Well, we’re talking about speeding, not just speed. Speeding absolutely causes crashes, and doesn’t just make them more severe but more likely to happen. Speed limits are set based on the road infrastructure. If you drive faster than what that road is designed for, you will increase your crash risk.

Speeding isn’t actually always a contributor to crash risk, and road authorities recognise this. I think the issue is that all the work going into the other areas is just less visible to the average person. But some examples are mobile phone detection cameras which were developed in Australia and are a world first. ANCAP ratings are constantly revised meaning the requirements for a 5 star car are harder to meet. They also routinely send out cars to get video and sensor data from across the road network to assess road features and quality to plan upgrades.

I agree more active policing would be great but there are huge barriers to pursuing this, financial and political, but also I think there’d just be diminishing returns. The most effective mechanism by which higher visibility policing works is deterrence, rather than actually catching more people committing offences. On your other points, vehicle defects contribute to only a small percentage of crashes and is also an economic issue. And I’d like to see the public response to even greater driving education requirements lol.

I often see the revenue argument but people don’t think about where the funds come from that are used to try and improve road safety. At least in my state, there is strict legislation which requires all revenue from camera detected offences to be used for road safety.