3 October 2012

Police go after speeding

| johnboy
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ACT Policing will be targeting speeding motorists during the month of October as part of its multi-agency road safety strategy.

At different periods during the year, the strategy targets specific issues and behaviours which contribute to death and serious injuries on Canberra’s roads, with speeding among those concerns.

Acting Officer-in-Charge of Traffic Operations Sergeant Allison Williams said 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.

“The fact is many fatal and serious traffic crashes that occur on Canberra roads each year are directly attributable to motorists who exceed the posted speed limit,” Sergeant Williams said.

“Speeding reduces the time drivers have to react and avoid crashes, their ability to control the vehicle, and lengthens stopping distances, increasing both the likelihood of crashing and the severity of the crash outcome.

“Speeding is a choice people make and they can just as easily make the choice to slow down and save lives.”

Last month (Friday, September 21), a 28-year-old NSW man was caught speeding on Gungahlin Drive in his Ford Falcon sedan. Police detected the driver travelling at 142km/h in an 80km/h zone. He was issued with a Traffic Infringement Notice (TIN) for $1811 and the loss of six demerit points.

“The message is simple, don’t speed. Otherwise you may find yourself facing a heavy fine, loss of your license or even imprisonment,” Sergeant Williams said.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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NellyBean said :

Conan of Cooma said :

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

I’m not sure they’ll be turning a blind eye to negligent and dangerous driving. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Police had the resources to focus on all possible crimes all the time.

I believe they have plenty of resources. It’s not like you can fly through a red light past a police station and they won’t have the resources to chase you because they are too busy chasing speeders. The purpose of these “focus” things are just to highlight the issues individually in the community to raise awareness. I don’t believe they do too much differently. However, I suspect they might have increased radars set up during the speeding one, because that’s an easy one to make money off. The ones like seatbelts wouldn’t involve anything different being done specifically.

It’s NRL-referee-syndrome … they’re not bright enough to enforce all the rules, so they pick one and enforce it relentlessly. Then when there’s a sufficiently egregious breakage of a different rule, they switch focus to that one and we can all resume breaking the previous one.

Conan of Cooma said :

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

I’m not sure they’ll be turning a blind eye to negligent and dangerous driving. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Police had the resources to focus on all possible crimes all the time.

Conan of Cooma12:01 pm 04 Oct 12

FXST01 said :

Conan of Cooma said :

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

That’s easy, look for the ACT plate.

Some ACT drivers are terrible, but most are better than your average VIC driver! But no one beats QLDers…

That said, why can’t Canberra drivers manage to indicate in the right direction when exiting a roundabout? I see it everyday, instead of indicating to the left to signal leaving the roundabout, quite a lot signal right and exit straight ahead… I mean, WTF?

Conan of Cooma said :

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

That’s easy, look for the ACT plate.

Conan of Cooma said :

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

Yeah, I’ve always wondered about that. It’s almost like they’re saying that all drivers may cheerfully return to speeding once the period of targeting is over.

I’d be interested as to what the actual operational changes are that are used to target speeding. More cops on radar traps?

Conan of Cooma9:41 am 04 Oct 12

Never got the whole ‘target speeding’ thing the coppers do.

Why don’t they just target all bad drivers?

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