COAST’S SPEEDING HOTSPOTS

WHERE COPS NAB MOST DRIVERS

A SPEEDING motorist was caught every 45 seconds at the worst speeding hotspot on the Gold Coast.

A movable police speed camera operated on Tabilban St in Burleigh Heads for just under 19 hours during 2017 and issued 1508 speeding tickets.

Those tickets cost drivers at least $253,344 in fines.

As previously revealed in the Gold Coast Bulletin, the city’s drivers paid $23 million in speeding fines in 2017.

A movable speed camera on the Pacific Motorway at Gaven ran for 38 hours and dished out 1969 tickets, one ticket every 69 seconds. That camera issued at least $330,792 in fines.

The statistics were revealed in police documents obtained through a Right to Information request.

The police documents also revealed the Coast’s worst hoon was nabbed at nearly 100km/h over the speed limit – in a 110km/h zone.

The driver was caught travelling at 208km/h, the highest speed recorded in the Gold Coast area in 2017.

RACQ spokeswoman Lauren Ritchie said many drivers went into “autopilot”, especially on streets they knew well.

“Often when people are on the roads they drive every day, they go into autopilot mode. They think ‘I know these roads’ and don’t switch on,” she said.

“That’s a form of driver distraction which fatal five.”

“On suburban roads there is one of the are so many other road users. You have to deal not only with other cars, but pedestrians, cy- clists, children. That just adds complexity to driving.

“When you speed you give yourself and your car less time to react to the unexpected.”

Regional road policing boss Inspector Peter Flanders said every traffic cop will have “two or three” serious high-speed crashes they have responded to that will stick with them for ever.

“To be honest, my first reaction at every major crash I attend is anger,” he said.

“It’s just such a pointless waste. I have never been to a crash that needed to happen. You just think that this person did not need to die.”