SCHOOL ZONES

[David See]

Hi all,

I thought this would be worth an ask seeing as this forum is filled with people passionate about their cars and, I guess, driving.

I work from my car and am constantly on the road doing many km's a year. I have been driving since 1981 and have been booked twcie in that time - once for speeding (50km/h in a school zone 1 minute before it was due to end - my car clock was out by a couple of minutes) and once at 12 midnight for disobeying a no right hand sign that one couldn't see clearly. I was the only car on the road at that time.

Regardless, I feel I am a responsible and competeant driver, but I see a time coming very soon where many of us will lose our licences and possibly our livelihood because of convoluted and varying laws for road safety. It used to be so simple.

With all this hullabaloo about School Zones and how fines and demerit points are going to be increased for infringements, I ask this:

1) If the powrers that be are truly concerned about road safety, why aren't flashing lights installed in ALL school zones, seeing as they have been TRIALLED and proven SUCCESSFUL for the last three years, not to mention WANTED by most if not all drivers?

2) What will happen when kids keep getting killed with these new laws and fines? Will the powers that be then reduce the speed in school zones to 20kmh and then 10km/h until all infringements mean an instant loss of licences?

3) I would defy anyone to say that they stick to the speed limit all the time and I would like to think that those who use their vehicles for work would get more points allocated to them as they are on the road much more than the average user.

It is obvious the Police and the Government are up against the fact that they will NEVER stop these deaths (in addition to fatal road motor vehicle accidents) because these events are just that - ACCIDENTS! All these guys can do is make it look like they are TRYING.

Look at the facts - every year the fines are increased and yet still more people die on the roads. It's not working, yet the fines increase and so do the demerit point penalties.

For the last five years (moreso since the introduction of the nothing-but-revnue raising speed cameras) I have said that pretty soon we will all be riding pushbikes. Then we will be forced to register them and then that will be made so hard that we will all decide to walk.

There is a fine for nearly everything these days. I even know a colleague who got booked for going TOO SLOW in the fast lane on the freeway. This was his only conviction in his 20-year driving period and couldn't get off it for his good record. God knows how we all survived for so long without all these rules.