Australia enforces road laws because they have more accidents than Taiwan.
Now you can start shaking your heads like I did when this gem was introduced by a young engineer who lives with his Taiwanese family in Australia (past 5 years) and visits Taiwan on occasion.
There must be some statistics somewhere?
Mike.
[quote=“mikeg”]There must be some statistics somewhere?
Mike.[/quote]
One would hope you would post some in place of this apocryphalness.
I believe it… Australia ha s a very active legitimate insurance sector and all accidents over (what the accident 'victim’s deem) $x,000 HAVE to be reported to police.
So if the stats are based on reported, verified police listed accidents then yes, Australia probably does have ‘more’ than Taiwan.
As not much is reported here, he’s right in the narrow sense of the word.
Well, during a visit to Oz where I spent a fair amount time on the road, I saw no accidents, and no aftermaths of them.
Here… Well, you know, accidents and fender benders all over the place, I have been close to 3 unreported ones.
Therefore, tell your young engineer that he’s talking out of his arse.
Also, remind him that this logic used on the job will get him nowhere fast.
Yes and there’s no prostitution gambling or aids in China. And there were record harvests last year. And…
Some official statistics:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Even after taking the size of population into consideration, Taiwan still has a higher rate of road accidents than Australia (in the number of road accidents and the number of road accidents involving fatalities).
Tell your friend that Melbourne has the lowest per capita road deaths in the world. This low rate of deaths comes at a cost in my book with the preventitive advertising on TV being horrible, and the long arm of the law being very very long unless of course your an underworld criminal where upon the cops are midgets.
[quote=“Isaac”]Some official statistics:
Even after taking the size of population into consideration, Taiwan still has a higher rate of road accidents than Australia (in the number of road accidents and the number of road accidents involving fatalities).[/quote]
And taking into consideration that only those people who die within 24 hours of the accident are counted. Those that die after 24 hours of the accident (but still due to injuries received in the accident) are NOT counted as accident fatalities. :loco:
An aside but several years ago I discovered Australia has more kidnappings than Taiwan. It’s all about comparing apples and mangoes, or some such metaphor.
HG
[quote=“Closet Queen”][quote=“mikeg”]There must be some statistics somewhere?
Mike.[/quote]
One would hope you would post some in place of this apocryphalness.[/quote]
I had to look this word up on the net. I read around 100 pages a day, fact and fiction, but must skim over this word whenever it pops up.
Stupid of me really, I feel full of apocryphal.
A`poc
You also need to look at:
Speed- Australians hate speed limits and they often break them leading to accidents
Types of roads: long (VERY) straight roads at dusk + wandering wildlife (kangaroos, wombats etc.) = splat
Long distance and fatigue - many truckers use pep pills and fatigue related deaths seem to be prevalent
Suicide: a link is being drawn to the real reasons behind some single vehicle accident fatalities involving drivers male 18-25
Road conditions: rural roads are awful and more people die in the bush than in the cities
Deaths per kilometres driven: back home I’d drive 30,000km a year and think nothing of it. Here I’ve driven 13.8 in 3 months.
With the introduction of of seat-belts, and blood alcohol limits in the last 30 years fatalities have plummeted compared to earlier statistics.
Funny; if elevators killed 1,000 people a year in one country they would all be banned and we’d climb stairs. Cars…
[quote=“pjdrib”]You also need to look at:
Speed- Australians hate speed limits and they often break them leading to accidents
Types of roads: long (VERY) straight roads at dusk + wandering wildlife (kangaroos, wombats etc.) = splat
Long distance and fatigue - many truckers use pep pills and fatigue related deaths seem to be prevalent
Suicide: a link is being drawn to the real reasons behind some single vehicle accident fatalities involving drivers male 18-25
Road conditions: rural roads are awful and more people die in the Bush than in the cities
Deaths per kilometres driven: back home I’d drive 30,000km a year and think nothing of it. Here I’ve driven 13.8 in 3 months.
With the introduction of of seat-belts, and blood alcohol limits in the last 30 years fatalities have plummeted compared to earlier statistics.
Funny; if elevators killed 1,000 people a year in one country they would all be banned and we’d climb stairs. Cars…[/quote]
Hmm, I still think it just has more to do with reporting of accidents.
Australians are the most law abiding people on the planet in my book, and to their very detriment too.
I couldn’t help laughing when I read that statement, “Australia enforces road laws because they have more accidents than Taiwan”. What a load of crap!! I am from Melbourne and there is no way in the world that I could possibly accept that there are more accidents in Australia than there are in Taiwan. I was living in Melbourne between 2000-2003 and I think during those 3 years I never saw an accident on the streets of Melbourne. Of course I am not trying to say that they don’t occur there because of course they do but I just didn’t see any in those 3 years. I have been living in Taichung since January this year and I think I have probably witnessed 3 or 4 and seen the aftermarth of 8-10. I have travelled to more than 30 countries and I have never seen worse drivers than the Taiwanese. I know its all been said a million times before but everyday I still wonder why so many people here do so many stupid things on the road again and again. Just yesterday I was waiting at the traffic lights on my scooter and when the lights turned green this scooter next to me just took off and as so many stupid car drivers do, this guy tries to turn left before the traffic going the opposite way gets across the intersection. What happens?? The scooter just slams into the side of this car and the guy who was on the scooter goes flying. Luckily he seemed to be ok as a few people stopped to help him out including the stupid driver of the car who caused the accident. Trying to turn left in front of the traffic is just begging for an accident. You never see drivers do that in Australia. I could just imagine if I tried to pull a stunt like like that on Lygon St in Melbourne. Mario and Luigi would waste no time in jumping out of their V8 Commodores to pound the shit out of me.
