Speeding Revenue

Don’t you just love the idiots writing to the press saying things like “If you don’t want to pay extra road taxes don’t speed”, “speed kills” and “if you speed you’re an idiot.” Speed doesn’t kill by itself. There are a lot of factors involved such as experience, the condition of the vehicle and tyres, the weather, other idiots on the road, fatigue, testosterone, alcohol,…the list goes on. But if you believe the politicians and police traffic spokesman speed is the killer. It’s a pity stats don’t back that up. “Every K over is a killer’ just doesn’t cut it as a stand-alone stat and is very clearly an exercise in getting the driving population to accept fines from cameras and radar for minor infringements. The only speed that kills is “inapproriate speed” and that can be possibly be defined as low as 20 kph in a 60 zone if any of the real killer factors are present. The young hoon drifting around the corner on drugs and two wheels near my quite suburban house is most probably only doing 20 kph but if anything happens he has no escape path – bang – a little kid is killed. That’s what the TV adds should concentrate on. My doing a 120 on a vacant four lane highway passing a semi in a 110 zone is as dangerous as my old golden retriever licking a burglar to death. The State Government, in this case, Queensland, have TV adds that emotively suggest that travelling at 61 kph in a 60 zone is tantamount to homicidal driving. See the little child killed…see the grieving mother weep…every k over is a killer. No mention of speedos only being accurate to 10% and the driver can’t tell the difference between 60 and 66 kph – only what his speedo reads. ` On the highway behind the B-Double semi that’s doing 110 downhill and 90 uphill you will have to break the speed limit either uphill or down to pass him in a passing lane . It’s unsafe to stay behind as you can’t read the traffic far enough ahead for safe driving but the wowsers would have you stay behind the semi for the entire journey. They’re the ones that are totally unaware of the traffic around them. So long as they watch their speedo and keep it under the posted limit then they are safe drivers and a warm glow suffuses their bodies after every righteous trip. But watch them on the dual highway doing 90 kph in the right lane alongside another vehicle and blocking ten or twenty people moving on as it’s a crime to speed and the limit is a 100 so why would you want to pass me and I’m actually unaware of the trafic behind me as the TV adds say every k over is a killer and I need to keep my eye on the speedo – not the trafic, not the people on the side of the road, not the body language of the driver in the vehicle in front….just the speedo. These dropkicks cause accidents but because the role of traffic branch is balanced in favour of revenue from the “every k over is a killer campaign” slow and dangerous drivers don’t show on radar. The hoon around the corner inappropriately speeding at 20 kph doesn’t show either – he’s safe because it has to be a k over before he’s a killer. Steve Bredhauer, the local Transport Minister quotes; Total crashes on a stretch of the autobahn in Germany dropped from around 300 per year to fewer than 30 when speed cameras were introduced. Fine, and your next point is? There must be another point because that stat alone says nothing. What were the limits on the autobahn before speed cameras. If my memory serves me right there was no limit This is the road system where Mercs, Alfas, Massaratis, and Porches drove at over 200 kph and have done so for decades. Driving at 200 kph is a different arguement and unsupportable because that is where speed can kill – not 110 kph in a 100 zone. What to do. While the state governments are reaping millions from these cameras I can’t see them letting a cash cow go. I note in Victoria they are talking about, or already have, implimented laws that bring the speedo tolerance to 3 or 4%. That is to say doing 64 k in a 60 zone will cost you. How on earth do we reconcile this with the fact that Australian Design Standards only demand 10% accuracy in new car speedos. Maybe I’m being cynical but that smacks of revenue. Even the dropkick drivers I referred to earlier in this post will be guilty of speeding. Or will they? No, they will simply drop their speed 10% to cover Gods rules on speeding and create more accidents. Police presence on the road is what we should have. Irrational drivers, dangerously unsafe vehicles or dangerous road conditions never show on camera but a patrol can impact on these real killer factors. Of course the state coffers bean counters will tell the Police and Transport minister that patrols cost money and cameras make money making their decisions easy – go for the money.