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I've not seen that. Do you have date for that, or are you making it up as an example?

https://infrastructure.gov.au/...

You've indicated you think the system will be a single grid with a single failure taking out everything,

I think such a system can be no more reliable than an IP network, which as an former network engineer, I wouldn't bet my life with.
It might improve overall safety numbers in theory, but current road deaths are not purely random, so comparing stats of a somewhat controllable environment to a completely uncontrolled (by the vehicle occupant's input capability) is not an accurate comparison.

In Australia we have a 3km/hr threshold on speeding fines.
In a 100km/hr area, doing 104km will net you a 160$ fine.

Conversion for the Americans, doing 64.62m/hr in a 62m/hr zone will cost you 132$ US
That's only 4% faster than the posted limit.

We also have a demerit point system, you can lose 1/3/6 or all 12 points depending how much more than the limit you were doing.
On public holidays, Christmas and certain 'seasons' of the year where they want to make for 'nice holidays' - the demerit points and the fines are doubled.
Penalties listed here
http://www.arrivealive.vic.gov... [vic.gov.au]

I don't have a major issue with speeding fines in general, I have a major issue with 'permanent' speeding cameras which send you a letter for speeding, a week after you were speeding. If it's such a genuine offense, dangerous to others and yourself -then surely an officer should pull you over and explain the situation, perhaps your speedo is out? Perhaps you're in a bad mood and a warning (and fine?) will bring you back to reality.
A letter in the mail does no such thing, it's a pure tax days after the offense occurred.

In fact, our threshold of getting a fine was around 10km/hr around 8 to 10 years ago but when people got so sick of paying fines thanks to permanent cameras, they stopped speeding so much. So they reduced the threshold to this low 3km/hr due to the government 'losing revenue'

An interesting story is a tunnel which was built around a decade ago which went underneath a river, the tunnel has multiple speed cameras in it which no one knew about, this new tunnel was extremely convenient and was heavily used in it's opening month. Thousands upon thousands of people used it daily not knowing about the cameras inside the tunnel.
The speeding fine system was so overloaded from all the tickets to be sent to people that the delay was up to 30 days before receiving the fine (and demerit points) in the mail.
There are many stories of people opening their mail a month after the tunnel opened to get a letter with a fine.
Then the next day, the opened their mail to get a letter with a fine.
Then the next day (you see where this is going) people lost their licenses and had thousands of dollars in fines, clearly their incredibly dangerous behaviour which should be stopped immediately was ok to be allowed to continue for a month...

We also have a default speed limit for suburban areas, which was 60km/hr if no speed was posted, this too was dropped to 50km/hr in the state, making drivers trip duration longer, yet the vast majority of fatalities are not at this speed. I personally recall when this was introduced, (near the same time as the 3km/hr threshold) that I found myself looking at my speedometer almost religiously, so worried about getting a fine it was becoming a distraction to driving.

I've also been told of a perm speed camera installation in New South Wales (NSW) in an area where NO ACCIDENTS HAVE OCCURRED - a camera was put at the bottom of a large 'dip' on a large highway (no oncoming traffic) Many trucks and vehicles opted to 'speed up' for inertia to get up the other side of this large hilly area, it's significantly easier on the motor, fuel economy etc. Yet a camera was installed here to catch people speeding up.

Finally you can also see statistics on how significantly better the road toll is here.
http://www.infrastructure.gov.... [infrastructure.gov.au]
We've got more people on the road than ever, yet an incredibly low road toll, none the less for the sake of "safety" fines consistently are going up.

Consider yourselves lucky over there just how few speeding fines are actually issued and also how relatively easy it is to get out of them, over here it's near on impossible to get out of one.

The introduction of RBTs ("Random Breath Test" stations - basically a roadblock where large numbers of vehicles are stopped and drivers tested) in Australia led to a significant reduction in road fatalities.
Source.

Road deaths (at least in Oz, and we do a fuck of a lot of driving) have declined by 26% in the last 10 years, and I am guessing that total distance traveled has increased quite substantially.

http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/ck/releases/2012/january/ck001_2012.aspx

One in 10 of those deaths is a pedestrian. They have also benefited with the removal of hood ornaments and softer shelled cars, but are probably worse off by the % of 4WD vehicles and digital media/phones...

You must be kidding. For one, having lived for many years both in Europe and the US, I can tell you that the drivers in the US are _far_ superior. Much more disciplined and much much safer. In Europe I am literally scared to drive (even though there are some exceptions).

Which Europe did you live in?

Consider section 2.1 and 4.1 of the following paper: http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2009/pdf/rsr_05.pdf and the statistics on this page: http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/papers/fatals.html
(Note: It was commissioned so that the traffic fatality rates in Australia could be compared to the rates of other OECD countries, hence the Australia-centric nature of some of the chapters)

Contrary to your statements, the average driver in Europe is more disciplined, safer and far better at handling emergency situations than the average American driver, thanks to much more rigorous and thorough training and far more advanced testing.

Personal experience with numerous American expats among friends, relatives and colleagues supports this to a great degree.

The fact that you are scared to drive in Europe speaks of your lack of solid experience, because most Europeans assume much higher skill levels we tend towards a slight bit of arrogance towards 'lesser' drivers, as it were. Drive with confidence and you'll fit right in.

This is true. However, fatal accidents are mostly caused through excessive speed.

This is why they are so insane about it... because every life is precious!

The flaw in their logic however, is people who speed, are doing it with or without these limits. So they are attempting to throw millions of dollars, crazy regulations, and insane ideas, to reduce a few deaths. Australia has 21 million people and in April there were 151 deaths on the road (source). Which, though tragic, is a small amount of deaths, which won't be reduced, no matter what you do. Though these numbers will deviate heaps, as they aren't predictable, and in every incidents, they were accidents and nobody meant for it to happen.

In fact, there has been a correlation between speed limits and increased speeds, such that because it's more predictable, you can go faster, so you do. If there were no speed limits, it's less predictable, so you go slower where it's unsafe and faster where it is safe. Which is what people tend to do at the moment (with the speed limits), however they undervalue the probability of a crash because of the sign.

In Australia, some cars have bull-bar/roo-bars as a factory installed option. There are enough of them fitted with these devices that someone decided to study the "effect of bull-bars on vehicle-pedestrian collision dynamics". I know you can get them here for pickups, but I wouldn't mind one on my car for those pesky deer.

So with a bit of digging, the wireless mouse was blamed on a boeing 747 flight. The plane turned with three degrees of bank. I couldn't find the actual report of the incident on Australia's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government site.