Rise in number of cautions given to motorists breaking the law, instead of fines

AN increasing number of motorists are being let off by police with a warning, including for the “fatal five” offences blamed for many of the state’s deadly road crashes.

Police speak to motorists on an Adelaide highway. File photo

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AN increasing number of motorists are being let off by police with a warning, including for the “fatal five” offences blamed for many of the state’s deadly road crashes.

Police traffic statistics show that in the past five years, the proportion of drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians given a caution has almost doubled.

SA Police figures show that in the first six months of the financial year, 110,463 drivers were caught speeding but 8426 were spoken to by an officer. It follows a 15 per cent jump in the state road toll last year.

Among the offences for which the proportion of motorists being cautioned has risen considerably is failing to wear a seatbelt, despite the fact that 42 per cent of the people killed on the state’s roads last year were not restrained.

Police are adamant their warnings and the act of being pulled over has a deterrent effect on dangerous drivers, but road safety experts disagree.

Motor Accident Commission spokesman Matt Hanton said loss of licence and financial loss were the major motivating factors for drivers to behave.

“At the end of the day, enforcement is a major factor in driving down the road trauma that we see,” he said.

University of Adelaide Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR) director Jeremy Woolley said while it was important that police had the power to exercise judgment on whether to warn or fine, making people lose money was the way to “get serious” about road safety.

“It is a cultural thing (within policing), you need to balance it,’’ he said.

“Looking around the nation and some forces have a very strong culture of cautions but ultimately, if you want to get serious about safety and sending the right messages, you have to start increasing the number of expiations.

“The police will maintain that their ultimate power (to change bad driving) is around discretion and it is the one thing officers have which is almost a definition of who they are and what they do.”

So far this financial year, 241,910 people have been caught committing an offence and 42,855 of these were cautioned, or 17.7 per cent.

In 2016-17, there were 469,951 caught and 74,546 of these were cautioned, or 15.8 per cent.

Five years earlier, in 2012-13, there were 406,982 caught and 36,021 cautioned, or only 8.8 per cent.

In a written response, the SA Police media unit defended the rising number of cautions compared with fines, insisting that chronic offenders on the road could be “educated” to follow the road rules.

“At times, cautioning has just as great a deterrence as having a fine imposed,’’ it stated. “It is the discretion of each and every police officer whether they arrest, report or caution a person for any offence including road traffic related matters.”

Authorities are battling a rising road toll: 101 people were killed on SA roads last year, 15 more than in 2016 and well above the target of 80 by 2020.

In 2007, police adopted a new mantra to concentrate road safety efforts on what it called “the fatal five”, or offences which caused the most trauma on the road: distraction, speeding, dangerous road users, seatbelts as well as drink and drug driving.

But cautions have been increasing in most of these categories, except for drink and drug driving breaches and the worst dangerous drivers, which the law requires be punished with loss of licence, court action or fines.

Mr Hanton said the MAC’s view was “the same (as CASR).

“At the end of the day enforcement is a major factor in driving down the road trauma that we see,” he said.

“Police need to have the discretion, as people may only be pulled over once or twice in their life and being pulled over with lights and sirens may be enough to actually shift the behaviour long-term.

“But we don’t step away from the fact that the fine, and not just the fine but the threat or the potential for the loss of licence, is what will motivate a great number of people to change their behaviour.’’

SAPOL said: “Road safety is not just about imposing a fine, it is about education as well.’’