Do As I Do Not As I Say
Speed Kills. The message is everywhere. TV ads, press banners, billboards: every patch of blank space is occupied by government slogans asking us to take the pedal off the metal.
So pity the hamlet bang between Birchip and Ouyen on the Calder Highway in Victoria. With a population less than the annual road-toll, the tiny town of Speed gets every sort of petrol-head gag.
At one stage, dangling below the sign announcing the town’s name was a second smaller sign reading PLEASE DON’T. While it may be the ideal spot for cops to establish a radar trap, the legal fraternity can’t wait to argue the infraction in the County Courts.
Reminds me of that other perfect trap-spot for the highway patrol: a NSW speck off the Hume Highway called Bookham.