I agree with Captain Mainwaring’s assessment of Ken(needs a)Lay.

Lay is always the first to comment on road deaths calling drivers idiots etc….but seems to be ery silent when there has been police deaths or accidents where the police have been at fault.

enuf said
x2

Those stats would be done on the worst car possible.

I know they need to put a standard speed limit on all people and all cars, but they need to also understand that new cars have the ability to come to a stand still very very quickly, and dont take 50M to come to a halt from 60km.

ALL of the suggestions to state pollies come from the cops, and it is in cops interest to pursue the penalties and other cop jobs, while training and road improvements never get the mention, or no serious mention. Cops have blood on their hands too since their approach to safer roads is quite idiotic, and simplistic – slap more speed cameras and she’ll be alrite. I understand that otherwise cops won’t have a job to do, but I’m just being logical. You can’t just have people with a cop agenda suggesting how to make our roads safer.

Interestingly, I’ve read where NSW are testing GPS monitored speed restrictors, where the car simply cannot exceed the speed limit, & the GPS keeps track of you everywhere.
If that is brought in, then no-one could possibly exceed the speed limit, (unless the Gov’t equipment is faulty), & there would be zero speeding fines.

How would they make up the lost revenue?
And surely, there would be no speed related deaths whatsoever…. :-)

I would like to see people who sit in the outside lanes of multi lane roads 10 – 20 k’s under the speed limit punished as well. The people who refuse to move out of the outside lane when not overtaking and going well under the speed limit are more of a road hazard than someone going 5k’s over the speed limit.

Its all there to make money.

You would think they make enough money of all the taxes we pay in the first place?

If you want better and safer drivers, punishing them is only half the story. TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING. Perfect practice, makes perfect. And the government are very keen to ignore the fact that driver training, should be compulsory.

Old people should be tested at a certain age to see if they are fit to drive too.

They need to stop singling out young people and P platers, because they arnt the only ones on the road that make mistakes or act stupid at the wheel.

The Government just goes after easy targets. its sad.

I am not suggesting the removal of the points system, i tend to agree with you. But how do we make everyone safer? By doubling the penalty? Why dont we have double demerits all the time then if it makes things so much safer. This is funny logic that countries like the UK are moving away from.

I might remind you that if 2 of your passengers fail to buckle up on a 2*Dem weekend in NSW, that is loss of licence. I would lose my job.

The other issue is CORRECT enforcement when the penalty is automated. I seem to remember a datson 120y caught doing an impossible 160km/h in Victoria. If you are going to have a demerit system, you need to have systems that are 100 percent ACCURATE and fair. This is not the case in Australia and we all know of stories of unfair bookings.

When enforcement and penalties moves to revenue raising Simon (350 million BUDGETED in NSW 08/09), you tend to lose sight of the saftey aspects and the relevence goes out the window.

It is cheaper to create ‘tough new laws’ like car crushing than it is to implement a costly training course. It is cheaper to build speed camera’s than retraining. It cheaper to rely on car manufacturers to make safer cars, this one factor has saved more lives than any double demerit period has in history.

We dont need another cheap fix.

I agree with you.

I’ll never understnd why any State Gov’t refuses to insist on better driver training.

Exactly how would better driver training be a bad thing?

They reckon it makes young drivers over-confident, but if they are going to speed & hoon anyway, at least they’d have some chance of not dying…..

Yes, yes, they shouldn’t speed & hoon, but they do. Even with double demerit points, speed cameras, etc, etc

I would remind you that AU had a plan called the ‘roads to 2010′ to halve the road toll through the above measures and building better roads. This has been an utter failure and has been swept under the carpet. Proof that double demerits do nothing. A different approach is needed.

Google the Australian Transport Council and see what wonders they have in store for us.