this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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If someone drives at that speed in the city, should be charged for murder, not just dangerous driving
Driving a car that fast in city it's equivalent to shooting a gun in a crowded place and should carry the same consequences
This person had also been drinking and didn't have a license. They messed up as soon as they got in the car. But because they killed a person while they were in a car, they got off lightly, compared to if they had killed a person when outside of a car. Our mentality around driving is insane.
Yep, driving with a suspended licence should be instant prison to begin with. If you're not going to follow the rules, it's the only way to keep you out of a 2 ton murder machine.
Manslaughter at least
78 kph/48 mph isn't that fast honestly, I think the biggest problem was that she was fucking wasted. If you can't keep your shit together at 50 miles an hour you probably shouldn't be driving.
Okay, so the limit was 50km/h which means she was in a residential street driving at a speed that is reserved for highways. It definitely matters and is more than fast enough. She fucking killed someone.
This is the problem; if we don't respect any speed over 10km/hr as being fast then it's easy for us to speed. Sure doesn't feel fast when you're driving, but 50km/hr can look pretty intimidating from the ground.
I recognize that, and maybe I'm just desensitized to it, but I live next to a road with a 30 mph speed limit and people blow by at 45 or 50 all day. Maybe the Australians are more desensitized to drunk driving than me, but I still think the bigger problem was her being wasted rather than speeding.
In Australia we've got this weird thing about speeding. Anything over 5km/h and you'll get booked. Thanks to a series of ad campaigns by the police/TAC (traffic authority). Addressing the real issue that the driving test is stupidly easy, hence driver education is crap, driving is seen as a right, not a skill, along with a big drinking culture doesn't help.
It's a great country, beautiful in every way, and please come and check it out if you haven't! But the driving is crap.
It's Victoria they book you for 2-3km/h (after they factor in a 'margin of error'.
In other states the police aren't even interested until you reach 15-20km/h over. But that's because they can't be bothered to reset and potentially lose bigger fish.
I've been chased by NSW highway patrol back in the day for 20km/h but they never ended up pulling me over because I was sitting behind someone doing 30+ km/h.
The camera cars not sure what speed they start to trigger but I've never been snapped for under 10km/h or ever (I guess because the Speedo reads under)
Dam... I need to move states!
I'm not sure why Victoria is so strict - all the Victorians I know sit 10km/h under the speed limit because of this - it's so easy to get into a bookable speed zone unintentionally there.
If you think about it a 2km/h leeway which increases to 3km/h over a certain speed I think either over 80km/h or 100km/h I'm not sure isn't really sufficient.
So the reason for the higher speed tolerances in NSW is because the government doesn't want to encourage speedo watchers which is bloody dangerous.
The fact that the speedos read under and the tolerances they give for example i did 125km/h on the speedo in 110km/h zone, GPS reads 117km/h or so. Then the margin of error brings it to 114km/h or so and the not publicised but roughly 10 percent leeway brings it down to 103km/h. But as a note it's YMMV I can't guarantee 100 percent with the leeway as I'm not a copper.
But to speed in NSW you have to be actively trying or just careless. And like I said that's just with the cameras.
Highway patrol like I said only really pull over the excessive speeders, they really don't bother for someone 10km/h over as they know someone will come along in 2 mins doing something like 20km-30km/h over. I see it regularly on the highway. If they pull over the 10km/h guy it cost them the 20-30km/h booking and also they have to reset which costs them more time.
But in Victoria they seem to like to book everyone. I've only been there once and apparently they're notoriously known for doing that and being the only jurisdiction to have such strict rules.
The fact you're converting to mph makes me think you might not be familiar with speed laws in Australia and what the expected traffic speed is on the average street.
78 is very much too fast
35m stopping distance is quoted for 50km/h. 78 km/h is 65m, or 10 car lengths. from the standard calculator, which assumes normal, non inebriated reactions. This bloke is cooked.