Let the music play: Ch11- Wild Wild Night

[TalonRider]

It could also mean that Helen now knows what happened at the party with the drinking. Brandon was supposed to call her if anything happened and he didn't.

 

Jan

[EMoe57]

Ah, but the question on everyone's lips will be WHO and HOW...

 

I vote for CJ in the Library with the keyboard

[wildone]

Ok, my guess is for Dimitri and Vladimir to be driving across the outback, when suddenly a kangaroo bounds in front of their vehicle. Unable to slam on the breaks quick enough, the Kangaroo dies like an insect on the windshield. The roo was hit with such force, it breaks the grill and mucks up the fan .

 

Dimitri is so devastated with the death of the kangaroo that he decides to make up for it by dedicating the rest of his life to only doing good

 

What do you think?

 

Steve

[Bondwriter]

Ok, my guess is for Dimitri and Vladimir to be driving across the outback, when suddenly a kangaroo bounds in front of their vehicle. Unable to slam on the breaks quick enough, the Kangaroo dies like an insect on the windshield. The roo was hit with such force, it breaks the grill and mucks up the fan .

 

Dimitri is so devastated with the death of the kangaroo that he decides to make up for it by dedicating the rest of his life to only doing good

I hope your prediction is right. They would thus avoid a potential nuclear war, foil a terrorist plot, and make the death of an innocent marsupial worth the utter damage it is. I suspect it is likely to happen. And they would go to Jerry's next fund raiser, and that's how the two plots would end up connected. The more I think about it, the more I agree with your prediction.

[Graeme]

Ok, my guess is for Dimitri and Vladimir to be driving across the outback, when suddenly a kangaroo bounds in front of their vehicle. Unable to slam on the breaks quick enough, the Kangaroo dies like an insect on the windshield. The roo was hit with such force, it breaks the grill and mucks up the fan .

This is, unfortunately, a common enough occurrence that a lot of Australian vehicles that travel regularly in kangaroo populated areas have "roo bars" on the front to stop the kangaroo from damaging the front of the vehicle. I can still remember the first time a kangaroon bounded in front of my vehicle as I was driving along a highway. I had seen several dead kangaroos on the side of the road and had been feeling angry at the callous people who had hit them. I was then admiring on kangaroo that was bounding along next to me when it decided to change direction and jump in front of me.... I managed to slam on the brakes and not hit it, but I changed my opinion of the other drivers who hit the earlier dead kangaroos.

[Ieshwar]

Wait...how come an echidna drives a car? A typing goay was ok, bt a driving echidna?

 

Ok, my guess is for Dimitri and Vladimir to be driving across the outback, when suddenly a kangaroo bounds in front of their vehicle. Unable to slam on the breaks quick enough, the Kangaroo dies like an insect on the windshield. The roo was hit with such force, it breaks the grill and mucks up the fan .

 

Dimitri is so devastated with the death of the kangaroo that he decides to make up for it by dedicating the rest of his life to only doing good

 

And trying to sensitize echidnas about driving well!

 

Ieshwar

[Rigel]

"roo bars"

So this roo walks into a bar and says ...

[AFriendlyFace]

Ah, but the question on everyone's lips will be WHO and HOW...

 

I vote for CJ in the Library with the keyboard

 

So this roo walks into a bar and says ...

 

 

You guys are funny!

[EMoe57]

Well, it is silly time again

[C James]

Well, it is silly time again

 

Our weekend tradition!

 

Sooo, for some activities, we could have another round of Shadowgod-blaming, or maybe some Emoe-teasing?

 

Or we could discuss why, exactly, someone with almost a thousand posts chooses the title of "Certified: Not Postaholic"?? Hrmmm, very suspicious that... Certified how? And by whom? I suspect denial...

 

[Ieshwar]

Certified by me!!!! Unlike you, I'm not in denial. I have barely 950 posts. But you...4705!!!! 5 times more than me!

 

And I also certify that CJ is a post-whore!

 

Ieshwar

[C James]

Certified by me!!!! Unlike you, I'm not in denial. I have barely 950 posts. But you...4705!!!! 5 times more than me!

 

And I also certify that CJ is a post-whore!

 

Ieshwar

 

Ieshwar! You are sadly mistaken! I do not have 5 times as many posts as you; 5 times 950 would be 4750, and I do not have 4750 posts!

 

Besides, anyone with between 400 and 4000 posts is a POSTAHOLIC! Absolutely 100% certified...

 

And I'm no post-whore! I'm a lurker, i tell ya!

[Ieshwar]

934*5= 4670.

 

Sorry, you have more than 5 times!

 

From 400 to 4000- postaholic (?)

 

From 4000 onwards- POSTWHORE!!!

 

Ieshwar

 

P.S I had said almost 950, not 950!

