'Revenue Raising'

Finally we get to see just how much damage a single speeding driver can do. Six teenagers dead, at least one more critically injured in hospital- if they survive it will probably be with brain damage or spinal injuries. The crime in this case wasn't really the 'hit and run'- the guy fled on foot after being accosted by horrified witnesses to the scene, leaving his two young children in his own car at the scene. The crime was speeding- something that most people do at some time in their life, something that politicians are loath to crack down hard on (not only because most of them do it themselves, but also because of the number of voters who do it); something that, when the police attempt a crackdown on it, the media portrays it as 'revenue raising' for the government, and the guilty public laps it up.

Aside from no doubt getting a 'huge' kick from pulling people over for speeding, I think the police may also not enjoy having to deal with the broken bodies of young people who have died an untimely death, either in accidents in which they were speeding, or in accidents such as this latest one, where they were simply innocent victims of a speeding driver. I have an inkling that the police may also not particularly like having to deal with the heartbroken families of such young people. It would tend to get you down after a while, I imagine.

So, no doubt A Current Affair and Today Tonight have put their latest 'State Governments are revenue raising by fining drivers who break the law by speeding' stories on hold while they adopt an air of solemnity and ask the hard questions of this latest tragedy: "How could this happen? What can Australians do to cut the tragic road toll?".

I wonder.

No doubt the idiot who killed those six kids is right now wishing like hell he hadn't been speeding, but wishing after the fact isn't going to bring them back, let alone save him time in jail. People need to realise that death is a very possible, very real and very permanent consequence of speeding. The punishment for speeding should be in accordance with this fact.