Police pursuits

[eddy]

After listening to ABC talkback on police pursuits last night the thought came to me that if all new cars were fitted with a 120kph speed limiter or perhaps a GPS that cuts out the motor over 120kph then nobody would try to do a runner because the police would catch them in two blocks?

[Fleet Lists]

The trouble with these sorts of things is that the smart guys manage to bypass them in no time.

[eddy]

Would they be able to do that quickly if it was a stolen car?

[boronia]

They would still be able to do 120 which can be fatal in the wrong place, as seen in this latest incident.

Calling off a pursuit once it has started could be pointless, because the guy doing the runner is going to keep going as fast as he can; he won't be sure whether he is still being chased ot not.

[Chris Guru]

I wonder if they could develop something similar to a Taser but for the car, where it could input a huge electrical charge into the car being chased and fry all the electrics (which would stop 99% of all cars). Only difficulty would be finding a reliable way to shoot it from the police car.

[eddy]

boronia
True 120kph is still very dangerous but if the driver knows there is no way he can outrun the police he probably would not try and as a mate of mine suggested he would have more chance running away on foot.

[Sir Pompously]

I wonder if they could develop something similar to a Taser but for the car, where it could input a huge electrical charge into the car being chased and fry all the electrics (which would stop 99% of all cars). Only difficulty would be finding a reliable way to shoot it from the police car.

You would probably want an Electro-Magnetic Pulse system, however getting that to fire at a single car could be abit difficult, but not impossible with enough research! It is the best way to fry electronics in modern cars.

[eddy]

A documentary on Bonnie and Clyde said the reason they got away so often was that the police owned their vehicles and were not able to catch the new Ford V8 that the pair regularly stole and this was in the time when it was acceptable to shout “stop or I will shoot” and then do so.
The problem I see with a ray type of gun is that if both cars are capable of nearly the same speed then police would not get close enough to use it.

[Frances]

After listening to ABC talkback on police pursuits last night the thought came to me that if all new cars were fitted with a 120kph speed limiter or perhaps a GPS that cuts out the motor over 120kph then nobody would try to do a runner because the police would catch them in two blocks?

Sounds good, as who would need to do more than 10 km/h above the highest permissible speed limit, but there is one problem. The 110 km/h speed limit (the maximum allowable in NSW) is not just for motorways and high quality rural divided roads; it also can apply to some undivided rural roads with low traffic volume. So what happens if you are driving along one of the latter classes of roads, pull out to pass a vehicle doing say, 90 km/h and another vehicle comes out of a side road or farm entrance? While you are overtaking, you are probably doing over 110 km/h, as the less time you spend on the wrong side of the road the better, so you need a bit of extra speed for about 30 seconds to avoid a head on accident at high speed and..............

[eddy]

franfran
I hear you and understand exactly what you mean. My truck is governed at 100kph and the Simon's trucks are governed at 90kph so it takes about 1 km to overtake them. Perhaps instead of 120 it was 130kph it would still allow police to quickly overtake them and also stop some P drivers crashing at 200kph.

[boronia]

So what happens if you are driving along one of the latter classes of roads, pull out to pass a vehicle doing say, 90 km/h and another vehicle comes out of a side road or farm entrance? While you are overtaking, you are probably doing over 110 km/h, as the less time you spend on the wrong side of the road the better, so you need a bit of extra speed for about 30 seconds to avoid a head on accident at high speed and..............

Might it not be safer to NOT accelarate INTO an accident scenario but to decelarate OUT of one. Call off the overtake and get back into the queue!!

[eddy]

This is tricky because you are both right. What I do is if I have just pulled out I would back off but if I am alongside the other car I would accelerate assuming the other driver is aware of the situation and will back off .The danger is if when you back off he does too it can leave you still on the wrong side of the road.
There is no disputing that overtaking has more inherent risk than everybody cruising along at the same speed and that is why in my opinion there is a higher fatality rate in NSW because thousands of cars have to overtake unnecessarily because L&P drivers are not allowed to do the posted speed.

[Rclasstramcar]

It's also impossible to know what's about to occur in those circumstances, because it's usually so quick.

Cheers,
Ben

[boronia]

thousands of cars have to overtake unnecessarily because L&P drivers are not allowed to do the posted speed.

There are lots of fully licenced drivers who are allowed to do the posted speed but choose not to (until there is an overtaking lane )

[Daz]

You are going to die just as much at 130km/h crashing into a tree as you are 250km/h. There are no 'levels' of dying. Dead is dead. Pointless.

Daz.

[eddy]

Daz.
True, but the point I make here is that if all cars are limited to 130kph then if a person steals one they will not try to outrun the police in that car because they would have a better chance of getting away on foot.

[boronia]

Not all police pursuits relate to STOLEN cars. Quite often it will be some over the limit feral in his 20 year old Toyota who doesn't want to blow in the bag, or have the cops see the contents of his boot.

[PR100.3]

What a stupid idea, more red tape on what is already a very low volume of incidents. How about we focus on some of the issues that do claim lives, such as assult and alcohol abuse.

[eddy]

The old saying about being able to chew gum and walk why can’t we limit cars to 130 kph which is not hard and work on other things too? As a matter of fact if police do not have to spend their time chasing and scraping ratbags off the road then they would probably have more time to attend to the other things that concern you.

[PR100.3]

Not hard to mandate a speed limiter on a fleet of several thousand private vehicles? Are you crazy? They can't even regulate or monitor the ADR's properly. All for what? The lives of 20 people a year?

I've worked in an ED (TCH ED actually), and let me tell you, motorcyclist and extreme sports are alot more of a risk than a few people doing 200km/h on the streets.

[eddy]

Engine immobilisers are mandatory on all new cars sold in Australia now I believe and I doubt that 130 kph speed limiters would cost much more. I think the only opposition would come from people who make and buy cars that would suit James Bond.
Regarding extreme sports, do they have a special medical insurance or do our taxes pay to fix them up?

[PR100.3]

So you're happy having more useless nanny state restrictions willingly forced upon you? I call it stupid.

[eddy]

PR100.3
If people want to risk their own life I believe that is their decision and as a matter of fact I believe more young people would ride bikes if you could ride legally without a hat like Holland thereby having an overall reduction in health costs with reduced obesity.
However quite often when people try to outrun the police they kill other innocent people or even where a person of any age is showing off to a car full of people and loses it. Firstly there is more chance he will lose control and secondly there is more chance of everybody in the car being killed.
I understand that for some unknown reason people think they impress others with a car capable of twice the speed limit but with such a small population over a large country our roads are no good for over 130kph in my opinion.
Surely there would not be much red tape (which I hate) involved.
Eddy

[Daz]

To bypass an Immobiliser, one would have to assume any 'speed limiting' system would be also bypassed. And what about for those who have track-speed cars and want to quarter mile and traction them?

Again, pointless.

Daz.

[eddy]

Every rule has winners and losers and generally the people get what the people want in Australia and as there are so many people that love fast cars I suppose the people who regard safety as a priority will just have to be the losers.
I note the ABC commentator does not do road tests on fast cars anymore because he said there is nowhere you can legally drive them (perhaps he is getting older)
As far as bypassing the speed limiter, good is always smarter then evil in the end.