Driver charged with murder!

Guest

I'm sorry I cannot agree.  Here on the Gold Coast, NOBODY follows the speed limit.  As a consequence I find it far more dangerous than somewhere like Brisbane, which has a higher traffic density but slower drivers (by something like 15km/h on average).  In the real world, people don't watch the road just because they know speed limits won't be enforced.

Having seen the way people carry on around here, I would favour zero tolerance and a fascist police state in enforcing ALL road rules.  I see a lot of drivers crashing into things simply because they drive too fast to control their vehicles.

And why are people so obsessed with speed anyway?  Seems to me if you've gotta be somewhere at a certain time, the easy (and less stressful solution) is to just leave 5 minutes earlier.  I think the time has come for the "Drive defensively or don't drive at all" principle to be adopted.

Guest

I'm not talking about letting people doing 75 or so in a 60 zone.

I honestly can't fathom the thought that doing either 63KM/hr or 68KM/hr is going to make much difference in whether or not you'll be involved in a crash.

I agree that people that exceed the speed limit excessively (15KM/hr) should have the book thrown at them. Although people going 3KM/hr over the limit - the cops shouldn't even waste their time pulling them over.

Guest

The problem comes when people claim "I was doing 68 but my speedo wasn't working properly" or some other form of crap.  As far as I'm concerned, if the speed limit is 60km/h, that should mean 60km/h.  A line has to be drawn somewhere.  If it's reasonably safe to go at 68km/h, that should be the speed limit.  

In anycase, the incidents described in this thread had nothing to do with speeding as far as I'm concerned.  They were deliberate assaults, which brings me to another point.  Why is it (in this country at least) that assaults are regarded with less severity if a car is the weapon than if a gun is the weapon?  Either one can be fatal.