NSW speed camera operations could fine a driver every 38 seconds — and from both sides
Mobile speed camera operations will triple from July, sparking a NSW Labor warning that warn that drivers could cop a fine for low-level speeding every 38 seconds.
NSW
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Secret mobile speed cameras are now stinging drivers on both sides of the street.
The change to monitor speeding in both directions was quietly made when warning signs were removed from the cameras last year.
It comes as an analysis from state Labor predicted a driver would be fined for low level speeding every 38 seconds when the government tripled monthly mobile speed camera operating hours.
In the five months to May this year, mobile speed cameras stung an average of 22,272 drivers each month for going less than 10km over the speed limit.
In the five months to May last year that figure was 1397.
According to these figures $15.93m was raised from low-level speeding fines in the five months to May 2021, compared with $872,000 in the same period the year before.
If the number of fines issued increases in line with operating hours tripling, more than 65,000 fines could be issued each month for people speeding less than 10km over the limit.
State Labor claims that would lead to a driver getting stung once every 38 seconds.
“This policy is one which makes families and tradies poorer, but those on the road no safer,” Labor leader Chris Minns said. “Central to road policy should be saving lives, not making a buck – a threshold this policy simply does not meet.”
Mr Minns has called for warning signs to be reintroduced as part of a push for high-visibility policing on the state’s roads.
Cameras will begin operating more frequently from this month as part of a plan announced last year to remove warning signs and ramp up operations.
Mobile speed cameras are also enforcing speeding in both directions when previously the cameras would only sting people for speeding on one side of the street.
“Now (warning) signs are no longer required, bi-directional enforcement has resumed on some stretches of road,” a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Andrew Constance said.
The spokeswoman said the change made NSW consistent with other states in Australia.
“We are already seeing a change in driver behaviour, with 3.5 drivers caught per hour of mobile speed camera enforcement in June,” she said, compared to five per hour when the changes were implemented.
Speeding-related deaths have dropped from 50 per cent in 2020 to about 40 per cent this year, the spokeswoman said.
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