NSW cameras now targeting drivers not wearing seatbelts

Seatbelt cameras will start identifying law-breaking motorists from July 1 — with a fine of $387 for those caught. See who got busted during a trial run.

A woman driving with her seatbelt tucked under her breast rather than over her shoulder is among scores of motorists captured on camera breaking the law by not being properly restrained.

The image was taken by one of 50 mobile phone detection cameras stationed across NSW which are being modified to also target seatbelt offences.

Another image shows a person driving unbuckled with one hand on the steering wheel — and also holding a lit cigarette — with a mobile phone resting on their thigh.

Several other images show motorists and passengers without seatbelts, some also using their phones.

The Sunday Telegraph was given the images ahead of the Minns government giving Transport for NSW the green light to begin using the phone detection cameras to also capture and fine motorists breaking seatbelt laws from July 1.

Drivers caught without wearing seatbelts during a trial of the new cameras.

The activation will occur without the usual warning period, with motorists caught breaking the law to be fined $387 immediately.

The move to more aggressively target seatbelt offences follows ongoing deaths among motorists and passengers who were not properly restrained, despite seatbelt wearing being a legal requirement in NSW for more than 50 years.

This woman was photographed driving with her seatbelt tucked under her breast rather than over her shoulder.

Between 2019 and 2023, 150 people died while not wearing a seatbelt, accounting for about 15 per cent of deaths on NSW roads yearly.

Last year, 36 people died.

With 124 having lost their lives on the roads so far this year — up from 108 last year — Roads Minister John Graham said it was a no-brainer to ensure people buckled up.

“Seatbelts save lives, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“Wearing a seatbelt doubles a person’s chance of survival in a car crash, and the NSW government is doing everything we can to make sure the simplest safety feature in a car is being used by everyone

“It is frankly disturbing that a small minority of people are still not heeding the message.

“If camera enforcement can convince those people to buckle up we can reduce the 15 per cent of deaths that involve a belt not being worn.”

Paralympian Christie Dawes has urged people to wear their seatbelts properly. Picture: David Swift

The Minns government introduced new laws to use cameras to target seatbelt offences last year, with the move attracting bipartisan support.

Regional Transport and Roads Minister Jenny ­Aitchison said more than 10,000 people a year were fined by police for not wearing a seatbelt “despite five decades of enforcement and awareness ­campaigns”.

In the past five years, about 85 per cent of deaths and 76 per cent of serious injuries that occurred in crashes where someone wasn’t wearing a seatbelt happened in country NSW, she said.

“This has to change and we hope camera enforcement can be the catalyst.

“Our mobile phone detection camera program will also reach regional roads. Nobody is above the law.”

Paralympian wheelchair racer Christie Dawes was 10 when her life changed on a family road trip near Taree in 1990.

She was lying asleep in the back seat of the family’s 1980s vehicle when her mother braked on a wet road to avoid a dog. The car slid and crashed into an oncoming car.

“I was wearing the lap belt, but because I wasn’t wearing it properly, I was left a paraplegic,” she said.

“We tend to hear about the fatalities, but we don’t think about the statistics of people that are permanently maimed.

“There is that mentality that it’s not going to happen to me.”

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