Restrict Engine Speeds

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday January 13, 2009

This is a simple way to prevent P-platers speeding. Pass a law that any vehicle registered to a P-plater must have its engine governed so the vehicle cannot exceed 80 km/h. Engines could be checked before a pink slip is issued. Penalties would apply to anyone tampering with the engine to increase its speed.

Even with an 80 km/h speed limit it should not interfere with the P-plater's driving pleasures as their speed limit is already restricted. However, it would prevent those high-speed car accidents and the resulting deaths and injuries.

There were 390 deaths with many more injuries in car accidents on Australian roads in 2008. It should be the aim of the authorities to reduce this carnage on the roads as much as possible. Putting an inexperienced P-plater driver in control of a car capable of 200 km/h makes the possibility of an accident more likely to happen. With the engine stopped at a maximum of 80 km/h the possibility of an accident, especially a severe one, causing death, is greatly lessened.

If the cars were restricted to 80 km/h, P-platers would seldom be booked for speeding, with a consequent saving of money and preservation of their licence as well as making it much safer for P-plate drivers, their passengers and other road users.

Rob Clay, Lake Illawarra.

Why pick on youth?

Most drivers are fed up to the teeth with some (not all) P-plate drivers. (And could police road patrols pay more attention to the P-plate stuffed out of sight behind the registration plate, please?)

So I think confiscating the vehicles of those who exceed the speed limit is a great idea. It is a huge power-rush for a young person to be given official permission to get into a car and take it out on the road. They totally believe they are invincible, and that accidents only happen to the other guy. All this is pretty normal in young people.

But why stop there? How about confiscating the vehicles of all drivers who exceed the speed limit - that is, the mature, experienced drivers who still flaunt the rules? We don't have the excuse of youthful adrenalin pumping and a need to impress our peers. And yet we constantly drive a few clicks over the limit. We tailgate and change lanes dangerously and expect other drivers to make way for us as we flick the indicators and barge in.

The scheme would require a very large holding area. On a temporary basis, how about annexing that nice big area at Port Kembla where the car carriers dock? It would accommodate the hundreds of vehicles confiscated each day. B-doubles would take up an awful lot of that space.

It would be an administrative nightmare - lots of people needed to run it efficiently and loads of paperwork. But we could create a whole new job description for volunteers. Checking in the vehicles and allotting their space. A reception area to receive the suitably chastened driver. The paperwork of receiving the fines. The release of the vehicles.

Okay, so I'm dreaming - but why pick on the youngsters, when the track record of "mature" drivers is not that crash hot?

Jean Barrett, Bellambi.

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