Really, you have to wonder about the intelligence of some people.
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For a number of years now, there’s been an increased police presence on our roads over the festive season.
The reason for that is simple – to make sure people slow down and stay safe on the roads.
To make the message even more clear, this time of year is accompanied by double demerits. You get pinged for speeding or some other traffic offence and you lose twice as many points.
To put that into perspective, if you’re nabbed for going 10km/h over the limit, then you get half your total demerit points in one hit – that puts you halfway to losing your licence.
Commit the modern-day act of stupidity and use your phone while driving and the price is even greater – eight points.
We get the message of road safety and double demerits every Christmas, so it’s shocking to realise so many of us haven’t been listening.
Since December 15, NSW police have been conducting Operation Safe Arrival.
With the operation due to finish at 11.59pm on New Year’s Day, the result has been staggering.
Police have caught more than 1000 people speeding. And that's not overall – that’s a daily average.
Over the entire operation that started just over two weeks ago, police have issued 25,632 speeding infringements – that’s an average of 1100 every day.
“In spite of the extensive publicity regarding road safety and road policing during this time, I am mystified as to why the public would choose to continue speeding on our roads,” Assistant Commissioner and Highway Patrol Commander Michael Corboy said.
“The public should be particularly concerned, that in some cases speeding has been combined with alcohol.”
Sure, this is partly because some people just don’t care about obeying the speed limit. But most of the time it would likely be a result of the “it can’t happen to me” mindset.
Those people just don’t believe there’s any chance they’ll get caught and so they choose to put their own lives and the lives of other road users at risk.
They really need to take their foot off the accelerator and slow down – and not just at Christmastime, but all the time.