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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-29 Daily Xml
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SPEED LIMITS

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:31): I rise today to bring a very important message to the parliament and to this government from my constituency regarding open road speed limits. There has been a lot of discussion, particularly in recent weeks, about the possible intention of this government to reduce open road speed limits from 110 km/h to 100 km/h. Overwhelmingly, my constituency, the people of Flinders, and the local government jurisdictions in that part of the world are opposed to any such move.

The primary concern in my part of the world for the opposition to this proposal or suggestion—and I understand fully that it has not been put in place yet or is even likely in the near future but certainly there is some suggestion and it is being discussed—is around the fatigue that would be involved with people, particularly in country areas on long journeys and on lonely roads, and the fatigue that they would endure as a result of the lowering of the speed limit.

I understand that over recent years speed limits have been lowered in the Lower North, Yorke Peninsula and in parts of the South-East. In fact, the default speed limit speed on South Australian roads is 100 km/h but, of course, there are designated highways and freeways that are signposted at 110 km/h where you are allowed to do that speed.

As I said, all of the councils have voiced opposition to this suggestion to me. Other states, I understand, are moving away from 100 km/h speed limits back to 110 km/h on designated highways and freeways. The eastern states—Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales—have, for a long time, had 100 km/h in place but they are looking now to up the speed limit on their better roads and freeways.

It goes without saying that we are no longer driving FE Holdens and cars today are highly engineered. They are a pleasure to drive and are, in fact, very safe to drive. My belief is that speed is no longer the primary cause of road crashes. We can list off things that are more likely to be the cause of an accident and No. 1 is fatigue. If there was to be a reduction in the speed I was able to do in the electorate of Flinders I would in fact add an extra hour on the road when driving from one end of my electorate to the other—an extra hour—that is when fatigue comes in.

Fatigue, drugs and alcohol result in inattention. That can be combined with a lack of experience which leads to poor judgement and all of these things are far more prevalent in road crashes that we see today than speed on its own. Often it is a combination of all of those things—I understand that.

The most important thing that a driver can do anywhere, anytime, is drive to the conditions. Bringing the speed limit down from 110 to 100 does not automatically make it a safer road or a safer drive. Conversely, increasing the speed limit from 100 to 110 does not automatically make it more dangerous.

At the moment, the trucks and road trains that are on our roads, and particularly at this time of the harvest, are all restricted to 100 km/h. If the cars travelling behind them and with them were also limited to 100 km/h, you would have the bizarre situation of somebody driving from Ceduna to Port Augusta, for example, having to sit behind a road train for that entire distance. Frustration would come in, and I would suggest to you that it would be a recipe for disaster because people must have the ability and the opportunity to pass heavy vehicles when they need to.

At the same time, I am very comfortable proposing that we lower speed limits in built-up areas. In fact, I have helped a couple of my smaller communities reduce the speed limit as they drive through their smaller townships. If road safety is really paramount, as it always must be to all of us, then I believe a better proposal is to actually lower the speed limit in the built-up areas.

In this month's edition of Wheels Magazine, thereis a very interesting article proposing an open road speed limit of 130 km/h. I am not for a moment proposing that, but they make some good points about safe roads and what is actually causing accidents.

Time expired.

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