Safety

Speeds exceeding 160km have been clocked by Brisbane City Council's speed warning signs

Roads minister Duncan Gay wants to curb the dangerous and illegal lunatics who put pedestrians and other road users at risk and make the streets safer for everyone.Mr Gay said he was "increasingly persuaded" that a bike licence scheme - potentially involving cyclists paying a fee to register their bikes - was needed in NSW following a series of horrific accidents involving riders, cars and pedestrians, including two fatalities."It's not going to worry the (cyclists) that are doing the right thing, but the bad ones that are running lights, crossing over, being aggressive, they're a large part of the statistic," Mr Gay said last year just days after a male cyclist was killed in a collision with a bus at Neutral Bay.The minister will convene a discussion between insurance groups, cyclists, the police and other interested parties within two months at which bike licensing will be seriously discussed, along with other possible ways to ease concerns about road safety."I have committed to a roundtable to discuss cycling issues and recommendations in Sydney including penalties, licensing options and traffic regulations," Mr Gay said."I want to bring all the relevant groups together including NSW Police, cycling clubs and groups, insurance organisations, transport and pedestrian representatives as well as local and state government."This roundtable is key for the ongoing safety of cyclists and all road users - we want to get this right."Labor City councillor Linda Scott said licensing was "worth investigating" but said enforcement would be hard.Previous discussions around bike licensing in NSW have centred on licensing the bike rather than the cyclist, and it is understood that would be the method favoured by Mr Gay.Bike trips are said to have doubled in the past four years. Independent councillor Angela Vithoulkas said: "As the number of bike riders increases we will need additional resources to monitor the bike lanes for unlawful action"."Every now and again serious injuries to pedestrians make headlines, but I've seen countless numbers of near-misses that occur each day."Liberal councillor Christine Forster also called for greater safety measures. "The city should be more focused on improving safety on shared paths, where our current signage suggests bikes, not pedestrians, rule the road," she said.

A whopping 502,934 tickets have been issued this financial year, which means the Baird government will collect about $180 million - or $493,150 a day - for the year to June 30.The revenue from traffic cameras is more than double the $78 million collected in 2010-11, and well up on last year's total of $153 million.It has led to calls for a more rounded approach to road safety, including a greater police presence, rather than just whacking motorists with ever-increasing fines.The current penalty for a car exceeding the speed limit by up to 20km/h is $254 and three demerit points"The NRMA is alarmed by the increase again in the revenue from speed camera fines," NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said."We know that while cameras have a limited role to play, ultimately if we're going to change bad driver behaviour what we need is a constant and increased presence of clearly marked highway patrols."As of March 31, $55.8 million of the 2014-15 fines was still outstanding, including $24 million subject to payment arrangements.The current penalty for a car exceeding the speed limit by up to 20km/h is $254 and three demerit points. An additional $13.6 million has been collected from motorists fined for using mobile phones or not wearing seatbelts so far this year.The surge in speed camera revenue is being driven by a massive increase in the use of mobile cameras, which soared from 900 hours a month to 7000 last year.And there are 145 red-light cameras now in use, compared to 125 in May last year.

That is the conclusion of a study for the Australian and New Zealand Vehicle Safety Research Group.Monash University Accident Research Centre examined the latest truck safety technologies and studied what kind of impact these would have if they were fitted to all heavy vehicles.Such a study is groundbreaking, NSW Centre for Road Safety general manager Marg Prendergast says. Much previous research had gone into investigating the benefits of fitting the technologies to light vehicles."This is really the first time we've had some insight into the real-world benefits that could be delivered if they were fitted to all heavy vehicles," she says.The study is important because heavy vehicles feature in so many fatal truck crashes in NSW."In 2014, (heavy trucks) made up about 2 per cent of all registered motor vehicles, accounted for about 7 per cent of all motor vehicle travel, but were involved in about 17 per cent of all road fatalities."The Monash researchers examined four new kinds of crash avoidance tech: automatic emergency braking (which was by far the most promising), electronic stability control, fatigue warning and lane departure warning.NRMA vehicle safety expert Jack Haley describes the results as compelling and says the other three features also have the potential, if fitted to all heavy vehicles, "to prevent about 4 to 6 per cent of Australian fatal heavy vehicle crashes".

