6 November 2013

901 speeders nabbed

| johnboy
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ACT Policing caught more than 901 drivers speeding on Canberra roads during the month of October as part of its multi-agency road safety strategy.

Police issued a total of 589 Traffic Infringement Notices (TINs) for speeding and 312 cautions.

Nine drivers were caught travelling more than 45km/h over the speed limit incurring fines of $1,811 plus the loss of six demerit points.

A 26-year-old Holt man was caught travelling at 150km/h in an 80km/h speed zone on Ginninderra Drive. His excuse for speeding was that ‘he was late to pick up a battery before work’.

Some 454 drivers were caught travelling more than 15km/h but less than 30km/h over the speed limit.

Officer-in-Charge of Traffic Operations Station Sergeant Rod Anderson said the speeding figures for October were extremely disappointing.

“People who believe that it’s okay to travel at excessive speeds on our roads need to realise the danger that they are putting themselves and other road-users in by their behavior,” Station Sergeant Anderson said.

“This type of irresponsible act will not be tolerated by the community or ACT Policing. Drivers need to remember speed affects their ability to stop their car to prevent collisions.”

“Drivers who willfully speed were gambling with their own lives, the lives of other drivers and passengers, and the lives of children, pedestrians and cyclists.”

Station Sergeant Anderson said he was also concerned by the 73 motorists caught speeding in school zones during the month of October.

“Speeding in school zones exposes some of the most vulnerable people in our community to the greatest risk; there is no excuse,” Sergeant Anderson said.

“During the first three weeks of term three, police conducted speed testing at 107 schools (76 per cent) throughout the ACT as part of our goal to visit every school this term.”

A 66-year-old Red Hill woman was caught travelling at 77km/h in a 40km/h school speed zone outside Canberra Grammar in Red Hill. She received a TIN of $664 plus the loss of four demerit points.

Fines for speeding range from a minimum of $203 and the loss of one demerit point to over $1,800 and the loss of six demerit points for each offence. The courts may also disqualify a driver from holding or obtaining a drivers licence in serious cases.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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goggles13 said :

La_Tour_Maubourg said :

I’d like to know how many people exceeding the speed limit were caught within roadwork sites.
To me it does not count if you do not drive the roadwork limit through abandoned roadworks.

Referring to the overused Police statement above, apparently we only endanger lives at excess speeds? So if I go 59 in a 60 zone nobody gets killed…. You are at speed from <1km/h.

The Red Hill woman caught at 77, although I do not agree with exceeding the school limit it is very easy to roll down Mugga Way and only realise your speed once approaching the school so I doubt this was intentional. Whatever happened to school zones when they are only applicable between 8am-10am etc?

you can use your gears to slow you going down a hill, even in an automatic

Even simpler, you can move one of your feet slightly to slow you down.

La_Tour_Maubourg said :

I’d like to know how many people exceeding the speed limit were caught within roadwork sites.
To me it does not count if you do not drive the roadwork limit through abandoned roadworks.

Referring to the overused Police statement above, apparently we only endanger lives at excess speeds? So if I go 59 in a 60 zone nobody gets killed…. You are at speed from <1km/h.

The Red Hill woman caught at 77, although I do not agree with exceeding the school limit it is very easy to roll down Mugga Way and only realise your speed once approaching the school so I doubt this was intentional. Whatever happened to school zones when they are only applicable between 8am-10am etc?

you can use your gears to slow you going down a hill, even in an automatic

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

Tell the truth – speed does not affect my ability to stop my car, I push the brake pedal in the same way irrespective of whether I am doing 20kmh or 110kmh. the difference is that my car won’t stop in the same distance at a higher speed, compared with a lower speed.[/quote>

Tell the truth yourself – you’ve left off the critical part about preventing collisions. The difference is that if you’re doing 65 in a 50 zone, you will not be able to stop the car as quickly as you could if you were doing 50.

and so has the AFP left off the critical part. I know that a car will not stop in the same distance from a higher speed. but my ability to push the brake pedal is not affected by speed.

La_Tour_Maubourg said :

Perhaps the Govt could consider speed limits that suit the road and cancel further plans to lower certain speed limits.
Anybody else notice the speed limit change on Horse Park Drive west of Federal Highway? Now 60km/h. This is not in a roadwork area. Maybe this is to deter motorists from roling down the slope at speed?

This is something I was going to raise as well. How on earth can it possible be deemed a roadwork area? Heading away from Gungahlin the 60 zone starts a full km from the actual roadworks, and heading towards Gungahlin it finishes a full km from the last roadworks. It is nonsense.

La_Tour_Maubourg said :

I’d like to know how many people exceeding the speed limit were caught within roadwork sites.
To me it does not count if you do not drive the roadwork limit through abandoned roadworks.

Referring to the overused Police statement above, apparently we only endanger lives at excess speeds? So if I go 59 in a 60 zone nobody gets killed…. You are at speed from <1km/h.

