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Reuters
A welcome sign to the town of Speed, 250 miles northwest of Melbourne, is seen in this undated photo obtained Feb. 18.
Transportation Accident Commision via Reuters
The Victorian TAC provided this handout illustration promoting the campaign to rename the town of Speed. According to local media, a Facebook campaign by a government authority to promote road safety helped change the name of the town from Speed to SpeedKills.
A small town in the Australian Outback has decided to change its name in an attempt to persuade drivers to slow down.
The town formerly known as Speed will be known as SpeedKills for a period of one month.
"Speeding through Speed is probably something that some people think is a great idea but we don't think so. People are a bit tired and think, well, nobody lives here, it is just a small town, but we live here," a local said in a video posted on Facebook.
The BBC reports that Australian road safety officials have identified five towns in the United States called Speed which they hope will follow suit.
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If they are worried about a town name, that promotes a detrimental action, I offer:
Toad Suck, Arkansas
Cut and Shoot, Texas
Truth or Conseqences, New Mexico.
Intercourse, Pennsylvania.
Boring, Oregon.
Here's a whole list of them around the country. After seeing some of these, Speed or Speedkills seems pretty tame.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/loa-oddplacenames.html
I live right beside Speed, Indiana. But speeding is the last thing that you want to do there. The Sellersburg police department patrols the area and will write a ticket for 5 over any day of the week. Instead of Speed, they should rename the town Raped By The Police, because that is exactly what they do.
Or just rename it Speedtrap.
"Raped by the Police", my wallet has been there. The charge about $10 for every mile you're over in my town. ^^
Speedway or Speed?
Yea, but it gets you to church on time, and it is a really really good excuse out of a speeding ticket..
Or......wait for it.................don't speed.
My last name is Speed. It is an old English name. These places were undoubtedly named, as all other places, because of early settlers or associations with people.
Speed doesn't kill. Impacting immovable objects while at speed does. As long as you don't hit anything, fast driving is perfectly safe. Unless, of course, the politzei get you.
Its not the fall, its the sudden stop
-unknown
in my residential zone. I enjoy the 25 mph speed. limits do keep the road noise down to a minimum rumble. ensuring a quiet zone besides being safe for those pedestrians
D Luniz-1282741
That quote is not from unknown. It is a famous one from Douglas Adams. It goes: It’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end.
If you don't know who said it, Google it or don't say it.
How about rename it "Slow Your Azz Downville".....................
No wonder it's called Speed, just a rural road and the speed limit is 80? That seems a bit high unless you are on the highway.
inb4 Kilometers not Miles per hour
I think 80 is the route # not the speed limit
The 80 is likely 80 km/hr, about 48 mph.
50 MPH does seem fast for a small town, around my area, small towns like that usually go from 55MPH to 45MPH, to 35MPH through the town, then increases back to 55MPH in the same stepped procedure as entering
Its Australia. They don't like to live too close to each other, so a town of 60 people is spread over five miles. If you drove 35mph thru any town, you'd come out a grampa on the other end.
There are many places in the US (I'm thinking specifically of upstate New York) which have "kills" or kill" at the end of the name. In those cases, it is due to the naming being done by Dutch settlers. "Kill" in Dutch means river or creek. So I see Speedkills and think "translates to fast moving water".
Maybe Speed would do well to rename it's town to StripTacks if it's aim is to slow down the pass through[ers].
speed also gets you to your destination faster....and since going slow is also a hazard....i guess ill speed...
Speed doesn't kill, DWHUA does.
Im sure Ill regret it, but whats "DWHUA"?
Thanks D Luniz, for taking one for the team..
Driving while head up...well, you can figure out the rest.
If you want Speedkills just travel right on down US 301 in florida, I'm sure all them wonderful police officers in Waldo, Starke, and Lawtey would LOVE to give someone a ticket there. Pay attention to the big billboards that says WARNING SPEED TRAP AHEAD!!!! 5 miles an hour over the limit and sexy police man give you ticket, hehehe. Have fun drive fast and swerve
Speed doesn't kill....It's the sudden stop at the end!!!
If speed kills, why aren't race drivers extinct? This whole concept is a bullsh*t marketing program by law enforcement agencies to make us feel better about using speeding tickets to raise revenue.
Driving on some of German autobahns is bliss, no speed limits, no speeding tickets.
Got one last week though being caught after 45+ years , looked down at warning light on my BMW dash board and missed a road side camera. so much for in car car warning lights. Thats Life!.
Have to agree, it's not the the speed that kills it is the stopping.
totally cool! Australia has to be the best place now that our country is becoming New Mexico! get out you illegal m.f's...dragging our country down to your level (@!$%#zville)
Well, if we're campaigning for gripes here instead of focusing on the topic, get rid of all of the boom cars and the sleaze that thinks they are cool for driving them around drowning out everyone's TVs. It ought to be legal to shoot at them as they go by. It certainly is tempting.
Now, ON TOPIC, there is nothing wrong with this little story, or the town changing it's name for a week in some public awareness campaign. Big deal. Speeding is a serious problem, because it does (possibly indirectly, but still) kill a lot of people. A LOT. And DWHUA seems to be the norm where I'm from, so you are never safe around all these super busy soccer moms and business tie-squeezed necks zooming around at 25 mph over the speed limit cuz they have no time to live.
Hi, J. Speed. My last name is also Speed. We might be related. I live in Oklahoma.
As far as renaming the town goes, I say 'leave it alone.' I know the name change is only for one week and to make a good point; however, I hope this doesn't set a precedent -- residents start renaming communities because their names might connotate something perceived as negative?
Why don't they just rename the town Turtle?
Gobblers Knob Summit, a mountain summit in Fulton, Pennsylvania.