From my personal travel experiences I have come to realise that Taiwan and Australia are complete opposites when it comes to road safety. In my opinion Australians are extremely safety conscious when it comes to road safety. In fact I think they are overly safety conscious almost to the extent of being paranoid about it. You have to drive so slowly around Melbourne because of the amount of speed cameras placed around the city on all types of roads and freeways which will catch you even if you are only 3kms over the limit. So you better watch out if you have a faulty speedometer. Australians can even be fined if they don’t wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Have you ever seen a Taiwanese wearing a helmet when riding a push bike?? In Taiwan people just don’t care about safety in general. Why do people here insist on tiling the footpath or sidewalk for the North American readers in front of their shops so that when it rains it is like trying to walk on an ice rink??. Why is the sidewalk all at different levels so that you risk tripping over if you wish to glance into the shop or restaurant and not notice the step??.
Personally, I don’t particularly like driving in Australia because I think the state governments and especially the Victorian one steal so much money from drivers through ridiculous speeding fines. There is just no fun driving in Melbourne anymore. You have to drive like grandpa if you want to keep your license. However, in Taiwan it is a very different story. I don’t have to drive like grandpa and I can basically do whatever I want with only a very small risk of being punished. I have seen scooters and cars just fly past police cars here probably 30kms over the limit and the police just do nothing. In Australia, “NO WAY”!! However, the price I have to pay for this new speeding freedom is that I have to contend with stupidity all around me. In the end all things considered I think I prefer to drive in Australia because I value self preservation unlike most people in this country.
Erick
This almost brought tears to my eyes when I read it. You should write poetry mate.
Cheers
Well, as a Taiwanese, I think Taiwan should have more accidents than Australia.
Why? Because TAIWAN is small and very crowded. And it has one of the fastest “paces of life” in the world.
Everybody’s in a hurry and it’s a small island, it’s very easy to have traffic accidents.
But that’s the nature of Taiwan’s life. Everything moves fast.
Can’t find the source of information for this but supposedly most accidents happen on straight roads at day time in good weather conditions… people drive safer when they think driving conditions are more dangerous
For example in Ireland last weekend 10 people were killed on the roads… 6 of 10 of these deaths did not involve another vehicle or person… just people speeding and unable to handle the vehicle
In Taiwan with the traffic, cars seldom reach speed of over a 60 KPH in the city… on the highways they go to maybe 130 KPH… .you also have barriers on the road… for all the chaos on the highway, people stay alert and aware since there is chaos around them… how many accidents are caused on the motorway by drivers being fatigued by the monotomy of the driving on the highway?
Since there is a partition on most all big roads in Taiwan… there are never any head on collisons
Also an accident could be anything from a bump to getting t boned by another car… so having more accidents does not mean less safe
Which is the less safe record
200 people getting killed on the roads
100 fender benders
OR
50 people getting killed on the road
600 fender benders
Although the frequency of accidents is higher in the second case … the number of deaths is less
TNT, what’s you opinion on the question asked by the initial poster?
But on many roads there are no barriers and head-on collisions occur with monotonous regularity in Taiwan.
Only a few weeks ago my father-in-law was exceptionally fortunate to survive a head-on collision on a mountain road. The driver coming the other way had overtaken on a blind corner!!!
If you drive a car or ride a motorbike here you know, it’s not just fender benders in Taiwan. They drive without due care for the safety of others and the results are far, far different from your hypothetical figures above.
Cheers.
My original post was badly worded, sorry!
What I was trying to get to the bottom of was getting good stats to put in front of Taiwanese who propagate this accident stat nonsense.
I noticed a few posts mentioning Victoria/ Melbourne. I come from Melbourne and it really is opposite. I have often thought if I get rich one day I would fund a Taiwan gov trip to study how driving is dealt with there.
It comes down to dollars and cents and the Chinese are at their best when studying money. The insurance everyone must pay to keep their vehicle on the road each year is pooled. This fund pays for accident victims.
No fault cover, you can be hit or hit from any direction under any circumstances in any size vehicle.
No judgment, the fund pool fixes your injuries, unless the insurance was not paid and it is compulsory.
The interesting part is that if you start working hard on improving the roads, law enforcement and making people aware (the horrible tv advertisements that are run showing people getting splattered on blind corners and either dead or before and after shots with girls that were beautiful then disfigured)
Then…the fund pool is not depleted by being spent on injuries and you start a cycle of funds reducing the risk of accidents. I remember a few years ago the Victorian gov had their eyes on the huge surplus sitting in this fund. Not sure if they grabbed it or not.
Mike.