I wrote this, but browser won't send (grr). I will try again tomorrow.
As a keen motorcyclist who rides every day and IS NOT dead, I believe I am well qualified to comment - unlike police, government officials, and the vast majority of the general population who would not even know how to start a motorcycle - much less know what is involved in riding one safely! The government inists on a 'speed kills' focus when it is simply their way to appease voters into thinking that something is being done about the road toll, when in essence they are not helping anything at all and 'road safety' is all about being seen to be doing something, all the while not taking anything out of already tight budgets because the fines issed cleverly cover enforcement costs - I don't believe it's revenue raising but it's still a political stunt. Pretty neat trick eh?
You can turn statistics whichever way you want, and the government always uses this as a part of their grand plan. To the contrary, I believe that the statistics show quite clearly that the road safety strategy IS NOT working and IS NOT the answer.
Quite simply: a change of attitude is needed from motorcyclists, car drivers and the police. Never mistake confidence for competence, never correlate age with experience, and never assume that someone in a uniform automatically knows what they're talking about.
Accidents will always happen, to err is human. In many cases idiots are involved, and part of the problem is that the only motorcyclists you, the public and the police, see are the ones that are being idiots. Well, I'm one of the motorcyclists that you DO NOT see. I get cut off 50 times a day by car drivers and avoid the accident every time... and then some turkey riding in an inappropriate manner wipes himself out, or gets booked doing Warp 9 on the highway... and here I am suddenly hunted despite being a perfectly competent road user in fact being put in danger regularly by those who would persecute me.
Speed limits should be a guideline, NOT a limit - depending on conditions I will travel at below the speed limit, and on other occasions believe that an extra 30km/h would be perfectly safe. As long as you can demonstrate to the officer that has pulled you over that you have a clear view of the road ahead, the conditions are fine, the road surface is in good order, and that you were not operating your vehicle dangerously, then I believe no ticket should be issued. According to the government, someone zipping through 50km/h traffic at 90km/h in a 100km/h zone is being "safe" while someone doing 120km/h on a clear 8-lane highway, or accelerates out of a danger situation, is "...a killer".
Give an take is required from both sides and until motorcyclists are allowed a proper say in road safety and traffic enforcement, then your statistics prove nothing other than the government's incompetence. As a friend said to me last week - if directors of a company devised a company plan that failed as miserably as the 'fatal four' then they would have been ousted long ago.
Vote one for common sense... road quality, training on road sense at school age, driver training and re-training, higher licensing requirements, and regular re-testing for all classes of license.
its a bloody long one !