Cameras to detect seatbelt offences amid soaring road toll

The state government will amend its road laws to allow phone detection cameras to target more than people using their mobiles. Find out what else they will capture.

Motorists not wearing a seatbelt will now be captured by mobile phone detection cameras, with the NSW government to overhaul its road safety laws next week amid soaring road fatalities.

So far this year there have been 280 people killed on the NSW roads — up from 223 at the same time last year.

Among the deaths include 16-year-old Cohen Griggs-Button, who died after the ute he was in slammed into a tree on Sydney’s Northern Beaches last Saturday.

Northern Beaches Police commander Pat Sharkey said that the issues of speed, road conditions and whether alcohol or drugs were involved would form part of the investigation.

He also said there were five seat belts in the Toyota HiLux that was carrying the six teens.

Police at the scene where a car with six teens crashed into a tree on Cabbage Tree Rd, Bayview and one died. The car had five seatbelts available. Picture: Monique Harmer

Expanding the use of mobile phone detection cameras in place across NSW was flagged in the Transport for NSW 2026 Road Safety Action Plan, which lists a series of measures to bring the road toll “toward zero trauma”.

The Saturday Telegraph can reveal camera seatbelt detection will begin in the first quarter of next year after a public awareness campaign and a nine-month “warning period” where motorists caught breaking the law would be sent a caution letter rather than a fine.

While seatbelt laws have been in place for 50 years, motorists and passengers are still being killed for not wearing them, with 142 lives lost in the five years to 2022.

More than 10,000 people a year have also been caught and fined for not wearing a seatbelt.

When Victorian turned on its seatbelt detection cameras, about 7000 drivers were found breaking the law over the three-month trial period.

The NSW government hopes the camera-based enforcement will save between 17-26 lives over five years while preventing more than 60 serious and life-changing injuries.

Roads Minister John Graham said legislative changes will be introduced to NSW parliament next week with all revenue raised from the seatbelt activation cameras to be ploughed back into road safety.

Cameras are already successfully used to detect mobile phone usage in NSW.

“It has been a legal requirement to wear a seatbelt in NSW for more than 50 years, yet sadly we continue to see lives lost each and every year in crashes in which someone did not wear a seatbelt and paid the ultimate price,” he said.

“This is a straightforward and cost-effective way to improve road safety at a time when the road toll is on the rise.”

The Victorian government used a combination of artificial intelligence and high-definition cameras to detect seatbelt offences.

Mr Graham said the move to enable cameras to capture seatbelts followed the success of the mobile phone detection program which — introduced by the former government in 2020 — had been effective in changing dangerous behaviour over time “and we expect the same result as we expand their use to seatbelt enforcement”.

Flowers and tributes at a crash scene on Cabbage Tree Rd crash. Picture: Damian Shaw

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said while technology would never replace police on the streets, it would free up officers to focus on motorists drink and drug-driving, speeding and fatigue.

“We lobbied for the technology for phones and support it being extended to those not wearing seatbelts,” he said.

“It will also support police to focus on other factors contributing to the road toll such as drink and drug driving, speeding and fatigue.”

Cohen Griggs-Button died in a crash last weekend.

The aim of the police is “towards zero trauma”. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

While the focus on road deaths had tended to be on younger drivers, Mr Khoury said the figures showed more fatalities were of middle-aged men.

Regional Roads and Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said it was 50 years ago when the former member for Maitland “at the urging of the CWA” made wearing a seatbelt law in NSW.

“We must continue this bipartisan legacy of putting safety first, and in the 21st Century, camera detection technology is vital to this task,” she said.

In NSW each year, an average 29 drivers and passengers are killed and about 79 seriously injured in crashes when not wearing available seatbelts.
Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]