Originally Posted by
1nando
In my opinion as a professional driver speed becomes a factor at a certain point and is not necessarily dangerous in itself. What makes speeding dangerous is inadequate driving skill and ability.
"Everyone can get a license but not everyone can drive"! This is a frase a lot of the boys use at work to describe the stupidity they see on the roads everyday. We are constantly put in potentially dangerous situations by stupid drivers yet they have the hide to call me in the office and tell me one of my truck drivers has just cut them off when in reality after speaking to the driver that person was on their phone and trying to cut them off in a downhill merging zone with 38 ton payload on board. That is just an example of the crap we put up with. I've experienced it many times myself...
Speeding is like a gun in the hands of an untrained person, damage and a accident are only one mistake away. In saying that i cant handle the BS that the police and politicians talk about when they say speed caremas are for our safety yet their in places where they generate the most revenue rather than the places that necessarily are marked as black spots based on deaths in that area.
Out of all highway patrol chases leading to the loss of life, 40% of those are innocent bystanders. These blokes are egotistical power junkies with permission to potentially cause death in pursuit of stupid people who will do anything and at any cost to try and escape. This is never mentioned publicly and is statistically counted as a death as a result of speeding. The highway patrol officer that died 2 weeks ago will go down as a speeding related death, even though there was no need for him to chase.
In saying all that i understand why speeding is so heavily policed. People need to be kept in line. Vehicles today are extremely capable of reaching high speeds in a relatively short period of time, so why havent the government increased the driver training program for young kids trying to get their P plates? A three year P plate program has done nothing other than increase revenue, the hours required for kids to do are stupid as they deive with their parents who probably dont know or aren't upto date with street laws and rules and probably have bad driving habbits. The process should involve a beginner, intermediate and ultimately advanced driving training program taught by an expert who knows how to drive and the laws. They then graduate with a skill set that can help them avoid potentially dangerous situations as a result of speeding or as a result of someone else's speeding...
My 2 cents, sorry for long post
