Speed kills. It’s the message that we’ve had driven home for decades by law enforcement and the government. But it’s time to have a serious discussion about speed limits in Australia without the hysterics and put some cold, hard facts into the debate.
This is standard motoring journo clickbait.
There is not a hope in hell that speed limits will be increased and the entire premise that ‘speed doesn’t kill’ is not supported by the science.
The National Road Safety Partnership Program’s number one recommendation is that speed limits should be lowered.
The West Australian Centre for Road Safety Research says “A vehicle’s speed has a major influence on the risk and severity of road crashes and crash related injuries”.
The claim that vehicles are newer and safer because they have new technologies is also pretty shaky:
41% of vehicles registered in NSW are more than 11 years old
Source: Table 9 of the 2021 Motor Vehicle Census which is the most recent release
A significant proportion of cars do have the mentioned features though, blind spot monitoring is a nice easy one to notice and you’ll see a lot of cars do have it when you’re driving around.
Even without these specific features though modern cars are much safer than cars were when our speed limits were set. This even applies to cars now considered old - my own car for example now qualifies for historic rego and can drive quite safely at 130km/h (and is both less likely to get into a crash and much more survivable in the event of one than any 70s car).
Back when the 100km/h limit was set this was actually a fast speed for the cars and roads of the era. Now it is not - speed limits have become a recommended speed rather than anywhere near the limits of safety (assuming average car and normal conditions). Highway/freeway limits in particular are well due for an increase rather than the decreases (literally and effectively) they keep receiving.