OBEYING SPEED LIMITS A 'SMALL PART OF ROAD SAFETY'
Graham Parton has latched onto something that on the face of it seems unassailable logic ("Speeding motorists must pay", The Daily Advertiser, September 10).
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If only things were so simple.
Obeying "one-size-fits-all" speed limits is only a very small part of road safety.
He appears to suggest that people who are exceeding the speed limit, commonly by less than 10km/h, deserve to be punished.
Almost all the victims of these fines are not driving aggressively, deliberately dangerously or irresponsibly when fined.
The connection of these "offences" with road safety has never been clearly demonstrated.
I suggest he search the government's road safety website for the difficult to find definition of speeding - "Inappropriate speed for the conditions".
This is regardless of the speed limit.
A month ago the Victorian Transport Accident Commission stated that 71 per cent of fatalities are caused by basic errors on the road, rather than speeding.
A significant reduction of crashes on Wagga streets since the signs were removed would settle this argument.
We would have heard about that if this had occurred.
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When people lose licences and have livelihoods threatened, it is necessary to demonstrate that it's worth it.
Mr Stoyko was quite right to question the "shortfall".
Bruce Harper, Wagga
FEAR DRIVES REFUSAL TO ACCEPT
In response to Robert Hennessy-Hawks letters "Stop scaring the children with climate change talk" (The Daily Advertiser, September 8).
Responding to deniers with further climate science is often futile.
When faced with a threat to their faculty of reason they double down with more fables and myths to preserve their beliefs.
It's a confusing world.
When intelligence is defined as a person's ability to change their mind based on new information and denial is seeing something with your own eyes and saying it's not there, then you throw in religion, not seeing something with your own eyes and saying it's there, it's a wonder to me how children navigate at all.
When adults fear change they mirror that fear to the people around them with rigid and often faith-based views such a contradiction for young curious minds.
Children allowed to explore their environment with gentle guidance are more likely to thrive and develop critical thinking skills required to adapt and find solutions to an ever-changing world.
What children can see or are experiencing now are extreme weather events, mass extinction of habitat, while faced with a pandemic that has altered their day-to-day lives.
When faced with their questions will you guide or dictate?
How will you grow your children for the future that they see coming?
This critically endangered world that we are leaving them.
Will you tell the truth?
Leanne Schulz, Brucedale
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