The Red Hill woman caught at 77, although I do not agree with exceeding the school limit it is very easy to roll down Mugga Way and only realise your speed once approaching the school so I doubt this was intentional. Whatever happened to school zones when they are only applicable between 8am-10am etc?

So you think it’s easy to accidentally roll through a school zone at almost double the speed limit? School zones in ACT have always been 8-4 as far as I’m aware.

house_husband7:05 am 08 Nov 13

Queen_of_the_Bun said :

Tell the truth yourself – you’ve left off the critical part about preventing collisions. The difference is that if you’re doing 65 in a 50 zone, you will not be able to stop the car as quickly as you could if you were doing 50.

And the real truth is that if you’re one of the many drivers on our roads who is incompetent (an inherent poor judge of speed and distance, hesitant when merging, weaving in lanes) then even doing 40 in a 50 zone isn’t safe.

You just have to look at the number of cars around with extensive lower panel damage from multiple failed parking attempts. If someone can’t control a motor vehicle at walking pace, then why do we let them drive at highway speeds?

La_Tour_Maubourg1:53 am 08 Nov 13

I’d like to know how many people exceeding the speed limit were caught within roadwork sites.
To me it does not count if you do not drive the roadwork limit through abandoned roadworks.

Referring to the overused Police statement above, apparently we only endanger lives at excess speeds? So if I go 59 in a 60 zone nobody gets killed…. You are at speed from <1km/h.

The Red Hill woman caught at 77, although I do not agree with exceeding the school limit it is very easy to roll down Mugga Way and only realise your speed once approaching the school so I doubt this was intentional. Whatever happened to school zones when they are only applicable between 8am-10am etc?

La_Tour_Maubourg1:42 am 08 Nov 13

milkman said :

I’d say the community quite obviously tolerates speeding. We see it constantly, most of us do it, and we don’t demand measures that would reduce it.

Absolutely agree +100

Queen_of_the_Bun12:12 am 08 Nov 13

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Dear speeders

Thank you for giving up your money. I don’t care if it doesn’t go toward roads. I don’t care if it’s not revenue at all. I don’t care if they put it all in a big pile and set it on fire. You don’t have it anymore, and that makes me smile.

PS – ha ha

+1 Love your work WMC.

All roads in Canberra are now 40km/h because there are way more start roadwork signs than there are end roadwork.
I’ve seen 3 this past week one was about 20 metres before a 80.

As a result many people in Canberra don’t care..

but where are the results from the new Tuggeranong “Average speed” camera. They haven’t caught anyone I reckon.

Queen_of_the_Bun11:53 pm 07 Nov 13

Tell the truth – speed does not affect my ability to stop my car, I push the brake pedal in the same way irrespective of whether I am doing 20kmh or 110kmh. the difference is that my car won’t stop in the same distance at a higher speed, compared with a lower speed.[/quote>

Tell the truth yourself – you’ve left off the critical part about preventing collisions. The difference is that if you’re doing 65 in a 50 zone, you will not be able to stop the car as quickly as you could if you were doing 50.

Woody Mann-Caruso8:30 pm 07 Nov 13

Dear speeders

Thank you for giving up your money. I don’t care if it doesn’t go toward roads. I don’t care if it’s not revenue at all. I don’t care if they put it all in a big pile and set it on fire. You don’t have it anymore, and that makes me smile.

PS – ha ha

I’d say the community quite obviously tolerates speeding. We see it constantly, most of us do it, and we don’t demand measures that would reduce it.

“This type of irresponsible act will not be tolerated by the community or ACT Policing. Drivers need to remember speed affects their ability to stop their car to prevent collisions.”

Agreed that most of the community is fed up with the poor driving behaviour of some but I don’t see what power the community has not to tolerate this. Even the police are somewhat powerless to monitor offences without adequate resources.

I don’t understand why the police need to have a month focusing on specific offences. Surely the police are capable of detecting more than one offence at a time. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to set up mobile traps at specific points and target ALL offences? Any busy intersection would continually present speedsters, no indicators, red light runners, failing to stop or give way, defective vehicles, mobile phone use, no seatbelts etc. Even if many drivers wised up to the police presence, there would still be too many offenders to deal with.

As well, the Government needs to raise the cost of all fines so that they are sufficient to cover police resources (including paperwork and a percentage of possible court time) and then give sufficient revenue back to police for them to do their job properly.

house_husband12:57 pm 07 Nov 13

Tooks said :

I think it would be a good opportunity to have a month targeting tailgating, a month targeting vehicles not keeping left when required to. Basically, the offences which are a bit harder to enforce, but which are rife in the ACT.