[shadowfire]

This is, unfortunately, a common enough occurrence that a lot of Australian vehicles that travel regularly in kangaroo populated areas have "roo bars" on the front to stop the kangaroo from damaging the front of the vehicle. I can still remember the first time a kangaroon bounded in front of my vehicle as I was driving along a highway. I had seen several dead kangaroos on the side of the road and had been feeling angry at the callous people who had hit them. I was then admiring on kangaroo that was bounding along next to me when it decided to change direction and jump in front of me.... I managed to slam on the brakes and not hit it, but I changed my opinion of the other drivers who hit the earlier dead kangaroos.

 

I grew up in the country and I can tell ya that "roo bars" (most people call them bull bars) don't really protect you or your car very much. Kangaroo's are really solid and do a lot of damage to cars. If you hit one at 100km/hr it's like hitting a cement & steel pillar. There isn't much likelyhood that you will be walking away from the accident.

 

When the drought started a few years ago tens of thousands of kangaroos and emu's migrated south from New South Wales into Victoria and South Australia along the Murray River. They were a massive pest eating all vegetation in sight and causing large amounts of damage. You wanted to be really careful driving at night - there were lots of bad accidents that year, and every day you would see more dead Kangaroos on the side of the road.

 

Kangaroos are NOT cudly friendly creatures at all. They are all muscle and can really hurt you if you get too close to them

[wildone]

Kangaroos are NOT cudly friendly creatures at all. They are all muscle and can really hurt you if you get too close to them

 

Oh, so kinda like Graeme

[C James]

934*5= 4670.

 

Sorry, you have more than 5 times!

 

From 400 to 4000- postaholic (?)

 

From 4000 onwards- POSTWHORE!!!

 

Ieshwar

 

P.S I had said almost 950, not 950!

 

Ahhh, but surely you can't expect a goat to count?

 

And currently, all members of GA with over 4000 posts are lurkers. A GA admin even said so. That makes it official, right?

 

I grew up in the country and I can tell ya that "roo bars" (most people call them bull bars) don't really protect you or your car very much. Kangaroo's are really solid and do a lot of damage to cars. If you hit one at 100km/hr it's like hitting a cement & steel pillar. There isn't much likelyhood that you will be walking away from the accident.

 

When the drought started a few years ago tens of thousands of kangaroos and emu's migrated south from New South Wales into Victoria and South Australia along the Murray River. They were a massive pest eating all vegetation in sight and causing large amounts of damage. You wanted to be really careful driving at night - there were lots of bad accidents that year, and every day you would see more dead Kangaroos on the side of the road.

 

Kangaroos are NOT cudly friendly creatures at all. They are all muscle and can really hurt you if you get too close to them

 

Hi Shadowfire!!

That's true.. And dang, are they fast! I remember a walaby running up from the side of the road, and then paralleling the car I was in, which was doing about 30 mph... Wow, are they fast... And Kangaroos, well, they are sure big, I was astounded.

 

In my area, we have deer and elk, and both cause fatal accidents. The deer are actually pretty large, and then a car hits them, they are often in mid-leap, and impact on the windshield. When that happens at speed, its often fatal to the occupants, becuase the deer comes through the windshield. I imagine it is much the same for kangaroos, given their leaping. From what I remember, the roo guards were often mounted on windshields for that reason. They won't protect the vehicle much, but might save the occupants.

 

Oh, so kinda like Graeme

 

Yep, but Graeme has those spines too! Plus, Echidnas are sneaky...

[AFriendlyFace]

I certainly don't meant to appear insensitive toward the tragedy of the many motorists who strike kangaroos, wallabies, deer, and elk. I'm sure that these accidents do cause a great deal of personal, physical, financial, and emotional trauma to the drivers and their occupants. However, the animal rights activist in me can't help but point out that it isn't really their fault. We've built giant concrete pathways right through their habitats and now we're racing our big steel cages down them at 100km/h (or 60mph). That isn't really something we can reasonably expect them to understand, never mind modify their behaviour to. It's also worth remembering that practically every kangaroo/wallaby/deer/elk and human motorist collision ends up at least as bad, and usually worse, for the animal in question than for the human.

 

Anyway, obviously ideally these accidents should be avoided in the first place. I wouldn't presume to be able to solve such a complicated problem, but I would assume that the solutions lie in strictly enforcing greatly reduced speeds for motorists passing through these areas (or else not building roads there in the first place) and/or perhaps the local governments building very good, very extensive fences around their roadways. Granted this probably initially seems impractical given that the most troublesome areas are usually the ones that are the most "in the middle of nowhere", but if building the fence came standard right along with building the highway it would get done. I could also be maintained at the same times that the roads were being maintained. Of course it wouldn't be perfect and would probably still inevitably be broken and useless in some places, but it would probably help.

 

Anyway, just my thoughts,

-Kevin

Edited October 9, 2007 by AFriendlyFace

[C James]

I certainly don't meant to appear insensitive toward the tragedy of the many motorists who strike kangaroos, wallabies, deer, and elk. I'm sure that these accidents do cause a great deal of personal, physical, financial, and emotional trauma to the drivers and their occupants. However, the animal rights activist in me can't help but point out that it isn't really their fault. We've built giant concrete pathways right through their habitats and now we're racing our big steel cages down them at 100km/h (or 60mph). That isn't really something we can reasonably expect them to understand, never mind modify their behaviour to. It's also worth remembering that practically every kangaroo/wallaby/deer/elk and human motorist collision ends up at least as bad, and usually worse, for the animal in question than for the human.

