Any 1 want a week like this

[rebelone607]

Just thaught some of you may like to hear about the week I have just had, it started last Friday week ago. Many of you may know that I am a volunteer with the SES so I can't tell too much detail. My unit is responsible for RCR (road crash rescue) on a relativly short section of the Pacific Highway between Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads. Friday 12th just sat down for a beer with the mates -1600hrs pager goes off for RCR p/highway 7kms south of Urunga, arrive on scene single vehicle accident 1 person injured but not trapped. Next morning Sat 13th. 8.00 pager for RCR p/highway 6kms south of Urunga, arrive on scene 3 vehicle m.v.a. driver of two of the vehicles badly trapped and injured, this took nearly one hour to release both victims. Pacific higway closed until 1330 hrs that afternoon while accident investigation do their thing - thousands inconvenianced with traffic banked up for 12 kms in both directions. Tuesday 16th 2.15am in the morning, pager going off RCR 5km south of Urunga. Arrive on scene set up lighting, semi trailer upside down in table drain driver deceased and badly trapped, require 35 tonne crane to lift prime mover enough to gain access, on scene untill 8.00am and then into work with the eyeballs just about hanging out of my head - so tired. Highway partially blocked most of the day while the load of ice cream is cleaned up.
Friday afternoon just gone (19th) 1830 hours pager going off, RCR 6kms south of Urunga arrive on scene which is only about 300 meters south of where the accident was the previous Saturday morning and a couple of hundred north of the Friday arfternoon one - two vehicle m.v.a. one driver badly trapped other driver in serious condition. Half an hour or so to free trapped driver then remain on scene until 1230 hrs for lighting for accident investigation again, highway partially blocked all this time.
These four accidents in just one week all occured within 1 kilometer of each other and has left myself and other emergency personel shocked, it is a poor piece of highway but two of the accidents happened in an 80km/hr zone which has this week been droped to 60km/hr. drivers need to take some if not most of the responsability. Every politicion in the area is scoring political mileage each blaming the present government for the problem but this section of highway has had a terrible accident history during the terms of government from both parties. There are plans to bypass this notorious stretch of highway between or south of Macksville to Urunga but I think this will be at least ten years away before completion if then. I just wish they would fix the bl***y highway now.
Merv

[nervis]

Bloody hell... thats crazy... Im always amazed at how hard people find it to stay on THAIR side of the damn road... and stay on it!

[evileerf]

Thanks for your hard work but yes it's amasing how poorly people drive. No doubt roads MEL-SYD-BNE linking 3 biggest cities should all be freeways/motorways

[mrbitchi]

Bloody hell mate, what a shocker. That's the sort of reason why I never use the Pac H'way. Too bloody dangerous for me.

[Sean]

Keep the chin up Merv, your hard work and any emergency services efforts are greatly appreciated and mostly go unthanked. It must frustrate you greatly. Maybe the "powers that be" should do a few call outs with you so they can see it for what it really is about.
$$ vs LIVES. Mind you no matter how good the roads are there are always going to be bad drivers with bad attitudes who dont see the errors in thier ways until its to late.

[DWC]

Both sides of government have been ignoring the Pacific highway for years.
The coronial inquiry after the Grafton bus crash in '87 or '88 stated many upgrades needed for the whole length of the highway including at least dual carrageway from Sydney to Brisbane. NSW roads are a f*****g disgrace.
Rant off

Dave

[schnitzel]

Got to agree, that section of road is terrible and has been for many years now, used to get a lot of the wrecks stored at Raleigh Auto Wreckers when I worked there in the early nineties, people were screaming about the road then and nearly 20 years later still waiting.
Is a hard gig you do and much under appreciated but hopefully you will stick with it as it is a vital service and responsible for saving a lot of ;ives.

[sharkcaver]

Both sides of government have been ignoring the Pacific highway for years.
Dave

Hats off to you and the boys Merv. If I had more spare personal time to spare, I would like to volunteer my services as well....maybe one day.

As for NSW roads and more specifically, the Pacific Hwy, I dont think you could say they have ignored this for years. 20 years ago, the Pacific was an absolute disgrace and this showed in road tolls. In the last 20 years the Pacific Hwy has been upgraded dramatically to the point that I wouldn't recognise it now, so there has been a lot of progress. (a bit further back, but can anybody remember the old Pacific hwy from Sydney to Gosford pre freeway days?) Unfortunately, Its a very large stretch of road but the wheels of motion are probably turning far too slow and giving the perception that nothing is happening.

What do you believe the causes may have been Merv? poor road design, environmental, driver issues (fatigue, alcohol etc)?

Shane.

[rebelone607]

Got to agree, that section of road is terrible and has been for many years now, used to get a lot of the wrecks stored at Raleigh Auto Wreckers when I worked there in the early nineties, people were screaming about the road then and nearly 20 years later still waiting.
Is a hard gig you do and much under appreciated but hopefully you will stick with it as it is a vital service and responsible for saving a lot of ;ives.

