After a successful trial run the WA state government has decided implement new point to point safety cameras in an effort to curb phone use and dangerous driving.
Western Australian drivers have been put on notice that not wearing a seat belt, or driving while using a mobile phone is not only illegal and dangerous, it is also going to be costly.
The state government has committed to going live with six cutting edge mobile point-to-point safety cameras after a six-month trial of the technology nabbed 66,000 drivers on their mobile phone and 11,400 not wearing a seatbelt.
The cameras will be funded with an $11.2 million investment from the WA Road Trauma Trust Account and deployed across Western Australia.
Police Minister Paul Papalia says the cameras will be set-up in pairs across a range of locations to calculate if the average speed of a driver between two points exceeds the limit.
While they will be able to catch drivers speeding, they can also monitor seat belt and mobile phone use.
In the six months the cameras were trialled, around 8 million drivers were monitored, and 42,000 of those were detected committing an average speeding offence.
While no infringement notices were issued during the trial, the government calculated that if they had been, a total of 120,000 demerit points would have been lost.
In WA, 100 per cent of the money generated by automated traffic enforcement fines is placed into the Road Trauma Trust Account to be spent on initiatives and resources to increase road safety, like the six new cameras.
“The results from the safety camera trials speak for themselves and are very concerning,” Police Minister Papalia says.
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“What they show us is that we need these high-tech eyes on our roads to discourage the tens of thousands of repeat offenders who are putting themselves and others at risk of serious injury or death.
“The worst recidivist driver during the trial was caught so many times they would have been issued 80 demerit points.
“Around 2,000 driver licences would have been lost in total.
“Our Western Australian Police Force does a fantastic job keeping the community safe. This is just another tool which the McGowan Government hopes will continue to save lives and change driver attitudes.”