Mobile speed camera warning sign backflip ‘will lead to more deaths’

A leading Sydney surgeon has warned the state government’s decision to reintroduce warning signs for mobile speed cameras would lead to more deaths on the road.

One of the nation’s leading trauma surgeons has blasted the state government’s intentions to reintroduce warning signs for mobile speed cameras as a deadly move that will kill 32 people just in the first year of their return.

Dr John Crozier, chair of the National Trauma Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, called the move “populist politics” and warned it would lead to a series of deaths almost instantly after it came into play.

The Liverpool-based surgeon has seen all too frequently the damage and devastation left behind from a car crash and warned NSW was “going backwards” if warning signs were reinstated.

Dr John Crozier is shocked the state government will reintroduce mobile speed camera warning signs. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“It is only populist politics and it flies in the face of all the hard work done,” he said.

“It puts us out of step with every other jurisdiction after we only just moved into line with every other one (in the country).

“We’re going back to the past … that’s why surgeons are so passionate about this because we can assure the public this is not about revenue raising.”

The government’s own submission to a parliamentary inquiry examining the issue predicts removing the signs, and a series of other measures, will save 42 lives a year.

Dr Crozier said that if the signs were instead put back in place NSW would be looking at an extra 32 deaths on the roads a year, based on the government’s modelling.

A mobile speed camera warning sign.

He believes more fines in the post as a result would be an effective preventative measure but called on a wider rollout of point-to-point cameras to cut road deaths.

“They are not being sent the signal of concern (without a fine) and a penalty notice would send that concern,” he said.

Dr Crozier has spent decades dealing with the fallout from the worst road accidents in the city and dubbed the stretch of the Hume Hwy near his practice as one of the worst in the country.

The scene of a fatal crash at Warwick Farm in 2012. Picture: Steve Harris

The deaths of a 21-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man at Warwick Farm within 100m of each other about 10 years ago and the death of a motorcyclist at Chullora last year are incidents that hit hospital staff the hardest, he said.

The move to return warning signs has seen high profile backers within parliament, most notably Premier Dominic Perrottet who said last month he had concerns Transport had been using them for “revenue raising”.

Six months earlier across the political isle Labor leader Chris Minns raised similar concerns in one of his first comments as opposition leader after it emerged the government raked in $21 million in fines when the signs were removed.

“The signs are a permanent reminder for drivers to stay under the speed limit,” Transport’s deputy secretary for safety Tara McCarthy said.

“Additionally, motorists will be warned their speed is being checked with signs to appear on top of all mobile speed camera vehicles across the state from February 2022.

“The focus on safety as well as awareness will ensure the program is still effective in reducing speeding behaviour and the significant trauma it causes.”

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