It has been a tragic start to the year. I think there needs to be much tougher penalties. I understand these deaths are not intentional but driving at ridiculous speeds is extremely dangerous. These young kids might need to find out the hard way that it is just not on.

Maybe offenders should be forced to go to accident scenes or visit the morgue to understand the possible consequences of their actions.

or a training program in schools that shows real life footage of traffic accidents. Show them the gruesome truth

Putting lower speed limits on dangerous roads is a complete waste of time, speed limits mean nothing to the idiots being dealt with here.

Anyone who does 160kph in an 80kph zone or uses Magill Road as a drag strip couldn't care less if the speed limit was reduced to 70kmp

I agreee..reducing speed limits will not reduce the carelessness of those individuals who are responisble for the trageties. All I can think of is to "dob" on anyone who is careless even a friend ,as it could be them that kills your friends or relatives and have the cops keep an eye on them and apprehend them at the slightes act of carelessness and take away their licences for a mimimum of 6 months

25 years ago a holden gemini or ford escort even the japense cars that was 2.0 engine capacity battled to get up hills let alone do 100 km/h in 7 seconds..there needs to be changes to the types of cars these inexperinced drivers can operate because the cars they drive are far too powerful

the cars these days are just to powerfull for young, drivers,a 16 year old can go out and buy a vn fuel injected commodore for$1000 dollars,this is far to powerfull for a youg driver,we could also raise the age limit to 18 before getting your licence,but there are many scenarios,the right one i dont know?

we need to take a different tact on how to manage young drivers. Putting strong conditions in place is one way, but is not always effective. We need to get a popular face behind the message that these people respect. We also need to work out a popular and positive (incentive based) plan to make people think well before they get into the car to drive off.

As an ex driving instructor, I would like to say that the problem is an easy one but I don't think so. Firstly there are a lot of poor instructors teaching these youngsters to drive and they're not improving but this is only a small area of concern for the government. All of the proposals put forward by this website are bandaid fixes and will not work in the long run. I would suggest classroom instruction for learner drivers before they get into the drivers seat and this would be exclusive instruction not connected to a high school maybe through tafe organisations. Also the mandatory hours should be reduced to 30 but only with a licenced driving instructor, many learners would need more than 30 hours but that would then be at the discretion of that instructor.
I suggest 15 hours in tafe prior to acquiring learners permit then a further 10 hours after acquiring initial probationary licence.
Also any offender caught committing serious driving offences could be directed to attend these courses of which they would have to pay, maybe a government subsidy for first time users.

There is no such thing as a dangerous road. Only dangerous drivers. The poll on the road toll proves that most people have no idea on how to stop the carnage. All the questions are penal in nature. It's like putting a fleet of ambulances at the bottom of a cliff when a fence at the top would solve the problem. Except in very rare cicumstances (like the recent death caused by a tree branch falling on a car), all deaths are caused by a driver making a mistake. They are not CAUSED by speed, alcohol, roads, v8s, turbos, P plates or any other easy target. They are caused by DRIVERS. Therefore the answer is in education. Road safety should be a compulsary school subject starting from the day you start school and continuing through the entire school life. During practical driver training learners should be taught country driving skills like overtaking, cornering, how to identify danger and how to avoid danger. For the first two years of holding a licence drivers should be restricted to owning a car with a naturally aspirated and un modified engine capacity of under 2 litres. Also after one hoon offence hoons should have the same restriction placed on them.

low powered cars curfue for drivers who do wrong ,loss of licence for twelve months , etc
jail if kills someone . government to soft.

lol @ you all thinking this poll will change anything...realy...be real people

Hmmm...
I havent voted in this poll as I don't believe any of the options will help...
The main problem is people acting without "common sense", this is something that is increasingly disappearing with us becoming more of a sueing culture not needing people to be responsible for themselves...
The other main issue is roadside furniture, if there was a 6 metre strip of grass without any tree's people would have a second chance to regain control of their cars. A perfect example of this is the tragedy which unfolded in Mt Compass last week when the lads hit the massive pine tree which was within 1 metre of the road...

I must say that it doesnt matter how well people are trained or how much advertising is done ..There are just silly, arrogant stupid and selfish people out ther and nothing will change their behavior..Its the innocent people involved that upsets me..:-) Cant always blame police and roads! Common sense and awareness of other road users is the key :-)

Should have stuck with the horse and cart I think. What can you do? More training before a license is given out. It is way too easy for teenagers to get their hands on a license. It should be compulsory to go through a defensive driving course and a road safety course. If I was a teenager I would not appreciate the license age going up but if it saved my life I would be grateful. Even if schools start teaching driver training and the consequences of dangerous driving in the classrooms. A refresher course should be provided for at least a few years after the person obtains their license covering road safety and defensive driving and the basic driving skills at least until the age of 21. Who knows maybe this won't work maybe there is no easy answer. We are responsible for our own safety some people just can't be taught..

Everyone is banging on about what WE should do about the carnage. Where is personal responsibility? More education about actions & consequences is very necessary. Films like 'Tokyo Drift" & "The Fast & the Furious" do nothing to stop our youth believing they are invincible. I live on a main road which is posted @ 60 KPH - wish I had a speed camera or laser gun especially @ 2.00 a.m. when the drag racing starts. A trip to the morgue & Hampstead Rehab may do some of our hoons the world of good. When are we going to start crushing the cars? Raffle off the chance to be the first to push the button & put the funds back into road safety!!

I didn't vote either as there is not a "More Police Patrols" out on the road option. I also agree with many of the comments posted. It comes down to driver resposibility and driving to the conditions. All of the options are penalty related, who's going to Police it ?.

Our street is much quieter now due to many neighbours, including us, who take the time to get visual information and rego numbers of hoon vehicles. Dialling 131 444 doesn't help, by the time the cops arrive the hoons are long gone. But if you've got a rego number and description to give the cops that works much better. At least they (the hoons) generally avoid our street and go elsewhere. What does that tell you ?, there is a good potential for retribution to bad behaviour in our street. Leon Byner says you have to be Pro-Active. If more people did what our street does at least our city and metro. streets maybe a bit safer.

If you learn early that you are not going to "get away" with something then you are less likely to do it. Remember these hoons are somebodies Sons and Daughters.......maybe yours ?.

I beleive part of the problem with young drivers are the Driver orientated computer games. Problem is, they (some young and not so young drivers) can't differenciate between driving in the real world or cyber driving ?. I wonder if there has been any survey about Road Crashes and Driver computer games ?.

It has always had me stumped with the success of the Adelaide 500, why there is no government funded facility by which we as a community can direct, train & enhance the abilities of all our road users in metropolitan Adelaide.

Indeed, our public roads are not a race track, yet the unfortunate truth of the matter is that when there is no legitimate alternative, our roads become just that.

I beleive that there is a desperate & vital need to provide a world class controlled environment that people who enjoy motorsport can engage with their sport. A publically funded venue that will eliminate having to travel to the ends of the world or pay private owners for the right to use their dangerous & out dated facilities at what amounts to ridiculous costs, a far greater deterant than an average speeding fine.

If you create an opportunity to promote driver skills at a venue such as the victorians have in Broadford, or NSW's has at Eastern Creek, you can remove the risk from our roads & help to eliminate a major & disturbing problem that only continues to increase so long as we continue to recycle the token gestures & bandaid solutions to counteract the statistics.

Unfortunately, when it comes to road safety the government & opposition have made their priorities all too clear, as they would rather see the state build another supurfulous football stadium we simply do not need & could never hope to fill, over a facility that can & will save lives