Gold Coast speedsters racked up $23m in speeding fines in past 12 months

LEADFOOT Gold Coast drivers have racked up an astonishing amount in speeding fines in just a year, with the eye-watering figure enough to hire out one of the city’s stadiums for nearly 20 years.

LEADFOOTS on the Gold Coast racked up an astonishing $23 million in speeding fines in just 12 months.

A Right to Information investigation has revealed police handed out 117,186 speeding tickets across the Gold Coast police region in 2017.

Those fines cost motorists more than $23 million, enough to pay the wages for 337 primary school teachers or 327 registered nurses.

SPEED A ‘SIGNIFICANT FACTOR’ IN HORROR FATAL CRASH

It is enough to pay the Gold Coast Titans’ stadium hire for 17 years.

More than 85,triple-0 tickets were handed out to speeders driving less than 13km/h over the limit. A further 27,triple-0 were caught driving 14—20km/h over the limit, 3967 21—30km/h over and 657 fines were for drivers doing 31—40km/h over the limit.

About 280 drivers were hit with a $1117 fine for driving more than 40km/h over the limit, the highest speeding category.

Speed fines have dramatically increased. Picture Simon Cross

One of the Gold Coast’s top surgeons said drivers needed to get the message that speeding killed dozens of people and changed hundreds of lives every year.

Don Campbell, the Gold Coast University Hospital deputy trauma director, said the hospital treated more than 100 motorcyclists with severe trauma from high-speed crashes every year.

“Around 30 per cent of the 350 major trauma cases that we see at the Gold Coast University Hospital each year involve young male motorcyclists — in most cases, speed is the major contributor,” he said.

One of the Gold Coast’s top surgeons said drivers needed to get the message that speeding killed dozens of people and changed hundreds of lives every year.

The Australian Medical Association of Queensland spokesman said people involved in high-speed crashes could receive life-changing head and spinal injuries.

“It is devastating for the patient, their families and friends,” Dr Campbell said.

Queensland regional road policing boss Inspector Peter Flanders said even doing 10km/h over the limit significantly increased the chance of a crash turning deadly.

Dr Don Campbell. Photo by Richard Gosling

“The physics behind speeding are stark. If you are in a 40 zone driving at 50km/h, that extra 10km/h increases your kinetic energy by one and a half times,” he said.

“To put it simply, if you hit a kid you are hitting them one and a half times harder.”

Inspector Flanders said braking also took far longer at higher speeds, making it harder to avoid a potential accident.

“In that same situation, driving at 50km/h in a 40 zone, it’ll take about twice as long to brake as it would if you were doing the limit.”