Speeding penalties

What happens if you exceed the speed limit?

You'll have to pay the expiation fee or go to court and you'll incur demerit points. The more demerit points you accumulate, the quicker you'll lose your licence.

For example, you could be disqualified from driving if you:

  • accumulate 12 or more demerit points in any three year period
  • accumulate four or more demerit points or commit any speeding offence of 10 km/h or more over the speed limit on a Learner's Permit or Provisional Licence
  • accumulate two or more demerit points on a Probationary Licence or while on Good Behaviour Conditions.

For information about road traffic offence penalties refer to the mylicence web site.

How will sticking to the speed limit save lives?

The risk of a casualty crash approximately doubles with each 5 km/h increase in speed on a 60 km/h road or with each 10 km/h increase in speed on a 110 km/h road.

A reduction of 5 km/h in average travel speed would reduce deaths and serious injuries on rural roads by about 30% and urban crashes by about 25%.

Driving over the speed limit:
  • means you have less time to react to avoid a crash
  • means it takes longer to stop the vehicle to avoid a crash
  • increases your chances of being involved in a crash
  • increases the severity of injury in a crash.
How are the speeding penalties set?

A range of factors are taken into account when expiation fees and demerit points for road traffic offence penalties are set.  These include the demonstrated road safety risk and parity of the existing penalty and the proposed penalty with other penalties (both in traffic offences and generally) in South Australia and other Australian jurisdictions.

Penalties are a critical part of the mix of speed limit enforcement necessary to save lives and reduce injuries on our roads. The number of speeding offenders has reduced in recent years with a declining road toll but almost a quarter of motorists still exceed the speed limit. The speed offence penalties reflect the safety risk and are likely to be a greater deterrent because the higher the speed, the greater the risk of losing your licence from the accumulation of demerit points.

How do these penalties apply to road trains?

The higher expiation fee for speeding road trains recognises that the crash risk is even higher when these heavy vehicles speed. This is because the greater vehicle mass generates more vehicle momentum which increases the distance it takes to stop the vehicle in order to avoid a crash. Court imposed maximum penalties will increase from $2,500 to $5,000 for speeding offences under the Australian Road Rules and for road trains exceeding either the prescribed speed limit (road trains) of the 40 km/h speed limit in a built-up area in Orroroo, Peterborough, Port Augusta or Whyalla.

What happens to all the speeding fines collected?

Apart from the $60 victims of crime levy, all revenue from anti-speeding devices is returned to road safety through the Community Road Safety Fund, which funds a wide range of key road safety initiatives including education, engineering and enforcement programs to improve road safety for all road users.

More facts on how we're working to save lives and injuries on our roads

Speeding penalties is just one of the ways we're working to save lives and injuries on South Australia's roads. Safe system principles are used to integrate safer speeds with other methods of intervention including improvements to road infrastructure, driver behaviour and vehicle technology.

For more information visit Towards Zero Together South Australia's Road Safety Strategy 2020.

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