Opinion: Drivers have no right to speed
Opinion: Drivers have no right to speed
By Raphael Grzebieta
Road safety researchers, practitioners and advocates are disappointed and frustrated by the recent sharp rise in NSW road deaths. A staggering 227 lives were lost in the first six months of 2009, almost one-third greater than the same period last year.
That has required police to knock on 51 extra doors to perform the ghastly task of informing families that their loved one has died in a traffic crash. Hospitalisation
After a long and relatively steady decline in road accident rates, this year has come as a rude shock. A recent round-table panel of road safety experts looked at the evidence and concluded that an increase in speeding has been a key cause.
Yet when experts recommend that NSW should immediately introduce more safety speed cameras - particularly covert mobile cameras - nervous politicians flinch from doing so. Why?
No-one can be ignorant of what we have to gain from reducing road trauma. In NSW it is the largest injury-related killer of young people between the ages of 1 and 24, and the number one cause of injury hospitalisation
No-one can object to more effort being put into enforcing existing laws that are clearly being flouted, with horrific consequences. Drivers are not being asked to accept some new, untried or unfamiliar technology: speed cameras have been around for years and we know they curb speeding.
Police and road safety experts are simply asking road users to drive and ride within legal speed limits and for more cameras to change the behaviour of the irresponsible few who don't. NSW should also expand the use of point-to-point safety cameras, which monitor average speed over distances: these are already in use for heavy vehicles in major highways and have a lasting deterrent effect on speeding on long journeys.
Clearly, most drivers and riders have nothing to worry about. It is worth noting that 75 per cent of NSW motorists have no demerit points. If politicians are uncertain about popular support for a tougher stance on illegal speeding, that statistic alone should dispel any doubts: most drivers routinely observe speed limits and none would want their loved ones, friends or themselves killed or maimed by reckless law-breakers.
Those arguing against the introduction of more safety speed cameras are effectively saying they want the right to speed and not get caught. It is an extraordinary and unsupportable position.
Speed limits are set so that collisions are likely to be survivable. They allow time to detect a hazard and react quickly enough to brake or take evasive action. International evidence reveals that a 10 per cent increase in average speed (e.g. from 60 km/hr to 66 km/hr) leads to an approximate 22 per cent increase in crashes causing injury and an extraordinary 48 per cent increase in fatal crashes. Put simply, the laws of physics and human performance dictate that small increments in speed result in large spikes in the number of collisions, injuries and deaths on our roads.
After a dramatic rise in road deaths between 1989 and 1992, Victoria rapidly expanded its use of covert speed cameras, random breath testing and mass media advertising. The effect was stunning: within three years its road toll fell from 780 to 400. But with more cars on the road and people driving greater distances the toll slowly climbed again, reaching 460 by 2002.
VicRoads responded by lowering the threshold that triggers a fine to 3 km/hr above the speed limit, expanding the number of covert roadside cameras and introducing 40 km/hr speed zones in areas of high pedestrian activity. Again, the effect was stunning; road deaths fell by 100 in the ensuing two-year period.
Between 50 and 100 mobile safety cameras would need to be deployed around NSW to achieve the same positive impacts seen in Victoria.
Why covert cameras? Research has shown that the unpredictabilit
To ward off time-worn accusations of revenue-raising
NSW has achieved a great result through its current road safety strategy, including the black spot program, P-plate driver restrictions, fatigue laws and anti-hoon laws. However, it has probably gone as far as it can without a major enforcement program on speeding.
The choice is now simple: more mobile safety speed cameras or more deaths and road carnage. Unless we take these necessary steps a minority of road users will continue to speed, believing the chances of detection are low. We would not stand back meekly if a small group of law-breakers thought they could get away with randomly killing and wounding people with guns - speeding drivers are no better and they merit no more tolerance.
Some facts about speeding:
- Small speed increases have big costs: Research shows that the risk of injury in a crash doubles with a 5 km/h increase in travel speed. Travelling at 65 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, you are twice as likely to be involved in a crash. A car braking from 65 km/h will still be travelling at 32 km/h at the point where a vehicle braking from 60 km/h has stopped.
- Slowing down saves lives: Small changes in speed can result in significant reductions in road trauma. Put simply, slowing down saves lives. Research shows that just a 10 per cent reduction in average vehicle travelling speeds could reduce road deaths by 40 per cent.
- Speeding saves little time: It's true! Speeding is a major contributor to road deaths and trauma, and yet brings about only minor reductions in travel time. On a 10 km journey, you would save 46 seconds by increasing your average speed from 60km/h to 65km/h, but you double your chances of being involved in a crash.
- Speeding damages the environment: Increasing your speed also increases dangerous vehicle emissions that damage the environment.
Source: VicRoads
Professor Raphael Grzebieta holds the Chair of Road Safety at the UNSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre and is immediate Past President of the Australasian College of Road Safety.
