John MacDonald: Our speeding fines are a joke

If I asked you how many demerit points you have right now, reckon you’d be able to tell me?

If you could, then you’re better than most people. Because, unless you get enough demerits to have your licence suspended, then I think most people don’t care.

And a study out today is telling us that we do need to care if we want to make the roads safer.

The people behind the study are telling us that most of us won’t care until we have tougher penalties for speeding. And I’m with them. Because, if we keep on doing things the way we do, not much is going to change.

Here’s the gist of what this study connected with the University of Canterbury is telling us. It's found that drivers ticketed for speeding are nearly three times more likely to be involved in a crash.

And you know why that is, don’t you? It’s because the fines for speeding are so piddly that people just take their chances.

The speed cameras don’t help, either. Because, if you get ticketed by a speed camera, you don't even get the demerit points. Because it can be difficult to prove who was driving.

So, while the speed cameras are useful, they're not going to do much in terms of slowing people down if, the only impact, is paying a piddly fine and still keeping your licence.

Which is why I like the idea that these researchers are floating today. That if you get a speeding ticket and keep on speeding, you get a higher fine each time.

I’d go a step further than that, though, and say that the fines themselves need to be way higher than what they are now.

As one of the people involved in this study is pointing out today, it’s crazy that you can actually pay more for a parking fine than for a speeding fine.

So rank up the fines each time someone is caught speeding - but sting people for a lot more than we do at the moment.

The other idea that these experts are putting out there today is, essentially, means testing people when they get fined for speeding.

Which might sound like a good idea. But it’s not.

Because someone who speeds is just as much of a menace on the road whether they’re driving some sort of Flash Harry 4-wheel-drive or whether they’re driving a Demio or a clapped-out old Toyota.

Besides which, when you drive too fast on the road you are breaking the law. So I think giving speeding fines to people on how rich they are, or otherwise, makes no sense.

Not to mention the fact that it would be an absolute nightmare to run.

Can you imagine getting pulled over by a cop? Getting some sort of ticket. Then having to go home and submit your income details and whatever else they’d need to determine what means you have to pay the fine.

It might sound like a great idea when you’re writing your research paper at university and trying to “push the envelope” a bit. But it would be a disaster.

Although, to be fair to Dr Darren Walton at the University of Canterbury, he hasn’t just plucked this idea out of thin air. He says, in Switzerland, speeding fines are scaled to wealth.

But I don't see how that would encourage someone with plenty of money to slow down. They’d just go “pfft” and pay the fine.

And I don’t buy this argument that speeding fines need to be “equitable”. That’s what the university guy is saying. You speed, you get caught, and you should pay exactly the same fine - whatever your financial situation. That’s what I think.

But, if this research is telling us that drivers ticketed for speeding are nearly three times more likely than other drivers to be involved in a crash, then something does need to change.

And I do like the idea of scaling-up the speeding fine system. So that, each time you get a ticket, you have to pay a higher fine.

What do you think?

John MacDonald is the Canterbury Mornings host on Newstalk ZB Christchurch. This article was first published HERE