My son will be getting his Ps soon and is looking to buy his first car. What are your thoughts on a 2007 Holden Barina sedan? It is a manual, which we would prefer him to drive, has only had one young female owner, and has done a little under 140,000km, and appears to be in very good condition. My concern is safety. I know later models were improved, but how does the 2007 model rate, and what would be a good price to pay, if we were to buy it?

A blitz on parents who fail to safely restrain their children in their cars will be launched by Victorian police next week.

For that you must have laws where motorists can understand the obvious benefit (for all of us) of compliance.In my 30-plus years behind the wheel, those road rules have evolved a lot. As a young bloke growing up in southeast Queensland, things were considerably more laissez-faire than they are today: Most of the old Holdens and Valiants we drove didn't have seat belts in the back, the blood alcohol limit was 0.08 and there was no random breath testing - unless of course you unwittingly laid some serious rubber down at the lights in sight of an unmarked walloper. Guilty as charged, sorry.Speed cameras didn't exist, and you pretty much knew which spots the cops favoured to set up their clunky old radar sets and you slowed down for a few hundred metres accordingly.Times have, thankfully, changed, and only an absolute arse-hat doesn't recognise the perils of drink or drug driving, or respect the fact that slowing down to 40km/h in a school zone where children are buzzing around is not only the law but basic common sense.Likewise, it is not so much the threat of a fine that makes us buckle up as soon as we hop in a car, but force of habit born of a desire not to end up smeared all over the windscreen - the same way the 'stop revive survive" mantra is ingrained in most motorists on long journeys today.In short, we can well understand the logic behind laws designed to minimise the carnage.Last year four people a week on average died on Queensland roads. None of us want to become a statistic.Where police and transport authorities lose the war, though, is when motorists perceive ever-stricter enforcement of minor infringements as being little more than revenue-raising. Instead of acting as a deterrent or an expensive lesson in improving driver behaviour, such policy merely fuels resentment and an "us and them" mindset that risks undermining public faith in other, more important road rules and safety campaigns.Bust me hooning along the Warrego Highway at 130km/h and I'll concede I was being a bloody idiotA case in point here is the poorly explained decision to ratchet back tolerance levels on speed cameras.As News Corp Australia has been reporting in recent days, this has resulted in an extraordinary surge in the number of people being nicked for low-level speeding infringements - and we're talking here a few clicks over 60km/h or 80km/h on major arterial roads where a sensible motorist goes with the flow and spends more time watching the traffic than fixated on the speedometer.Bust me hooning along the Warrego Highway at 130km/h and I'll concede I was being a bloody idiot. Hit me with a $150 fine for doing 65km/h at the bottom of a hill on Gympie Rd, Kedron, and I'll just be pissed off at the police, not pondering my own stupidity.When pressed on the surge in "just over" speeding fines in the past year, Assistant Police Commissioner Mike Keating failed to point to any studies or concrete data showing a correlation between lower tolerance levels and fewer crashes.Motorists could be forgiven thinking then if it's not "the vibe of the thing", then it's all about the extra millions in revenue flowing from tens of thousands of extra fines. A nice little earner in other words.As one oft-cited US Department of Transport Study into the effects of raising or lowering posted speed limits concluded, motorists tend to drive to the conditions - optimising a safe journey with the shortest time.People would rarely cite minor speeding as a principle annoyance or danger that needs stricter policingThe study found that lowering posted speed limits by as much 32km/h, or raising speed limits by as much as 24km/h, had little effect on motorists' speed, with drivers not altering their behaviour: "Data collected at the study sites indicated that the majority of speed limits are posted below the average speed of traffic".In urban or most highway conditions people would rarely cite minor speeding as a principle annoyance or danger that needs stricter policing. Rather it is the sort of driver behaviour that our ubiquitous cameras can't detect upon which most motorists would support tougher action.Cameras don't, for example, tend to detect the galahs who habitually tailgate (rendering redundant the safe stopping-distance equation of obeying a set speed limit), or the inattentive drivers who change lanes or charge into traffic with little more than a Hail Mary and a flick of the steering wheel.Authorities need to realise there is a big difference between educating drivers, and simply alienating themThey don't target the old duffer who's never had a ticket in 50 years behind the wheel, but tows his 2-tonne caravan in the right-hand lane of the highway at 70km/h, drifting blithely across the lane markings and oblivious to the rest of the world.When it comes to policing our roads - especially when it comes to trifling infringements that bear little demonstrable connection to safety, authorities need to realise there is a big difference between educating drivers, and simply alienating them.

