September 12, 2016Increased speed limits of up to 130km/h in Victoria have been put on the fast-track by a former highway patrolman turned politician.Some of the state’s busiest roads could be set for a shake-up if a bold plan by former highway patrolman Bill Tilley gets approved.
Mr Tilley is calling for a parliamentary inquiry into speed limits across the state on major freeways and country highways.
The radical plan would see an increase of 110km/h on the Princes Freeway between Melbourne and Geelong, and 130km/h on the Hume Freeway.
“Our road safety agencies and law enforcers need to challenge ourselves and stop falling back on the age old adage that ‘speed kills’, we need to find some good hard evidence to prove speed actually does kill,” Mr Tilley told 9NEWS.
“Crawling under a rock with the doomsday prophecy isn’t going to make our state or our nation a better place.”
As a former highway patrolman, Mr Tilley affirms he “takes road safety very, very seriously”.
“We continually ask taxpayers to help pay for road safety and road infrastructure and you have to give something back.”
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer said increasing speed limits on roads like the Hume Highway would be a detriment to the road toll.
“In the last 12 months alone, we’ve seen 175 crashes on it and five of those were fatal. Would this make the road safer? The answer is no,” he said.
“Speed is the most significant causal factor for road trauma, and we know that travelling at 110km/h or 115km/h and you are distracted, it will lead to harm.
If you increase the speed by 10km/h you increase the potential for injury two-fold.”
Mr Tilley said compelling evidence lies in global examples like Poland, the US and Germany’s famous autobahns, which had 20% fewer fatalities on its roads than Australia, per 100,000 people, last year.
“Whether we can achieve the same things as what Europe does, we don’t know. But we have to challenge ourselves and take a look,” he said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was quick to rule out any plans to increase speed limits.
“Many people are going to have a view on this. We don’t have plans to increase speed limits to 130km/h,” Mr Andrews said.
The highest speed limit in the state is currently 110km/h.
Source: 
Victorian MP pushes for highway speed limits of up to 130km/h - 9news.com.au
