It is the sudden deceleration which kills, and this is caused solely by DANGEROUS driving. This will still happen regardless of posted speed limits.

They will have us all driving at 4MPH with a person carrying a flag in front at this bloody rate.

The whole purpose of DRIVING is to GET SOMEWHERE is it not?

Solution to all the dangers on the roads = TAX people who happen to be driving along a clear stretch of motorway in good conditions a few MPH above the dictated limit.

BG

I am getting increasingly ‘annoyed” with these trucks driving up my rear. We despirately need a legal speed differential (20 kmph) between light vehicles and trucks to allow safe passing and prevent road trains forming which is a recipe for a serious head on.

In the cities its very aggressive driving and in Naples its hard to find a car without panel damage but despite this style of driving I saw no road rage just liberal use of the horn. That’s the Mr Hyde side of them.

Their motorways were an absolute pleasure to drive on, trucks were limited in speed (60, 80 and 100km/h depending on size and weight I guess) and could only use the inside lanes. The speed limit was 110 to 130kph but most drivers appeared to sit around 140km/h and for the most part drove to the 2 second rule. The outside lane was for overtaking and if you are out there and there is a faster car coming up quickly behind they flashed their lights to says “ I’m here and want passed” and people do move over asap to let them through. Fast moving cars were sitting at a guess 160 to 200 km/h with no problems and no sign of traffic police or speed cameras.

One near crash but that was because the female drive had a cell phone welded to here left ear and almost put an Alfa 159 into the crash barriers as she weaved/drifted into the outside lane as he was passing. Good job the guy was fully alert probably from driving at those faster speeds and reacted very quickly to avoid a crash. One big crash but that involved two trucks and spilt half a curtain trailer of Becks beers over the hard shoulder and I think these guys were in an 80 kph zone for trucks at the time so another nail in the coffin for speed kills! Maybe driving to close to the truck in front with a full load and could not stop in time might have been a possible cause?

My girlfriend during the trip drove from London to Glasgow. Now she has to drive all over Melbourne to visit clients everyday and she said afterwards that even the UK roads and drivers made for a very pleasant journey compared to Melbourne.

Driving on Melbourne’s freeways is a nightmare. Trucks, cars and 4 x 4’s 3 meter from the back of your car, virtually pushing you along, slower vehicles hogging the outside lanes, cars undertaking you everywhere and speed cameras everywhere. You need eyes in the back of your head and cat like reflexes just to survive.

Vic Roads and the Police should remove their blinkers and model what actually works a dam sight better and safer from other countries in the world rather than ramming down our throats that speed kills and installing another 1,000,000 speed cameras to fix the problem of road deaths. When are they going to wake up and smell the coffee its not going to do anything except annoy even more drivers.
Fix the problems!

The roads are more than capably of being driven at 130kph + but the road rules and the complete lack good/sensible drivers with the correct ability/skills would result in horrific accidents at this increased speed but if you have ever driven in Germany you will know how good it was! We are all human, right! If they can do it there why can’t it be done here!!

I see absolutely no reason for not increasing the speed limit of light motor vehicles NOT towing trailers boats etc to 120kmph when the current law deems it “safe” for 30 tonne rigs to do 100/110 kmph right up my ass as I have experienced several times on the Bruce and Peak Downs Highway.

I also think it would be a good idea for the relevent authorities to be more proactive with safety and make Australia the first country to make it manditory that all new light motor vehicles sold in this country be fitted with ABS as standard. It is a small cost to pay for something that has prooved to save lives in the past

Training/tests are among the most stringent you would find, and in general European drivers (with possible exceptions of the Italians and French!) are more conscientious and follow the regs more closely than here.

50mph is too slow in a majority of cases. Vast swathes of road are at the national limit, most of which are 60+mph safely. If there are other areas which need to get knocked down, then i’m all for limits there (thinking of several A-roads across the North) but theres just no need for that limit on 85% of it.

