Annual increase in speeding fines and traffic infringements

[Skids]

The last paragraph of that article LH... you really do get a pineapple in Vic don't you! And what's with fines like; $529, $721, $817 & $962? Really... why the odd numbers?

We also have a fine/demerits for 1st offence drink driving if under 0.08.

Something I just learnt, we also have a fine/demerit system for 1st offence for -Driving with Specified Drugs in Oral Fluid (see link)

https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/road ... ug-driving

I got done about 7 years ago, blew 0.65 on the roadside, was then charged for 0.061 at the station. I incurred a $600 fine and lost 6 points (from memory).
Crazy really. I got caught in 1984, the second day I had my license, I had just turned 17. I blew over 0.08 on the roadside, they took me to the station and no shit, I blew 0.079 on the machine. They drove me back to my car, said drive carefully and off I went.

An unfair system

The above is an analysis of the law as it is at the moment. Debate may rage about whether police guidelines, or the law, should give greater allowances to motorists. There is nothing wrong with having speed limits on Victoria's roads, and nothing wrong with enforcing those limits. A line needs to drawn somewhere. The real issue is with penalties. Speeding fines can be easily incurred from a moments lack of concentration on speed signs, or on the speedo. The harsh consequences of licence loss from excess demerit points should not be inflicted on people who are detected driving 4kmh over the speed limit. A much fairer solution would be to issue small fines (up to $70) with no demerit points for speeds up to 9kmh over the speed limit. (This is similar to what they have in W.A.) 1 demerit point is fair for 10kmh to 15kmh over the limit, 3 points for anything over 15kmh above the limit. In Victoria drivers more than 25kmh over the limit get mandatory licence loss, so why do they have to suffer up to 8 demerit points as well? Demerit points should only be recorded against people who are avoiding immediate licence loss. At present in Victoria, drivers travelling 35kmh over the limit get 6 months licence loss plus 6 demerit points, which means they risk suffering suspension twice for the same offence. This is quite unfair.

[stui magpie]

Jesus, much more sensible than $240 and 1 point.

In Heidelberg they dropped the limit on a main road to 40kmh for some reason, maybe cos it goes past shops, and put in a fixed speed camera. So doing 44kmh in what used to be a 60 zone will cost a point and $240.

Now that's just criminal, nothing more, nothing less. Cars speedos are allowed to be out by 10% +/- .

The Australian Design Rules require that a vehicle's speedo must not indicate a speed less than the vehicle's true speed or a speed greater than the vehicle's true speed by an amount more than 10 per cent plus 4 km/h

In Vic they allow 2-3kmh error depending whether it's a camera or speedgun.

Any wonder it's getting more common for people to attack cameras and camera operators, it's just blatant revenue raising.

[stui magpie]

I got caught in 1984, the second day I had my license, I had just turned 17. I blew over 0.08 on the roadside, they took me to the station and no shit, I blew 0.079 on the machine. They drove me back to my car, said drive carefully and off I went.

Hah, reminds me of a story. I was 18 in year 12 but was still on my P's at the time of this incident, mid 1983. A foreign exchange student was finishing up so we organised drinks at a pub in Finley. I got the bus home after school, changed out of the school uniform and drove the old HQ back to Finley to the pub. Had a few beers then decided I better go on the water for a bit before driving home.

Went to leave, the starter motor had shit itself so I recruited a mob from the front bar to give me a push start down the main street. Got the car going, pulled over to the left with the right hand blinker on to do a U turn when a Cop car pulled up behind me. Oh shit. They picked me because I'd forgot to put the headlights on, it was so fkn bright in the main street.

They asked me to turn the engine off and get out, I asked if I could leave it going cos I just had to get a push start and they said OK. Then they breathalysed me. Didn't tell me the number, just looked at me. Cop asked where I was going now and I said Home. Back to Toc? Yep. Straight home? Yep. Get going but drive carefully.

Yes Sir, and off I went nice and slowly.

Back to your point though, yes I agree completely, the penalties for minor speeding in Victoria are fkn ridiculous. I was on the 1 point option for most of 2023. That's where you go over 12 and have the option instead of loosing your licence for a month to go 12 months without losing 1 point. I did it but found myseld spending more time watching the speedo than the road on suburban streets where they love putting camera traps.

The bonus is that having done the 12 months I now have zero points against me so I'm back to setting the cruise control at 5kmh over the limit on the Hume.

