WHEN A NEW ROAD RULE setting a speed limit of 25km/h when passing any emergency vehicle with flashing red and blue lights was introduced in South Australia, we predicted it would cause more injuries than it prevented.
Nobody disagrees that police and emergency services need to be protected while doing their jobs, but this new rule was clearly going to cause problems. Other states followed suit, although most of them applied a more sensible (but still impractical) 40km/h limit.
Sad to report, the inevitable came to pass on a NSW road. When a car slowed down to obey the new road rule, its sudden deceleration (and as usual in these situations, for no immediately obvious or apparent reason) left a following driver with nowhere to go but into the rear of the car ahead. The result was a massive and potentially fatal crash on a busy and crowded highway.
The motorist said, after the event, that he had pulled out for “a drawn-out overtake” (aren’t they all, in these days of everyone travelling at much the same speed?) and was pulled over by police for “taking too long to overtake”.
The new rule, which will result in drivers being hit with a $448 fine and the loss of three demerit points if they fail to observe it, has been criticised as being dangerous and stupid.
The problem is obvious: 40km/h (or 25km/h in SA) is ridiculously low on a freeway with a limit of 110km/h or a highway with a limit of 100km/h. The speed limit applies to vehicles travelling in either direction unless the road is divided by a median strip. Following vehicles may not see the stationary emergency vehicle as early as you, and won’t anticipate your sudden (and, to them, inexplicable, deceleration). The situation is exacerbated at night or in the rain, and made even worse by not all drivers obeying the rule. Another problem is that nobody we have spoken to has been able to unequivocally tell us how far before you reach the emergency vehicle and for how long after you pass it you are required to maintain the 40km/h (or 25km/h) speed.
Follow the link to see dash cam footage of the horrifying crash