WORDS: MAX TAYLOR
BIG RV BEAT-UP
IN A NEVER-ENDING QUEST FOR RATINGS, IT’S
BECOMING MORE AND MORE FASHIONABLE
TO DISPARAGE THE RV LIFESTYLE.
There are two certainties in
life: death and taxes. But with
respect to Benjamin Franklin,
who is reported to have
first uttered those immortal
words, I’ll add a third: the
media’s unquenchable thirst
for portraying caravanners as
dangers on the road.
A Current Affair aired yet
another report in early January
that, frankly, was barely
anything other than an excuse
to show footage of caravans
disintegrating on the highway.
It contained few facts,
derogatorily referred to grey
nomads as ‘wobblies’ and,
you guessed it, featured the
obligatory interview with a truck
driver fed up with caravanners.
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gorv.com.au
This report was the latest in
a series A Current Affair has
been running in recent months
under the banner ‘Caravan
Chaos’. If I didn’t know better,
I’d swear caravanners have
become this program’s new
dodgy builders.
There is a worthwhile
debate to have about how to
improve the safety of all road
users, but such exploitation
– dash-cam shot after
dash-cam shot of crashing
caravans – only tarnishes
the lifestyle of thousands of
well-intentioned and, yes, law
abiding Australians. We can
even debate my use of the
words ‘law abiding’, as I am the
first to admit that some – but
certainly not all – caravanners
break the law by exceeding
the towing capacity of their
vehicle, for example. But let’s
not pretend they are the only
motorists who do the wrong
thing on occasion.
The January report of
A Current Affair followed
a 2017 report on the same
program asking whether
caravanners should be subject
to a special licensing regime.
And yes, this is also a debate
worth having. After all,
neither you nor I could drive
a motorhome exceeding 4.5
tonnes in Gross Vehicle Mass
without an LR or HR licence.
It’s fair to say that the Gross
Combined Mass of many 4WD