Does speed kill? Revenue Before Safety

For our loyal readers the theme of our writing should have become rather obvious by now, we simply do not support the state governments in their efforts to blame speed as the cause of our nations road toll. We have argued countless times that speed is simply a contributing factor at the best of times and most definitely not the cause.


In our battle against the State Governments (and many other media organisations) we have found a few friends who have also stood up against the state government's "Speed Kills" policy. Road Sense is Australia's leading website helping to shed some light on the reality of Speed Cameras and their ineffectiveness to save lives.

We have a special treat for our readers today, a special report written by Mr Bruce Josephs has been kindly donated to CarAdvice for our readers. The report clearly, thoroughly and truthfully shows how the NSW Government’s speeding policy is failing.

Report highlights:

  • The false premise that Speeding Kills which the government uses in order to justify taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the motoring public.
  • The false and misleading propaganda used to back up this false premise.
  • The unreliability of the speed measurement devices used to infringe motorists.
  • How radar operators break police guidelines in order to infringe innocent motorists.
  • The situation where many motorists whilst not breaking any law are subject to losing points, time, money, etc.
  • The extraordinary lengths the government goes to, in order to prevent justice and maintain their cash cow.
  • Highlighting the fact that many innocent motorists are losing their livelihoods, time and money, etc when they have not even broken the law, let alone done anything wrong.
  • This report aims to highlight the truth behind the NSW Government's failed speeding policy and offers suggestions to improve the current situation.

You can download the Full article in PDF format : Does speed kill? Government Putting Revenue Before Safety (500kb)

Excerpts from the Article follow :

Does speed kill?

The current use of speed cameras (including radars and lidars) is generating hundreds of millions of dollars for State Governments at the expense of Australian lives.

The current NSW Government road safety policy uses a "speed kills" mentality with lower speed limits stringently policed by speed cameras, radar and lidar. Sadly, its justification is based on lies about how many lives speed cameras can save and that speeding above the limit is the major cause of road fatalities.

There is no government scientific data or study available that states how many lives are lost above the speed limit. The major studies and reports referred to by the Government, used to justify speed cameras, are grossly misleading - some would say fraudulent. The vast majority of the data presented is from crashes that occur below the speed limit.... (read entire article)

Current speeding policy is not saving lives

The "speeding" lie would be easier to accept if it was saving lives but it is not. Prior to the introduction of speed cameras the road toll was declining steadily due to common sense policies, more visible police on the road, safer vehicles, improved roads, improved paramedic skills and more.

Between 1980 and 1992 the road toll declined by around 40%. And as more vehicles are fitted with air bags, electronic stability control and other safety features, we would expect that along with the NSW Government's justification for using speed cameras, the road toll would decline - it has not. It has halted the decline in deaths, abruptly.

According to RoadSense.com.au, based on Australian Transport Safety Bureau statistics, the road toll would have been less by 500 lives in 2004 had the previous beneficial trend been allowed to continue. Similar trends have been shown in New Zealand at www.fastsafe.org.au and on www.safespeed.org.uk in the United Kingdom.

The main reason for the failure of this speed kills policy is that in urban areas driver focus has changed from getting safely to their destination to not getting caught by a speed camera. Speed cameras are a massive distraction. And in addition to this distraction, low speed limits lead to boredom, inattention and drowsiness. And obviously from the statistics, the NSW Government is focusing on the wrong culprit of Australias road deaths..... (read entire article)

Problems with lowering speed limits

There are many problems associated with lower speed limits. Lower speed limits mean more congestion, longer delays, higher transport costs, increased pollution, and greater driver fatigue. Motorists become frustrated and may take unnecessary risks, to get to their destination more efficiently. Furthermore, accidents are caused by the implementation of
slow speed limits as drivers are distracted from the act of driving and are more concerned with watching their speedometer or watching for speed cameras.

Harsher penalties force motorists to watch their speedometers more, and motorists brake suddenly when approaching fixed radar and speed camera sites. This is backed up by research by British Sociologist, Dr Alan Buckingham. Sudden braking on approaches to speed cameras causes accidents and has been shown by Paul Smith at www.safespeed.org.uk. .... (read entire article)

You can download the Full article in PDF format : Does speed kill? Government Putting Revenue Before Safety (500kb)

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