The Northern Territory’s trial of removing speed limits on certain sections of the Stuart Highway appears to be proving a success.
Last February, the government declared drivers were allowed travel as fast as they liked on a 204-kilometre stretch between Barrow Creek and Alice Springs. The trial stretch was later extended by another 74 kilometres to include the road from Barrow Creek to near the Ali Curung Rail Overpass.
The NT Department of Transport says it is a matter of ‘so far, so good.’
“There have been no fatalities in the open speed trial zone in 2014,” said Department spokesman, Lesley Major. “Over the 10-year period 2004-2013, there were 12 fatalities in what is now the open speed trial zone, however none of these were attributed to speed as their key causal factor.”
The Department is currently ‘undertaking a review of the open speed limit section of road following the one year trial’ and will provide the outcomes during the first quarter of 2015. It is thought that the government there is leaning heavily towards continuing the no-speed limit trial.
Meanwhile, other states are thought to be considering raising speed limits on some roads.
The New South Wales government has previously stated that some roads were of a high enough quality to raise the speed limit ‘by 5km or 10km per hour’, and that it was closely monitoring the NT open speed limit trial.
