The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has welcomed the New South Wales government decision to trial average speed cameras to detect speeding by light and heavy vehicles.
The ATA, in its Friday Facts newsletter, says NSW regional transport and roads minister Jenny Aitchison introduced the legislation to trial the cameras into state parliament last week, saying that between 2018 and 2022, 753 crashes that didn’t involve heavy vehicles occurred within the 31 current average speed camera lengths in the state.
“NSW is the only jurisdiction in the world known to systematically limit average speed enforcement detection to a subset of vehicles, rather than applying to all vehicles,” Aitchison says.
ATA chief of staff Bill McKinley says the ATA first advocated for these average speed cameras to detect speeding by light and heavy vehicles in 2011, with all other mainland Australian states and the ACT using the system for light vehicles as part of speed enforcement programs.
“Applying average speed camera enforcement to light vehicles as well as trucks and buses will be more effective at improving road safety,” McKinley says.
“In addition, average speed cameras are fairer than traditional fixed point speed cameras, because a driver has to speed intentionally over a long distance to get a fine.”
The average speed cameras will be trialled on a 15km stretch of the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes, as well as on a 16km stretch of the Hume Highway between Coolac and Gundagai.
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