A while ago I did a rant on speed limits and the reason behind them not actually being safer at their current speeds…
And here, thanks to a study done by car advice, we can see that the issuing of speeding fines does not actually save lives.
These statistics are taken from Queensland police where the numbers of fines have been issued for speeding vs the deaths related to speeding (these figures don’t take into account fatigue, driver experience, conditions etc).
In 2012 359,764 fines were issued from mobile “safety” cameras alone and there were 59 deaths relating to speed.
In 2013 there was a jump in fines issued by almost 100,000 and the deaths relating to speed were down to 47… Yes the politicians think we’ve gotten millions more dollars and save lives… That’s great… Well no.
Let’s now look at 2014 (no stats are available yet for 2015) 597,959 fines issued! A huge jump in numbers from the previous years. With this theory we should expect a death till in the low forties or upper thirties… No. 65 people died by speed-related deaths.
How is this possible!? With so many fines issued shouldn’t there be less deaths than 2013, not more than 2012.
Or could it be that the speed kills do-gooder governments care not for your safety and more for your wallet?
It should also be noted that the Queensland police have changed their speed tolerance from 10% of the limit down to 3 km/h. And what has happened? Nothing! People are dying in the same amount despite more fines being issued.
In Melbourne, the Eastern Freeway hasn’t got fixed cameras, and it has the same number of incidents on it as highways and tollways with fixed cameras.
Speed doesn’t kill. Inexperience and irresponsibility does.
Let police do their jobs and actually get unsafe drivers instead of parked with a radar gun! Too many times I’ve seen dangerous driving and a marked or unmarked police car near me ignore it. That’s not good. For their image as law enforcers and for the safety of the citizen.
XYZ’s Grumpy Driver