It is the careless drivers who disregard speed limits that are likely to cause accidents, writes Matt Lightbourn.

We are at the start of a two month 4kmh speed tolerance being enforced by police.

Unsurprisingly, news that they would enforce the tolerance again was met with much annoyance and a feeling that the police are taking the easy money, and that it's 'lazy policing' to just target people doing 4kmh or more than the posted speed limit.

There is also a feeling that the persistent war on speed is actually doing nothing to reduce the road toll and is only serving to alienate the police with the public further.

The police tried to enforce a 'zero tolerance' policy this time last year but were left red-faced after the road toll doubled on the previous year.

They also confused road users as the fixed speed cameras operated under the 4kmh tolerance.

You can be sure that they would have trumpeted the effectiveness of the zero tolerance campaign had the road toll reduced under it and would have continued to enforce it in the future had it been successful.

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My biggest concern is by throwing so much effort behind punishing drivers who often inadvertently travel between 4-10kmh above the speed limit, that they give off the impression that they're overlooking the fact that speed is just one of the many factors that contribute to the road toll.

I'm no saint myself, but our behaviour behind the wheel where we often show too much impatience, or a complete disregard for the road rules because they don't apply to some of us, has a far greater impact on the road toll than people who inadvertently go 4-10kmh over the speed limit.

A lot of focus in recent years has gone on the lack of ability of some tourist drivers who have been seen behaving erratically on our roads and in some cases have caused fatal accidents.

I do think that some of us are too quick to scapegoat tourist drivers when our own driving behaviour is just as dangerous.

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The police would be doing themselves a huge favour with the public if they realize that throwing all your resources behind chasing people doing 4-10kmh above the speed limit makes it look like they don't care about the true reasons why the road toll is as high as it is.

They leave many people convinced their intentions aren't genuine when they park up on motorways, passing lanes, or straight pieces of road hoping to nab as many drivers as they can who are speeding.

The passing lane one is always a contentious issue as realistically it would take a long stretch of road to safely overtake a vehicle without going above 104kmh, particularly since the vehicle being overtaken has probably sped up themselves despite travelling well below the speed limit beforehand.

Instead of punishing the driver overtaking, why don't they target the driver who deliberately sped up at the start of the passing lane in an attempt to keep the overtaking car behind them, because being passed by someone is too much of a bruise to their own ego?

I would rather see the police target the numerous examples of poor driving behaviour that are witnessed every day which are far more likely to cause serious or fatal accidents than people travelling 4-10kmh too fast.

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