Hi schnitzel, every chance I know you, I used to do the sandblasting down the end of the road from Raleigh Wreckers. Your old boss Bob sold the business a year or so ago and he was a great supporter of our group regularly providing old cars for us to practice on. New owner Paul is also a great bloke and continues to provide us with vehicles to train on.
Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement and I will pass on these coments to my troops. Whilst it is not a pleasant job it certainly has provided me with a lot of practical experiances and it is where I have learnt to be the bit of inventor - also gives me access to some really cool equipment which comes in handy at times, especially the hydraulic sets we use. And yes both sides of Government have ignored the Pacific Highway in this area forever and now they are all trying to do a bit of political point scoring, apparantly Ray Hadleigh even got on the band wagon today on the radio but things won't be fixed until our Government realises that NSW does not stand for Sydney, Newcaste, Wollongong but then again there is proably more votes in providing another rail line or F4,5,or 6 or whatever in Sydney than fixing up a highway for a few country hicks - phew there we go, maybe I should run for Parliament

[schnitzel]

More than likely then, whilst a lot of people found Bob a bit gruff at times he is a great bloke. Stopped working for him 15 years ago and still keep in contact, about says it all really. Used to love giving his old rotary 1600 a blast at Raleigh raceway, was great fun.
Used to help him drag the old cars and shells out for you guys all the time, especially the ones out of paradise valley.
Missed him last time we drove through as he was in the middle of selling up,sure took him a long time to sell though, tried to sell it to me in 1995 but swmbo obeyed made me return to melbourne instead.

[rebelone607]

Hats off to you and the boys Merv. If I had more spare personal time to spare, I would like to volunteer my services as well....maybe one day.

As for NSW roads and more specifically, the Pacific Hwy, I dont think you could say they have ignored this for years. 20 years ago, the Pacific was an absolute disgrace and this showed in road tolls. In the last 20 years the Pacific Hwy has been upgraded dramatically to the point that I wouldn't recognise it now, so there has been a lot of progress. (a bit further back, but can anybody remember the old Pacific hwy from Sydney to Gosford pre freeway days?) Unfortunately, Its a very large stretch of road but the wheels of motion are probably turning far too slow and giving the perception that nothing is happening.

What do you believe the causes may have been Merv? poor road design, environmental, driver issues (fatigue, alcohol etc)?

Shane.

hi shane, yes you are quite correct in saying that a lot of work is going on with the Pacific at the moment but the section between Warrell Creek and Woolgoolga which probably has the worst road accident record just keeps getting put off however they have just started the coffs to Woopi section in recent weeks. I have to be fairly guarded in what I say in relation to the reasons for these accident but I think a big factor is that as they improve sections north and south of here then two things happen imo, these being that the fatigue zone is pushed further out and secondly as drivers have just driven on some pretty good sections of road at relativly high speed they then hit this sub standard section and expect to be able to drive at the same speeds and with the good roads comes a somewhat reduction in driving skills in recards to cornering and overtaking etc. Also with modern vehicles the driver is very insulated from the external environment and how many times have we all looked down at the speedo and realised we were just cruising along at 120km / hr or even more - thats three things. About all else I can say about these recent accident is that thousands of others travelled along there on the same day with no problems so everyone can read what they like into what I am saying.
regards Merv

[Wiseowl]

Wholly hell Merve thats shocking. One would think all the speed camera's down that coast road and police presence would stop most of these horendious accidents. I used to live in coffs and often come down to see my MUM who lives in Sawtell. I have never seen so many speed camera and signs warning people speed kills from top Balgalow to Coffs Harbour you would think they would read I make sure I dont go over the speed as I can not afford a ticket. yOU ses GUYS DO A GREAT JOB but OFTEN ARE NOT RECONISED FOR YOUR EFFORTS. MANY THANKS FOR HELPING ALL OUT THAT HAS NEEDED YOUR HELP. Well done guys......Hope you have a quite Xmas mate.

[icysyrup]

Dang thats rough. People need to just slow down and pay attention more. I work in City Transit and you wouldnt believe the idiots I see every night while at work. Hopefully this week you just sit around and have a break to recouperate while at work

[Stevie-Ray]

Agree with you there!

Dang thats rough. People need to just slow down and pay attention more. I work in City Transit and you wouldnt believe the idiots I see every night while at work. Hopefully this week you just sit around and have a break to recouperate while at work

As a council bus-driver, I've also seen plenty of drivers take incredibly dangerous risks to pass other vehicles (esp. the ones they perceive to be 'slow', regardless of the fact they're at the speed-limit), only to see them just a few vehicles ahead at the next traffic-lights or town-centre!

An ambo friend of mine told me that one aspect of the traumatic job of dealing with MVAs that the news reports can't convey is the smell, & anyone that voluntarily takes on the task of assisting the emergency services, deserves a medal, in my opinion!

Cheers

[rebelone607]

Wholly hell Merve thats shocking. One would think all the speed camera's down that coast road and police presence would stop most of these horendious accidents. I used to live in coffs and often come down to see my MUM who lives in Sawtell. I have never seen so many speed camera and signs warning people speed kills from top Balgalow to Coffs Harbour you would think they would read I make sure I dont go over the speed as I can not afford a ticket. yOU ses GUYS DO A GREAT JOB but OFTEN ARE NOT RECONISED FOR YOUR EFFORTS. MANY THANKS FOR HELPING ALL OUT THAT HAS NEEDED YOUR HELP. Well done guys......Hope you have a quite Xmas mate.

Ah yes the speed cameras, everyone knows where they are - the navbitch even gives you a warning We now have the mobile cameras working in NSW and one of these was working just south of Urunga on the friday afternoon of the first accident and again the next morning when the three car accident occured so a lot of good they are doing. The truckies all know where the mobile ones are through the uhf radio system, my house is just a stones throw from the camera in the 60k zone at Urunga and you can see and hear them all the time come belting up the highway then the exhaust brakes come on , bap, bap, bap, as they come to the camera and away they go again. I should be one person who suports speed cameras but they just don't have any impact on speeding - except for the 100 or so meters each side. Nothing like seeing a few highway patrol cars cruising up and down the highway to have a better impact - no pun intended.
Merv