Speed cameras saving lives in NSW: Govt

By Tim Beissmann
July 18th, 2012

FIND DEALS

The New South Wales Government’s first annual review into the performance of the state’s speed cameras has found the devices are exceedingly effective at reducing fatalities and crashes on our roads.

The number of fatalities in the areas around fixed speed cameras decreased by 87 per cent and the number of crashes was reduced by 38 per cent, according to data published in a report by the NSW Centre for Road Safety.

In the five years before the fixed cameras were installed there were 3959 crashes within 500 metres of the cameras, 2124 injuries and 61 fatalities, while in the current five-year period there have been 2451 crashes, 1344 injuries and just eight fatalities.

Of the 97 fixed speed cameras reviewed in the study, 92 were found to be effective. The report says the five ineffective cameras – positioned on the Northern Distributor, Corrimal; New South Head Rd, Edgecliff; Pacific Hwy, Hungry Head; and the New England Hwy, Kootingal and Lochinvar – will now be subjected to “comprehensive field reviews”, and may be removed if they are found not to be delivering the expected safety benefits.

A total of 313,849 infringement notices were issues to drivers captured by fixed speed cameras last year resulting in $51.32 million revenue, which represented a reduction of 60,085 infringements and $6.06 million less revenue.

The data also revealed the number of drivers caught speeding by fixed cameras reduced over time, suggesting that the presence of cameras encourages people to slow down.

A review of the state’s 91 intersections fitted with red-light speed cameras found a 21 per cent reduction in crashes and a 26 per cent drop in casualties at these locations compared with a five-year period prior to their installation.

An analysis of NSW mobile speed camera program from August 2011 found that in the first year of operation the program contributed to a 19 per cent reduction in fatalities across NSW, saving an estimated 84 lives and around $490 million for the community.

The study revealed the cameras proved effective at reducing the number of speeding drivers and fatalities in all speed zones except 100km/h zones, where there was an increase in the number of speed-related crashes and fatalities. The report suggests the results support an added focus on 100km/h zones in future mobile speed camera operations.

The coming 12 months will see the rollout of an expanded mobile speed camera program across the state, increasing from six to approximately 45 vehicles operating at around 2500 locations for 7000 hours per month.

The number of intersections with red-light speed cameras will also more than double from 91 to 200 by the end of 2014.

There will also be an increase to the number and size of signs alerting drivers to the presence of mobile and red-light speed cameras in a further attempt to reduce the number of speeding drivers.

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Kris

Have they taken into account the increase in vehicle protection and safety systems and the impact that these have towards the decrease in accidents and injuries?
- Filho_de_uma_Puta_Gay_do_CRL
  
  Do you think that car safety has anything to do with it? No way making money is so much easier…
  
  Duncan Gay your name suits you well, you lying ba$tard!
- Eskylid69
  
  come to victoria – intially they did HELP to reduce the road toll, however over the years as the number of camera increased, the revenue increased, yet the road toll did not decrease at a rate the correlates, infact you could easily say that in the long term, speed cameras are completely useless at reducing the road toll.
  
  the only long term effective method is driver education and car design/safety
gt86.com.au

Maybe the stats have improved because today’s cars are MUCH SAFER and HANDLE and STOP much better.
Shak

And maybe people are actually doing something on their own and driving a bit safer. These camera’s have NO safety aspect whatsoever.
Smart US

nanny state… the speed should be 130km easy
- Homer
  
  Agree, however until Australian motorists have some semblance of lane discipline on freeways, then it’s too dangerous. People don’t know or understand the rule. Keep left unless overtaking. The RH lane is for overtaking only. At 3 in the morning without a car on the road it is still illegal to be in the RH lane. How about the road authorities spend a few dollars from their enormous propaganda budget and advertise this to the public.
  - Blair Waldorf
    
    Yea our lane discipline is horrible, people just dont seem to understand that you have to stick left. It bugs me so much!
Dave S

Still have trouble seeing how they correlate their use of speed cameras and reduced fatalities. I dont see how they can claim Cameras can produce better drivers.
- Honey_Bring_Me_Another_Beer
  
  Because Aussies take it up the bumb and like it, that’s why!
John

God I’m so sick of the government’s (all of them) never-ending propaganda on speeding. Speed cameras do not work to lower the road toll, never have and never will. They are a massive cash grab perpetrated by greedy governments under the guise of road safety, using the highly dubious “research” of the various state road transit authorities, which manage to ignore things like improved car occupant safety advances.