[Skids]

I was on the 1 point option for most of 2023. That's where you go over 12 and have the option instead of loosing your licence for a month to go 12 months without losing 1 point. I did it but found myseld spending more time watching the speedo than the road on suburban streets where they love putting camera traps.

The bonus is that having done the 12 months I now have zero points against me so I'm back to setting the cruise control at 5kmh over the limit on the Hume.

If you get 12 demerits here it's 3 months minimum (When your licence is suspended because you get a certain amount of demerit points within any 3 year period. How long your licence will be suspended for depends on how many points you get. It will be at least 3 months, and could be up to 5 months.) suspension, or.... Double or Nothing

What is ‘Double or Nothing’?

Double or Nothing gives you the chance to keep your licence if you are served with an Excessive Demerit Points Notice. You have to be of good behaviour for 12 months, which means you must not:

get more than one demerit point, or
commit an offence which results in licence disqualification.
If you breach the good behaviour period, then your licence will be suspended for double the original term (plus any other disqualification from a court). If you get through the good behaviour period, your demerit points are reset to zero and you don't have to serve the demerit point suspension.

You have 21 days from the date you were given the excess demerit point notice to elect the Double or Nothing option. You need to submit a Good behaviour period election form (Form E18) within the 21 day period. You can do this at any Licensing Centre or apply through the Department of Transport website.

Novice driver's cannot elect to do Double or Nothing. As well as having their licence suspended, it is automatically cancelled and they will need to reapply for a licence once the suspension period has ended.

[stui magpie]

Preety much the same here. 6 of the 12 points I racked up were for driving too slowly (missing the amber arrow on a turn by less than a second because of slow drivers in front of me) most of the rest were 1 point offences for 4-5 over the limit.

[Skids]

Preety much the same here. 6 of the 12 points I racked up were for driving too slowly (missing the amber arrow on a turn by less than a second because of slow drivers in front of me) most of the rest were 1 point offences for 4-5 over the limit.

What? Never heard of that one before.

[David]

[eddiesmith]

Yeah, I look for the cameras at every intersection to know if I'm going to take a chance or take it careful. First red light offence I got I never saw the camera despite going through the intersection every day for a month or 2 at that stage. But was due to the car in front suddenly stopping in front of me to do a u-turn and I was already halfway in the intersection when it went red...

I've been reasonably lucky, I should be on 0 points now as it's been either 3 or 4 years since my last ticket. Although I was lucky on my old car it was registered in Mums name so only ever got done when pulled over and that has to be excessive speeding. Last fine was for 129 on the Hume...

I am surprised I escaped my trip up north with no fines as it was so hard to figure where the cameras were even with signs everywhere as they stuck them in tunnels everywhere. At least here I know exactly where the Eastlink cameras are.

Roadside speed cameras usually stand out, especially on the freeways. I thought for sure I was done a month ago when I only saw it at the last second, at the bottom of a hill when I was probably doing 80 in a 70 zone...Got done in that same spot about 15 years ago as at night it's pitch black so hard to see a car on the side of the road.

[Bruce Gonsalves]

The last paragraph of that article LH... you really do get a pineapple in Vic don't you! And what's with fines like; $529, $721, $817 & $962? Really... why the odd numbers?

Yeah the odd numbers as Laurie suggested earlier are CPI adjusted. A 2.5% or 2.1% increase or so will skew the numbers.

[stui magpie]

[Skids]

We just had a long weekend here and the double demerits/fines.

What a cluster f*8%. All the plebs, that can't drive at the best of times, putting along 10-15k's UNDER the limit on the freeway and highways.
I saw one bloke, frustrated by the 2 melons sitting side by side doing 55 in a 70, get a gap just before a set of lights that had changed to amber, he gunned it through and the light was well 'n truly red before he got there.

There's supposed to be a failure to keep left rule here, but I've never heard of, or seen it enforced.

We've had some major upgrades on the freeways here... now the knobs can sit along side each other 5 lanes abreast doing 10 under the limit.
It's amazing how these clowns just cruise along, oblivious to the rest of the world... jesus, my BP is going up just thinking about driving amongst the halfwits!

[Skids]

And they never learn.... fines are loose change to these flogs in their BMW'S, Mercedes and Audi's.


Huge number of drivers caught speeding through a school zone in Peppermint Grove

A huge number of drivers were caught speeding through a school zone in one of Perth’s most expensive suburbs last month - prompting police to label the behaviour as “very concerning”.

WA traffic cops have said that during one camera operation on February 22, more than 400 infringements were issued to speeding motorists as they drove though a school crossing managed by two wardens on Stirling Highway near McNeil Street in Peppermint Grove.

