Where Slow for Sam’s frown is not being turned upside down

While some motorists are slowing down for SAM, there are some hot spots where tens of thousands of drivers have been caught out. SEE THE TOP 20 WORST SITES

SLOW for SAM’s frown is not always being turned upside down, with hundreds of thousands of Brisbane motorists busted speeding past Council’s speed awareness monitors.

The Courier-Mail can reveal there were more than a dozen locations in 2018-19 where at least half of passing motorists were captured speeding past the smiley-faced monitors.

The worst was a stretch of road at Ernest St in South Brisbane, where a predictable 97 per cent of motorists were recorded going over the 10k/h speed limit.

Cars driving past a Slow for Sam sign on River Terrace at Kangaroo Point on Monday 11th November 2019. Picture: AAP/David Clark

Other hot spots where more than 50 per cent of drivers were caught out included Villa St at Yeronga, Andaman St at Jamboree Heights, Azalia Crescent at Calamvale, Redwood St at Stafford and Wallum Dr at Parkinson.

It can be revealed new wildlife themed Slow for Sam signs will also soon be rolled out to encourage motorists to drive safely in areas with high numbers of koalas.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the over 100 Slow for SAM signs had been effective at making motorists put on the brakes.

“Speeding is unsafe and not acceptable,” he said.

“It puts other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, at risk and we need to stop this dangerous behaviour.

“The effectiveness of this friendly reminder is fantastic with motorists slowing down by up 19 kilometres in some cases.

“No one likes a lead foot. I encourage everyone to slow down for SAM and make SAM smile.”

Despite the high numbers of motorists caught out on certain roads, there were several examples where a significant number of drivers went back under the speed limit when they turned SAM’s smile upside down.

SAM flashes a slow down warning when motorists drive too fast. Picture: AAP/David Clark

This included Livesay Rd at Moggil, where almost all of the 49 per cent of motorists recorded speeding past the monitors slowed down below the speed limit when SAM flashed a slowdown message.

There were also significant reductions in Allbutt St at Kuraby as well as Cedarleigh Rd in Kenmore, where the number of speeding motorists reduced to less than 10 per cent.

While no one who is caught speeding past the signs is given a speeding ticket, Council has previously acknowledged that they sometimes pass on data from the program to police.