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"We need to bombard the youngsters that it's not a joke driving a car; it's serious."
Two racing legends have slammed calls to lower the speed camera tolerance.
Dick Johnson yesterday said reducing the tolerance of Queensland speed cameras to match the rest of Australia at about 3km/h over would "not save one life or stop one accident".
"This is just another typical example of 'let's look as if we're doing something'," Johnson said. "They won't change the road toll over night with one stroke of a pen."
Allan Moffat, who admits to being snapped by a speed camera at 43km/h in a 40 zone in Victoria, agrees that low speed tolerances won't reduce the road toll.
The former Ford opponents are not only united on the speed camera issue, but also by Moffat's son, james, who now races for the Dick Johnson Racing team. They suggest that training young people in road safety before they learn to drive is the key to reducing the carnage.
"The only way they will change the road toll is to start teaching kids at eight years old about the dangers," Johnson said. "This won't be fixed over night; it will take a generation to fix.
"We need to use the internet and social media to educate them." Moffat believes road safety education should be "drilled into them" from the early teens.
"We need to bombard the youngsters that it's not a joke driving a car; it's serious," Moffat said. "Unfortunately governments don't want to have the responsibility or spend the money to do something about it."
Johnson said he had worked with the police and governments for many years on road safety, but was yet to see his education plans put into action.
"I had a program that was ticked off by John Howard, but the bureaucrats thought it was too expensive; not for the government but for learners," he said. "The problem is people spend more money on their pets than on their kids and keeping them safe."
Their comments follow calls by Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety research officer David Soole to drop the speed camera tolerance level after community consultation.