 

Anyway, obviously ideally these accidents should be avoided in the first place. I wouldn't presume to be able to solve such a complicated problem, but I would assume that the solutions lie in strictly enforcing greatly reduced speeds for motorists passing through these areas (or else not building roads there in the first place) and/or perhaps the local governments building very good, very extensive fences around their roadways. Granted this probably initially seems impractical given that the most troublesome areas are usually the ones that are the most "in the middle of nowhere", but if building the fence came standard right along with building the highway it would get done. I could also be maintained at the same times that the roads were being maintained. Of course it wouldn't be perfect and would probably still inevitably be broken and useless in some places, but it would probably help.

 

Anyway, just my thoughts,

-Kevin

 

The problem, especially in very low population density areas such as Australia, is that there are many miles of seldom-traveled road. Also, lowering the speed limit for such long distances is impractical abnd puts human lives at greater risk; differences between vehicle speed are far more likely to cause accidents than most anything else, and when you have artificially low speed limits, you get a lot of speeders.

 

A fence is a good idea, but one argument against would be (and I have no clue if it would apply) are they can do more harm than good; if they block wildlife from migrating or relocating, they can cause more deaths than traffic.

 

Another thing to beware of is deceptively easy "legislative fixes". One example is deer whistles for cars. These airflow-driven whistles are supposed to scare deer out of the way by generating a whistling noise. Every so often, after a human fatality, someone proposes making them mandatory. The only problem is, they don't work.

 

The other thing to consider is that Kangaroo populations have exploded since the advent of farming in Australia. So much so, as I recall, that Kangaroos need to be thinned out ever so often. In fact, as I recall, they were once (and might still be) officially designated as a pest species. Also, with runaway numbers, starvation becomes an issue.

 

What's my point? The heck if I know... :wacko: Just raising some issues that IMHO need to be thought through.

 

However, for both humans and critters, I do agree that reducing the car-critter impact rate would be a good idea.

[shadowfire]

Yeah, I agree with CJ - it really is totally impractical. The stretch of road I was talking about above is the Sturt Highway, which goes from Adelaide to about 2hrs south of Sydney (a distance of ~1200km).

 

The state governments have actually tried to reduce the speed limits in some areas several times, and the effect has been an increase in accidents due to driver fatigue. So it seems to be a no win situation.

 

People who travel in these areas frequently know to watch out for Roo's when driving at dusk/night - it's the only way to protect you, your car and the wildlife

 

Looking forward to the next chapter CJ! (I soo wouldn't want to be in Eric's place right now ...)

[MikeL]

The other thing to consider is that Kangaroo populations have exploded since the advent of farming in Australia. So much so, as I recall, that Kangaroos need to be thinned out ever so often. In fact, as I recall, they were once (and might still be) officially designated as a pest species. Also, with runaway numbers, starvation becomes an issue.

Endangered species laws seem to work well in many cases in the US. There are now more white-tailed deer (the most common species in the eastern states) than there were when the first Europeans settled here 400 years ago. That has created a growing problem as the human population and infrastructure grow.

 

CJ, I'm anxiously awaiting chapter 12. Thanks for a very interesting story.

[wildone]

Interesting clip I saw on the news just recently, and found a clip.

 

Don't worry, everybody and animal were fine.

 

 

Steve

[TalonRider]

That is amazing that the drivers managed to avoid hitting the roo.

 

Jan

[EMoe57]

Anyway, obviously ideally these accidents should be avoided in the first place. I wouldn't presume to be able to solve such a complicated problem, but I would assume that the solutions lie in strictly enforcing greatly reduced speeds for motorists passing through these areas (or else not building roads there in the first place) and/or perhaps the local governments building very good, very extensive fences around their roadways. Granted this probably initially seems impractical given that the most troublesome areas are usually the ones that are the most "in the middle of nowhere", but if building the fence came standard right along with building the highway it would get done. I could also be maintained at the same times that the roads were being maintained. Of course it wouldn't be perfect and would probably still inevitably be broken and useless in some places, but it would probably help.

A fence is a good idea, but one argument against would be (and I have no clue if it would apply) are they can do more harm than good; if they block wildlife from migrating or relocating, they can cause more deaths than traffic.

In the USA, the Interstate (limited access highway) system is built with a fence along the outside. This seems to help somewhat at keeping animals (and idiot/lazy people) from crossing the roadway, but it doesn

[AFriendlyFace]

Do you know how the Roo got on the track - It doesn

[Bondwriter]

I bet it wore a baseball cap and trench coat then just tried to act casually whilst purchasing a ticket. Naturally once it was seated and the race was underway enthusiasm swept it up and it just had to hop down and try to get a couple of autographs

This is indeed the only plausible explanation.