Road Safety Policies not working

The 2004 road toll was 435, and this confirms to me that the current policies are not working. Targeting all motorists exceeding the speed limit, rather than those driving too fast for the conditions (the policy changed in 2001) has been a flop.

The toll is 26 lower than last year, and this is of course good, but one has to look at this over a longer term. You see last year there was a massive increase in the toll by 57, so the 2004 toll is 31 higher than the 2002 toll. This is the only increase over a two year period since 1990 where on average the toll would drop 8% every two years.

Over three years the toll has dropped only 18 from 453 in 2001 to 435 today. To make the target of 300 would take 23 years at this rate.