over to let you past” now in NZ this is such an extraordinary occurrence that I couldn’t resist looking back in the RV mirror and sure enough there he was pulling back out and resuming his journey. Outstanding!
Unfortunately while I’ve been so surprised and impressed with this courtesy I’ve not been looking where I’m going and when my eyes finally come back to the road ahead I’m presented with the first real corner of the track. Left hander, 25 Kph advisory speed limit and it’s time to turn in NOW! We’re doing at least triple that… and everything starts to happen in slow motion….
Starts out tight, off camber and then it gets REALLY tight and the apex is covered in rippled tarmac and I can just imagine losing grip and sledging out wide. My wife seems to be trying to reverse climb up the passenger side B pillar, the interior of the car seems huge and I’m remembering youthful motorcycling follies on a CB750 with everything touching down and the road still out turning me.
Aaaaaand… absolutely nothing happens. We roar around the corner like we’re on rails and drive on our way in a kind of stunned silence. Thankyou Subaru, thankyou Goodyear Eagles. Never see the Mazda 6 again.
Which brings me to the moral of this story.
Down here we’ve got the same “Speed Kills” excuse for a road policing policy as in the UK minus the oppressive scamera oversight. Basically speed is a primary contributor to every accident where the vehicles are in motion.
Looking back on this event, if it had all gone pear shaped, if we had drifted wide and into the path of something large and heavy, the conclusions drawn would have been of the “reckless speeding case closed” sort. Which kind of completely misses the actual cause… distraction, distraction, distraction. I’d decided that there was something more deserving of my attention than simply looking out of the rectangular glass thingie two feet in front of my nose and I was wrong.
Mortifying and humbling. Will do better :-)
Chris.
Can't you take the government to task about the causes of injury accidents...?
Or don't your police investigate/record the causes...?
Even if they don't, there's plenty of evidence over here you could point to, showing inattention/carelessness as the main cause, with excessive speed somewhere down around number seven and accounting for a low percentage.
Or don't your police investigate/record the causes...?
Even if they don't, there's plenty of evidence over here you could point to, showing inattention/carelessness as the main cause, with excessive speed somewhere down around number seven and accounting for a low percentage.
carbonhed said:
Looking back on this event, if it had all gone pear shaped, if we had drifted wide and into the path of something large and heavy, the conclusions drawn would have been of the “reckless speeding case closed” sort. Which kind of completely misses the actual cause… distraction, distraction, distraction. I’d decided that there was something more deserving of my attention than simply looking out of the rectangular glass thingie two feet in front of my nose and I was wrong.
We are all guilty of moments of inattention from time to time. The common feature of the best drivers is that they manage to achieve a higher level of observation based on intense concentration. Glad you survived this moment, and have been humble enough to learn from it and share it with us.carbonhed said:
Hi, new member from New Zealand with a cautionary tale. Please don’t think this happens to me often… it’s utterly atypical but a real wakeup call.
Out on a Sunday drive with my wife. We’d had a spot of lunch in Palmerston North and decided to head back down to Wellington via the Pahiatua Track and the Wairarapa.
The Pahiatua Track is an old coaching road, I presume, that heads over a low spot in the Tararua Ranges and has long been superceded by other more direct routes. It’s moderately windy and generally has little traffic on it. Not a bad driving road.
As we head through the foothills towards the ranges we’re slowly catching up to a Mazda 6 that’s about 500m ahead. We’re both making good progress without speeding or doing anything dramatic. When I’m about 200m behind he signals left, pulls over, and I drive through. My wife says “That guy pulled over to let you past” now in NZ this is such an extraordinary occurrence that I couldn’t resist looking back in the RV mirror and sure enough there he was pulling back out and resuming his journey. Outstanding!
Unfortunately while I’ve been so surprised and impressed with this courtesy I’ve not been looking where I’m going and when my eyes finally come back to the road ahead I’m presented with the first real corner of the track. Left hander, 25 Kph advisory speed limit and it’s time to turn in NOW! We’re doing at least triple that… and everything starts to happen in slow motion….
Starts out tight, off camber and then it gets REALLY tight and the apex is covered in rippled tarmac and I can just imagine losing grip and sledging out wide. My wife seems to be trying to reverse climb up the passenger side B pillar, the interior of the car seems huge and I’m remembering youthful motorcycling follies on a CB750 with everything touching down and the road still out turning me.
Aaaaaand… absolutely nothing happens. We roar around the corner like we’re on rails and drive on our way in a kind of stunned silence. Thankyou Subaru, thankyou Goodyear Eagles. Never see the Mazda 6 again.
Which brings me to the moral of this story.
Down here we’ve got the same “Speed Kills” excuse for a road policing policy as in the UK minus the oppressive scamera oversight. Basically speed is a primary contributor to every accident where the vehicles are in motion.
Looking back on this event, if it had all gone pear shaped, if we had drifted wide and into the path of something large and heavy, the conclusions drawn would have been of the “reckless speeding case closed” sort. Which kind of completely misses the actual cause… distraction, distraction, distraction. I’d decided that there was something more deserving of my attention than simply looking out of the rectangular glass thingie two feet in front of my nose and I was wrong.
Mortifying and humbling. Will do better :-)
Chris.
Hi, from a true lover of your land.Out on a Sunday drive with my wife. We’d had a spot of lunch in Palmerston North and decided to head back down to Wellington via the Pahiatua Track and the Wairarapa.
The Pahiatua Track is an old coaching road, I presume, that heads over a low spot in the Tararua Ranges and has long been superceded by other more direct routes. It’s moderately windy and generally has little traffic on it. Not a bad driving road.
