Speed...

[Lou Girardin]

I'll try and find it guys.
Lou

[Lou Girardin]

This was partly in response to John Banks calling MOT cops 'brownshirts'. OK, here goes.
I was an MOT cop, one of John Banks "brownshirts". On that subject, if we were brownshirts, the current crop of traffic police are fully fledged SS stormtroops. We were models of reasonableness by comparison, but that's beside the point.
The LTSA and Police are now captives to a policing policy that is failing here and in Victoria. They have staked their careers on reducing the road toll and their policies have produced a revenue stream that no Government will forego, unless it loses them votes.
Equally, they will not consider any research indicating an alternative approach, e.g. improved driver training, because that would be an admission of failure. (It'll cost more too!)
Italy, for example, is increasing it's autostrada limits from 130km/h to 150km/h, based on research showing that drivers stay more alert at the higher speed. Their road toll is lower than ours; do they know something we don't?
The Police and LTSA continue to produce spurious surveys and statistics purporting to show strong public support for their policies. After years of intensive ad campaigns bordering on propaganda, I'm not surprised at the results. But surveys of people hearing only one side of the story are worthless, hence the value of your article.
The public, however, should be more concerned at the activities of the Highway Patrol. Camera only cost us cash, the don't inflict demerit points. The patrols can cost us our licences as well. In their efforts to achieve the three tickets per hour minimum, these Officers target passing lanes and other multi-lane roads where driver do accelerate to pass slower vehicles. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, and we've all seen the driver who takes a whole passing lane to pass one car because he doesn't want to exceed 100km/h.
Another casualty of the rabid fixation on speed, is the neglect of other offences. Vehicle positioning offences, e.g. failing to keep left, are the biggest killer on our roads. Yet, there is next to no enforecment of them. Too hard to detect and not lucrative enough. As for intersection enforcement, well who stops for a red light now?
The fact is, we're being conned. The road toll has been falling for 20 years, but it's only in the last four years that this present regime has been persecuting us at the current level. Then they have the nerve to claim credit for the fall in the toll, when it's clearly due to safer cars, better emergency medical treatment and improved roads.
This year has seen the road toll rise, despite their efforts. If they can take credit for a drop in the road toll, they should take responsibilty for the increase. Do the honourable thing and resign. They failed.
Lou

[SPman]

Very well put! :

[sAsLEX]

A very good read

[Big Dog]

Well done.

Incredibly unbiased given the topic.

In an article on tv regarding the road toll they said that average road speed is up on ten years ago, so how effective are the "taxes?"

[MikeL]

Good letter, Lou. I suspect that many of the rank and file in the Police would privately agree with your analysis. In the upper echelons and in the LTSA of course they can't agree, because they have staked too much on present policy. Being one or more steps removed from the actual job of policing the regulations they can ignore the injustice inherent in the present system and rationalize their position by appealing to public opinion which, as you have pointed out, they have carefully manipulated through advertising campaigns that Goebbels would have been proud of.
It's all part of a broader pattern, and the interesting question is whether the commonsense, healthy scepticism and sense of fair play that have always been part of the N.Z. character will be able to withstand this systematic onslaught by the totalitarian forces of a faceless bureaucracy characterised by short-term goals, cynical revenue-earning, exploitation, hidden corruption and political expediency.
Just how many sheep do we have in this country??

[speedpro]

One thing which I've started to suspect as well is that the speed of some of the accidents that are reported seem a bit slow. You know the sort of thing - Subaru Impreza, police chase for a mile, Impreza hits pole, engine completely ripped out, everyone killed, reported speeds "approaching" 140KmH. And of course the chase was called off 40seconds before the crash - "yeah right" as the ad says.

Anyone who has ever driven one of these things would know that it would have been doing over 200KmH, assuming it was de-speedlimited, and if not then 185KmH.

Why would they bother doing that?? I think they do it to justify the speeding enforcement. If they advertised that the crash occurred at 200+ most people would think that going that fast doesn't have any connection with the speed they travel at. 140KmH however is only 20+KmH or so more than the speed quite a few people travel on the open road or motorway and so therefore has some relevance to them and therefore so does the LTSA propoganda.

I've got some "facts" about bread at work I'll post tomorrow, which if the LTSA was the BSA they could have a field day with.

I just remembered some years ago a woman I knew was married to one of the policy makers or some such at the LTSA. He went to Australia to witness some crash testing. When he got back he drove the reasonably late model Toyota they had to the dealer and swapped it for a Volvo. He also never EVER exceeded 70KmH on the open road and NEVER pulled over to allow following traffic to pass. If by some miracle he actually caught up to someone on the open road he would never overtake. As far as I know he's still there coming up with clever ideas for reducing the road toll. Which could explain a lot.

[Motu]

Yeah,I was a bit dubious about the recent chase where the Jap import took out the Chev pickup in Stodard rd Mt Roskill.I know SUVs don't do well in crash tests,but for a passenger car to kill the 2 occupants I think it would have to be moving a tad more then what was reported (forgotten that bit).

[Lou Girardin]

I think there's two trends apparent now. One is to blame every possible accident on excess speed. The other is, as has been said, to underestimate the very high speeds.
Although, I have to say that even an STi or Evo still needs 400 metres to get to 165 - 170 km/h. A bit snail-like compared to bikes.
Lou

[speedpro]

As mentioned, here's the facts on Bread. This is courtesy of the website mototuneusa, I hope he doesn't mind.

Did you know:
1) More than 98 percent of convicted criminals are bread eaters!
2) Exactly half of all children who grow up in bread - eating households score in the bottom 50% on standardized IQ tests!
3) In the 19th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 55 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, scarlet fever, smallpox and influenza ravaged entire nations!
4) Statistics show that more than 75 % of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread!
5) Bread is made from a substance called "dough." Researchers have proven that as little as one pound of dough can choke a large animal like a horse. The average person eats more bread than that in one month!
6) Bread is known to be extremely addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water actually begged for bread after just two days!
7) Bread is a "gateway" food item, which usually leads to such items as butter, jam, peanut butter and even ... bacon !
8) Bread has been proven to kill. Scientists have now uncovered alarming evidence that 100% of the people who eat bread will eventually die!
9) Unattended newborn babies can choke on bread!
10) Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit! Don't laugh...that kind of heat can kill a full grown adult in less than five minutes.
11) 96 % of cancer victims eventually admit that they've eaten bread!
12) Sadly, 9 out of 10 bread eaters are unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

1-11 are of course all true
12 applies to Joe Public and the LTSA data

[Coldkiwi]

good one speedpro! maybe you oughta forward that to the herald

[Dave]

Think about this,
If when they set the limit at 100, they thought that it was a safe speed, then now they think that 80 would be safer, are they then liable for all the deaths that occured in the 80-100k/h range because they said it was a safe speed to travel at?

[SPman]

But before that it was 80,and if they want to they could put it up to 200 and people would then deem that "safe" (coz its allowed!)
What is safe and what is legal are 2 different things which are sadle confused by the powers that be, the media and many of Jor public!