Yet another fatal rollover at fraser

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Interesting press release:

Fatal crash driver given info in English

GABRIELLE DUNLEVY

December 29, 2009 - 5:39PM


AAP
A Japanese tourist who crashed a four-wheel drive on Fraser Island, killing a companion, was shown an English instruction video when he hired the vehicle but his understanding of it was "not 100 per cent".
A hired Landcruiser carrying eight Japanese tourists overturned on the island's Eastern Beach earlier this month, killing Takeshi Sakai and injuring his travel companions.
Through a translator in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday, the driver, Takashi Nukutou, 29, told an inquest into the death that he and Mr Sakai had planned to share the driving.
Understanding more English, Mr Sakai had dealt more directly with staff at the Hervey Bay hire company, Aussie Trax, but both men had signed the lease.
However on arriving at Fraser Island, Mr Sakai said he was scared of driving "a big car" and Mr Nukutou took the wheel.
He told the court that on the morning of the crash, he had less than one glass of leftover wine he didn't want to waste.
Counsel assisting the coroner Peter Johns asked Mr Nukutou whether it was possible his speed had reached 100km/h in the 80km/h beach zone.
Mr Nukutou told the court his speed exceeded the 80km/h limit "a few times" but did not believe it had exceeded 100km/h.
"I don't remember exactly," he said.
"I don't like speeding generally so I don't think it is (possible)."
Mr Nukutou said he didn't remember his speed immediately before the crash, having no recollection of anything between passing a shipwreck, and waking up in a Brisbane hospital.
He was only released on Sunday, having suffered a fractured neck, and appeared in court wearing a neck brace and hospital bracelet.
Mr Sakai was thrown from the Toyota Landcruiser in the crash, which occurred three to five metres from the water line, and died from severe multiple injuries.
Mr Nukutou told the court he did not understand the contract he had signed at Aussie Trax, which included a "survival code" on 4WD safety.
In court, he was shown a copy of the survival code in Japanese but said he had never seen it before.
"I was told by Takeshi that he saw some Japanese somewhere and the next minute I looked (for) the piece of paper and it was gone," Mr Nukutou said.
He said he had understood the one-hour English instruction video played at Aussie Trax, but "not 100 per cent".
He also said he had noticed a problem with the Landcruiser's steering, saying that while in Hervey Bay, it had pulled to the left and it was an effort to steer straight at high-speed.
But Mr Nukutou said he hadn't noticed the problem on the island, because he hadn't driven at high speed there.
Mr Nukutou had been in Australia for two months on a working holiday visa at the time of the accident and had met Mr Sakai a few days after arriving.
The inquest before state coroner Michael Barnes was urgently convened to secure the evidence of the driver before his return to Japan.
There have been 41 serious 4WD accidents on the island between 2003 and 2009, with the majority involving foreign drivers and an even larger portion involving vehicles with more than nine seats.
The government was due to bring in tougher regulations regarding troop-carriers in 2010 but is now considering whether those restrictions need to be strengthened.
The inquest will continue next month, when Mr Barnes will decide whether to combine the inquest with that into another Fraser Island 4WD crash that killed two people on April 18.
Outside the court, Aussie Trax owner Michael Dwyer told reporters the accident had been "horrendous" for his staff.
"There's nothing that I can say that'll make it any better or any worse," he said.

© 2009 AAP

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And again:

4WD crash driver didn't understand training video

AMELIA BENTLEY

December 29, 2009 - 2:05PM


The car that crashed on Fraser Island on December 13, killing one tourist and injuring seven. Photo: Agl Action Rescue Helicopter Bundaberg/The Sunshine Coast Daily