Unfortunately they are winning the propaganda war – people actually believe speed cameras save lives.

The Victorian government was spruiking their own review on speeding recently, saying that compared to 10 years ago, fewer people speed and that average speeds have dropped. Funny how the road toll hasn’t dropped dramatically in that time, isn’t it.
Sumpguard

       Fixed ( heavily advertised) speed cameras such as those on the pacific highway that make sure you slow down before a dangerous point definately save lives and if caught then the joke is on you.

      The sneaky ones hidden in old utes (here in Qld anyway) don’t do squat to save lives. They merely assist in government revenue collection and any decent ,honest cop will agree (or one that isn’t forced to say otherwise) . I’ve yet to see one parked in a side street that is used as a short cut by DH’s where children’s lives are most at risk.

      Rather they are stuck on 3 lane ,60 km/h zones and on straight stretches at that, for maximum $$$$$$$. What grates me most is that our governments are still trying to convince us otherwise!!!!!!

       Staring at your speedo for fear of being pinged for doing a couple of k’s over is dangerous and potentially deadly. We are supposed to be watching the road. Some countries were so wise to this very fact they actually banned speed cameras. Not our greedy lot! Hidden speed cameras are not there for road safety.
- Politics_Are_Currupt_Clowns
  
  “Fixed ( heavily advertised) speed cameras such as those on the pacific highway that make sure you slow down before a dangerous point definately save lives and if caught then the joke is on you.”
  Talking about those Pacific Hwy speed cameras, the ones that have road conditions worse than a 3rd World country!?
  
  I guess the money generated by those speed cameras are no enough to put some fresh tarmac!
Schn

There are still many more effective ways in reducing road tolls. Speed cameras are still, in my opinion, mainly a revenue raiser.
Acfsambo

“The data also revealed the number of drivers caught speeding by fixed cameras reduced over time, suggesting that the presence of cameras encourages people to slow down.”

All this says is that people know where the cameras are and are slowing down for them and speeding up after, they should have cops 500m after a speed camera and see how many people just speed up after the camera.
- Homer
  
  Can’t do that it would ruin the statistics.
- Filho_de_uma_Puta_Gay_do_CRL
  
  I speed all the time just like you and everyone else!
Homer

A major problem is lack of police presence on the road. When I was a P plater 47 years ago you didn’t fool around too much because marked police cars where everywhere. You can go for days now and not see a police car. Also, in the last 47 years I have never been tested for competency. I could be a good driver, like everyone thinks they are, or I could be dangerously incompetent, like everyone else is! Mandatory licence testing every 3 years would save lives but unfortunately would lose too many votes, not going to happen.
Laurie

Even the toothless NRMA is believing the story all they are now is a travel brochure agent
- Darryl
  
  And insurance company. They would prefer you didn’t drive at all, that way you can’t have a crash.
Chest Rockjaw

Used in high risk locations speed cameras can help… They are mostly there to raise revenue. I would ask, how are the fatalities below the speed limit being targeted… The majority of fatalities. The answer is next to nothing because that is hard and does not raise revenue… I’m sick of being treated like a mug. Maybe I should launch a Facebook campaign followed by a mass march to parliament demanding reform. Unless the people take to the streets, their elected reps with continue to treat them with contempt.
Julia

It’s all Tony Abbott’s fault
Stuart Snowden

Speed cameras are useful in reducing accidents at known accident black spots. But only if motorists know they are there. At places where there is a high incidence of fatal accidents then letting us know that cameras are there will let the speeders slow down, therefore reducing the risk of a major accident. Clandestine positioning of cameras is just there for raising revenue and has nothing to do with road safety. When will government realise that we need to reduce speeds at black spots to save lives. Speeding up after a camera is just human behaviour, but at least we have slowed down at the most dangerous spot.
- Shak
  
  Why use cameras though in those black spots? Why not use a lot of signage and actually fixing or modifying the road so it doesn’t pose as much of a hazard anymore? I’ll tell you why, because all of those measures would actually work, but NOT earn the Government one cent in revenue. With a Camera the Government looks like its doing something for the masses while also making bucketloads. Cameras no matter how you want to spin it are simply revenue raisers.
  - Dave S
    
    Agreed. What is the point of putting cameras in black spots? Dead people dont pay speeding fines. Surely, if safety was their concern, a sign or 2 stating ‘last fatality in area…..’ or ‘black spot’.
    
