The fast and the furious.

If there’s one thing that gets my chopper hard – and not in a good way – it’s bad driving.

I know am not alone in this. Nearly everyone I know lists bad driving as one of their pet peeves. It sure does piss us off, but does anyone do anything about it? I do. I regularly contribute to the report a bad driver scheme that the NZ Police run through their website: www.police.govt.nz. It may not be much, but it’s a start.

All you need is the car rego and you are about three clicks away from anonymously dobbing the bastard in. Not totally anonymous, the Police will know who you are of course, but the dude with the mullet in the rust bucket that just flew past you doing a 130km on the motorway won’t! It's that easy, Try it sometime.

Here in NZ we have what we like to call, the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude. It’s a crap attitude, lets be honest. It might be quaint and cute and oh so Kiwi, but it’s the reason we don’t lock murderers and kiddie fiddlers away for nearly long enough. It’s the same reason we elect the same muppets every couple of years to spend our taxes on their tummy tuck operations and it’s the reason why other countries treat us with about as much respect as a floaty that just won’t flush.

The attitude works a little something like this – we don’t really care about something unless it directly affects us. So crime is cool, until some one steals my TV, then I’m really going to have something to say on the matter. Kiddie fiddling is not cool, but I don’t have any kids of my own so I needn’t worry about it (unless you’re doing the fiddling). Dangerous driving is okay, cause the hoon has just passed me, so I’m safe.

It’s a blase take on everything and the irony is, in some cases we even condone it by admiring those who get away with it. If it’s not a crime in our eyes, then is it really wrong? Of course it is, genius.

A large number of people don’t see dangerous driving as a crime and that is a big part of the problem. These people openly criticise the Police for putting resources into road safety , usually because they just got issued a ticket. These are the type of pricks that are of the opinion that it was okay to do what they were doing at the time, because they are more important than you and I. If there was any justice in the world it would be them that end up colliding with the drunk driver.

There are of course, other contributing factors too. For a small country, we are always trying to cover short distances in the shortest period of time. If we didn’t learn to drive from someone who was a bit shoddy behind the wheel themselves, then we learnt from the PlayStation. We mentally switch off when we get inside our two tonne pile of metal, thinking that we’re safe, because we know what we’re doing. No one else does, but hey - she’ll be right.

Then we turn on our iPods, crank up the sub woofers till the ears bleed and cocoon ourselves in a world of sensory deprivation. We buy big new powerful cars because the slick advertising promises us that we’ll have flaw proof handling and acceleration. These ads never mention that the wink link in all this sits behind the wheel. It also doesn’t help that once we have our license, never again are we tested on our abilities to handle a car. Especially the big new powerful one. Yeah, she'll be right.

We also have a binge drinking culture, which needless to say, doesn’t exactly help the issue. But more on that in a later blog methinks.

Here’s what I say to the ‘she’ll be right attitude’ to dangerous driving. Let’s collectively get down to the pharmacy of life and cash in our prescription for a set of testicles. Let’s get behind anybody or anything that makes it difficult for people to drive dangerously. Let’s have a culture where if some munter tailgates you on the motorway at 120km that it’s him that feels intimidated. Better yet, let’s vote for people who promise to pass legislation that makes a ‘citizens beating’ a legal form of speed reduction. I bet everyone will sit on 90 the day that law is passed because we’ll all be waiting to chase down anyone who drifts over a 100!

If we can collectively get behind fifteen blokes in short shorts chasing another fifteen blokes in short shorts then we can get behind a real cause. Don’t leave it for the overworked and under resourced Five-0, don’t leave it till someone you love is hurt / injured / killed. I'm just guessing here, but if that day ever happens (and I sincerely hope it doesn't), I'm picking she'll no longer be right. Right?

I don’t know about you, but given the choice between the two, I’d rather someone stole my TV than killed my loved ones in a car crash.