The road toll
Bill Tuckey wrote a thought-provoking article in The Australian today about the escalating road toll. He posed the question is there too much emphasis on speeding and drink driving as the cause of road deaths?
I think there is.
I saw some figures recently that police road patrols in Western Australia have reduced at a time the state’s road toll is rising. The government’s response was to say that police action is more targeted.
It’s more targeted towards catching speeders and boosting government revenue. Instead of motorists seeing police on the road, speed cameras are concealed to catch the maximum number of offenders.Â
However, the targeted roads for revenue are not generally the main blackspots for accidents.
I’d like to see stats for how many drivers have been prosecuted over the past year compared with 15 years ago for: Tailgating, driving through stop signs and overtaking on double lines. The only way people will ever be caught for those offences is to have police on the roads.
According to an American study mentioned in the article, major causes of road accidents were driver inattention and failure to see.
Road conditions need to be improved and drivers need to be vigilant in poor conditions. A more visible police presence would help to achieve the latter.
In a future post I’ll write about a new idea for rewarding good motorists.
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