Petrol Tanker driving like a fool, should I report him?

I rang '000' yesterday afternoon, there was a fight (between two mothers!!!! In front of their teenage sons!!!!) out the front of my work, and then one of the crazy ladies reversed into my friends car, and sped off.

I wasn't scared of my danger, neither for the other two physco's. Police didn't turn up for another 2 hours :eek:, unfortunately at this time i was on my break and had to give a statement then..Couldn't have possibly come when i was clocked on grr :D
 
I am a 000 call taker & you can ring 000 to report dangerous/erratic drivers - people do all the time. If it's well after the event, you can report them to crimestoppers also. Try and make sure you have the rego, vehicle type, time date, description of driver etc. The more info the better.
 
Toon said:
I am a 000 call taker & you can ring 000 to report dangerous/erratic drivers - people do all the time.
Click to expand...

I didn't know this but wish I did earlier.

About 2 years ago I was in New Farm heading back toward the Valley and noticed the car in front of me swerving all over the place. I tried to get through to a local police station without success, but I followed the car for a bit (a few cars back) and we ended up going south on the Storey bridge, it was still all over the road and I couldn't get through to the police.

After that I lost visual contact with the car but all traffic came to a halt. After getting out of my car and walking on ahead I found the car that had been swerving went into on-coming traffic and had a head-on smash, both cars were totalled, with bits spread out in 4 out of 6 lanes. I overheard someone say the 'driver' was "pretty f***d up" (as in blood everywhere), but couldn't ascertain which one :(

It was a strange feeling knowing I had followed that exact car all the way from New Farm (park) and couldn't prevent the accident.

-Ian
 
Sadly, even if you had have called 000, there would be little chance that police could have got there in time to stop the smash from happening.
 
Toon said:
Sadly, even if you had have called 000, there would be little chance that police could have got there in time to stop the smash from happening.
Click to expand...

Maybe. It was a little under 10 minutes I guess from park to bridge. There were a lot of police in the Valley as it was a Friday night. Ambulance was at the accident site in 5 minutes after the smash. Anyway I'll definitely try 000 if I see that sort of thing again.

p.s. Does 911 redirect to 000? About 6 years ago my brother had a power-tool accident and I ran to the phone; The first instinct running through my head and my fingers was 911 (too much TV that week), then I quickly realised what I'd done, hung up and dialed 000.
 
ianvestor said:
Maybe. It was a little under 10 minutes I guess from park to bridge. There were a lot of police in the Valley as it was a Friday night. Ambulance was at the accident site in 5 minutes after the smash. Anyway I'll definitely try 000 if I see that sort of thing again.
Click to expand...

It definitely would't hurt to try 000 anyway.

p.s. Does 911 redirect to 000? About 6 years ago my brother had a power-tool accident and I ran to the phone; The first instinct running through my head and my fingers was 911 (too much TV that week), then I quickly realised what I'd done, hung up and dialed 000.
Click to expand...

No, not from a landline. Apparently some mobile's are programmed to do so, but it's easier just to dial 000.
 
Years ago I was driving after midnight on Pacific Highway on Sydney's North Shore coming back from work. There was very little traffic

A large truck tailgated me swerving from side to side at well over the speed limit...I had sped up to avoid being hit. It was quite scarey at the time.

I reported the licence number to the local police that evening (about a minute after he passed me).

Their advice "go home, have a cup of tea and chill out".

Some truckies have driven all day from interstate and by the time they get to Sydney late at night are flying on amphetamine/caffeine pills and just want to get the job finished.

I'm not sure if anything has changed much since then.
 
this sort of thing is one of the incidents why we have better gun control laws............a 12 gauge pump with BBs in the truck tyres would slow them down just a little !

Stupidity doesnt stop at Licence Class 1 Im afraid.

ta
rolf
 
You don't know what some of these drivers are on (drugs),and not just truckies.
Is it worth your life to defend your position even if you are in the right.
Pull over and let them go.
How many times do you read people in road rage incidents being killed.
 
Toon said:
I am a 000 call taker & you can ring 000 to report dangerous/erratic drivers - people do all the time
Click to expand...

then you better re-familiarise yourself with the law surrounding the use of 000...I am somewhat disturbed that as a 000 call taker you are actually encouraging people to to misuse the service and justify it by saying people do it all the time.

it is quite clear - 000 is for immediate danger to life and/or significant property. calling triple zero for an erratic or even "dangerous" driver does not fall into that category given that the definition of dangerous driver is different in the public mindset to that of the law.

people doing it all the time does not make it right and it ties up the 000 lines for people with genuine emergencies. The other posters are right, get out of the way - take the details and report at the nearest police station. You would still have to make a report anyway so might as well do it upfront.

It would have to be something like a petrol tanker driving erratically and swerving all over the road, forcing vehicles to take evasive action to justify a call to 000.


**for the record I spent over a decade in law enforcement and quite a number of those years within a police communications centre responding to those 000 calls. so it is more than just an opinion.
 
ianvestor said:
p.s. Does 911 redirect to 000? About 6 years ago my brother had a power-tool accident and I ran to the phone; The first instinct running through my head and my fingers was 911 (too much TV that week), then I quickly realised what I'd done, hung up and dialed 000.
Click to expand...

definately not - given that many landline numbers around the country (particularly sydney metro) have 911# #### as the first three digits in their phone numbers.

the only three numbers that work are 000, 112 from mobiles (works without a sim card) and 106 from computers and text-typers for the hearing impaired.

911 has never worked in australia and never will - it is only on some mobiles with the american software set (bought off the net??) but the number still will not work. give it a try!! the phone will just sit there waiting for the next five numbers to make a call.
 
urban cowboy said:
then you better re-familiarise yourself with the law surrounding the use of 000...I am somewhat disturbed that as a 000 call taker you are actually encouraging people to to misuse the service and justify it by saying people do it all the time.

it is quite clear - 000 is for immediate danger to life and/or significant property. calling triple zero for an erratic or even "dangerous" driver does not fall into that category given that the definition of dangerous driver is different in the public mindset to that of the law.

people doing it all the time does not make it right and it ties up the 000 lines for people with genuine emergencies. The other posters are right, get out of the way - take the details and report at the nearest police station. You would still have to make a report anyway so might as well do it upfront.

It would have to be something like a petrol tanker driving erratically and swerving all over the road, forcing vehicles to take evasive action to justify a call to 000.


**for the record I spent over a decade in law enforcement and quite a number of those years within a police communications centre responding to those 000 calls. so it is more than just an opinion.
Click to expand...


This is what it says at http://www.demc.nsw.gov.au/000.htm about 000

000 is a free NATIONAL emergency hotline service to contact the Police, Ambulance or Fire Services in case of urgent time critical, life threatening situations or other emergencies.

I guess the dangerous drivers on the road may fall under urgent time critical and other emergencies which may become life threatening.
 
UC, are the guidelines for 000 calls uniformed throughout the country now? From memory about 15 years ago, the 000 number was advertised in a similar fashion to what Toon has mentioned which surprised me when knowing what the system was like in Vic and how it was frowned on. The policies have probably changed since my days.

Raja, you may have answered my question whilst typing.
 
andrew_de_a said:
I just called 911 on my iPhone and it was redirected to 000
Click to expand...

Don't know whether to laugh or wonder how many others are doing the same and getting through. Maybe better to think it can and not waste time finding out and possibly stop an urgent call going through.
 
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