In the past 10 months, ACT Policing have issued 4,093 speeding fines, overtaking the total of 4,056 infringements issued for the entirety of 2019.
Officer in Charge of Road Policing, Detective Inspector Marcus Boorman, said it’s an alarming statistic.
“The jump we’ve seen in speeding offences this year is extremely concerning for police … The consequences can be extremely catastrophic,” he said.
“We will continue to be out, and we will continue to target this sort of behaviour … we need to remove these idiots from our roads.”
Comparing the month-by-month distribution of the ACT’s speeding fines in 2019 and 2020, the months of February, March, April and May saw the largest discrepancy.
In February 2019, 372 speeding fines were issued in the ACT compared to 525 in February 2020; in March 2019, 289 fines were issued compared to 419 in March 2020; in April 2019, 277 fines were issued compared to 545 fines in 2020, a 97% increase; and in May 2019, 279 speeding fines were issued compared to 461 in May 2020.
Since June, that year-to-year divergence has mostly tapered off except during October when 313 fines were issued this year, compared to 177 fines in October 2019.
Detective Inspector Boorman said he’s seen numerous instances of significant speeding this year, including drivers travelling in excess of 200km/h, and even street racing in broad daylight.
“We will continue to actively target speeding, particularly high range speeding, in the community, and we will hold these idiotic drivers to account,” he said.
Just last week, on Friday 6 November police conducting traffic duties on Aikman Drive, Belconnen detected two vehicles being driven by provisional licence holders at 135km/h in a signposted 60km/h zone.
At the time, both vehicles were travelling side by side and appeared to be racing one another.
“Street racing is beyond irresponsible, and could have had tragic consequences for these drivers, or even worse, an innocent driver who may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Detective Inspector Boorman said.
