Mobile speed cameras are back

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Mobile speed cameras are back
JOSEPHINE TOVEY AND DEBORAH SNOW
March 29, 2010

The state government has bowed to pressure from police and road safety experts and reintroduced mobile speed cameras as part of a $170 million effort to reduce the road toll.

The package, to be announced by the Minister for Transport, David Campbell, this morning, includes a $50 million safety audit of six main highways, $50 million worth of repairs and upgrades to areas with a high level of crashes and an increase in speeding fines of 5 per cent.

But it is the reintroduction of the cameras that is the most politically sensitive part of the package for the embattled government.

In January the Herald revealed that Assistant Police Commissioner, John Hartley, had written to the government advocating the release of the cameras.

These cameras can be covertly operated by civilian contractors working from unmarked cars parked by the side of the road.

Motoring groups such as the NRMA advocate ''high visibility'' measures that are well advertised to motorists.

In an effort to stem a backlash from motorists and head off claims of ''revenue raising'', the government will make the possible locations of the new cameras well known through the Roads and Traffic Authority website.

The Herald also understands that cars operating the units will be marked.

According to Mr Campbell, six cameras will begin operating at mobile units across the state from July 19.

They will be placed on roads with a ''known crash history''and the roads will be listed and updated on the RTA website every three months.

The chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia, Harold Scruby, said making drivers aware of camera locations was a ''cop-out''.

''The campaign in Victoria has been 'anywhere any time','' he said. ''Here it will be: we're going to tell where and when so you can be prepared.''

However, he welcomed the package as a significant step forward for road safety in NSW.

In Victoria, a government website lists all the 2500 sites where its 30 mobile cameras might be on any given day.

In another attempt to soften the impact of the cameras, there will be a one-month period of grace in which motorists caught speeding by a mobile speed camera will receive a warning but not an infringement.

It is understood they will not be operated by police but by the RTA or civilian contractors.

It is not known whether the government will increase the number of cameras from six but Mr Campbell said the cam- eras would be operating for 12,200 hours a month by July next year.

The Deputy Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety in Victoria, Ken Lay, said 30 cameras operated for 9000 hours a month in that state. This suggests that more cameras will be needed to reach the NSW target.

''In Victoria the mobile speed cameras are the centrepiece of our road safety campaign. We know that they work and we know that they save lives,'' Mr Lay said.

In NSW last year 46 per cent of fatalities involved speeding and last week the state notched up its 100th fatality since the start of the year.

Mr Campbell said the government intended to get motorists to slow down everywhere - not just near cameras.

"I would be thrilled if these cameras didn't collect one cent - it would mean motorists are getting the message that speeding is not OK," Mr Campbell said.

A study in 2003 by the Monash University Accident Research Centre found a significant reduction in accidents following the full implementation of a well publicised, covert mobile speed camera program.

The highway safety audit - another platform of the package to be announced today - will initially target the Great Western, Mid Western and Mitchell highways, with audits also planned for the Oxley, Sturt and New England highways.

Other measures include $45 million worth of funding to local councils to fix their unsafe roads, and $4 million for pedestrian fencing at pedestrian crash hotspots.

My comment : If the cameras, work. Then why is the road toll on the increase ???????
Usual tripe from Scruby..

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