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!!!

[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....

[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.

[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.............

[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....?

[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

[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...

[Bucknaked]

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

[TMC]

I must admit that around 98% of drivers speed on the Mitchell Freeway, and everywhere else from shopping centre carparks, school zones, and even their own driveway.

Would like to know where this infamous camera is. I drove that way this week and didn't speed, but didn't see it. I hope that's a good thing.

[block58]

What is the speeding tolerance in WA?

[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...

[Gaz]

Originally Posted by TMC

I must admit that around 98% of drivers speed on the Mitchell Freeway, and everywhere else from shopping centre carparks, school zones, and even their own driveway.

Would like to know where this infamous camera is. I drove that way this week and didn't speed, but didn't see it. I hope that's a good thing.

Near Karrinyup road - north bound.

you won't see it. it's installed in a box.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

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

Isn't that the reason they put a camera in. They knew the limit was too low, so they know it will be a good source of income.

[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.

[Pedro]

So what is "speeding"?
The physical definition of speeding describes only how fast an object is moving.

The State governments have decided to rewrite the physical definition to mean that "speeding" is a vehicle is travelling over the prescribed speed limit. So if the speed limit is 1 kph, then a vehicle travelling at 2 kph is "speeding".

So in their never ending quest to dumb down the public to make their "speed" cameras and ensuing fines appear legitimate, they spin that a car travelling at 61 kph in a prescribed 60 kph zone is speeding and is by their definition, a killing machine of unimaginable proportions. Ho Hum.

[andrich]

Originally Posted by Ben73

Isn't that the reason they put a camera in. They knew the limit was too low, so they know it will be a good source of income.

seems to sum it up nicely...lol

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

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

well that would be fixing the cause, not the symptom, therefore you can't do that...

[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?

[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'.

[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!

[TMC]

Originally Posted by block58

What is the speeding tolerance in WA?

From what I understand even 1kph is considered speeding by WA police. They used to automatically reduce your photographed speed by 3kph to take account for speedo error, but that has gone out the window now. What the camera says is what you are doing in their minds.

I think that if you are 1-4kph over the limit it is a $50 or $75 fine but with no demerit points attributed to it. I think that is morally wrong actually. If it's not bad enough to draw a demerit point it's not bad enough to fine you either.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Gaz

Near Karrinyup road - north bound.

you won't see it. it's installed in a box.

Thanks for that. I definitely drove through it then.

That is an interesting area because it has that weird lane merging/interchange thing for Karrinyup Rd. It's one of those areas where people who want to go straight in the fast lane get annoyed by idiots who don't know where they are going and meander all over the lanes trying to find the exit, or just realise they need to get from the fastlane to the Karrinyup road exit and pull across 3 lanes of traffic, blindly aiming for the exit and hoping everyone gets out of their way, holding everybody up. Those who get annoyed will probably tromp it to pass the idiots, and the idiots probably will not even realise the trail of destruction they've left behind.

If there are accidents there it's totally to do with terrible road design, not necessarily speed.

There's a lot of agro on Perth Freeways.