20000 people caught speeding in a week...

[Jim Goose]

While the debate about revenue raising from speed cameras (and yes i agree they are good for revenue raising and not much else), its figures like this which gives more ammo to the speed camera brigade....

20,000 caught speeding in camera's first week

Updated December 22, 2011 18:15:04

Twenty thousand motorists have been caught speeding by a new fixed speed camera since it was installed a week ago on Western Australia's Mitchell Freeway.

Most of those drivers will not be penalised because the Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says he will not issue infringements for the camera until tomorrow.

However, three cars have been seized and their owners charged with reckless driving.

A 28-year-old man from Mt Nasura, who was driving a Holden Commodore, and a 23-year-old man from Tapping, who was driving a Mitsubishi Magna, are alleged to have been drag racing on the freeway on Sunday morning.

They are alleged to have been travelling at 199kph and 176kph respectively.

A 23-year-old man of Gosnells had his Nissan sedan seized after allegedly speeding through the same camera on Friday.

They will appear in the Perth Magistrates Court in January.

The Commissioner says he is incensed that the camera recorded 12 people travelling at 45 kilometres an hour over the speed limit.

"You can expect maximum effort into finding these people and finding people who break the speed limit and other offences over the Christmas period," he said.

"Don't whinge if you get an infringement notice."

Mr O'Callaghan has also launched the 2011 Christmas Traffic Campaign.

"The sad fact is that with around 190 road deaths being recorded during each of the past few years, more than 10 families will face losing their loved ones between this Christmas and the New Year," he said.

He says WA Police are also running a competition encouraging the community to embrace the road safety message by creating captions for road safety photographs.

[csv8]

How many were just over the speed limit ie over by 5-10kms an hour???? Police won't tell you that!!!

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by csv8

How many were just over the speed limit ie over by 5-10kms an hour???? Police won't tell you that!!!

Of course in the interests of balanced reporting a speed breakdown (ie: 5k over..10k over etc) should have been published.

But that would be truthful and not make good headlines.

[Bent8]

I know this is an old thread but I've made a strange observation.

When this camera was first setup, my V1 would go off every time I drove past it but during the past few weeks, nothing.

It goes crazy when I drive past the mobile speed camera's so it's not my radar detector.

Does anyone know if it's been turned off?

[falconnut]

More like 0-1km/h

Alot people set their cruise control the speed limit.

Forget about the tiny margins for error on the speed cameras

[Ben73]

I bet the 199 and 176 were outliers. Most speeding tickets were probably under 10kmh over.

If 20,000 were caught speeding in a week, shouldn't the death toll for that road be over 1million people a year. Every K over is a killer.

[ltd_on20s]

obviously these 20,000 people need to be culled by beheading at the mcg.

they are a threat to society, and we must make war on them before they kill us......

[SSD-85]

A commodore & a magna drag racing? May as well have been watching paint dry....

[SpoolMan]

They were not drag racing, drag racing is a sport done in a controlled environment at a race track.
What these 2 drivers were doing had nothing to do with sport..

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by SpoolMan

They were not drag racing, drag racing is a sport done in a controlled environment at a race track.
What these 2 drivers were doing had nothing to do with sport..

Touché.............

[raptorv8]

Originally Posted by SpoolMan

They were not drag racing, drag racing is a sport done in a controlled environment at a race track.
What these 2 drivers were doing had nothing to do with sport..

Disagree, drag racing is any time two or more cars line up from a standing start regardless of where it occurs. It didnt originate on a race track so to say it is only drag racing if it occurs at a track doesnt really ring true.

[2011G6E]

How many extra accidents on that stretch of road?

If the answer is "none", then shouldn't a review of the speed limit be undertaken?
Studies overseas have shown that, left to thier own devices, motorists are remarkably good at assessing how fast they should be driving and all seem to just flow at a good pace not, surprisingly, much more than the speed limit at the moment.

Of course, this could well be in countries that take driver training seriously...

[CarTooner:-)]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

How many extra accidents on that stretch of road?
If the answer is "none", then shouldn't a review of the speed limit be undertaken?

^^ Hear, hear. ^^
Furthermore; I wish GovCo, Police Commissioners & other Road-Traffic-Authorities would stop merely giving us statistics and give us a full report of cause and effect facts.
I.e. if the answer to 2011G6E's question is 1, 2 or a few, give the public (via media) a complete report. I.e. what were the contributing factors. Were the 1, 2 or few within or outside legal limits and if outside, by how far?
Obviously 199kmph is dangerous but how many of the 20,000/week were marginally over the speed-limit (+ 3kmph tolerance or whatever it is)?
If the answer to that question is a large or vast majority, then evidently the speed-limit is set inappropriately... or as cynics might suggest; $et-up for revenue!

[blackf6]

Originally Posted by raptorv8

Disagree, drag racing is any time two or more cars line up from a standing start regardless of where it occurs. It didnt originate on a race track so to say it is only drag racing if it occurs at a track doesnt really ring true.

No mate what you are explaining would be called illegal drag racing which it was.

[TZENU]

Originally Posted by raptorv8

Disagree, drag racing is any time two or more cars line up from a standing start regardless of where it occurs. It didnt originate on a race track so to say it is only drag racing if it occurs at a track doesnt really ring true.

Doesn't drag racing have a finish line though?

[Nikked]

If 20000 have been caught already, then that stretch of road was obviously deserving of a speed camera. Full stop, no logical argument against it. Having said that, a visable police presence is still required, and road improments are still needed to help reduce accidents.