The Japanese driver of a vehicle which crashed on Fraser Island earlier this month, killing a tourist, was shown a training video in English which he did not understand, a court has heard.
Takashi Nukutou, 29, wore a neck brace and spoke through an interpreter when he appeared at an inquest into the death of Takeshi Sakai, who died when a 4WD Mr Nukutou was driving overturned on Fraser Island's eastern beaches on December 13.
Mr Nukutou told Brisbane Coroner's Court this morning he was shown a driver training video when he and his friends collected the Toyota Landcruiser from Aussie Trax car hire in Hervey Bay.
But he did not understand "100 per cent" because his grasp of English was limited, he said.
Mr Nukutou, who from time to time leaned over and placed his head in his hands, said he was asked to drive the hired Toyota Landcruiser to take he and seven other tourists along Fraser Island's beaches because he had a manual licence and was the only one confident driving the large vehicle.
He had driven a 4WD in Japan but only on snow, never on the beach.

Mr Nukutou said the vehicle had been hired in his and Mr Sakai's names but that Mr Sakai did not want do any driving.
"He was scared of driving a big car so I drove," Mr Nukutou said.
He admitted to drinking the night before the crash and not getting to bed until 1am that morning.

He told the court he noticed the vehicle's steering wheel had pulled in the opposite direction when he drove it to collect friends from a bus stop the day before the fatal accident.
"When I turned to the left the car turned to go to the right," he said.
He also said he was not told to lower the tyre pressure of the vehicle before driving on sand, but saw other four wheel drive owners doing so on the boat to the island and so he and his friends altered the pressure of their tyres.
"We tried the other tyres [of other cars] with our feet and then we tried on our car and they felt the same," he said.
Mr Nukutou was permitted by Coroner Michael Barnes to avoid answering some questions about the accident so as not to incriminate himself.

His lawyer Cameron Browne told the court his client had only been released from hospital on Sunday and was "in a great deal of pain".

Mr Nukutou had been in Australia for two months on a working holiday visa at the time of the accident, having just finished picking fruit in Bundaberg.

There have been 41 serious 4WD accidents on the island between 2003 and 2009, with the majority involving foreign drivers and an even larger portion involving vehicles with more than nine seats.

The government was due to bring in tougher regulations regarding troop-carriers in 2010 but is now considering whether those restrictions need to be further strengthened.

The inquest continues.

[GBC]

There's a GXL rim on the front and a sunraysia on the back. I'd almost swear from that photo they were different sized tyres too - not a good look for the hire company.

[finga]

There's a GXL rim on the front and a sunraysia on the back. I'd almost swear from that photo they were different sized tyres too - not a good look for the hire company.

First thing I noticed as well.
Definitely different offsets.
I think there is going to be a HUGE shake-up in the hire industry.

Does anybody know if hire cars have to have machinery inspections like heavy vehicles do??
If not then that might be a good start.

[GBC]

Just read this whole thread and thought I'd throw 2c at the 'beach driving accreditation' idea.

I've been trained in beach driving - a specially commissioned course after muggins stripped both diffs out of a 100 series at North Ngkala whilst working for the federal gov't and they went on a witch hunt - they failed to find one.

The course was done by a prominent training company whose instructor is often seen giving lessons to the 'creek to coast' lot on T.V., and in the main was great fun day on the beach interspersed with some forced boggings and recoveries etc.

It was highlighted that the thing most of us do for general traction and safe traversing of soft sand is letting our tyres down.
The instructor quietly agreed with us, then went on to say that he could not deliver that info as part of a lesson, or write it down anywhere because he would be telling us to alter a vehicle to outside the manufacturer's(vehicle and tyre) specifications and his company could get sued.

Therefore I'd see any sort of beach driving accreditation as being flawed in it's ability to deliver the knowledge that is actually required to educate the masses due to red tape.

Tyre pressures aside though, offroad driver education is a worthwhile exercise.

In the sad tale above I believe that for our tourists, something is better than nothing.
Even if is a 20 minute video you have to sit through (Like for the Tom Price - Karratha access road if anyone's seen it) in your native language, that outlines the dangers of SPEED and other simple things on sand. The vid has a couple of graffic images which may just settle them down enough to save themselves.
Perhaps?