Is the speed kills message working? Will the Government's pledge to better police New Zealand roads save lives? So far this year 266 people have died, compared with 283 at the same time last year. But there is evidence that cracking down on speed alone can be counterproductive. In 1996 Iceland's Parliament rejected a bill that would have increased the highway speed limit from 90 to 110 km/h. Opponents said this would increase the road toll. At the same time, a few thousand kilometres away in America, some states raised the highway speed limits. In 1997 Iceland introduced tougher laws mostly based around speed cameras and more police. Road deaths went up. A year later it was even tougher, adding more cameras and police. It even reduced the speed limit in towns from 50 to 30 km/h. Traffic fatalities jumped 170 per cent and serious injuries doubled. Crash reports in Reykjavik alone shot up more than 20 per cent, but excess speed was a factor in only 1.7 per cent of crashes. Iceland's authorities were at a loss to explain where they went wrong. But in America, fatalities in those states that raised speed limits stayed pretty much the same - the only thing that went up was the number of speeding fines. The crunch for drivers' rights groups came when it was learned that the states concerned had budgeted for more money from traffic fines - proof that most governments, including ours, look at fines as a means of supplementing revenue.
Oiling the works
Shell and Castrol have teamed with Japanese heavy equipment company Komatsu to work on a biodegradable lubricating oil which Komatsu has already developed for its machinery.
Diesel domination
Those in the know used to say that diesel car sales would rapidly increase beyond Europe when Mercedes-Benz and BMW started to make a big thing of such engines. Well, the two luxury carmakers are doing just that - especially BMW. Its 3-litre and 4-litre diesel engines have been judged the best in the world, with the 3-litre described as the "world's first sporting diesel." Sales of BMW cars worldwide so far this year are nearing 350,000, an increase of 10.1 per cent over last year. The 3-Series is up 15.8 per cent.
Asian incentive
Honda will build a $300 million plant in Malaysia to produce both cars and components. The Japanese carmaker will have 49 per cent of the company and two Malaysian companies will together hold 51 per cent. Honda has for some time been talking about expanding in Asia to benefit from regional free-trade agreements, and the plant is a move in that direction. Honda has more than 100 plants in 33 countries. Meanwhile, it has agreed to supply General Motors with low-emission V6 engines and automatic transmissions in return for equipping its high-end cars with GM's communications system, OnStar. The companies will also cooperate on technological ventures.
Seeing double
Where does this leave windscreen glass repairers? Engineers at Warwick University in Britain have developed a durable plastic sandwich for windscreens and windows. It is a strong but lightweight polycarbonate bonded to a tough outer layer. During testing it shrugged off high-energy hammer-blows Advanced spark How's your maths? German electronics giant Bosch has built its seven- billionth sparkplug. Place the seven billion end-to-end and they would circle the world 13 times. Counting them at the rate of one a second would take 222 years. The company makes a million sparkplugs a day in 1200 variations.
We are the world
A report from Britain says that a man who received a 40 pound ($135) speed camera fine and a photo of his car sent back a photo of 40 pounds. Police sent him a photo of handcuffs. He paid the fine.
When a British woman reported her car stolen, police dialled the cellphone she had left on the passenger's seat and told the thief they had found the number in a classified ad and wanted to buy the car. They arranged a meeting and the thief was arrested.
Profit and loss
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