I agree. They do this occasionally but not often enough. When you look at the statistics (http://cdn.justice.act.gov.au/resources/uploads/JACS/Road_Safety/PDFs/ACT_Road_Crash_Reports/2012_Road_Traffic_Crashes_in_the_ACT.pdf) rear-end and right turn/angle collisions account for the most casualty accidents in the ACT. While speeding or excess speed for the conditions can contribute to these types of accidents, I’d venture to say that tailgating and driver inattention/incompetence have a fair role to play.

I know it is hard to do, but it is a pity they don’t attempt to try and assign some primary and secondary causes (or rule them out) for these types of crash. For example of the 109 casualty right turn in to an oncoming vehicle accidents in 2012, in how many was the oncoming vehicle at or below the speed limit? And same for the rear enders? Or did the drivers just fail to pay attention? And how many were over the alcohol limit?

I know it is hard to gather these type of stats in all cases but the complete lack of them makes a joke of the evidence based road safety policy we’re meant to have in the ACT.

Watson said :

I just want to say thanks to the speeders for donating money for Canberra roads.

The money is going somewhere, but it sure as hell isn’t to our roads….

I just want to say thanks to the speeders for donating money for Canberra roads.

goggles13 said :

“This type of irresponsible act will not be tolerated by the community”

so the AFP is speaking for the rest of the community now – when did this happen?

“Drivers need to remember speed affects their ability to stop their car to prevent collisions.”

Tell the truth – speed does not affect my ability to stop my car, I push the brake pedal in the same way irrespective of whether I am doing 20kmh or 110kmh. the difference is that my car won’t stop in the same distance at a higher speed, compared with a lower speed.

“Drivers who willfully speed were gambling with their own lives, the lives of other drivers and passengers, and the lives of children, pedestrians and cyclists.”

won’t someone think of the animals!!??????!!!!

“Station Sergeant Anderson said he was also concerned by the 73 motorists caught speeding in school zones during the month of October.”

yeah because they weren’t paying attention or couldn’t give a stuff……….a monetary fine is not going to help fix their attitude, but a licence suspension may.

Just on your last point, the only way they’ll get a suspension is by either accruing too many points, or failing to pay a fine. No fines, no suspension.

Bludgeoning the public with the same message month after month, year after year isn’t working. I don’t know what the answer is, but it isn’t this. Not bagging the efforts, just the effectiveness of the message.

Also, it seems the same few monthly targets just rotate through: speeding, rbt, seatbelts, intersections.
I think it would be a good opportunity to have a month targeting tailgating, a month targeting vehicles not keeping left when required to. Basically, the offences which are a bit harder to enforce, but which are rife in the ACT.

“This type of irresponsible act will not be tolerated by the community”

so the AFP is speaking for the rest of the community now – when did this happen?

“Drivers need to remember speed affects their ability to stop their car to prevent collisions.”

Tell the truth – speed does not affect my ability to stop my car, I push the brake pedal in the same way irrespective of whether I am doing 20kmh or 110kmh. the difference is that my car won’t stop in the same distance at a higher speed, compared with a lower speed.

“Drivers who willfully speed were gambling with their own lives, the lives of other drivers and passengers, and the lives of children, pedestrians and cyclists.”

won’t someone think of the animals!!??????!!!!

“Station Sergeant Anderson said he was also concerned by the 73 motorists caught speeding in school zones during the month of October.”

yeah because they weren’t paying attention or couldn’t give a stuff……….a monetary fine is not going to help fix their attitude, but a licence suspension may.

La_Tour_Maubourg said :

Perhaps the Govt could consider speed limits that suit the road and cancel further plans to lower certain speed limits.
Anybody else notice the speed limit change on Horse Park Drive west of Federal Highway? Now 60km/h. This is not in a roadwork area. Maybe this is to deter motorists from roling down the slope at speed?

Agree, especially when you do 90 on the new GDE turn off onto Barton and its 100 til the big roundabout. Seriously what is the real difference in these roads, or the parkway or the bit of the Monaro that is 100. Make the parkways/dual carriage ways 100, other major roads 80 the rest 50/60 and school/shops 40. Get rid of 70 and 90 altogether.

I’m sure someone has twisted statistics to suit themselves here like saying you are 20% more likely to have an accident at 100 rather than 90. Of course that is 20% (which sounds big) on something like less than 1% but even on 1% it means you are 1.2% likely to crash.

I’ve got no issues with booking speeders, but be sensible about it.

thebrownstreak6911:09 am 07 Nov 13

So people are still speeding, TINs are still being issued, and life goes on as normal.

shirty_bear said :

Cameras are issuing warnings now?

The story isn’t about speed cameras. Or is there a subtle joke that flew over my head?

Cameras are issuing warnings now?

La_Tour_Maubourg9:52 am 07 Nov 13

Perhaps the Govt could consider speed limits that suit the road and cancel further plans to lower certain speed limits.
Anybody else notice the speed limit change on Horse Park Drive west of Federal Highway? Now 60km/h. This is not in a roadwork area. Maybe this is to deter motorists from roling down the slope at speed?

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