Here we go again..

Gee, Traffic Support Branch Superintendent Mark Fairney - you reckon you're sick of the carnage?

Personally Mark me ol' china, I couldn't care less about it.  I see that "initial investigations showed speed and alcohol were factors in the crash"... that makes the driver a fucking idiot in my estimation, and the loss of another idiot is no great loss.  Unfortunately, we don't seem to be experiencing much of a shortage of supply.

His death followed that of a 20-year-old Peterborough man, who was killed on Sunday morning at Yongala. None of the car's five occupants was wearing a seatbelt and the driver is now facing charges over his death.

An excellent idea.  Presuming he was actually at fault (which the article doesn't actually say, other than imputing so by the comment re charges) then I say clap him in gaol for a couple of years.  (To be fair though, I don't believe a driver should be responsible for other adult passengers not wearing seat belts - they're above the ago of legal responsibility, their actions are their own to answer for.  If that's all the charges are for then I'm equally disgusted at the police for focussing on an irrelevancy.)

The latest report I can find is bemoaning the death of 57 people over the Easter break.  I like the bit at the end though:

Drive safely, folks. Speed cameras, booze buses and police patrols alone can't keep you from getting hurt on the roads, so stay alert, drive sensibly, don't speed and definitely don't drink and drive.


Surprise, guys - penalising people for catching them after they have done something stupid is a poor deterrent.  By the time you catch them, they've already done it.  As I said yesterday, unless the penalties are so unthinkably hideous they don't stop people.
 
The other thing to remember is that if you put a few hundred thousand cars on the road, people are going to die.  Quite apart from speeding, being affected by drugs, alcohol or fatigue etc, people are still going to do normal dumb stuff.  They'll exercise poor judgement, forget to check a blind spot, drive a poorly maintained car, fail to drive to the conditions, generally drive like an Asian etc.  Crashes are going to happen, particularly if you increase the traffic density.  I don't have the numbers offhand, but I'd be willing to bet that the actual rate of traffic accident related deaths has gone down in proportion to the amount of traffic on our roads, which makes the wringing of hands even sillier...