Just like the daylight saving banning brigade, the bullbar banning brigade seems to crawl out from under the rocks every so often.<\/p>\n
They just won’t take no for an answer.<\/p>\n
As pointed out on many forums, perhaps it would be smarter to look at more ways of preventing vehicles from hitting pedestrians, rather than banning bull bars.\u00a0 Because when a vehicle hits a pedestrian, they’re damaged, regardless of the type of vehicle involved and whether the vehicle had a bullbar fitted or not.<\/p>\n
Some suggest altering bull bar design & materials used, for example making them out of poly.\u00a0 But if they aren’t strongly made and well designed they won’t do the job they’re meant to do – protect the front of the vehicle from animal damage – so they’re not worth having at all.\u00a0 Poly bends, as many a radiator discovered during the 1980’s when the clear poly bullbars became common.\u00a0 Poly bullbars have disappeared for a reason – they do not do the job a bullbar is supposed to do – they offer next to no protection, they simply flex in then flex back out again.<\/p>\n
(Unfortunately) I’ve hit more roos than I’ve had hot dinners over the years – having lived\u00a0in and travelled through a lot of densely populated roo areas.\u00a0 Most recently I hit a roo when travelling across the Barkly Tableland, when at sunrise a \u00a0big red roo unfortunately bounded down a cutting and collected the front corner of the car (despite my best last-minute braking efforts).\u00a0 When out of the confines of town, I very very rarely drive around sunrise or sunset but on this occasion I had a long distance to cover, so set off unusually early, despite my better judgement.\u00a0 Big mistake; the car limped into Tennant Creek and the local repair bloke helped bodgy up repairs to headlights, panels etc with wire and packing tape.\u00a0 Drove another 6,000km or so before returning home & getting several thousand dollars of repairs completed in Townsville.\u00a0 The bullbar on our car is designed to move on impact,\u00a0so it absorbs a lot of the impact of a bingle, and it helps avoid radiator damage.\u00a0 Many of the roads I drive on are incredibly sparsely trafficked.\u00a0 In fact it’s not uncommon for me to drive on what is a main road in a remote area for several hundred kilometres, and not pass a single other vehicle travelling in any direction.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s at the hottest part of the year and the last place you’d want to be stranded – waiting in the heat not knowing how many hours or days you’d have to wait for a passerby to come along.\u00a0 I always have water and some food in the car and have not been stuck beside the road for more than 15 years; it’s something I avoid like the plague.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it would be better to look more closely at banning V8 4WDs in suburban areas, when owned by people who never ever take them off the bitumen.\u00a0 These money-wasting fuel guzzlers block right hand turn and parking vision etc, and a\u00a0massive waste of resources.\u00a0 Financially, these owners would be better off buying standard cars and renting a 4wd on the rare occasion when they may have the urge to head bush.<\/p>\n