Carolyn Male MP, State Member for Pine Rivers, is urging local residents to slow down when driving over the festive season for the sake of their loved ones in a bid to stop deaths caused by speeding in the Pine Rivers area.

Carolyn Male MP said the Bligh Government’s road safety campaign was based on evidence showing speed contributed to almost one in every four deaths on Queensland roads this year.

“While the results from this campaign have been positive, we need to keep up constant reminders to motorists that it’s not just young hoons on high speed freeways who die in speed crashes - it is innocent people, including your friends or family sitting in the passenger seat beside you,” Carolyn Male MP said.

Carolyn Male MP said that in the first nine months of this year, 61 people lost their lives on Queensland roads in crashes involving speeding.

Of the 61 deaths, 64 per cent (39 people) were the speeding drivers or riders themselves, almost one in four (23 per cent, 14 people) were the innocent passengers of the speeding drivers or riders, and a further 13 per cent (8 people) were other road users (drivers, riders, passengers, pedestrians or cyclists).

Carolyn Male MP said that in addition to those killed on the road hundreds more were injured every year. On average more than 1000 people were either killed or injured in speed crashes in Queensland every year (2003 to 2007 average).

“Motorists who choose to speed need to realise they are putting all in their path at risk every time they put their foot down. There is simply no such thing as safe speeding, because you can’t predict the unexpected.”

“If we are to reduce the number of avoidable deaths and injury on our roads, drivers must slow down and obey the speed limits.”