South Australian police say the smartwatch, which goes on sale in Australia today, will be treated as a mobile phone and should not be used by drivers in a vehicle that is moving or stationary.But a prominent solicitor has argued the watch is a bluetooth accessory and storage device - and therefore legal - that could not independently be used for phone calls, and to send and receive text messages and emails.The Apple Watch was still considered a mobile phone under rule 300 of the Australian Road RulesThe Apple Watch, above, will be available in 20 models ranging in price from $799 to $1629 and will be "just as intuitive as using your iPhone or working on a Mac", according to its website.However, some of its features - including making and receiving calls, and sending and receiving text messages and emails - will work only when an iPhone is switched on and is paired via bluetooth or a shared Wi-Fi network.Traffic Support Branch acting officer-in-charge Inspector Steve Kameniar said the Apple Watch was still considered a mobile phone under rule 300 of the Australian Road Rules.The rule states that a motorist can use a mobile phone while driving via bluetooth, a headset or earphones without touching, holding or resting the phone on their body.It further states that it is an offence to create, send or look at a text, video message or email on a mobile phone.Police remind motorists that driving is a complex task requiring drivers to use and co-ordinate a number of skillsInsp Kameniar said the watch, therefore, should not be used in a vehicle that is moving or stationary."Police remind motorists that driving is a complex task requiring drivers to use and co-ordinate a number of skills," he said.Lawyer Michael Woods said he believed, at present, the Apple Watch was a bluetooth accessory that also functioned as a storage device.Mr Woods said defining the watch as a mobile phone was conditional on whether the watch was able to independently make and receive calls and send and receive text messages. 'It makes a huge difference as to whether it is reading those from the phone," he said."If it is picking up information from your phone via bluetooth or wireless connection, my thought is that I doubt it would be a phone, but like a bluetooth device."

The controversial police speeding crackdown has led to hundreds of thousands more Queenslanders slapped with fines from mobile cameras than fixed.

The government wants to ensure a steady supply of affordable cars once Australia's car makers shut their factories.But the reason they are closing is because Australia is already the most competitive market in the developed world.More than 65 brands compete for 1.1 million annual sales versus 38 brands in a market of 15.5 million in the US; Commsec data shows new-car affordability is at a 37-year high, with prices at 20-year lows.This rule change, without exaggeration, could cost livesWe are in favour of price competition but not at the risk of exposing unwitting customers to rogue importers with vehicles that may have been stolen and given a new bogus identity, were written off and then repaired illegally, or lack the safety features of equivalent models sold here.The government has apparently told industry leaders "buyer beware" will save customers. Really?This rule change, without exaggeration, could cost lives. Newer, safer cars are the driving force behind last year's 89-year low in the road toll.Enthusiast buyers can already import the specialist cars they desire. Do we really want to relax the rules to let any car in without proper checks?We should proceed with extreme cautionBuyers trying to save a dollar may pay a higher price by being stuck with a lemon. What happens to unwitting buyers who can't tell the difference between a car originally sold here (with historical parts and service support) and a privately imported car that could be dearer to insure, service and repair — and lack vital safety equipment?The old saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" applies to the Federal Government's "cheaper cars" mantra. We should proceed with extreme caution.