Speeding enforcement up - Deaths up (NZ)

[jeffreyarcher]

Thanks to a poster on another forum for this.
The New Zealand Herald (7/8 ths the way down).

But the last of those Es (enforcement) is also coming under attack. This year's increase in deaths comes as the police have issued a staggering $1.5 billion in traffic tickets in the year to June 2003 - up $300,000 (25%) on the previous year - despite a drop in average speeds.

"We were always told that if we enforce harder and lower the speed we will drop the toll," says National's police spokesman Tony Ryall, "but it's not working." He recently released LTSA figures that show 75 per cent of fatal crashes happen below the speed limit. "The problem is not speed per se, it's excessive and inappropriate speed."

Ho hum. Why are senior policemen (or is it their political masters?) so effing fick?


>>> Edited by jeffreyarcher on Sunday 28th December 22:02

[mybrainhurts]

jeffreyarcher said:

Thanks to a poster on another forum for this. Ho hum. Why are senior policemen (or is it their political masters?) so effing fick?

Don't think they are.......I reckon they need the publicity to enhance promotion opportunity.

Are you able to point us to the forum in question, jeffrey?

[james_j]

Well surprise surprise.

I'll bet that their response is to get even tougher and issue more tickets!

As many have said many times, there needs to be intelligence applied, not speed control. Only a simpleton thinks in such black and white terms, i.e. "...slower must somehow be safer..." - no more thought required (or capable of no more thought)- idiots!

[streaky]

james_j said:

... Only a simpleton thinks in such black and white terms, i.e. "...slower must somehow be safer..." - no more thought required ...

The trouble is, it's true. Just as at zero degres Kelvin all molecular activity stops (theoretically), at zero miles per hour no-one will be injured or die as a result of collisions between or with motor vehicles. There will be no income from tax (oops! "fines") as a result, but that won't matter because everything else will have stopped anyway.

'Thinking' is a process unknown to government; Ministers are automata. They do and say what Whitehall tells them - which is decided by Brussels anyway. Where there is any flicker of brain activity it is merely in response to external stimulus - just as the leg of a dead frog twitches when stimulated by electricity. Pressure groups have determined how much electricity to apply, and when to apply it. They know that sound-bites become mantra ... and this government lives by mantra. After all, you don't have to think to repeat a simple phrase over and over again ... "Speed kills. Speed kills. Speed kills ..."

Sh1t, I was almost believing it myself then!

Streaky

PS - BTW, if "Speed kills", why are they thinking about legalising drugs? - S