fines for traffic offences suggest South Australia’s regime is revenue raising

[johnydep]

Originally Posted by hedgehobb

But the fact remains, you chose not to go to court.

I'm not saying the system doesn't suck, but it's the best we got. Unless you want something like Judge Dredd on your ***.

edit: or worse, American cops, shoot your *** because you disrespected them

edit 2: oh, and for all those suffering from supiditis and complaining "Woe is me, I can't fathom these dog-garnit fandanged speed road limits consarnit!"

Get a sat nav! Get someone to program it to beep if you go over the limit ffs

The report then examines the public’s resistance to South Australia’s highest-in-the-nation fines regime.

“..there is one sticking point and this is evident in community reaction to the lack of harmonisation across States of the level of fines for the same offence; that the level of fines often do not reflect the potential seriousness of an offence; that inconsistent speed limits create unnecessary confusion and the level of tolerance (or allowance) for above a specific speed limit is ill-defined and/or unstated.

“Motorists with a clean driving record are not rewarded. These and other reasons have cemented in the minds of the general public that particularly mobile speed and fixed cameras are employed as revenue raising devices for the government.”

The high fines, it says, leads to a further complication of licence suspension.

“Resistance to the payment of traffic fines and/or the inability to meet payment is reported to have resulted in 23,000 people having their licence suspended in 2012/1314; fine-related revocations of a licence do not necessarily result in people not driving, but continuing to drive without compulsory third party insurance (which carries its own risk).

“The fine for driving an unregistered vehicle in South Australia at or about the time registration stickers were no longer issued increased from $335 to $1,000 and the fine for driving uninsured increased from $600 to $1,500.

“It is questionable whether government conducted a sufficient information campaign (similar to drink driving) to inform the community of the subtle change in responsibility to ensure a vehicle is registered and the penalties for not doing so.”

In its analysis of the data, the report questions the high fines regime.

“Road traffic fines in South Australia appear higher than those in other States. To what extent do they reflect ‘dangerous’ driving? Are South Australian drivers dangerous?