Speed cameras no snap for greater safety say truckies

NSW roads minister Michael Daley announced on May 4 a plan to install point-to-point speed cameras for heavy vehicles in an effort to lower the fatality rate on the state’s major motorways.
But  ATA NSW manager Jill Lewis said the initiative was “not the answer to controlling speed.”
“The ATA NSW does not in any way condone speed, but point-to-point speed cameras will not stop that,” she said.
“The solution is to have more visible law enforcement on roads such as police cars on the side of the roads and highway patrols up and down.”
According to Mr Daley, heavy vehicles accounted for 2.6% of registered vehicles in NSW yet were involved in almost a fifth of the state’s road fatalities.
“Heavy vehicles are over represented in fatal crashes and speed is all too often the cause,” he said.
“This new technology will help slow these drivers down and make our highways and country roads safer for everyone to use.”
A more effective alternative would be a program that targeted all speeding vehicles and not just trucks, Ms Lewis said.
“We would really like it if the minister sat down with us to look at the bigger picture and cover it more holistically.”
The point-to-point system would calculate the time it took a vehicle to drive between two points to determine whether a truck was speeding over an extended period of time.
The cameras will be installed in 20 stretches of road and the routes will range from two km to 80 km.
The new enforcement will target rural roads such as New England Highway and the Newell Highway, Mr Daley said.
The NSW Government will also target freight routes including Mount Ousley Road, the Pacific Highway and the Hume Highway.
Drivers would be given warnings instead of fines during the first two months of the program, Mr Daley said.