Radar Detectors and Road Statistics

A case for Radar Detectors

Worldwide, there has been a failure to show any evidence that the banning of radar detectors has reduced road accidents and fatalities. Moreover, there is no evidence to substantiate that the banning of radar detectors has improved road statistics. In fact evidence over the past few years has shown that the state where radar detectors are legal has shown the greatest reduction of road fatalities.

Follow up:

Nationwide there have been hundreds of petitions lodged by uninformed petitioners across all states to ban radar detectors. Parties supporting a detector ban claim that detectors threaten public safety and facilitate speeding motorists. The examination of these claims by neutral fact finders chosen by the government has completely rejected these claims. In all these cases, there has been no substantive evidence to show that banning radar detectors reduces the speed of drivers or reduces the number of road fatalities.

Radar detectors give an audible alert when they detect a radar frequency emission. Radar detectors are set to detect the presence of K band, Ka band and laser emissions. These are the radar frequencies used by police radar and laser speed monitoring devices.

Radar detectors not only detect emissions from police radars but also from any device emitting the radar operating frequency Such devices are usually found at most gas stations, shopping center doors, banks, office buildings, factory showrooms etc. These devices will set off an audible alert on a radar detector. Results of the testing showed one user registered 288 alerts over a six week period on K Band and Ka Band without coming across a single police radar.

With each radar alert, user usually checks their speed in case the alert happens. This is one of the reasons why radar detector users find that they are much more aware of the speed limit, that they actually slow down after buying a radar detector and they reportedly have fewer accidents. The flow on effect of this is that cars behind the radar detector user are forced to follow the speed limit of the car in front.

Currently, radar detectors with Safe Warning Systems (SWS) are already legal. SWS will warn drivers of “Emergency Vehicle in Transit” and “Stationary Emergency Vehicle Ahead”. Any Driver Warning System or radar detector up to one mile away will receive this warning. This warning could save a life, particularly for an emergency vehicle positioned over a rise or around a blind corner. It should also lead to quicker access to an emergency at the reduced risk to the driving public by warning drivers up to one mile away of an approaching emergency vehicle. Further applications of the system include railway and light rail crossings, other hazardous vehicles, road hazards and accidents

If you feel strongly on this issue, you should comment to your Commonwealth Delegate and Senator or comment your objection here.