Road fines should go to training

As head of the national motorsport governing body, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, Papadopoulos says CAMS' 430 affiliated car clubs and 52,000 members could help in driver training.

Papadopoulos is dismayed that fines for traffic offences such as speeding are going up, speed limits are coming down, cars are now much safer and roads are says to be in better condition -- yet the road toll nationally is increasing.

"That leaves the only factor as the driver," he says.

He says drivers' attitude and car-control skills could be improved from driver training courses -- something that was not always achieved through spending money on road safety campaigns and advertising.

Papadopoulos was speaking after giving the results of a survey of 2000 CAMS members on what they believed was the main cause of road crashes. More than 60 per cent says "speed excessive for the conditions" with a big gap to the 10.5 per cent who cited fatigue, 9.9 per cent who blamed alcohol and 9.2 per cent who selected road conditions.

He says going too fast for the conditions includes drivers not adapting their vehicle for wet roads nor having competence in car control on wet roads.

"All Australian motorists, regardless of their age, need to be educated on how to adapt their driving to the conditions," he says.

"It's our firm belief that compulsory driver education courses will have the greatest impact on the road toll. Knowing how to drive in wet weather is an essential lesson for all drivers. More focus needs to be placed on education and this could easily be funded by directing funds from fines into education."

He says individual car clubs are doing driver training for young people off the road, and his car club in NSW has been doing it since he taught his 12-year-old children on a skidpan 20 years ago. And CAMS has just begun its Ignition program to help novice young drivers. But driver training needs to be done nationally, and that requires dollars, he says.