The summary, and seeming consensus above, is that the limit should be apropriate for the road. On the vast majority of derestricted roads 60 is the sensible limit. Other parts, stick in a limit and camera.

Oh, and by the way… absolute B/S coming from those saying speed cameras are a key revnue source for Govt, something like 20m GBP net profit in 08 – as I believe Top Gear itself told us – Simon Cowell pays more than that in Income Tax alone!

Solution: Make it compulsory for drivers to sit a personality test taylored to weed out the obviously reckless to be drivers. Then conduct extensive driver training (including skid pads, multi weather/condition driving) that is accessed. Stress test the individual (this should weed out those with tendencies to take action against thier better judgement). High speed assesment (this will train/test the individual for reflex times, spacial awareness and distance judgement). With this hopefully a breed of ‘professional’ drivers will reduce our road fatalities and abolish the rediculous speed limits.

A car has similar killing power to that of guns. Every driver should be aware that they are sitting in a loaded gun and one wrong move could set of the trigger.

One interesting result is that there are no high speed police patrols on the autostrada. No police cars more potent than Subaru Libertys, because such a large proportion of drivers stick to the limit that they don’t have an enforcement problem.

Also EVERYBODY indicates before going to pass in the fast lane – NOBODY bothers to indicate when they move back because everybody knows that they will do so as soon as they have finished passing.

The new dual-carriageway Perth-Bunbury Hwy would be a prime candidate for an inter-city route that should be posted at 130km/h. In fact the stretch that was finished years ago is easily driven at this speed.

However, the problem that law makers face, beyond the need for revenue, is that people just cannot drive to the conditions. Driving at 130km/h at dusk can be very dangerous in Australia.

This isn’t Germany, where their autobahns are nicely fenced off from their skippy equivalent (deer) and have crash barriers along both sides of the road.

I think most cars’ braking systems are up to the task, but gearing is an issue. Our models delivered from places like Japan are geared very shortly. Drive a Euro car and notice the difference.

If we are talking about reducing irritation, I think dual-carriageways along major routes would be nice and having people keep left, and allowing those in the right lane to overtake at a reasonable speed without fear of getting a fine.

A slight bump up in speed limits in open country areas would help (I think people falling off the road won’t be affected that much as plenty manage to do it even now).

Finally, not having a huge ditch lined with massive trees next to the road might also reduce the loss of life on our country roads.

Umm, not it’s not. It is a legal requirement to keep left on any road where the posted limit exceeds 70km/h.

And besides, the “Keep left” and “Tailgating” cameras ARE coming. You’ve been warned.

How can we monitor a person driving while talking on mobile phone? Sure, police can do the job. How many officers are needed to spot all offenders?

How can we monitor a person hogging right lane? It’s their right to do so.

How can we monitor human negligence/error (fatigue, not stopping at stop sign, illegal u-turn, etc) and pre-emptively prevent it before it happens? Impossible.

Me and someone I know of have been involved in a number of accidents. And guess what, none of these accidents are caused by speed. None. Nil. All of them were due to the stupidity and in some instances, ignorance from other drivers.

Education and training is the key to eliminate most if not all factors contributing to road kills.

Crashing a car @ 150km/h, even a 5 star safety car won’t save your life.

100km/h is slow and boring, but I believe it could reduce some chances of serious accident.

It should be obvious to most reasonable people that the slowly lowering road toll over the last decade is almost entirely due to improved car safety. Similarly, the road toll dived during the last recession (the fact that people drive less in times of recession is well documented) – but the various state governments and police forces took ALL the credit. Watch them do the same this time around.

Finally – speed kills? I don’t think so. Poor driving ability and poor judgement might, though. The emphasis on speed as the major cause of road trauma is I think solely due to the fact that your speed can be measured without your car having to be stopped. Imagine if they had a camera that could detect drunk or drugged drivers; then we might see law enforcement concentrate on the things that are intrinsically dangerous, which speeding isn’t.