Introduction
Welcome to the Radar site. As pioneers, now 31 years, and a leading authority in the radar information business, we hope to provide items of interest.
The radar laws
In 1991, laws were enacted in some States to restrict the sale and or use of
radar detectors. Certain State governments recognised the value of the radar dollar. The
use of radar detectors, (those little black boxes that had become very
effective in ferreting out the hidden radar traps at the bottom of hills,
behind roadside bushes, and radar cameras hidden in the front gardens of suburban
houses) became restricted by the implementation of various State laws. Check yours!
The political scams
There is one record that should be set straight. The reason given for legislating
against detectors was the rising road toll in the eastern States. In New South Wales the Government stated, that based on its research, 30% of fatal accidents involved speed. The banning of radar detectors would reduce this figure. Previous to this, in the years that followed Victoria restricting radar detectors, the road toll actually increased in that State!
The Radar Reporter approached the Traffic Accident Research group (RTA) to find out where this figure of 30% came from. We were shown the accident figures and how the 30% came about. The surprise, or scam as you may call it, resulted from how they arrived at this 30% figure. This was done by the grouping of accident categories! We have heard since that this may be a wide spread practice!
The 30% of speed fatalities included, trucks jack knifing, fatigue, alcohol and speed excessive for the conditions. (That is, driving 60 KPH in a 60 KPH zone in pouring rain on a slippery road.) If no reason for an accident could be found, the P4/5 form completed at accident, would simply be marked, "excessive speed". Is this what we would call detailed or conclusive data?
At this point, we asked the traffic authority engineers to remove from
the figures, alcohol, jack knife trucks and fatigue, where noted. Include the fatals, where excessive, illegal speed was identified as a
"main" contributing factor. After this, the speed related fatalities dropped from 30% to only 4%!
This final 4% would still have included a number of fatigue and alcohol fatals. With current practices, they couldn't identify those cases.
In 2008, the road toll is at its lowest ever, but the cry "speed kills" , is still not supported by any fact or figures.
Still to-day only 3% of fatal accidents occur on our high speed motorways. With 90% occurring on undivided roads of all speeds. These are the RTA figures from their web site annual report 2000.