In NSW last year over 40,000 motorists lost their licence up from over 33,000 the year before. That’s more than double 2003’s 16,000 suspensions.
Maybe some credit should go to our premier. Every time there is a major crash he announces tougher sentences for misbehaving drivers and shows the good people of this state that he is doing something concrete to stop road fatalities.
And what a good job he has done, the number of speeding fines from speed cameras has almost doubled from last year. No wonder Mr Costa is predicting such a healthy budget, cameras are becoming the hardest working public servants in the country. They’re getting more money from NSW motorists than Lindsay Tanner could find in the Federal budget. Who cares if there are mass blackouts from power shortages, as long as the electricity is still flowing to the damn cameras.
The number of deaths, actually occurring in NSW, has declined since the start of Iemma’s blitz, but fatalities on NSW roads have been declining since the early 80s. Any effect tougher penalties for speeding have can more than likely be attributed to there being less drivers on the road and not because anyone is changing their driving habits for fear of getting caught. Less drivers on the road means less congestion and less carbon dioxide from automobile tail pipes, Morris has killed two birds with one stone, how smart our venerable leader is.
According to the NRMA almost a quarter of businesses had an employee who was unable to drive. Some employees have also been fired for not being able to drive. This year reports emerged that Fire truck drivers were receiving speeding fines for rushing to emergencies. The State Debt Recovery Office issued fines to the drivers and then required the fire fighters to prove they were on their way to an emergency. The government has worked itself into such frenzy that it will even fine itself.
Jeremy Clarkson, host of the BBC’s popular Top Gear program, showed his disdain for speed cameras when he shared some statistics about Britain’s roads. Apparently, in half a dozen counties where there was an increase in speed cameras there was also an increase in fatalities. In two counties where there was no increase in speed cameras there was actually a decline in fatalities.
Clarkson’s explanation for the increase was that people are to busy looking for speed cameras instead of watching where they are going and paying attention to what they are doing.
Clarkson may be one for exaggeration and may lack scientific credibility but I must admit that when I drive past a speed camera near a local school I am spending more time than I should concentrating on my speedometer, instead of looking for young school children on the road.
It’s a scary thought that we could get to the stage where we are more paranoid about speeding fines than being responsible drivers.
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