More speed cameras needed in Victoria: Report

Experts are calling for a sneaky change to speed cameras and a doubling in drug stops on Victoria’s regional roads, claiming existing measures are failing to slow drivers down.

Mobile speed camera sites across rural Victoria should be expanded by an additional 75 per cent and roadside drug tests need to more than double to almost 400,000 a year, according to leading crash researchers.

Experts from the Monash University Accident Research Centre are calling for the number of sites where the cameras operate to drastically increase to bolster coverage outside urban areas and prevent road fatalities and serious trauma.

To support this, they have also urged for 390,100 random and targeted drug tests to be carried out per year.

Cameras nabbing people at new rural sites – which would raise the number of cameras and hours they work – could stop 23 fatal crashes and 172 accidents resulting in serious injury each year.

A hidden speed camera in use on Queens Road, Melbourne. Picture: Julian Smith/AAP

The massive increase in testing would also help prevent 46 crashes ending in death and at least 134 where serious injury is involved, with the drug ice found in the systems of one in five motorists killed.

Co-author of the research, Professor Max Cameron said mobile speed cameras weren’t as effective because their limited locations were too “predictable” for lead-foot drivers.

Adding more sites would catch more drivers out and reduce dangerous behaviour.

“They’re (cameras) not as covert as what they should be … you’ve really got to think carefully about deterring people broadly across the rural road system,” he said.

Professor Cameron described drug testing as “labour intensive” but said when targeted, was very effective.

“It’s very time consuming and uses a lot of police resources, but it shouldn’t divert the manpower away from random breath testing, it should be a combined operation, the balance between the two is key,” Prof Cameron said.

There are calls to increase the number of sites where speed cameras operate. Picture: Ian Currie

The state government increased mobile road safety camera hours across all of Victoria by 75 per cent, after a horror road toll two years ago.

A government spokeswoman said the number of roadside drug tests had also risen to 150,000 per year.

“The recent expansion of our mobile road safety camera hours across the state has meant an 84 per cent increase in hours in regional areas to deter people from speeding and drive down the road toll,” she said.

RACV Policy Lead for Safety Elvira Lazar said mobile speed cameras were a “proven deterrent” to unsafe driving behaviour.

“Managing speed is particularly important to protect other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, who may sustain more severe injuries when compared to vehicle occupants if there is a crash,” she said.

The Transport Accident Commission has found that drivers who speed by just 3km/h have a 25 per cent greater crash risk.