Speed focus wrong: road safety expert
The architect of the State Government's speeding strategy believes there is too much emphasis on "low-level" speeders and police should instead target motorists breaking the limit by more than 20km/h.
Monash University road safety expert Max Cameron said covert speed cameras, increased penalties and immediate disqualification for high-level speeding could stop hoons.
Professor Cameron said the widely held view that low-level speeders should be the priority in reducing serious crashes had been debunked by his latest research, which will be unveiled at a C-MARC road safety seminar in Perth today.
Professor Cameron said he had analysed Main Roads data from 2010 that recorded 664,000 vehicles travelling through 60km/h zones and discovered those doing more than 80km/h - just 0.78 per cent of drivers - were responsible for 29.4 per cent of serious and fatal crashes on Perth roads.
Conversely, the research found the 26.4 per cent of drivers travelling just above the speed limit at 60-65km/h made up just 3.7 per cent of crashes.
The 13 per cent of drivers travelling at 65-70km/h contributed to just 8.5 per cent of serious crashes.
"The argument has tended to be a fairly simple one - we know lots of people speed just above the limit and that there's a risk associated with it and, therefore, we should do something about it," Professor Cameron said.
"I'm suggesting that may be true, but there are higher risks associated with quite uncommon behaviour at the high end of the scale and when you put the risk on to those people, they contribute a substantial proportion of serious and fatal crashes."
Professor Cameron said to focus on low-level speeding "just because lots of people are doing it" could be misleading.
He said he supported closing a low-level speeding loophole in WA that allowed drivers travelling less than 10km/h above the speed limit to escape a demerit point penalty.
But he believed the primary focus should be on catching high-level speeders.
"The big problem is still the high-level speeders and police need to think about how they can reduce that," Professor Cameron said.
"The current focus on introducing a demerit point for low-level speeders shouldn't distract attention away from where the big problem is and that's high- level speeders."
RAC spokesman Matt Brown said he strongly rejected the suggestion that the WA road safety community ignored the issue of the dangers of high-level speeding.
"We are absolutely passionate about sending a message to the community that low-level speeding, particularly in an urban environment with kids on our streets, is a big risk," he said.
Road Safety Council chairman Murray Lampard said he supported Professor Cameron's view that identifying and stamping out high-level speeding must be a priority for WA Police.