    What is the point of finding out you were in a black spot a week later by mail?
Norm

Well you can’t legislate for stupidity but you could look at stupid legislation.

Why is it still possible to get a drivers license without having to prove you can control a car at all legal speeds in all conditions?

The Police and NRMA’s mantra is a plea for sanity. “Drive to the conditions”

How about training drivers to do that BEFORE they get a license?
- Filho_de_uma_Puta_Gay_do_CRL
  
  No no no it’s not profitable!
  
  Don’t you understand!?
  
  Gay you are a liar just like the red head, go the Sex Party!
wbj

Oh dear, more of the entirely predictable whinging of “nanny state” and “revenue raising”. Let’s be honest. Most of you simply want to be able to speed without being penalised. If you were perfect little vegemites then it wouldn’t matter if there were fully signed speed cameras or concealed speed cameras because they wouldn’t influence your constant law abiding behaviour as you would never be speeding. If you are caught speeding by a signed, fixed speed camera then you are obviously so inattentive or dismissive of the road rules that you shouldn’t be on the road in the first place and the sooner you lose your licence and get off the road the better for the rest of us. And if you can’t check you speed in less than 1 sec glancing at the speedo then you are another danger on the road and should be removed therefrom asap. Toughen up princesses – it’s a tax on stupidity and if you qualify then you pay.
- svd
  
  Well said!
  Plus all these drivers that like to speed think they are the greatest and too good a driver to have an accident. If you are doing 130k’s and you hit an oncoming vehicle that has crossed to the other side of the road you do a hell of a lot more damage than someone else who was travelling at 100k’s. It’s the law of physics and it hasn’t been repealed!
  - Rick
    
    If two cars collide at 100kph each , chances are no one will survive . same as if one of them cars is doing 130kph
- Noel
  
  Not at all…..if the Government just
  came out and said speeding fines are just a stupidity tax instead of trying to
  claim they are saving lives I’m sure we’d all be much happier.
  
  Two questions (for anybody here to
  answer)
  
  How does someone speeding through a
  speed camera and not being stopped saves lives?
  They are either a huge danger out to kill people or not.
  
  Why is it cheap to speed?
Save It For The Track

It takes much less than a second to check the speedo. it also takes very little time to do constant checks of mirrors, and various distances ahead of the vehicle. (i.e. past the bonnet) The issue is that too many drive with their heads where the sun doesn’t shine, or are too concerned fiddling with their phone/ipad or something else, no to mention the ‘deep and meaningful’ talkers. The car is for driving, not having life changing conversations, or relaxing as though you are in your loungeroom, or for having in depth phone conversations on the handsfree. A great many modern cars also have…… CRUISE CONTROL. What a concept. Some, like Peugeots even allow you to set a speed you can’t go over. There’s also these other marvellous inventions that assist the cruise control if it has a problem on hills. SSsssshhhh, they’re called, BRAKES. There’s also these marvellous devices that many seem to have forgotten how to use (auto or manual) called gearboxes. Not to mention that when one looks at the ‘actual’ speed of car speedos as opposed to displayed speed, new cars for quite a few yeasr now CANNOT show a speed higher than that displayed, and the speed the car speedo is showing is actually more than what it is actually doing. Anyone in NSW that is caught speeding is either ’a bit dim’ or speeding deliberately.
- John
  
  Once again you are conflating various bad driving habits, lumping exceeding the speed limit (not intrinsically dangerous) in with dangerous habits like not paying attention to the road.
  
  I regularly and deliberately exceed the speed limit outside of urban areas (that is, on highways), but you’d better believe that I drive with 100% attention at all times. I don’t use the phone, I don’t lean over to fiddle with the GPS or the radio, I don’t talk to passengers and I pay attention to what’s happening on the road well ahead of me – and behind me. I never drive drunk, or drugged, or even tired. I check my car before heading off, check the tyres, clean the windscreen. Yet I am more likely to be pinged as a bad driver than Harry Hopeful in his 1996 EL Falcon, 5 stubbies in his gut, conversing with his mate in the front seat and paying scant attention to the road – but going 90 in a 100 zone. He might as well be invisible.
  
