Motor skills

A grab bag of pieces about motoring from the media:

• "Lost in the rush" by motoring journalist Bill Tuckey in The Australian: "Revenue-hungry governments ignore the statistics as they hype the holiday road toll, while their focus on speeding blinds us to the myriad other reasons behind accidents". It skims over a lot of topics but asks some pertinent questions.

• A difference of opinion as to whether the Indian cricket team's bus was involved in a minor accident in Sydney. According to The Australian Radio 2UE reported it as a fact, yet the Indian team media manager said "I am on the bus. We didn't hit anything."
  

• An anti- 4WD rant by Charlotte George in The Age . She uses the fuel guzzling Hummer to condemn all 4WDs (or SUVs as they are increasingly becoming known here) , which is fair enough...up to a point. As a 4WD owner let me say in my defence that I try to restrict my use to medium - long trips, and that I try to drive at the optimum speed for fuel economy (around 90 kph). Doing so makes for long days but with some CDs (audio books or music) to listen to on the open road and stops every two hours or so travelling can be enjoyable.