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Annual police speed crackdown begins

Annual police speed crackdown modular

Police around the country are again abusing statistics to issue their annual warning to motorcyclists that they will be out in force this Christmas.

This follows a rise in motorcycle fatalities this year, including six in Queensland this past week.

As a result, we can expect all available mobile speed cameras and police patrols to be deployed to scan the roads for revenue – sorry, speeding motorists.

This will be followed by daily police reports on the number of speed offences which will be used by compliant mainstream media to shock the public.

Police can also be expected to name speed as the cause in most crashes and media will lap it up without asking how they reached that conclusion.

Annual stats don’t stack up

However, the road toll statistics just don’t stack up.

For example, Queensland Road Policing Command Inspector Peter Flanders says the 59 motorcycle deaths so far this year is the highest it has been since 51 in 2012.

What he doesn’t mention is that motorcycle registrations have increased 16.5% from 170,260 in 2012 to 198,468 this year.

Meanwhile, the relatively small number fatalities cannot realistically be presented as highest and lowest or rates because they are so small.

It’s a similar situation in other states, but let’s stay with the Queensland example.

In 2011, there were 41 motorcycle fatalities, rocketing to 51 in 2012. What police fail to mention is that motorcycle fatalities were down in 2013 and 2014 to 43 and 35.

With such small figures, of course they are going to fluctuate wildly from year to year.

If you want statistics, we could say that fatalities have actually risen 1% less than the increase in motorcycle registrations over the past five years.

So let’s stop misusing and abusing statistics and start looking for new solutions, rather than more and more speed cameras.

For example, what have police done about patrolling for inattention?

Speed cause ‘absolute crap’police radar licence checks low

Australian and NSW Motorcycle Council executive, and former police driving instructor Peter Ivanoff says police references to the proportion of accidents caused by speeding is “absolute crap”.

“They don’t know what the real causes of crashes are because ‘cause’ isn’t even on the agenda when crashes are ‘investigated’ by police,” he says.

While police continue to deploy more speed cameras, Peter, a former Academic Director at Charles Sturt University’s School of Policing Studies, says the biggest killer is not speeding, but inattention, for which police seem to have no plan to counteract.

“More and more speed cameras will simply catch more and more motorists exceeding speed limits and if the claims of road authorities were true, as we have more and more speed cameras, the road toll should declining accordingly, in a virtual linear fashion – it isn’t.”

  1. The rhetoric used to back the speed kills BS really falls short when they start trying to use it to put the kibosh on calls for sensible limits or deresticted roads.
    They use reaction times and total energy of impact and stopping distances of vehicles from the sixties.
    When your going 145 kph checking your texts messages is not even in the back of your mind unlike someone sitting at 110 on snooze control!
    Drop an egg from ten metres up then drop another from fifteen, can you see any difference that matters?
    How many vehicles that are pre ABS and have cross ply tyres still on the road?

  2. As a daily motorcyclist myself, I would like the police to actually start getting people for apparently misplacing their Indicators. More often than not, they outright refuse to use them. Worst still, when I am between them and the gutter in my own lane.

    I have seen more cars in front of the police who flout the basic courtesy to Indicate their intentions and the police just let them go.

    The fine for not indicating is comparable to a standard fine; 3 points and a few hundred dollars so they can still take their precious revenue/ bonuses.

    However I feel the real problem is the police requiring to actively enforce this law as opposed to sitting in a blacked out van or hiding behind some bushes.

      1. The two items that will never wear out in Qld are rear view mirrors and indicator stalks. Oh, and indicator bulbs. Don’t know why dealers even bother stocking them. |:-\

  3. I think your preaching to the already converted Mark.
    We already know the stark truth, we live it daily.
    Shyte, it was not that long ago, that the a WA police union rep stated publicly, that speed camera’s did not do a thing for road safety, and their sole purpose was to raise revenue for the State. (Or in Victoria’s case the fat cat mates of the Vic government that run speed camera’s as a business venture)

    No doubt pushed by the fat cat government to bolster their pay increases and retirement benefits.
    It’s about time Rider lobby groups joined forces, along with other motoring organisations, police unions and members, and to stop licking the salty balls, and hold road authorities and governments to account, with one ex polly now serving 5 years, it’s high time a few more where held to account, misleading and lying to the community is paramount to treason.

    Come the revolution, the man with licked salty balls will be the first to go, and the men who did the licking will not be far behind.

    Ride free Ride safe

    GOB

  4. Don’t even think about engaging with one of the token academics that the government uses to help set policy. I had an email exchange with one intellectual giant (a supposed road safety expert who thought that speed cameras were the best invention ever) which I rapidly abandoned when, in his second or third email to me, (in response to me pointing out that road toll figures don’t really reflect the current levels of enforcement) he stated that you can’t use the number of road deaths as an accurate judge of how effective your road safety strategy was. I thought I’d mis-read his response, but one of my offspring confirmed what I’d read. I briefly considered responding and asking him how you were supposed to judge it, if the number of road deaths was apparently irrelevant, but sanity prevailed and I decided I didn’t want to know.

