By EWAN KENNEDY
29 May 2006

Let's talk about two very different drivers. One a bloke in a 20 year-old Ford Laser. Though strictly speaking it is roadworthy, his Laser has tyres that are barely legal, the absorbers don’t offer as much control as they did in their heyday, the suspension bushes will soon be due for replacement and the wheel alignment has suffered from a couple of solid collisions with kerbs.

The fellow doesn't have a lot of driving skill, having held a licence for only two years. What driving he has done has all been in the suburbs. He is now at the wheel of a car on a country road for the first time in his life. With all the self confidence of the young, he doesn't realise he’s inexperienced for the conditions in which he’s driving; in fact he reckons he knows it all.

His seat is laid way back so that he looks cool to his peers, he has one finger at the bottom of the Laser's steering wheel as he can’t reach the top of the wheel without sitting forward and looking very uncool. Worse still he is reading a text message on his mobile, so has both eyes on where he is going for only about half of the time.

Which is a pity because it’s pouring rain and not easy to see the slippery road ahead.

His car’s speed wanders between 80 and 90 km/h depending on how much mind power he has to spare for driving from moment to moment. The area zoned at 100 km/h.

Now let's look at another driver. This lady is at the wheel of a brand new Ford Fairmont Ghia, one of the safest family cars on the road today. Its excellent suspension, tyres and brakes are backed by sophisticated ABS and electronic traction control.

She has 30 years’ driving experience, has undergone an advanced driver training course at her own expense and is statistically in the age group with the lowest number of crashes.

This lady takes a great deal of pride in driving correctly, has two hands on the wheel, both eyes on the road and is concentrating on her driving and nothing else. She is travelling on a quiet country road, with little traffic, it’s bright daylight and the weather is fine.

Though the posted speed limit is 100 km/h the Fairmont Ghia is travelling at 108 km/h.

There are no marks for guessing which of these drivers is more likely to receive a fine in the mail in a few weeks. Nor marks for guessing which of them might be dead this time tomorrow…

It’s just not fair. To put a blanket speed limit on all drivers, in all types of vehicles under every road and traffic condition is pure nonsense.

Once upon a time speed limits were enforced by policemen and women who were on the road and mixing it with other drivers. They were allowed to apply common sense and tolerance. Nowadays fixed cameras are simply lumping everyone into the one category and people with decades of crash-free driving are losing their licences on pure technicalities.

Let's get some sanity back into enforcing our motoring laws. Don’t just whinge, do something about it. Contact your state motorists’ association, your local member of parliament, the NMAA, your solicitor, or anyone else you think can help.

And do it quickly because our state governments are rapidly becoming accustomed to the big bucks they are raking in from speeding fines and it may soon be too late to wean them off the lucrative cash cow.