High-tech speed cameras catch 66,000 motorists using phones

A whopping 66,000 people were caught using their phones while driving during a six-month trial of mobile point-to-point traffic cameras run across WA since October.

The shocking figure is a 1240 per cent increase in the actual number of people fined for using their phones while driving in 2021.

The new speed cameras will monitor whether drivers are wearing seatbelts or using mobile phones.Credit: WA Government

About 10,000 motorists caught were repeat offenders.

The trial of three pairs of cameras also detected 11,400 instances of drivers not wearing their seatbelts; 42,000 people caught breaking the average speed limit between cameras and 265,000 instances of people speeding past a single camera.

No one was fined during the trial because laws need to be amended to allow police to infringe motorists caught by the cameras.

Had police been able to dish out fines and demerits about 2000 people would have lost their licence and 120,000 demerit points would have been issued.

Police Minister Paul Papalia said the results had proved so compelling the state will purchase three new pairs of cameras using the road trauma trust account for $11.2 million and update the necessary laws by the end of the year.

“What we found during the six months trial was a huge number of people doing things that they know at the moment they are unlikely to get caught doing,” he said.

“In the past we would have had an officer on a bike would have been the most likely chance of catching someone in traffic using their mobile phone or potentially an unmarked car but clearly these cameras are much more effective at it and they have had an effect elsewhere.

“These cameras will change people’s behaviour for the better and save lives.”

The cameras are mobile and can detect when vehicles travel between camera points above speeds that the road speed limit would allow in the same way the Forrest Highway point-to-point camera does.

The mobile cameras are mounted on booms.

Papalia said he was shocked at the figures around seatbelt use given 20 of the 174 deaths on WA roads last year were because drivers and passengers were not wearing the life-saving device.

“Incredible that people don’t wear a seatbelt in this day and age knowing of course that dozens of people have been dying on our roads annually not wearing seatbelts,” he said.

Papalia said the six pairs of cameras would likely be deployed across the state before the laws pass and motorists caught breaking the law would be sent letters as a way of changing behaviour and “socialising” the concept of point-to-point cameras.

The Minister made the announcement near Optus Stadium where a point-to-point trial location found one in four people were speeding.

WA Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner said 60 per cent of crashes on WA roads last year involved risky behaviours like using mobile phones, drinking, speeding and inattention.

“These are what the new cameras are going to address and we’re very much looking forward to getting them on the road,” he said.

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