  The government is trying to claim that reduced speed is reducing the road toll. There is no clear evidence that that is the case.
tsport100

They can’t institute a legitimate road maintenance schedule to improve road safety, that wouldn’t fix the massive state revenue hole they need to fill as property sales stagnate and stamp duty revenues fall off a cliff!

Speed cameras = REVENUE RAISING!
- svd
  
  There would be no revenue raising from speed cameras if YOU were NOT speeding – think about it.
  - tsport100
    
    I haven’t had a ticket in over a decade MATE, and I do 5-10 km/h over the limit as habit!
    
    INCOMPETENT - SLOW driver who don’t keep left are more of a hazard than speeders, but these are subjective offences that can’t readily be automated by some roadside toll collection machine!
    
    In Germany it is an offence to drive TOO SLOW in the designated fast lanes, can you imagine that becoming law in the nanny state? All old farts would have to actually show some courtesy to other road users instead of belligerently thinking you’re doing the world a favour by blocking the road any time you see a vehicle in the mirror who isn’t dawdling along @ 10km/h below the limit like an incompetent.
    - wbj
      
      If you can drive at 5-10 km/h over the limit as a habit then you can drive at the speed limit as a habit. Do you also drive .005 – .01 over the BAC as a habit? Do you drive 50-100 cm over the dividing line as a habit? Why should you pick and choose which road rules you will obey? Perhaps drivers such as you should grow up a little – it’s not all about you.
      - Jober As A Sudge
        
        Your encouraging speedo watching rather than road awareness. Fixed speed cameras have no positive benefit on our roads as they don’t alter driver behaviour in a good way. Unlike the police who are able to use their discretion (they aren’t going to pull you over for doing 5km over…most wouldn’t) where as a camera will ping you no matter what therefore people are too busy watching their speedo rather than the road. Bigger police presence on the road and a major overhaul of driver education in this country is needed (co-operation between states)
  - tsport100
    
    My point was, the public servant class invent these reports to justify their revenue raising - hiding behind the excuse they are ONLY saving lives with road side toll collectors.
    The map they published of where they would station these mobile speed cameras had about 6 locations on Parramatta road. Have you driven down that lately? I did today and parts of it don’t look like it’s been resurfaced in 30-40 years, much like most NSW roads.
    Instead of spending public money on ever more sophisticated speed cameras on perfectly straight bits of expressways to raise revenue, it would do more for ROAD SAFETY if there was a scheduled road maintenance program to actually make dangerous roads safer…
    It’s too easy for authorities to let infrastructure crumble (let the next elected government fix it) – witness the ridiculous spending now underway on the states electricity grid after decades of under-spending.
  - John
    
    I’ve thought about it. You’re wrong. They would just lower the speed limit. Can’t stop the flow of money, can we?
Schn

Maybe we should have an autobahn… that might solve the problem. Who knows…
JamesB

Australians should stop being pushovers and stand up to this corrupt camera system. Saving lives? Oh please! People die of heart attacks having to cop the hefty, unjust fines. Hoons and dumb drivers cause road tolls, and up until there are measures to take them off the road, accidents will keep happening.
kf

All you so called “good” drivers ever think about it the other way around? That we are not going too fast but the speed limits too low? They recently changed Botany Rd near Mascot/Green Sq from 60 to 50, the bit where there’s a speed camera and a “safety” camera. Even 60 was too slow imo on a road so straight you could see like 2 kms ahead. But now forced to sit at a walking pace of 50 wondering how many unmarked cops are hiding on the side ready to put the siren on.

When condition permits, a road with a speed limit of 70 is more efficient than with a speed limit of 50, when there’s nothing dangerous about going 70.
Michael

How bout teach the basics of driving to so called veteran drivers?

1. Stay 3 seconds behind the car in front of you. If you’re travelling at 100km/h thats around 90M gap. Every day I drive on the freeway I see people “tailgating” other cars with a distance of about 10M which leaves less than 1 s of reaction time.

2. Indicate for 3s before changing lanes. People think indicating is to let themselves know they are changing lanes…WRONG. You indicate to let OTHERS know you’re changing lanes so they leave space for you. Everyday I see people move toward a lane then indicating midway as if it was a casual thing that you can choose to not do if you didn’t want to. No. That’s how you get into an accident.

