Roadsense is being displaced by a regulatory "road safety" policy that has failed - the "speed kills" policy.

The RoadSense safety initiative is calling for:

1) State governments responsible for road safety to shift their focus from just 2% (two percent) of road fatalities to the grossly neglected but less financially lucrative 98% of below-the-limit speeding fatalities.

2) The federal government to spend our $10 billion in annual fuel tax on making our roads safer - rather than just $2 billion.

3) Compulsory training requiring drivers and riders to control, rather than simply operate, a vehicle.

The current policy creates the perception that road safety is being tackled yet it will require political leaders seriously concerned about reducing death and injury on our roads to bring about genuine change. Public opinion will drive the need for an overhaul of the currently failed policy.

Who is at fault?

The state and territory governments implement and manage the speed kills campaign. Their speed cameras now raise a fast approaching one billion dollars a year from fines. (Estimated from media reports.)

The Federal government is also responsible for the road toll through failing to build new or improve existing roads. We pay $10 billion in petrol and diesel taxes each year (38 cent per litre) to build new and safer roads.Only $2 billion is spent on roads. (Source - Sunrise on 7, January 2005)

Urgent reform is required at state and federal levels in order to save lives.

Other countries the same.

The Facts page shows that the decline in road deaths went from from 30% fewer lives lost over an eight year period to only 10% over the second eight year period following the introduction of speed cameras.

During the period of the beneficial decline in the road toll the irresponsible few who dangerously exceeded the speed limit where penalised. Under the current system the responsible majority who stray over the limit by 5 to 15 km/h are being penalised - for no benefit.

Australia is not alone. The road toll stopped going down with the introduction of speed cameras in every country pursuing the same "speed kills" policy. Data SafeSpeed.

Failed NRSS plan for 40% road toll reduction.

The NRSS (National Road Safety Strategy) was created by the ATC - Australian Transport Council in 1999. The ATC is comprised of Federal, State and Territory transport ministers.

The NRSS set an official target for a 40% reduction in the road toll by 2010. To achieve this they call for "continuous and automatic speed enforcement on high volume roads and other roads with high crash rates".

Their estimates were presumably based on claims by misleading government studies used to support the implementation of speed cameras that "speeding" causes up to 40% of road fatalities.

The NRSS 40% target started with the 1999 road toll figure of 1764 meaning that by 2010 the road toll should be down to around 1050. At the end of 2005, at the halfway mark, it should have been down to around 1400. It was 1635 (ATSB) and 1615 in 2006. This was during some of the driest road conditions in recent times with safer cars, safer roads, increasingly competent paramedics and rescue teams as well as reduced speed yet the road toll is increasing.

The NRSS Progress Report 2006 basically admitted defeat with the following statement. "Up to the end of 2004, national fatality trends were broadly on track to meet the 2010 target of 5.6 deaths per 100,000 population. However since the end of 2004 a substantial gap has developed between actual and required outcomes."

The 2007-08 NRSS Action Plan actually blames the good economy (page 47) for not meeting their target and once again recommend more of the same that is not working (page 3). God help us. 

The NRSS is failing dismally and radical change is required if we want to genuinely save lives on our roads.