DESPITE ANY AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE that speeding fines do not discourage speeding, the Victorian government, already one of the most Draconian, has decided to increase the penalties for speeding, and in particular excessive (or“high range”) speeding.
Get caught speeding by 25km/h but less than 35km/h and you will lose your licence for three months, increasing the previous penalty by two months.
At and above 35km/h and Victorian drivers will lose their licence for six months and if the speed limit is exceeded by 45km/h or more, the loss of licence will be for one year.
Perhaps surprisingly, VicRoads points out that demerit points are no longer accrued for what they term “excessive speed” (i.e. more than 25km/h over the speed limit). But for lesser offences drivers will get three points for exceeding the speed limit by 10km/h up to 25km/h and one point for the usually unintentional offence of exceeding the limit by less than 10km/h.
Almost all road safety pundits agree that speed is not the most dangerous misdemeanour on the roads. Inattention is the biggest sin, but in Victoria, using a mobile phone while driving incurs just four demerit points and a $484 fine.
Meanwhile, despite the increase in the number of drivers using their cars whilst unlicensed or unregistered and current penalties apparently having little deterrent effect, the penalty for driving unlicensed rises from $3950 and three months in jail to $9500 and six months in jail. Driving while disqualified will now incur a huge $38,000 fine or four months in jail (previously $4700 or four months for a first offence). Most people caught are unable or unwilling to pay, so one wonders how this new penalty will have any greater effect than previously, other than overloading the already overcrowded jail system.
As usual, authorities continue to claim that speed is the major cause of crashes. TAC director of road safety, Samantha Cockfield, said, “The fact that speed continues to play a part in about one third of Victorian deaths and injuries shows there is still work to be done to get motorists to slow down.”
She’s right, of course. If two or more vehicles are stationary, they are unlikely to be involved in a crash with each other. But in any other case, it’s “inappropriate speed” that’s to blame. And that’s something the authorities just refuse to acknowledge.
The claim that travelling at 25km/h above a posted speed limit of 110km/h on a freeway or highway is dangerous in any and all circumstances is blatantly ridiculous. And the steady reduction in speed limits almost everywhere is leading to more motorists being caught “speeding” when they are not endangering themselves or anyone else.
It does, however, contribute substantially to the state coffers. Victorian drivers are now paying almost $1 million per day in speeding fines. During the 2017/18 financial year, 1.3 million infringement notices were issued. One camera alone caught 35,075 motorists and relieved them of $8.4 million. In NSW, motorists were hit with 471,299 expiation notices and fined $105 million after being caught by the speed camera network, plus a further $84 million (253,673 infringement notices) handed out by the police. Queensland fined motorists $160.6 million but a more aggressive policy in that state will see revenue increase to $237.2 million by 2021/22.
All this in the name of road safety. Except it’s not. When motorists can be fined for travelling at 63km/h in a 60km/h zone, the only result is thousands of drivers fixated on their speedometers rather than paying attention to the road ahead. It results in lane after lane of drivers all travelling at the same speed, too terrified of being caught speeding if they attempt to overtake (or overtaking with a speed differential of just a few km/h, and therefore spending far too long on the wrong side of the road).