As we head through the foothills towards the ranges we’re slowly catching up to a Mazda 6 that’s about 500m ahead. We’re both making good progress without speeding or doing anything dramatic. When I’m about 200m behind he signals left, pulls over, and I drive through. My wife says “That guy pulled over to let you past” now in NZ this is such an extraordinary occurrence that I couldn’t resist looking back in the RV mirror and sure enough there he was pulling back out and resuming his journey. Outstanding!
Unfortunately while I’ve been so surprised and impressed with this courtesy I’ve not been looking where I’m going and when my eyes finally come back to the road ahead I’m presented with the first real corner of the track. Left hander, 25 Kph advisory speed limit and it’s time to turn in NOW! We’re doing at least triple that… and everything starts to happen in slow motion….
Starts out tight, off camber and then it gets REALLY tight and the apex is covered in rippled tarmac and I can just imagine losing grip and sledging out wide. My wife seems to be trying to reverse climb up the passenger side B pillar, the interior of the car seems huge and I’m remembering youthful motorcycling follies on a CB750 with everything touching down and the road still out turning me.
Aaaaaand… absolutely nothing happens. We roar around the corner like we’re on rails and drive on our way in a kind of stunned silence. Thankyou Subaru, thankyou Goodyear Eagles. Never see the Mazda 6 again.
Which brings me to the moral of this story.
Down here we’ve got the same “Speed Kills” excuse for a road policing policy as in the UK minus the oppressive scamera oversight. Basically speed is a primary contributor to every accident where the vehicles are in motion.
Looking back on this event, if it had all gone pear shaped, if we had drifted wide and into the path of something large and heavy, the conclusions drawn would have been of the “reckless speeding case closed” sort. Which kind of completely misses the actual cause… distraction, distraction, distraction. I’d decided that there was something more deserving of my attention than simply looking out of the rectangular glass thingie two feet in front of my nose and I was wrong.
Mortifying and humbling. Will do better :-)
Chris.
NZ, where we're bound within a couple of years.
As a visitor, I've often pulled over on Takaka Hill, to let locals through.
I am always conscious though, of logging trucks approaching there too.
I do find that advisory limits on bends seem not to allow for the unexpected.
I have suggested to Mrs. WG that, once there, our weapon of choice should be an EVO.
Currently Scooby, as you.
Them AWD things, they like to help.
Thanks for the replies.
Talking to the powers that be over here is about as effective as your own experiences in the UK. There's been a lot of careers founded on the "Speed Kills" mantra and there's going to be a lot of resistance to fessing up to "OK it seemed like a good idea at the time but experience has shown it was bo
ocks" :-)
I'm glad I survived it too. I suspect if I'd tried doing it in the wife's shopping trolley things may have got spectacularly screwed up. In fact I suppose I should take this as a heads up and get her some decent tyres rather than the "round black things" that it came with.
Ahh yes Takaka Hill ;-) Maybe the guy that gave way to me was English? It's just so unlike Kiwi's who are truly deviant behind the wheel. Laid back and friendly on foot and psycho head jobs on wheels.
I've never driven an EVO but I can imagine it would be fun... especially in the South Island... but hell, picking a Mitsi over a Subaru is heresy!
Talking to the powers that be over here is about as effective as your own experiences in the UK. There's been a lot of careers founded on the "Speed Kills" mantra and there's going to be a lot of resistance to fessing up to "OK it seemed like a good idea at the time but experience has shown it was bo
ocks" :-)I'm glad I survived it too. I suspect if I'd tried doing it in the wife's shopping trolley things may have got spectacularly screwed up. In fact I suppose I should take this as a heads up and get her some decent tyres rather than the "round black things" that it came with.
Ahh yes Takaka Hill ;-) Maybe the guy that gave way to me was English? It's just so unlike Kiwi's who are truly deviant behind the wheel. Laid back and friendly on foot and psycho head jobs on wheels.
I've never driven an EVO but I can imagine it would be fun... especially in the South Island... but hell, picking a Mitsi over a Subaru is heresy!
Welcome 
Nice bit of road around there isn't it: definitely my preferred route north.
Sounds like that was a very lucky escape, but I'm not surprised that you were distracted by someone pulling over to let you past - it would be only marginally less shocking than having a yeti run across the road in front of you...
Nice bit of road around there isn't it: definitely my preferred route north.
Sounds like that was a very lucky escape, but I'm not surprised that you were distracted by someone pulling over to let you past - it would be only marginally less shocking than having a yeti run across the road in front of you...
Coq au Vin said:
Sounds like that was a very lucky escape, but I'm not surprised that you were distracted by someone pulling over to let you past - it would be only marginally less shocking than having a yeti run across the road in front of you...
Exactly I don't think the sheer novelty value translates to the UK environment.
carbonhed said:
Coq au Vin said:
Sounds like that was a very lucky escape, but I'm not surprised that you were distracted by someone pulling over to let you past - it would be only marginally less shocking than having a yeti run across the road in front of you...
Exactly I don't think the sheer novelty value translates to the UK environment.
erasmus said:
carbonhed said:
I've never driven an EVO but I can imagine it would be fun... especially in the South Island... but hell, picking a Mitsi over a Subaru is heresy!
Have to agree there! 
Wouldn't part with my RB5 Prodrive Impreza for any EVO.I don't think you can get my kind of Legacy in the UK except as a gray import. Litchfield have them as Japenese Specification Legacy's
http://www.litchfieldimports.co.uk/subaru_legacy.a...
And while we're at Litchfields must have another drool over the Type 25 I'd take the err... subtle? version, with the low spoiler. In black please
http://www.type-25.com/
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