    1. Geoff – the academic is correct, fatality rates is irrelevant.

      Imagine if you will, a pyramid – at the bottom is a layer of bricks representing the all the road trips that nothing bad happened(there’s a lot), above that a layer of all the times that something bad could have happened(still quite a lot), above that all the times that something slightly naughty happened, then followed by times that bad things happened and times that something seriously bad happened.

      Then you put the last pallet of bricks at the top labelled “fatalities”.

      If you have a really bad road crash that kills six people, the road toll jumps – and you put an extra six bricks on that pyramid.

      Does looking at the tiny tippy top of the pyramid tell you anything about the rest of the pyramid?

      In a purely statistical view of the world the road fatality rate is meaningless and statistically insignificant. Trying to draw meaningful conclusions out of such a small pool of data is nonsense.

      Asking how they were judging the success of the road safety strategies would have been illuminating, but at likely at odds with all of the official media releases that focus purely on fatalities.

      The reason fatalities are focussed on is important though – it brings an emotional response to each person that sees the road safety ads on TV or sees a sign or whatever.

      Death affects us all, but for making informed policy in this area it isn’t as meaningful as it first sounds. You need to look at more of the pyramid and figure out the top by looking at the lower layers.

      1. Totally agree ever crash could be a fatality all comes to a large number of contributing factors like speed, point of impact, vehicle safety features etc. An example-: slow speed impact driver not wearing seat belt (no air bag) and hits head on steering wheel killing him… number of factors … which caused the death BUT were not the cause of the crash…

        Look at the cause and prevent the crashes and we prevent all that follows… Yes we still have to have ALL the vehicle safety features out there to compensate for all the idiots driving on the roads…

        1. you lost me at the second brick Penguin but I sortof get the idea. Can U give a link which explains the brick pyramid a bit more?

      2. There is so much both right and wrong with what you just said it’s hard to find the tip of it but let me try.
        Aside from statistical anomalies where a bus load of people die because a bus went over a bridge you most certainly can tell that a certain safety policy is working or not because it is the tip of the pyramid. If there were no deaths then the policy is obviously working but when the number keep climbing when they should be going down then there is something definitely wrong with the policy. The proof that the policies are wrong is that all the numbers are increasing from the bottom of the pyramid up even when adjusted for increase in registrations etc . And what is this wrong policy? Speed kills! You can die laying in the bed was speed the cause? No. Stupidity is the number one killer on our roads but I don’t see any stupidity kills bill boards around.

  5. The Triangle of nanny state Propaganda observed on ABC & SBS TV daily = Government Journo+Government Academic+Government Employee(Police) ; outcome is brainwashed media 7 public i.e. “Speed Kills or Every K over is a killer” ? So when in Germany recently traveling on autobahns at 200+ kph by motorcycle, I did not see any accidents ; and nobody killed, and i felt quite safe. The proportion of accidents is lower on Autobahns than in city 50km zones. What i quickly learned at 200km+ in the middle lane is that your alertness rises and you “pay attention” big time both to your lane “entitlement” and to your rear view mirrors, faster traffic coming, when 2 x Ninja Z14 past me doing 300kph – legally. Safety is about attention and Skill. The std of driving we observed in DE was much higher. When i got home to AU i sold my ZX14 feeling like i was in a childcare road system here with many roads marked 60, 80 or if you are really lucky 110kph? They take their 50kph zones VERY seriously and enforce those.

    Social profiling of motorcycle riders by police, must surely be illegal as discrimination under our constitution?

    Motorcyclists in AU should be given the OPTION to pay any speed fine ; OR go to an approved Training course of equivalent cost and pass the course – this would prove the government is actually serious about “safety” using training and not just punitive revenue raising and “Social Profiling” – Canners are blocking our roads and polluting our planet whilst pretending they are better than us, pppfftt

    1. Problem is does not matter how skilled and safe you drive… it is the other driver who is going to kill you… Not all people are good drivers the same as not very football player will play professional football… there are people out there who have basic skills and also push themselves and their vehicles beyond their skills and the vehicles capabilities… just like driving on a race track is totally different to driving on a public road.

  6. Very interesting stats can be used to try and prove whatever you want and there is also a problem with how your site uses them…

    It is not just the number of register vehicle types (motorcycles in this case) that we need to look at. One of the things which has to be looked at is the number of kilometres these vehicles travel per year. The more you are on the road the more chance of being involved in a crash.

    Motorcycle damage, injury and death will always be high due to the nature of the beast … no matter how good a rider you are OR how well you pay attention you can not make other riders/drivers do the same.

    Have to agree with the ‘inattention’ being one of the biggest cause of crashes and reasons for many crashes (and traffic offences) did not see the other vehicle – did not see the speed sign – did not see the stop sign – did not see the red light … the list goes on.

