Thousands of freeway speedsters avoid fines despite ignoring reduced limits

Half of Melbourne drivers who tore through reduced speed zones last year were not fined — with Western Ring Road speedsters particularly startling.

Around half of drivers snapped tearing through reduced speed zones on Melbourne’s freeways never got a fine.

Victoria’s Road Safety Camera Commissioner has flagged concern too many drivers detected doing the wrong thing are being let off.

Around 120,000 escaped fines last year — triple the figure two just years earlier.

Analysis shows almost 80 per cent of motorists last year ignored 40km/h limits on the Western Ring Road alone.

The figure was around half on the

Monash Freeway and just over a third on CityLink.

Commissioner Stephen Leane told the Herald Sun: “If you don’t enforce people won’t slow down.”

“That’s the bottom line and sadly that’s the reality,’’ he said.

The Road Safety Camera Commissioner — in a report released on Tuesday — examined why so many drivers never got a fine despite ignoring overhead electronic speed signs showing a reduced limit on major freeways.

Limits are generally reduced for roadworks or hazards like an accident.

The report found around half the time that speeds were reduced on the Western Ring Road, Monash Freeway and CityLink police felt there was not sufficient justification to issue fines.

In about a third of cases they found a speed limit reduction wasn’t required, such because roadworks had finished.

The commissioner looked at whether drivers who failed to follow reduced speed limits on overhead electronic got a fine. Picture: Jay Town

A quarter of speedsters were let off simply because of poor record keeping to show traffic management measures like the layout of the site complied with proper processes.

A fifth of drivers avoided fines because signs like those indicating the end of roadworks were too close to cameras or in the wrong place.

Mr Leane said while the system had to be fair such high rejection of fines suggested it may have become too lenient.

“If you speed there was a one in two chance in 2020 that you were going to get a ticket,’’ he said.

“It’s undermining the intent of the road safety principle of why you have cameras.

“What that means then is people start to make their own decisions and when they do that it then increases the risk.

“A camera system operated where many tickets don’t get issued creates that environment where people think they can get away with it.”

Mr Leane said drivers ignoring reduced speed limits put the lives of roadworks crews and emergency personnel tending to accidents at risk.

“Being on a freeway which is 100km/h is a dangerous place — and that’s what these reduced speed zones are all about,’’ he said.

“It’s the risk to the workers and the risk to drivers because the environment has changed.

The report, which also examined the Westgate Freeway, noted the Transport Department was updating its computer system to provide more comprehensive information about planned roadworks which would assist police.

Workarounds were already in place and standards for traffic management contractors to be improved.

“Speeding and other dangerous driving behaviour are unacceptable on our road network – particularly in work zones where people are particularly vulnerable working by the roadside,’’ a government spokeswoman said.

“We’ll continue to work with our road safety partners to identify opportunities for improved enforcement at major roadwork sites to ensure these are completed safely and effectively and that those who do the wrong thing are caught.”