Aussie drivers warned ahead of huge change to speeding fines

The changes will be coming into effect next week. Here's what you need to know.

Drivers are being warned to keep an eye out for speed cameras, as a huge change impacting New South Wales drivers is now just a week away.

The change, first announced by the NSW Government in September last year, will come into force on May 1, and is expected to see an influx in fines being handed out to drivers.

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Image: Brendan Radke.

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Change is coming!

Speeding is consistently the biggest killer on NSW roads, contributing to a huge 42% of all fatalities.

It’s for this reason that last year, the NSW Government decided to try something new, introducing average speed cameras for all drivers.

Despite average speed cameras being used in all other mainland Australian states and the ACT for both heavy and light vehicles, in NSW, it has only been employed for heavy vehicles - and this is all about to change.

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The new cameras

If you’re not familiar, average speed cameras use two cameras a distance apart from one another to measure the amount of time it takes for a vehicle to travel from point A to point B.

The vehicle’s average speed between the two cameras is then calculated, and if this average speed is higher than the speed limit for the length of the road, you’ll be copping a hefty speeding fine.

This aims to prevent instances where a driver would slow down when passing a speed camera, whilst speeding for the remaining stretch of the road.

Keep an eye out!

Now, this isn’t going to be implemented across the state just yet.

What kicks off on May 1 is a trial period, which will impact a 15km stretch on the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes, and a 16km stretch on the Hume Highway between Coolac and Gundagai.

For the first two months of the trial, offenders who exceed the speed limit by 30km/hr or less will receive a caution via letter as opposed to a fine - if you exceed the speed limit by over 30km/hr, this won’t apply to you, and the police will still be seeing you in court.

However, once July 1 hits, all speeding offences will be enforced by the average speed cameras.

The NSW Government will be reporting back on results next year, and if the trial was successful, we may be seeing light vehicles tracked by more average speed cameras across the state.

Originally published as Aussie drivers warned ahead of huge change to speeding fines