The role (beyond revenue) for speed cameras is to put them at specific spots that are either black spots, or knowen for high rates off speeding.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by Nikked

If 20000 have been caught already, then that stretch of road was obviously deserving of a speed camera. Full stop, no logical argument against it. Having said that, a visable police presence is still required, and road improments are still needed to help reduce accidents.


The role (beyond revenue) for speed cameras is to put them at specific spots that are either black spots, or knowen for high rates off speeding.

They are supposed to be put in places where there have been a high rate of accidents.

If that many people are speeding, why hasn't there been a record number of road deaths in that section? Afterall, 20000 is a lot of people and should easily fall in to the categories dreamed up by statisticians.

Clearly the limit is too low for the conditions.

[mcnews]

Wow, a wonder all these 20,000 people aren't dead...

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Nikked

If 20000 have been caught already, then that stretch of road was obviously deserving of a speed camera. Full stop, no logical argument against it. Having said that, a visable police presence is still required, and road improments are still needed to help reduce accidents.

Wrong, means the speed limit is way too low for the road. Full Stop. In California this would be illegal as it would be classed a 'speed trap'.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by Nikked

If 20000 have been caught already, then that stretch of road was obviously deserving of a speed camera. Full stop, no logical argument against it. Having said that, a visable police presence is still required, and road improments are still needed to help reduce accidents.


The role (beyond revenue) for speed cameras is to put them at specific spots that are either black spots, or knowen for high rates off speeding.

Actually no it's the opposite.
If 20,000 people speed past there a week and no one crashes, there should be a raise in the speed limit. If they raised the limit by a reasonable amount, then put a camera in, that would make more sense, but less money.

Its how the world works.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Actually no it's the opposite.
If 20,000 people speed past there a week and no one crashes, there should be a raise in the speed limit. If they raised the limit by a reasonable amount, then put a camera in, that would make more sense, but less money.

Its how the world works.

Exactly, and if they raised the limit, by let's say 10km/h, they would still be able to send a fine out to the numpties doing close to 200km/h past it, while the average punter would have a few more clams in their pocket to spread the joy at christmas.

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by MAD

Exactly, and if they raised the limit, by let's say 10km/h, they would still be able to send a fine out to the numpties doing close to 200km/h past it, while the average punter would have a few more clams in their pocket to spread the joy at christmas.

probably not - the average punter would raise their speed by 10kph and still get caught because they were unaware of what they were doing when going past the camera

it could be argued, that the cameras and speed limits are not the problem - people driving too close to the limit is. raising the limit will do nothing to stop people getting pinged for 2 kph over. they will just get pinged at 112 kph, not 102 pkh

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Actually no it's the opposite.
If 20,000 people speed past there a week and no one crashes, there should be a raise in the speed limit. If they raised the limit by a reasonable amount, then put a camera in, that would make more sense, but less money.

Its how the world works.

Im putting you in charge of Roads and Transport, your ideas will keep australias roads safe and bring fatialities down.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by Nikked

If 20000 have been caught already, then that stretch of road was obviously deserving of a speed camera.

Or... the limit was set too low to begin with.

On a stretch of road with free flowing traffic, 85th percentile is a good starting point for the speed limit. Its not uncommon for the limit to be 10-20kmh below that in speed camera sites.

Reality is that by deliberately setting such low limits, they are taxing normal human behaviour.

The role (beyond revenue) for speed cameras is to put them at specific spots that are either black spots, or knowen for high rates off speeding.

Funny... I thought they supposed to be put at/near accident black spots....

[Iggypoppin']

I am curious what percentage of monies receieved by the government via speed cameras is put directly to funding better education for young drivers(the apparent main culprits speeding), new roadworks, upgrading public transpoort and generally improving the roads....?

[SSD-85]

Originally Posted by Iggypoppin'

I am curious what percentage of monies receieved by the government via speed cameras is put directly to funding better education for young drivers(the apparent main culprits speeding), new roadworks, upgrading public transpoort and generally improving the roads....?

0% would be a fair assumption...

[mr smith]

Originally Posted by Iggypoppin'

I am curious what percentage of monies receieved by the government via speed cameras is put directly to funding better education for young drivers(the apparent main culprits speeding), new roadworks, upgrading public transpoort and generally improving the roads....?

All taxes go into a single pool.

[andrich]

I too would love to see how many people were doing 0-10kmh over the limit.
This ones for you VIC fella's...My brother and i went on a roadtrip down to do the Great Ocean Road for a few days in my xr6t. Had a great trip until a few weeks later when a penalty notice came in the mail from VIC roads. We got pinged at Hoppers Crossing (i think the camera near the bridge?) for doing 105 in 100...what a joke!!! That is simply revenue raising and does nothing to decreasing the death toll on our roads
Michael

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by andrich

I too would love to see how many people were doing 0-10kmh over the limit.
This ones for you VIC fella's...My brother and i went on a roadtrip down to do the Great Ocean Road for a few days in my xr6t. Had a great trip until a few weeks later when a penalty notice came in the mail from VIC roads. We got pinged at Hoppers Crossing (i think the camera near the bridge?) for doing 105 in 100...what a joke!!! That is simply revenue raising and does nothing to decreasing the death toll on our roads
Michael

On a road built to a 110 kph standard, but kept to 100 because of some bullcrap regulation, and hasn't had any more than 1 or 2 fatalities in the past 5 years despite the huge traffic volumes.

Its a joke.

[Bucknaked]

Thats 120 people per hour caught speeding. Maybe the speed limit is too low.