    Inattention also contributes to crashes as well as causing them … if your are not paying attention to the road and other drivers you give the idiot who is speeding, going through a stop sign – going through a red light – etc. the opportunity to kill you…

    Driving a vehicle is a full time job and in reality there should be no things to distract drivers… kids — mobile phones — stereo systems – girl friends playing with your leg – or other people distracting you by talking to you about something taking your mind off the task at hand which is driving a vehicle…. again the list goes on. Distracted drivers for what ever reason are one of the biggest hazards on the road.

    AND some people believe that speed does not cause as many crashes as the stats show… they do when due to speed the vehicle loses traction with the road, goes to fast to negotiate a bend, and when other drivers under estimate the others vehicles speed, to name a few.

    AND
    don’t forget the faster you go the bigger the bang when you hit someone … more impact equals more damage and more chance or death or injury.

    SO people please pay more attention to what you do on the road and what others are doing … and the road will be a safer place.

    1. Not 100% of attention is required to pay 100% attention to driving or riding and attempting to pay 100% all the time can be dangerous. What do I mean by this?
      A little bit of distraction from music or someone talking to you is a good thing if it helps keep you from falling asleep at the wheel. The problems start to arise when driving starts to become a distraction from the other things you are doing.

      Speed kills and speeding kills are two very different things one is a propagandist lie the other is a fact. If you are traveling above the posted limit you are not necessarily speeding but if you’re going too fast to take a bend or stop for a stop sign or other expected hazards you are speeding and you can be speeding even if you are going slower than the limit.

  7. Unfortunately the police are the puppets, they are just carrying out as officers of the law what their superiors and the government thus call them to.

    Yes what is being told is crap, yes the true causes of a lot of accidents are not known(eg car coming around the corner on wedding side, rider tried avoiding, crashes, media and police blame motorcyclist), however the individual officers are people who are doing their job.

    Please keep that in mind before slamming the police through words, media or social media. If it is really someone’s fault it is the government’s as well as motorists in general. Let’s address it at the government’s level first so that our police can enforce appropriate laws.

    Stay safe and ride sensibly over the break people and when dealing with Mr Plod, do so with respect and niceties and that will probably be returned, not necessarily without a ticket though….

  8. Yada Yada Yada!!!
    facts and figures,
    I find the real problem is this “CRAP ROADS”.
    In my area road surfaces that we pay good money for (rego,insurance,petrol tax,etc) are better suited to Motorcross tracks.
    Surface break ups, pot hole, road surface being pushed up into berms that put you airborne.
    Then the local council goes out and patches the road then leaves about 2 shovel full of loose road base stones all over the road so you get showered with them great eh!
    I am in constant contact with the local councils in my area trying to get things done even the RMS fixed one patch on the Main Highway that we got airborne (in a car, all the crap that you carry in the car went flying every where! I think I might have to clean out the cabin).
    So after all that If the roads were in good condition it would be safer to ride on,
    How many pot holes in Eastern Creek track or Phillip Island? zero.
    Like the Doors song “Keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel/handlebars”.
    MERRY CHRISTMAS to all.

  9. How does that saying go, “if the only tool you have in the tool box is a hammer, then every thing looks like a nail”.

  10. In other words, motorcycle fatalities are going DOWN
    but police twist that around into saying they’re going up.

    Police should set an example to the public:
    truthfulness, honesty & fairness.

  11. If “speed kills” according to the bedwetters
    why do the police go well & truly over the speed limit?
    If the bedwetters were right, police wouldn’t be allowed over a speed limit.

    Because police have special training?
    So speed doesn’t kill after all, contrary to propaganda we’re fed.
    You just need the skills, that’s why police have the training
    & condition of roads

    * slippery white paint – non slip available for over 30 years, so why isn’t it used?
    * vertical obstructions
    armco – posts rip your arms & legs off
    post & wire – more posts, even more dangerous

    These dangerous hazards are being phased out or banned in Europe
    so why do they keep installing them in Australia?

  12. “More and more speed cameras will simply catch more and more motorists exceeding speed limits and if the claims of road authorities were true, as we have more and more speed cameras, the road toll should declining accordingly, in a virtual linear fashion – it isn’t.”
    — Australian and NSW Motorcycle Council executive, and former police driving instructor Peter Ivanoff .

  13. Speed cameras cause speedo watching which causes inattention which causes accidents.

    I’ve long been a proponent of inattention as the biggest cause of accidents and the more gadgets cars get will cause more of it.

    Oh wait there will soon be driverless cars and that will make us all safer….

  14. What the also Police don’t say is that historically over 30% of accidents are suicide, they generally happen in single occupancy vehicles within 10 Km of the owners dwelling and shortly after a heated domestic dispute. This has actually risen since speed has been heavily policed but no state authority has released these new figures for fear of giving people idea’s. I have no idea if the proportion is similar in Motorcycle riders as we are always smiling when riding!

  15. When they tell us that 4327 people were booked for speeding over the period, that tells me that its the law that needs adjusting, not the people.

    Sure, there are plenty of idiots, and they get caught, but most people are sensible and law abiding. So when those people are breaking the law in droves, it is obvious that something is wrong with the law.

    The continual harping about “not getting the message”, has reached the point where nobody listens anymore.

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