Speeding blitz in lower limit zones nets 3000 on Brisbane and Gold Coast

Speeding blitz in lower limit zones nets 3000 on Brisbane and Gold Coast
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/speeding-blitz-in-lower-limit-zones-nets-3000-on-brisbane-and-gold-coast/story-e6freoof-1226034880076?from=public_rss

by James OLoan From: The Courier-Mail April 07, 2011 12:00AM

A RECENT blitz on drivers exceeding speed limits in 40km/h and 50km/h zones has netted more than 3000 people since December in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Figures obtained by The Courier-Mail show motorists are consistently speeding in zones around schools and in suburban streets.

The police crackdown in the zones is understood to be the first time they have come under specific scrutiny. Traffic police have set up marked and covert cameras in 15 approved 40km/h and 50km/h sites.

At least 124 sites are expected to be used as the program rolls out across the state.

Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety Queensland (CARRS-Q) researcher David Soole said the strategy was smart because there were more pedestrians, parked cars and other infrastructure in low-speed zones than high-speed zones.

In the first three months of the crackdown, 22 drivers an hour were caught breaking the 40km/h limit. Over the same period, 10 drivers an hour were caught above the 50km/h limit.

A police spokesman said the high number of motorists caught in the slower speed zones was disturbing, but there was slight comfort in data that showed fewer drivers were being stung than when the crackdown started.

When it began mid-December 2010, cameras in 40km/h zones caught an average of 71 vehicles out of 1000 (or 7 per cent). By mid-March that figure had dropped to 54.5 vehicles out of 1000 (or 5.5 per cent). In 50km/h zones, a huge drop resulted over the three months from 23.78 (or 2.4 per cent) to seven (or 0.7 per cent).

The results come a week after this newspaper revealed the huge success of covert speed cameras across all speed zones. Overall, the controversial additions to the police anti-speeding arsenal have helped trigger a slowdown across the state, with 1.6 per cent of drivers now getting caught one in three fewer than when covert cameras were introduced last April.

"The decline in detections demonstrates that anywhere, anytime the philosophy works," a police spokesman said.

"But the driving public should remember that speed cameras are only one part of the range of tools police use to ensure compliance with the road rules."

This year's road toll sat at 60 overnight, seven more than at the same time last year.

An elderly man was killed yesterday about 8.35am when he was struck as he walked across a farm at Jones Gully, north of Crows Nest near Toowoomba.