The tricky way one state has brought about at 1500% increase in low-level speeding fines – with a driver now nabbed every 38 seconds
- The NSW Government has ramped up its strict crackdown on speeding drivers
- Hidden mobile speed camera operations on NSW roads will soon triple
- Driver could done for low-level speeding every 38 seconds, according to Labor
- State opposition leader claims new rule doesn’t make NSW roads any safer
Hidden cameras are now detecting drivers over the speed limit on both sides of the street in New South Wales.
Mobile speed camera operations on the state’s roads will triple this month, sparking a warning that a driver could done for low-level speeding every 38 seconds, according to new analysis.
The NSW government has already come under fire for the controversial removal of warning signs that previously alerted motorists to mobile cameras as part of a strict new crackdown on speeding drivers.
A new change to monitor car speed in both directions was also secretly brought in, it has emerged, leading to the number of motorists being stung soaring by more than 1,500 per cent.
According to state Labor analysis, an average of 22,272 drivers each month were busted less than 10km over the speed limit in the first five months of 2021 compared to 1,397 during the same period last year, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The number of motorists being stung has since soared more than 1,500 per cent since warning signs for mobile cameras have been removed
Figures also revealed $15.93m was raised from low-level speeding fines in the five months of 2021, compared with $872,000 in the same period in 2020.
NSW opposition leader Chris Minns claim slammed the removal of warning signs and argued for a return to high visibility policing on roads.
He claims the new policy is a revenue raiser and doesn’t make NSW roads any safer.
‘Central to road policy should be saving lives, not making a buck – a threshold this policy simply does not meet,’ Mr Minns told the publication.
The office of transport minister Andrew Constance said changes were made to reflect the road rules in other states in Australia.
‘Now (warning) signs are no longer required, bi-directional enforcement has resumed on some stretches of road,’ a spokeswoman said.
Speed cameras can now detect motorists on both sides of the road in NSW. Pictured is busy traffic on Sydney’s Lane Cove Road
She added it has already resulted in a change in driver behaviour and that speeding-related deaths have dropped from 50 per cent in 2020 to about 40 per cent in 2021.
The minister hinted at the sneaky new tactics to sting speeding motorists in a NSW government release dated January 2 in relation to the 2020 road toll.
‘We aim to halt this trend in 2021 by expanding the mobile speed camera program and removing markings from some of the vehicles so people know they can be caught anywhere, anytime,’ Mr Constance said.
The decision comes after unmarked mobile phone detection cameras decreased the number of drivers caught using their phones behind the wheel.
NSW Transport figures revealed one in every 82 drivers were spotted using their phones while driving before the cameras were installed, which has since dropped to one in every 454.
The NSW government insisted the statewide crackdown was about saving lives, not revenue collection.