Between 2.40pm and 4pm, approximately 1,400 vehicles passed through the crossing.


Of these vehicles, 401 (29 per cent) sped through the school zone, with 281 motorists exceeding the school zone by 10-19kmh.

Twenty six drivers were caught exceeding the limit by 20-29km/h and two motorists were pinged for driving 30 to 39km over the 40km/h limit.


https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/police ... c-13834277

[pietillidie]

Crikey. I haven't been booked here yet, fingers crossed, but I still don't know enough to have a sense of the margins. One thing I have noticed is the people regularly seem to go 10km over on the Motorway, even under speed cameras! You read things, but it's very different than growing up somewhere where you have enough feedback and info to get a sense of how it works in practice. I suspect it's got something to do with what they call 'average speed cameras', which strike me as a sensible innovation (are they in Oz yet?):

https://www.carbuyer.co.uk/tips-and-adv ... -they-work

That said, it seems growing up in Melbourne won't help much if they're being that stingy on natural driving margins, especially given it's worse in traffic to not do what Stui did, and in other cases and conditions worse brake suddenly and not push on.

Do they still have hook turns in the city? I mastered those back in the day, but the innovation was always a source of amusement, if a very practical work around.

Whatever you do, if drive over here brace yourself for roundabouts and more roundabouts. I mean big ones you can't see the other side of with half a dozen exits such that Google maps regularly counts them wrong (or counts driveways and such as exits), and it's often impossible to guess the lane it's best to be in.

If you think of the history and density over here, there are so many junctions and cross-roads going to so many places great and small, and a lot of narrow old Victorians streets and roads, so that's the thing that differs most with Oz and its lower density and sparseness. Other than the dizzying array of unplanned roads (compared, say, to Melbourne's predictable grids and radials) and narrow streets whereby you have to let cars ahead come past and say half a dozen cars take it in turns to go, you won't have an issue.

[Culprit]

It's easy not to speed these days as most cars have cruise control. I will add you can still speed as well, you know the rules and it's the chance you take. Most road users are using the app "Waze". Live updates by individuals on where the Police are. Throw in that app and most car GPS have fixed cameras listed. Some Highways/Freeways have time over distance cameras, you know they are there. Now we have mobile phone cameras and I am all for those, if you have Bluetooth in your car and holding your phone you should be fined double. I will add I am always above the speed limit and I don't go off my speedo I go off my GPS, if someone wants to go faster than me I let them and then sit back from them and drive on their licence. It took me till I reached 24 years of age to get a full licence as I kept losing it for speeding. Back then on P plates, you got caught speeding, there were no fines it was disqualification. I even went to jail as I couldn't afford to pay the fines. Pity it isn't that way now.

[LaurieHolden]

I'm unaware if you've had the same e-scooter proliferation in VIC or NSW, however with the amount of scooter riders here in Brisbane I see not wearing helmets, there would be undoubtedly many fractured discussions between adolescents and their parents regarding (now $154) fines for not wearing helmets on scooters.

The fines:
Up to $575 for speeding
Up to $143 for not wearing a helmet.
Up to $1,078 for using a phone.
$143 for double riding
$173 for riding on a prohibited road

Unfortunately, I see too many that are old enough to know better riding those scooters without a helmet or the helmet on without the chin strap done up and clearly after a session.
They're speed limited to 24kph up here but coming off at even half that speed and belting your head are reportedly keeping emergency rooms full and waiting times stretched in an already overburdened hospital.
It's a tragedy young people just don't adhere to the risks. If we had more police on the beat riding bikes at regular intervals around the CBD, I'm sure they could get the message through quicker.
ME thinks it's well time to get a campaign to ensure if they don't care for their own safety, the demerit points to their driver's licence might be a bigger incentive.

Data from three emergency departments collated by the Jamieson Trauma Institute (JTI), found a total of 797 people went to hospital after being injured on an "electric personal mobility device", including e-bikes, e-skateboards, segways and hoverboards.
Brisbane data was collected in the 18 months to May 2020 from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH), Princess Alexandra and Mater hospitals.
The majority of injuries, 624, were from e-scooters that had been hired.
Jamieson Trauma Institute researcher and RBWH emergency department staff specialist Dr Gary Mitchell said 54 per cent of those who went to hospitals were not wearing helmets.
People under the age of 35 accounted for almost 70 per cent of cases.

That data was from 2020, post speaking to ED nurses a few weeks back, its ballooned exponentially.

https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/fines/cycling