3. Not braking. In Generation Me, there seems to be aversion to braking like some sort of taboo. I see people who would rather weave dangerously around a hazard in front of them then wait 30s for the car, person, object in front of them.

These 3 things basically are the cause of a lot of accidents that can be avoided. The problem though is that 99 times out of 100 you get away with it and the 100th time an accident occurs. For some it’s too late. For other’s its a wake up call. It’s unnecessary and can be avoided.
gg

To those trying to justify the speed camera’s, please don’t over simplify the issue and ignore the fact that the
mobile speed camera’s do what they can to MAXIMISE the number of people
they catch, as that is their job and how they get paid. Because speed
limits vary so much e.g. the pacific highway, these mobile cameras sit
where the speed limit drops from high to low and catch people who are in
the process of slowing down.
- MK
  
  It’s a fact that fatal traffic accidents per capita are lower in the UK than Australia yet the national speed limit is 70mph (112Km/hr). How do we explain our main motorways having a speed limit of 100K/hr (62 mph)?
kazuo

Tax also save lifes!! Says Juliard
Lambertj235

THe report is absolute rubbish.
All the research in first world countries shows exceeding the speed limit is A FACTOR in no more than 15% of fatal crashes, and no more than 5% of all police reported crashes.
So how can speed cameras achieve the gains they claim? They cannot.
Dave S

What do they say? : there are lies, damn lies and statistics..
Henry

Of course the fatalities fell… those drivers are dead..

just remove the cameras and have a speeding lane .. problem solved… people want to cross the road.. build a bridge…
people want to cross the road illegally.. build a wall and stop them from crossing illegally..

Safety camera should only be in one place… intersections… why… isn’t it obvious… stop people from running over people at crossings…
Rick

I wonder how many of the 8fatalities were speeding , or just people panicking because they seen a camera or were only focusing on their speed instead of the road I front of them
KayCeePee

I am so pleased; 313849 people caught speeding and that was supposed to have prevented 1508 crashes. Good effort? Is this evidence of good ‘targeting’? If it was in a war zone would all that ‘collateral damage’ be acceptable?
Edward

They put a speed camera up on my drive home, but its well hidden and i cant seem to find it. I almost had a crash because i kept trying to see where they hid it!!
KayCeePee

I do apologise for my last comment. I realise that I did not really see the truth in the reported statistics. These pesky stats can be such a problem to interpret! The truth is that it was the reduction in the FINES issued over the last five years that led to the reduction in crashes. This has just come from reading the figures right. So, by reducing the number of fines by 60,085 they reduced the number of crashes by 1508. Just think of the success they could brag about if the fines issued were reduced by a further 130,000. There would be no crashes. How to reduce the fines? They cannot turn the camera off, that would be cheating and of course, there would be that dreadful distortion of the statistics that would not allow comparison of ‘apples to apples’. They would not want to start a practice like that. So, what to do? Maybe they could increase ‘visibility’ and park marked Police cars in the areas day and night. That might bring the fines down. Maybe Police cars might drive up and down. Hell, they may even pick up people driving carelessly. They will have to watch that though, that might target the problem drivers and ruin the experiment. But what to do with those hidden, unmarked mobile cameras? Unfortunately, they could push the fines up without the crashes going down! Bugger! Decisions. Decisions. I am glad there are more intelligent people than me working out what the statistics mean.
KayCeePee

Oh No! The devil is in the detail. I have done it again! The 313,849 fines were in ONE year of the five year period of the analysis. We know that the fines for the 2010-11 year were 373,934, since we were told there was a reduction of fines of 60,085 this current year compared to the last. We were not told the fines for the first three years for the five year analysis. There could have been other reductions as drivers became more aware of the sites of the fixed speed cameras but there could have been an increase. So lets assume the fines for the first three years were the same as last year. This means it took 1,809,585 speeding fines to change people’s behaviour enough to stop 1,508 crashes and , more importantly, 53 fatalities.Mmmm VERY effective and well targeted. It is not clear from the article how many fines were needed to reduce the fatalities in NSW by 84 in the first year of mobile camera operation. We do not know which year(s) the 2011-12 mobile camera figures are compared to and what year on year patterns of crashes and fatalities there have been at the mobile camera sites compared. It is unclear how they were able to design their analysis to exclude all the other variables/factors that contribute to death on the roads. But as I have said there are more intelligent people than me massaging these statistics.