Have nothing to be proud of when surveying, yet again, record low rod-toll figures for 1992.
ACT figures are no measure because of its small population, but in NSW the toll of 650 was the lowest in 42 years, 13 down on last year and way down on the 1067 in 1985. Other states have shown similar falls.
However, we cannot pat ourselves on the back and say what wonderful, sensible, careful, caring drivers we have been through the year.
The tragedy of the falling road toll is that it has not come voluntarily. It has not come through an intelligent recognition by drivers as a whole that speed inappropriate to the road condition, violent acceleration in suburban streets, drink-driving and running red lights cause crashes. No; these results have come because out of self-protection we have had to give wide powers to police who, though necessity, have bullied us into not killing ourselves on the road.
The worst of it is that the favourable result has led to little questioning of the exercise of the power nor much concern that it might spill over into other areas of law enforcement.
The extra police power is threefold: wide discretion in traffic matters which is not given in other matters, power in effect to arrest without the necessity of reasonable grounds for suspicion and power to convict without proving the accused committed the offence (red-light and speed cameras). The discretionary power is where police listen to a driver and decide not to ping him or to ping him for a lower amount. These discretions normally lie with prosecutors or a court. The arrest power is random breath testing. Police have the power to stop people who are lawfully going about their business. In five days in Canberra they stopped 5962 of them. A further seven who were unlawfully going about their business were charged.
The RBT and cameras reverse the onus of proof. There is a presumption that you must be stopped and tested; only when you prove negative are you allowed to go on. With the cameras it is up to you to prove you were not the driver. There is presumption of guilt.
That is not to say we should not have cameras and RBT. Even at the pitifully low catch rates experienced this holiday, they are clearly a necessary deterrent. Without them we would rapidly return to days of high road tolls. Fundamental attitudes have not changed; only behaviour in the face of RBT and cameras. Take them away and the old behaviour patterns return. They appear to be the only practical weapon.
Moreover, the discretions they give police are a necessary concomitant. Retuning those discretions to prosecutors and courts would be impractical because there are so many cases.
It may well be, however, that we have reached or are close to the optimum in reducing the road toll through the stick. Only 486 of 90,000 tested in NSW proved positive. That means 99.5 per cent of drivers are driving sober, perhaps more given that RBT squads are sampling in places and at times when people are more likely to be drunk.
It also seems unlikely that all the people now caught for speeding were driving unsafely. Catching more speedsters on dual carriageways might not add to safety nor add to the existing deterrent.
The danger is, however, that the success in traffic matters of measures that interfere with hitherto well-understood principles of civil liberties will become the üonly way to deal with traffic matters and will also become an acceptable way of dealing with non-traffic matters. The former is defeatism. If education and better licence testing are not combined with the tough measures, attitudes will not change and the tough measures will remain in force forever.
The spread of the reverse onus and wider police powers to other matters portends a society of increasing state and bureaucratic control over individuals where there is no presumption of innocence. We see this with things like requirements to report cash transactions and other bureaucratic invasions of privacy and liberty done in the name of catching the crooks.
There is not much that can be done about draconian traffic measures. They have been brought upon us by hoons who kill on the roads. But we must make sure these impingements on liberty do not spread.
And let’s not congratulate ourselves on the end when the means have been so odious.