Today I’m pleased to be able to provide information on a motion that I have put forward to be considered for adoption at the upcoming Liberal Party state council meeting.
The motion deals with the issue of undetected speeding on major highways and was written and passed at the branch level in May 2009. So while it is timely to put the issue up for party and public debate, I want to point out that it has not been developed in response to yesterday’s terrible road fatalities.
The motion I have proposed, and which has been forwarded to all State Council delegates reads as follows:
MOTION 29
That this State Council recommends that permanent Registration Plate Recognition cameras be placed at specified points along all major highways to enforce speed limits. This should be used by police in addition to a permanent and properly resourced highway patrol to make our major highways safer for all road users.
Rationale
We all know that the Midland Highway should be upgraded to four lanes and properly monitored by a permanent police highway patrol. However this motion seeks to give an additional tool to police to target those road users who endanger others by flouting speed limits but manage to avoid spot detection (i.e. by radar gun and speed cameras). Motorists who can be proven to have travelled known distances in less time than it would have taken if the speed limits were respected should be penalised. To practically implement this policy, cameras would need to be placed in several locations to take account of the fact that many people stop for rest breaks (e.g. on the approaches to Campbell Town, St Peters Pass, Parramatta Creek). It would use already established and tested technology such as the system used in mainland states to monitor truck driver rest stops.
I’m taking this opportunity to bring the idea into a broader public discussion regarding road safety, prior to the state council next weekend (July 17-19).
We need new solutions to tackle bad driver behaviour in Tasmania, including those which have proven to work well elsewhere.
I know all Tasmanians will appreciate the way that all political parties are responding to this week’s terrible loss of life on our roads. The tragedies have served as a reminder to all people of goodwill to work together and find common ground on improving road safety for all road users.
When will people realise that there are far more reasons for accidents, fatal and non-fatal than going over the sppeed limit.
Most young people drive around cities and slowly on the open road to prepare for their liscence. The driving test is done in the city. The driver has to be able to do a three point turn and reverse park.
They do not drive on the open road, the gravel road, often not in the wet, etc.
They are ill prepared to drive on roads outside the city. They have very little idea about how to pass another car safely. They do not know how to react in a skid,or a slide, how to break without locking up their brakes and even how to use ABS brakes properly.
As people gain driving years most still do not how to do these things.
Many people don’t know how to handle their cars and what the limits are. Driving seems to be done the same in wet or dry, hot or cold or even on ice and snow.
That is why I encouraged both my sons to do an advances driving course soon after they got their license. My younger son was a fan of driving fast so I helped him to join a car club and go to club days at Symons Plains.
Monitoring speed and booking people is a waste of time if there is no proper driver education.
I propose that all new drivers do an advanced driving course and that these are repeated several times over the course of a driver’s driving life.
Tell me how booking someone for slight accidental speeding ( we can’t be watching the speedo all the time, we have to look at the road sometimes)in a street where there is no traffic and no sign of people can save lives. That only makes people angry and disrespect the law and those who have to administer it.
G’day Ann
I’ll start to answer your message by saying that you and I probably don’t belong to the group I refer to as disregarding the law – and we probably don’t quite understand what makes them act the way they do.
I suspect there are about as many explanations for road smashes as there are road smashes… I’ve noticed that many of the leaders in the road safety debate are shying away from even using the word “accident” which is the word most of us have grown up with. The argument is that there is no such thing as an accident – road trauma always comes back to a cause ie inattention, dangerous driving, racing, running late, not driving to conditions.
I totally the your point that speeding is just one of the causes of road trauma, amongst others like inexperience and lack of training.
However consider this: on the one day that you would think that most Tasmanians would be most careful on the road (today, after yesterday’s horrific fatalities) I was amazed driving to Devonport and back to Launceston today just how many people were speeding past me. They put themselves and myself at risk.
Many law-abiding drivers are inexperienced and are unlucky to find themselves involved in crash. And we can help these people by doing exactly as you say… there is plenty of merit in the proposal to require more training; especially defensive driver training.
Also, there is a group of people who can’t be helped much because they don’t seem to care just what the law says or even how good they are – they think the law doesn’t apply to themselves and noone else matters.
To answer your question …. it’s an imperfect science but if people know that they will be penalised for exceeding the speed limit over a two-hour journey, they will ensure that their speed is managed over that time frame. Currently that’s not happening. Momentary inadvertant speeding, which happens to all of us, would not even be detected by the technology i’m proposing.
As a highway driver, I for one would like to know that the car approaching me on the other side of the road knows they can’t get away with driving like an speed demon. For some people, punishment is the only language they understand.
But like most problems, the best solution is probably a group of ideas not just one.
Australia is one of the ONLY COUNTRIES in the entire world that has “hidden speed cameras. I believe that this is a pure revenue raiser and the Tasmanian police apparently are spending more money within this area.
When a driver visually sees a police car, automatically they become more alert, watch their speed and become more aware of their surroundings. The more our government spends on “hidden” speed cameras the more marked’ police cars will be non- invested in. I believe we should focus more on police cars and police patrols being true police cars and being able to see them clearly.
Secondly; I drive a little in the mainland both in metro and rural. I have noticed that there arte so many clear visual and large signs everywhere in the country. And in many places at least every 10km. Signs that specifically targets speed, fatigue, in-attention etc. I think that this is an area that we as a state needs to invest in MORE. I regularly make the trip from our major link roads, Burnie, Launceston and Hobart and I can tell you now, that there are very limited signage focussed in this area and this could be an area that we NEED to explore…
Regards
That sounds like a sensible and practical idea Michael; a method of more fairly and accurately identifying those who are deliberately flaunting the speed limit.
