2 minute read
4Thought
Driving back from Geraldton just the other day I was given a rude shock. Passing an oncoming police vehicle, I was surprised to see his lights come on as he quickly conducted a u-turn and gave chase. When the officer approached my window, he informed me that I had been speeding and that he had clocked me travelling at 111km/h in a 110km zone. The issue wasn’t the 1km/h over the speed limit, it was the fact that I had a trailer in tow. Despite my claims that I was travelling on cruise control and that the speedo only showing my speed as 103km/h (and two witnesses in the vehicle to back up my claim) the officer insisted that I would receive a ticket. Fortunately for me the infringement was only $100 with no loss of points. So ended 10,348 days without ever incurring a traffic infringement. But that wasn’t the rude shock. One of my colleagues travelling with me didn’t know that the maximum speed limit with a trailer was only 100km/h. Having grown up towing plenty of trailers, I had always assumed that everyone knew about this road rule. As Australian’s holiday habits change radically with a greater focus on domestic tourism, we have witnessed the purchase of caravans and camper trailers on a scale never before seen. It made me wonder how many other drivers were out there blissfully unaware of the speed restrictions when towing. From other recent road trips, I would suggest that it is not a well-known rule as vehicles with large caravans or boats blasted past me on their way north. As the state government encourages us to wander out yonder and with so many first time 'towers', perhaps it’s time for a targeted education campaign to remind drivers of the rules when towing.
4 THOUGHT
with CHRIS MORTON
Long time readers of Western 4W Driver will be saddened to hear that Ian Elliot has made the decision to 'hang up his keyboard', making the call based upon his body not bouncing back as quickly from his epic desert adventures. He still plans to submit the odd article from time to time when he has something to say. We are currently working on a replacement for the Wildtrax column. April saw another significant change at Western 4W Driver with Karen and I making the decision to sell to Vanguard Media Group. Vanguard have been printing the magazine for quite some time and we had developed a very strong relationship with their team. The deal still sees us both running Western 4W Driver, retaining editorial control while being able to leverage Vanguard’s 50 years of experience in commercial printing, warehousing and logistics. The move will also expose the magazine to a range of new audiences, with Vanguard having a significant presence in the state tourism sector with the production and supply of brochures and maps to visitor centres around the state. Stay tuned as we are working on an expanded range of guidebooks as well as some other exciting developments. On the digital front, our YouTube channel continues to surprise us. Eight days prior to writing this piece, we uploaded a quick video covering off the 10 most popular rumours currently circulating around the pending arrival of the 300 series LandCruiser. We were hoping for 5,000 views ... 70,530 views later, the video is proving to be extremely popular. If you haven’t yet taken a look, head over to www.youtube.com/Australian4WDriver Make that 70,542 views, I’m off to get my speedo checked.
