SA highways 'not good enough' for 130kph

Road safety groups have slammed a campaign to lift the speed limit on some Australian highways to 130kph, but some people are still hoping the campaign gains traction.

Car magazine Wheels has created controversy after one of its reporters drove from Melbourne to Sydney at 130kph in a bid to prove it can be done safely.

It’s editor Stephen Corby asked why it was permitted overseas and in the Northern Territory, but nowhere else in Australia.

“We did it in six hours and 20 minutes, and on the way back it took us seven and a half hours, so we saved an hour and 10 minutes,” he said.

But the South Australia’s Motor Accident Commission (MAC) said the suggestion was ‘ludicrous’.

‘We’d say it is an absolute nonsense and it’s ludicrous,” Sharon Hanlon from the MAC said.

“As speed goes up, so does your crash risk.”

But some road users are hoping the campaign gains traction.

“It is safer to go faster because of the concentration levels that you employ,” Cameron Wearing from the Australian Driving Institute said.

A string of other countries already boast a 130kph limit, including France, Austria, Denmark, Greece and the Netherlands.

On Germany’s autobahn, there is no limit.

But the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) said increasing the speed limit in South Australia would be a recipe for disaster.

It said the roads here are simply not up to scratch.

In a recent safety audit, not one was given a perfect five-star rating.

Most, including the South eastern Freeway, scored three stars of less.

Charles Mountain from the RAA said: “The argument about the higher speed limits could only be counted… in sections of road which are built to the highest standards and were designed from the outset to operate at that level of speed.”

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