I can certainly testify that the defensive driving course, that my mother suggested above, raised my awareness of saftey issues that I had not considered, and even now, many years later I still think about the things I learned. From memory, such courses are meant to be taken around a year after a driver gets their Ps (when driving starts to become automatic), but the theoretical information about defensive driving could certainly be made part of the learner/provisional tests which currently seem to focus solely on the rules.
Statement from Deputy Opposition Leader: Jeremy Rockliff
Better driver education is part of the solution
• Defensive driving tuition good for novice and experienced drivers alike
• Novice drivers statistically more likely to crash
• Driver education an important part of cutting road toll
There is no doubt that better driver training and defensive driver courses are part of a host of ideas that must be considered to reduce the road toll.
As someone who drives long distances in my work, I undertook a defensive driving course some years ago. Even though I had been driving for some years, doing the course was undoubtedly a ‘wake up call’ to me about slipping into bad driving habits, as well as honing skills such as driving in different road conditions and handling skids.
The Tasmanian Liberals have as policy incentives for novice drivers to undertake professional training in defensive driving.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has found
• Young drivers aged between 17 and 25 are eleven times more likely to be killed or injured in crashes.
• Young drivers are also more likely to be involved in road crashes, whether deaths or injuries occur or not.
• P plate drivers have a significantly higher risk of being involved in crashes during the first few months of solo driving.
• Tasmania has the highest rate of fatalities per 100,000 registered vehicles – 15 per 100,000 vehicles, which is an increase of 5 over the last five years and which is against the national trend.
In the light of these statistics, there should be no argument that a suite of initiatives to improve driver training merit consideration.
And this should take place at the same time as examining other worthwhile measures, such as improved road signs and marking, reviewing penalties for driving offences and improving the condition of Tasmania’s roads.
It is vital that government, and indeed all political parties, show leadership in this important area, and a willingness to look at new ideas.
Hi Michael.
Some points that I would like you to consider.
That the advanced driving course should be part of normal driver training.
Those that had experience at age 12 to 14 have made better drivers.
Wives: husbands:partners that are always late is a major cause of accidents.
Worry about things at home is a contributor to an increase in loss of attention(this is a significant cause of industrial accidents).
The modern car is so comfortable and easy to drive that people tend to fall asleep.
The controls/add ons are not consistent over all vehicles.
Maintaining correct tyre pressure and a clean windscreen is very important and it is a lot harder to find a servo that has a convenient place to check these important items.
Aggressive drivers and those that tailgate should have their drivers licence taken away for a long time.
Years ago people would not buy cars or trucks that had colours that made them very hard to see in a lot of road conditions,the same thing applied to bird impacts and road kill,there are hundreds of these coloured vehicles on the road today.
A wise person said to me years ago that it is better to be a bit late in this world than to be too early in the next one so slow down.
Regards
Murray Grose
In response to Sam’s comment:
“When a driver visually sees a police car, automatically they become more alert, watch their speed and become more aware of their surroundings”.
We know the law convicts us of wrongdoing, but we really need to put the law on our hearts, then we will WANT to do the right thing.
If we all personally take responsibility and drive within the limits, the roads would be a much safer place for everyone. Education begins at home and the best place is around the dinner table. How can we learn consideration for others if it doesn’t begin at home?
I also agree with Ann Collings that an advanced driving course should be introduced and made compulsory.
I wish Michael all the best with his proposal and may he be heard and well received.
I think there is another fallacy that contributes to both number of accidents through drowsiness on the roads and driver inattention. We have come to believe that a maximum speed limit of 100/110 kph is a good thing.
It is not.
Any arbitrary cap does not which does not allow the selection of the optimum maximum speed for a road is inherently flawed.
More bluntly, people die because we limit the speed on our roads to 110 kph.
To use an extreme case to make the point, I’ve travelled through outback Australia, where you pass another car every half hour or so on dead straight, dead flat roads, with cleared areas for 20m either side. The only significant danger you face in these conditions is from inattention and drowsiness. If it was legal to drive faster, you would achieve two things. You spend less time traveling, and you concentrate more on driving. Both of these act to reduce the risk of accident.
The problem we face – and I dare say the reason Michael had people overtaking him on his travels is that we set speed limits at a level that people driving find inherently to low for the conditions they are driving in.
Want to make an economic case for a four lane midlands highway (which I suspect has got a fractional benefit / cost ratio), then recalculate with the speed limit increased to match the quality of the road. Design the road for 140 or 180km/h. A road that requires a level of concentration and attention to drive at the speed limit is a safer road than one that puts you to sleep.
Or think about it this way. Limiting our speed to 100/110 kph inherently sets a maximum quality of road that can be justified economically. You want better roads? Then let engineers do their job and design them for higher speeds.
Think about problems to do with conditions differently. Have speed limits that sense and adjust with traffic density and weather. The technology to do so would not be that difficult to put in place. A busy arterial road that is appropriately limited to 70kph during the day in dry weather may be safer set at 90 late at night when there is little traffic, and at 50 when there is heavy rain falling.
In the end, while what you are suggesting makes sense on the surface, I don’t think it is addressing the real problem. The problem is that we set speed limits that are clearly too low for the standard of roads and conditions.