Comments on: Push to extend double-demerit point program

By: Fasthonda

Fasthonda — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:42:03 +0000

No!..no!…no!double demerit points isn’t the answer.What police need to do is to apply to the Victorian Government to give them powers to torture people that loose all their demerit point.
Strip offenders naked,tie them to a chair,place electrical conductors,run painful electrical currents on sensitive parts of their body.
The effort put into finding punitive measures against drivers by the Police(Vic)is quite extraordinary,bordering on obsessive!
The time will come if a cop sees you coughing while driving,it will constituent dangerous driving!

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

By: MB

MB — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:49:01 +0000

Doesnt help when pedestrian fatalities are included in the road figures. People who are half cut staggering on the road wearing dark clohes getting creamed by drivers is hardly the drivers fault.

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.

By: zero

zero — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:11:22 +0000

“but heavy enforcement in Australia and around the world has shown it does not reduce the road death toll.”

enuf said
x2

By: Forza M

Forza M — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:02:14 +0000

Victoria is a state that fines people to revenue raise and nothing else. Make no mistake about it. This will be yet another disgraceful decision from the labour govt, as someone who is on the roads 12 hours a day i see how bad people are now driving to avoid being booked. The average speed in the right hand lane of a freeway would be about 87 km an hour thanks to these dipshits.

By: Pauly

Pauly — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:30:59 +0000

Those TV AD’s saying if you do 60 instead of 65 also dont take into account that newer cars have MUCH better braking systems and tyres, that can pull a car to a halt ALOT quicker then your 15 year old commodadore and falcon.

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.

By: Jester

Jester — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:02:21 +0000

Hey, everyone saw the stupid wipe-off 5 add on TV, stating that if the dude was going 60 instead of 65 the chick that stepped in front of his car would have been fine. What a load of junk. What happened with swerwing to avoid the stupid broad, or what happened with TV ads actually warning idiots to stop stepping on the road without looking. Makes me sick. Roads are for driving, footpaths for walking, bike tracks for riding. How about there is a serious attempt to stop drunk and lost idiots walking on the road and getting cleaned up by law obiding drivers. How will the double demerit points stop a drunk pedestrain idiot stepping in front of the car that is doing everything as per the book. How will the double demerit point stop a lost idiot not paying any attention from being cleaned up by a car driver that is doing everything as per the book. Stupid approach Lay man, try addressing all issues in for example a pedestrian being runned over type accident, don’t just look at demerit point for the drivers.
We all know that pedestrian deaths are a substantial addition to the road toll numbers in Oz.

By: Jester

Jester — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:56:03 +0000

Hey Lay, how about as an advice to State Government you suggest introding a serious training requirements before licence is issued to drivers. You open your mouth and just speak of penalising people. No wonder there is no progresss in lowering the road toll. 95% of imporve,ment in road toll can be attirbuted to improvements in vehicle design, with airbags, crumple zones, ESP, ABS, better tyres, better suspension etc.

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.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:34:40 +0000

He looks like a smiling idiot, and probably is.

By: Frontman

Frontman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:33:05 +0000

I agree that if you speed & get caught it is your fault. But in traffic engineering it is a well known fact (no I am not an engineer, but have read enough about the subject to realise when a point is common) that general traffic will find a safe speed for any given road.
Simply put general traffic in perfect conditions will tend to drive a road above the posted limit (safely) however the same traffic in inclement conditions will drive slower than the limit.
The problem with double demerits at times such as holidays is that those people who only do highway driving at these times become distracted by the constant need to adjust their speed. For these people, any further distractions / nervousness is only creating higher risk. I realise that this seems far fetched but there is a lot of studies that have gone into this subject. Remember that these are also the people that drive into the CBD for Xmas shopping, only to then try to figure out where they are going to park, chop lanes at the last instance and cut you off. Not genuine speedsters, just commuters who see a car as a way of saving shoe leather.

By: JasonP

JasonP — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:32:44 +0000

Well put Daytona & Simon.

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….