Head-on crash highlights major mistake Aussies make on rural roads
The footage is a prime example of the dangers posed by blind corners.
Footage of a head-on crash between a ute and motorbike rider has highlighted a safety mistake many Aussies make while driving on rural roads.
The collision occurred on Sunday morning and was captured by another vehicle's dashcam as it travelled behind the ute on the winding road in Berowra Heights — a suburb between two national parks in Sydney's north.
The motorbike rider isn't visible in the footage until he suddenly bounces off the ute and into the air before hitting the ground, luckily redirected away from the steep drop at the edge of the road.
NSW Ambulance confirmed to Yahoo News Australia it responded to the incident around 9:30am and the rider, a male in his 30s, was treated for head and shoulder injuries before being transported to a local hospital.
Prime example of danger that blind corners pose
The dashcam footage has sparked a fierce debate about who was at fault after being uploaded online. Some claimed the rider didn't "hug the bend" enough, yet most agreed the road conditions were particularly dangerous, with the area "known to have lots of crashes". One local claimed the road has a 40km/h speed limit.
However, with rural routes like these found all across Australia, a road safety expert said there is simply no excuse for the error that both drivers made.
"You just can't make an assumption that [an oncoming driver] is going to sit around a corner or that there won't be someone coming the other way. You have to always be on the lookout for that," Mick Humphries, Licensing Compliance Manager at RAISE Training, told Yahoo News Australia.
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He noted the ute driver was well positioned at the edge of the road, and the rider appeared to "take the wrong line" into the corner, yet he said being aware that an oncoming driver could appear at any moment is the biggest takeaway from the footage — with speed also playing a part.
"The reality is when it's a bad road and there's limited vision, this is when you need to go slower," he said. "You have to adapt your skills in those circumstances ... it's as simple as that."
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