World news

The weekend road toll

Eight people died on the roads this weekend. Not one of them passed a cop on the side of the road , set to catch speeding motorists driving a few kilometres above the speed limit. Not one of those police on the side of the road were targeting motorists for dangerous driving, such as crossing the centre line or drinking too much before driving.

Not one of these deaths were prevented by all the many police on the roads this weekend. But there may have been a few near misses as motorists had their eyes glued to the speedo for fear of going over the limit and getting pinged by speed cameras out of view. Much was made of the low road toll on Queen’s Birthday weekend and the credit police took for it. Much will be made of the higher road toll this weekend, with the police saying “ it’s not out fault”.

But, you know, the police have no influence on the road toll. The weather during Queens Birthday was lousy and everyone stayed home, This weekend was fine and there were more cars on the road. More cars mean more crashes mean more deaths and more people going over 100k – and more people driving at 90k in fear of being fined. Its that simple. I wonder how much revenue was gained by the speed cameras?

I did notice that several accidents were in rural areas. Police don’t put speed cameras on gravel roads or rural roads - they don’t get enough revenue. But perhaps it will make some roads safer if they did. Even better, instead of enforcing the speed limit, do some driver training.