I'm sorry, but some of what is in that ABC article is just ignorant rubbish. For starters, they say the maximum speed limit in Australia is 110, when in fact it is 130. It does not mention that when the open NT speed limit was removed and the 130 limit came in, the road toll DOUBLED in a year. They rightly say that we should look at road safety as we do workplace safety, because maybe then drivers will get the training they are not required to have to get a licence. Yet training was never mentioned in the article. I agree that vans and commercial vehicles are not safe- yet they are allowed on the road. Why? As for having speedos that only go to 110- typical of someone who has no idea on road safety. Apart from the fact people can use GPS instead, such silliness has been tried overseas and it achieved nothing.
With Australia's climate far better than Europe, North America and the UK due to far less ice, snow, etc, we really should have better safety. But the continual chronic under funding of roads in the last 100 years, combined with very poor driver training and an over emphasis on only enforcing speeding laws it should come as no surprise countries like Germany, with 4 times our population only has 3 times our road toll. The only response our governments have is to"crack down on speeding" with more speed cameras and higher fines. Even though Blind Freddy can see this has not worked, it is equally obvious it does make it look like the governments are being seen to be doing something while at the same time increasing their revenue.
