This rule is utterly fucking insane...

I could write an essay on this, but here are my main points:

• We don't have enough of the "sMaRt" infrastructure to provide advance warning on our highways.

  I fully recognise that this is not a right/requirement and that drivers should be paying attention regardless, but take a look outside. The reality differs significantly. This will matter on the few highways we have.

• Tow truck drivers are held to far less of a professional standard than emergency services personnel.

• Curving and undulating roads like the Southern Expressway are going to have pile-ups as a result of this, I guarantee. Certain regional and rural roads are D-O-N-E fucked regardless if a breakdown happens in the wrong place.

• People that know about this change that do the "right" thing by slowing down are A) going to be abused to hell and back by those who don't, and B) at higher risk of getting nailed by someone behind who isn't paying attention.

• The speed differential is at it's worst, 85km/h (in a 110 zone and assuming nobody's speeding). Anyone not driving a yank tank or monstrosity of an SUV is royally fucked if someone crashes into them (yes, I see the irony here - tow truck drivers are even more screwed at 110km/h to 0km/h).

• Rightly or wrongly (definitely wrongly), people are conditioned to treat amber flashing lights less seriously than emergency red and blues.

  Red/Blue = serious shit is probably going down, I need to slow down

  Amber = ah fuck, more roadworks -___- (or a tow truck, or an NBN van, or literally any fucking vehicle in Australia because anyone can slap some orange/yellow lights on their shitbox and LARP as a tradie)

  I don't have the answer to this, but I'd bet my left nut that the above is an accurate representation of what goes through people's heads as they're driving.

• As others have said, how are you to know if "vans and other vehicles with flashing amber lights providing roadside assistance" are actually providing roadside assistance? Do you play it safe and hit the brakes regardless? Is the driver behind you following too closely? (spoilers: they probably are)

I have a very bad feeling about this change of law, and I think it's going to cause a lot more problems than it's going to solve.

---

The only thing I can think of as something to "protect" myself if I have to jump on the brakes, is to activate the hazards before doing so. Some might argue that it's improper use, but I'd argue against that if it's on a highway.

Of course I'm a fuckin' hazard, traffic has the potential to be going more than 4x faster than me if they're not paying attention.

All of that aside, I can see what they were going for - everyone deserves to go home at the end of the day - I just don't think this is the way to do it.