New Zealand Conservative

A coroner has called for banning vehicles, after he found one was used improperly and lead to a crash and the death of a passenger. Hang on, that's three years away. This time coroner Tim Scott has only called for a total ban on snow tyres. Tim Scott does not think snow tyres, used properly, could actually save lives so he wants them banned (according to the Dom Post today). I think this is a dangerous thing to advocate, and particularly coming from a coroner. Just to see what's happening in other parts of the world that experience snow, I had a quick look at Quebec back in 2007: Quebec motorists will be required to swap their summer tires for winter ones starting next winter, under a provincial law passed Wednesday. As of Nov. 15, 2008, drivers will have to equip their vehicles with snow tires from that day each year through to April 15. The province estimates that 90 per cent of vehicles already use snow tires though an estimated 500,000 people rely on all-season tir...

Updated to serve as tonights Friday Night Free for all Gassed up the car this morning, forty dollars and there was no detectable movement in the fuel gauge. Its not so long ago that that amount of money would have filled it from empty.

Police have announced they have saved 20% more lives by cracking down on speeding. This figure is based on a comparison from last years death toll . I wouldn't mind more analysis than a one-to-one correlation. What were the figures the year before? Well, 10, which were the "worst figures in 13 years". So that could be an aberration, rather than the norm. What were the figures the year before that? Three. See what I mean?

The recent "zero tolerance" on speeding is having little effect, and police suggest they may need to enter a new phase in order to save lives and reduce the carnage on the road. This long holiday weekend the police issued 15,235 tickets in the first 4 hours of the holiday weekend to motorists found going over the speed limit by even 4 kph. "We are ticketing people as fast as they can back out of the drive way", said Officer Paymore, "but the message doesn't seem to be sinking in. We've already had three speed related fatalities.

My last day of holiday, and I'm going to miss them. It's been fantastic just "taking it easy" over the last three weeks, although I've been just a wee bit lazy with my time. Been doing a bit of reading, a bit of blogging, a couple of visits, a BBQ, a few activities with the kids, and a bit of blogging again. If I had the funds to retire, I could keep myself very occupied. With so much happening out there in the world (probably the same amount as always, but relative to me having a bit more time to notice, it seems so busy!) I'm going to pick on something trivial as my topic for tonight, because all the major events deserve so much more commentary. The trivial thing is a post on Kiwiblog about having fines as a percentage of a person's income to ensure the "rich pricks" get hurt as much as the poor folk when they get fined for speeding. I'm against this for several reasons:

I'm glad I followed the advice of Waymad and watched this without a hot beverage in my hand, or near my keyboard.

Coroners. They'll be the death of me. A coroner has just called for a ban on snow tyres [DomPost, 29 July, A3]. Thankfully(?), they are calling for the ban to be only on mixing snow tyres with standard tyres, based on findings from two crashes. In one crash, the main facts that leap out was that the accident happened whilst texting, and driving worn out snow tyres mixed with other tyres. In another, the brother of the crash victim called for an immediate ban on snow tyres, saying they were the sole cause of the crash. No they were not - the coroner said it was a combination of snow tyres and standard tyres. As usual, people call for a ban to solve a problem. And they want to ban snow tyres; not texting; not using worn out treads; not using inappropriate combinations of tyres - something that is never recommended by any credible tyre seller in any event. No doubt, if they are banned, then we'll have another Coroner calling for them to be made mandatory when some-one s...

Kerre Woodham of NewsTalk ZB would probably favour summary execution, if she could get away with it. She is frothing about boy racers, and anyone who might be mistaken for a boy racer. They all should have their cars crushed. She actually said she wouldn't mind if it meant a few "innocent" cars were accidentally crushed. Just crush them like insects. On the spot. No first warning. No investigation into who owns the car. Just crush it. Such is the seriousness of the problem. If you are going to go around and say "hit them were it hurts" then make sure you are hurting the right people. Crushing some-one else's car just makes you a thug. The likely market reaction? Steal the car first. Maybe Kerre's? One of the problems is that the laws are not being enforced properly. I do not disagree the problem is serious, and that we need to protect innocent bystanders. However, the reaction to create incredibly severe punishments that also have a great...

But is it fast?