(Brisbane) The National Motorists Association Australia, (NMAA) has accused the Queensland Government of chasing revenue instead of the real road safety problems following the introduction of a tough new speeding penalty regime immediately prior to Easter, and the failure of these policies to stem the Easter road-toll.

“The new penalties mean that driving 40km/h over the speed limit attracts a mandatory suspension period and penalty far greater than that normally applied to drunk drivers with a blood alcohol concentration over twice the legal limit”,  said  Gavin Goeldner, spokesman for the NMAA.

Travelling greater than 40km/h above the speed limit now attracts a $700 fine, 8 demerit points and an automatic 6 month licence suspension, but according the Lawyer’s Practice Manual, the suspension period usually given to driver’s caught driving with a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.10 (twice the legal limit) is only 3 months, $300, and no demerit points.

Whilst not condoning excessive speed, Mr. Goeldner said “Despite the propaganda, someone doing 140km/h on a good stretch of open road poses far less danger than someone driving at twice the legal blood alcohol limit. Furthermore, the speedster and can regulate his speed as the conditions dictate, while the drunk will be drunk for the entire journey.”

The NMAA also believes that the emphasis on high level speeding is a smokescreen designed to hide the real agenda, which is to obtain maximum revenue from the anticipated many thousands of low level speeding offences that will flow from the installation of fixed speed cameras. “Almost ninety per cent of speed camera profits come from law abiding folk getting caught just a few k’s over the limit. This is especially unfair when those limits are set arbitrarily too low”, he said.

The NMAA has long been campaigning for speed limits to be set in accordance with an international standard known as the 85^th percentile rule which takes the better judgement of a large number of drivers into account. In simple terms, the free travelling speed is surveyed and the limit is set as close as possible to the speed below which 85% of the surveyed vehicles travelled. Roads that have speed limits set according to this principle are found to have fewer accidents and a far greater adherence to the limit. By contrast, “roads with limits set considerably below this level are the most common places to find speed cameras these days” said Mr. Goeldner. 

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The Queensland Transport publication, Road Traffic Crashes in Queensland, 2001 (page 36) lists the following contributing factors for crashes. 

All reported crashes - contributing factors       

Rank	Factor	No.	Proportion
1	Disobeyed traffic rules	8147	38%
2	Inattention	7051	33%
3	Inexperience	4519	21%
4	Other	3018	14%
5	Alcohol/drugs	2283	11%
6	Rain/wet road	1540	7%
7	Other driver conditions	1274	6%
8	Age	1158	5%
9	Fatigue	1136	5%
10	Speed	1066	5%
11	Road conditions	980	5%
12	Vehicle defects	652	3%
13	Negligence	411	2%
14	No street lighting	79	0%
	Total Crashes	21503

 

Fatal Crashes - contributing factors                    

Rank	Factor	No.	Proportion
1	Alcohol/drugs	84	28%
2	Disobeyed traffic rules	82	28%
3	Inexperience	72	24%
4	Inattention	50	17%
4	Speed	50	17%
6	Other	41	14%
7	Fatigue	40	14%
8	Other driver conditions	25	8%
9	Age	24	8%
10	Negligence	17	6%
11	Rain/wet road	13	4%
12	Road conditions	10	3%
13	Vehicle defects	7	2%
14	No street lighting	3	1%
	Total Fatal Crashes	296

  

Lawyers Practice Manual (QLD), Law Book Co. Update 38 lists the following scale of penalties for drink driving

Reading Percentage (%BAC)	Range of fines ($)	Range of disqualification (months)	Most common penalties ($)	Most common Disqualification (months)
0.05	50-300	1-3	100	1
0.06	75-500	1-3	100	1
0.07	100-500	1.5-3	200	2
0.08	150-600	1-4	250	2
0.09	175-650	2.5-4	300	3
0.10	200-700	1.5-4	300	3
0.11	225-800	1.5-5	400	5
0.12	250-800	2-5	500	5
0.13	250-750	6-8	600	6
0.14	350-850	6-8	600	7
0.20	600-1500	10-16	800	12