Poles of Death (1 Viewer)

[SlipStream]

How often do you hear of someone being killed by crashing into a power pole?

Seriously, it doesn't seem like the smartest thing to have rock solid poles just metres from the edge of the road. So many people are killed or maimed by hitting power poles but the finger is usually pointed elsewhere - inexperience, speed, fatigue, etc. But would not the person - regardless of the cause of the crash - have a better chance of survival if that pole wasn't there to begin with?

So many people have been killed by power poles that it has become a cliche - "the kid will be so blind he'll probably wrap himself around a power pole". Kind of a tasteless joke but still highlights that we recognise them as a danger to our wellbeing. But yet we complain not.

Shouldn't something national be done about them? I'm not saying to remove them - the car is only going to crash into something else - but perhaps even redesign them to be less destructive?

 

[7th Sign]

depends where you live mate if you in some old areas their are heaps and heaps of them....In the sutherland shire area im in its like 15 years old all power cables are underground.....People still get killed but hitting tress and things like that but, usually its speed + poor conditions which results in a crash like this but...

 

[SlipStream]

I'm not dismissing trees as also a problem, but they weren't necessarily put there on purpose.

The poles should be engineered to soften the impact, like with water barrels on highways, or roadside running cables.

 

[shortygb]

if they werent fatigued/speeding in the first place, hitting a pole wont be a problem. if they dont hit the pole they will hit something else, like a house or a tree.

but given that drivers will still speed and still drive fatigued, they should be made to lessen the imapct for the inevitable accident, but its not always feasable to do so, and thats what usually controls most safety decisions, if the cost outweigh the benefits. and it will cost alot to replace all power poles in the country or just in suburban areas.

 

[Raiks]

The cost of implementing infrastructure changes such as throwing power lines underground or even putting water barrels as a protective casing is just too expensive for governments to even consider.

To be honest, I'd rather power poles be as sturdy as they are now for the pure fact they carry so much power and fallen lines are much more of a concern to the general public that some person who's had an accident. As for street lighting, tell me an efficent way to have street lighting without having poles?

 

[DaddyK]

They've designed something already called the 'slip-base pole'.
http://www.ingaleps.com.au/streetlight/slipbase.html

 

[shortygb]

They've designed something already called the 'slip-base pole'.
http://www.ingaleps.com.au/streetlight/slipbase.html

im not sure if im seeing it right, but does this mean that the pole slips away and falls down if a car hits it? that would be safer for the car, more dangerous for th innocent people/objects around it.

 

[DaddyK]

Yeh because there would just happen to be a bunch of people standing right near it, and what the hell do you mean by innocent objects? who gives a fuck, materials are replacable, lives are not.

 

[DaddyK]

Also, the poles are strategically placed to avoid such events.

 

[loquasagacious]

As mentioned way to expensive to change them. As a side note on the roadside running cables; you don't want to know what they do to a motorbike rider.....

Oh and comparitevly the power poles in NSW/ACT are pretty good. In SA for instance most of their poles are old iron train tracks girders or the like sandwhiching reinforced concrete.........

 

[SlipStream]

shortygb: It's easy to condemn people for speeding, getting tired, inexperience or whatever, but these people are people like you and me. And you're probably guilty of all three of the above. Being a natural human being, it's unavoidable - you can't tell people to stop these things unless something extreme is introduced, like GPS speed monitoring.

addymac: yeh, bikers have nicknamed the cables "the grater" or something, to describe what happens to your body should you hit one at speed.

 

[Shell]

but have you ever heard a story about a fatal that didnt have any other factors besides the fact that the pole was in the way therefore they died? the driver always has some kind of influence. breaking the law in one way or another, alcohol, drugs, speeding, or just fatigued, driving a car too powerful for the driver to handle. etc. People who get "wrapped around poles" aren't dead simply because a pole was in the way.

 

[7th Sign]

depends If it was an accident where some innocent person was crusing along then some hoon ran them off the raod and hit a pole that would be bad