Question
I was only a few kilometres over the limit. That’s not really speeding. Why should I be punished?
Answer
Research1 shows in a 60 km/h zone, the risk of a crash doubles at just five km/h over the speed limit. In a crash, travelling a few kilometres per hour over the limit can mean the difference between life and death. For example, a car braking from 65 km/h will still be travelling at 32 km/h at the point where a vehicle braking from 60 km/h has already stopped. If speeding is not the cause of the crash, it has a direct bearing on the chances of it being fatal and the severity of injuries.
1 Report prepared by the University of Adelaide for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in 2002.
Question
Does looking out for cameras and at your speedo all the time actually cause more casualties than the cameras prevent?
Answer
If you're travelling at or under the lawful speed, there's no need to be looking out for a camera.
Driving is a multi-task activity that requires concentration at all times. Drivers have to pay attention to a number of operational and environmental factors. If you do not look at your speedometer there is no way to tell what speed you are travelling. Checking your speed should be as natural as checking your mirrors.
Question
What is the policy about setting up a mobile camera at the bottom of a hill?
Answer
It is general policy that mobile road safety cameras are not allowed to be deliberately located near change of speed zones or at the bottom of a hill.
However if police expert opinion is that a site has a particular crash history or risk, road safety camera enforcement may be approved at that location.
In the case of mobile speed cameras, their placement is an operational decision of Victoria Police, made according to the ‘Mobile Road Safety Camera Policy & Operations Manual’. The Manual (PDF, 87KB) can be found on this website.
Question
I don’t think I was speeding but got flashed by a camera. Could it have been another vehicle?
Answer
The fixed digital safety cameras used in Victoria at intersections monitor multiple lanes for both speed and red-light offences. If a vehicle in one of the other lanes is travelling at excess speed or passes through a red light, it will cause an incident to be recorded by the camera. The system is able to differentiate between lanes and only the offending vehicle will be fined.
Question
I was already in the intersection when the lights changed to red. Will I be prosecuted?
Answer
No. A vehicle that has already entered into the intersection when the lights change to red will not activate the camera, even if they still proceed through the intersection. Only a vehicle entering an intersection after the light has turned red will activate the camera.
Question
How do you select locations for intersection road safety cameras?
Answer
Intersection camera sites are primarily determined by crash history, although other factors such as engineering issues and specific rural conditions are also considered.
The Traffic Camera Office (TCO) of Victoria Police provides guidelines and procedures on the operation of mobile cameras. The Manual (PDF, 87KB) is available on this website.
Mobile cameras can either be installed in unmarked vehicles parked on the side of a road, or on a tripod outside the camera vehicle. Locations are determined by the road's crash history, reports of excessive speeding or expert opinion that a particular location has an inherently high crash-risk.
Question
What is the legislative tolerance for exceeding the speed limit?
Answer
The Road Safety (General) Regulations 2009 provide for a legislative tolerance to be applied when alleging an offence against a person who has been detected by a road safety camera. This means that a person is issued with an infringement notice for travelling at less than the speed at which they were detected.
For fixed digital safety cameras, the legislative tolerance is two km/h less than the detected speed or two per cent less if travelling over 100 km/h.
For mobile cameras, the legislative tolerance is three km/h less than the detected speed or three per cent less if travelling over 100 km/h.
Police can also apply an additional tolerance at their discretion.
Question
There are more and more cameras being installed. How does this improve road safety?
Answer
There has been a significant and sustained reduction in Victoria's road toll over the past 30 years. This is notwithstanding the marked increase of the amount of travel.
When road safety cameras were introduced in 1989, a total of 776 people died on Victorian roads. The cameras and increased enforcement of drink driving laws were largely responsible for bringing the toll down to an average of 400 per year in the decade up to 2002.
In 2011 the road toll was brought down to 287, the lowest on record.
In short, speed enforcement, and in particular the camera program, has been a major factor in saving the lives of hundreds of Victorians.
This is supported by specific research undertaken by the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC). MUARC's evaluations of road safety camera operations do indeed show that they reduce speeding, and hence deaths and injuries. Cameras however are not the sole factor in this improved road toll. Improved vehicle safety, better roads, and better enforcement of drink and drug driving laws have also played a part.
Question
Where does the revenue raised from cameras go?
Answer
All revenue (net of cancellations) collected from road safety cameras goes back into road safety infrastructure. Cameras reduce speed and consequently reduce crashes and the severity of consequences arising from crashes. The revenue received from cameras is a fraction of the overall cost of speed-related crashes. Fines issued from road safety cameras amounted to around $234.9 million* for the 2010–11 financial year. The monetary cost of road trauma in Victoria is estimated to be more than $2.9 billion per year, the equivalent of about $1,400 per household.
Cameras are not located where the most revenue will be generated, but where there is a clear road safety benefit based on crash history, or where the police think crashes will occur due to observed driving behaviour and other intelligence gathered.
* This figure is net of cancellations which occur, for example, when Victoria Police exercises its discretion to issue official warnings in place of infringements.
Question
Why aren't the police out catching burglars instead of harassing 'easy prey' motorists?
Answer
Automated road safety cameras actually free up police time to focus on other criminal matters. By detecting speed and red-light offences, road safety cameras allow police more time to prosecute other offences, such as dangerous and impaired driving. Breaking the speed limit and going through a red-light are serious offences that kill and injure many people every year.
Question
I was using cruise control (or GPS), how can I possibly be speeding?
Answer
Both cruise control and GPS speed displays can be subject to errors. It remains the driver’s responsibility to stay within the speed limit.
Question
Why do speed cameras sometimes flash when there is no speeding vehicle?
Answer
Across the network, there are often a number of fixed digital safety cameras that are precommissioned, awaiting implementation to the live environment.
Before any camera location goes live, it is put through stringent testing to ensure the location is compliant. This includes physical assessment, software assessment, administrative assessment and image assessment. Sometimes this means a camera will flash without a speeding vehicle being present.
These cameras operate just as normal road safety cameras do – for example, they will flash when a car speeds through an intersection or runs a red-light – but while the camera is of precommissioned status, no fines will be issued.
Question
Why is there a difference between my speedo and what the camera records?
Answer
In Victoria speeding is a strict liability offence, which means that having a faulty or inaccurate speedometer is not a defence to a speeding charge. It is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that they adhere to the posted speed limit. If you believe that your speedometer does not allow you to do this, then you should have it checked, or alternatively, simply drive at an indicated speed lower than that applicable to the road.
The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) were amended in November 2004 to require, from 1 July 2006, that all new model vehicles have speedometers that display speeds no greater than the real speed.
Question
Does the movement of the Wellington Road Bridge affect the operation of the road safety cameras attached to it?
Answer
The majority of road safety cameras installed on EastLink and similarly, in Australia and internationally, are mounted on bridges and gantries that experience some degree of movement from wind or other sources. Road safety camera devices have been designed with this in mind.
The Wellington Road Bridge is an extremely solid and robust structure, ideally suited to the implementation of a road safety camera.
Question
Why do some graphs show the graph line going up, but the trend line still going down?
Answer
The trend line represented is a line of best fit from the start of the data to the end. It is based on an average trend of the data. Therefore, even if the graph line has been increasing recently the average trend overall of the data can still be downward. The increase in the graph line would have to continue over a period of time to start influencing the trend back upwards.
