QLD Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson caught speeding on Story Bridge, fined $133
POLICE Commissioner Bob Atkinson has been caught speeding on the Story Bridge a blunder he has revealed two days after police and The Courier-Mail launched a road safety campaign.
Mr Atkinson was caught on February 3 and was believed to be travelling at 70km/h in a 60km/h zone.
He will lose one demerit point and pay a fine of $133.
Mr Atkinson said he was embarrassed because of his position and because he had just been promoting the road safety message to media.
"I feel as though I've let you down, I feel as though I've let my colleagues down (and) I feel as though I've let the community down," he told reporters in Brisbane.
He has blamed the offence on a lapse in concentration.
He told reporters that he did not see the speed camera flash while he was driving with a colleague to police headquarters.
"It was brought to my notice that there might be an issue last Friday," he said.
It's not the first time the police chief been nabbed for driving too fast.
Mr Atkinson said he received a ticket for a similar speeding offence in 2009 while holidaying in NSW.
He said he was also caught speeding in 1998 when he was an assistant commissioner in far north Queensland based at Cairns.
READ MORE.. (ADD YOUR COMMENTS - NOT REQUIREMENT TO LOGIN)
Push for tighter speed limits as Queensland's road toll soars
QUEENSLAND'S shocking January road toll has led to calls for the state's speed camera tolerance - the highest in the nation - to be lowered.
Road safety experts say the "unpublished" tolerance is so widely spoken about among drivers that they often ignore the posted limit and drive to a speed they know will not land them with a fine.
Police will not reveal how much leeway Queensland drivers are given for road safety reasons but The Courier-Mail understands it is more than any other state.
Queensland Police, who are responsible for setting the tolerance, have not ruled out a change.
In Victoria, motorists are given a widely publicised leeway of 3km/h before they are picked up by speed cameras, while in NSW, information released last year by the Office of State Revenue showed motorists were being fined for breaking the limit by as little as 1km/h.
The Tasmanian Government dropped its tolerance from 10km/h above the speed limit to an undisclosed figure in 2010, bringing in an extra $2 million in its first year.
Queensland - Green light for more speed cameras
Alison Sandy Courier Mail
EVEN more hi-tech speed cameras will be rolled out to target speeding motorists, as new figures show police nabbed more than one leadfoot every minute last year on Queensland roads.
Despite the introduction of covert mobile speed cameras and the addition of more fixed speed cameras, police caught more than 1800 speedsters a day last year - about 75 every hour and a rise of 200 a day from the year before.
Police say the only way to change bad driver behaviour would be through the hip pocket, with more speeding infringements arriving in the mail.
State Traffic Support branch's Superintendent Andy Morrow said the more people who unexpectedly received speeding tickets in the mail, the more they would stick to the speed limit.
As a result, police will be expanding the use of advanced speed cameras - including point-to-point, which calculates the speed of a vehicle from the time it takes to travel the distance between two points.
Supt Morrow said the covert technology meant it was becoming "increasingly difficult" to avoid speed cameras.
Queensland - False Speeding fine was last straw
The Bulletin News 26th Dec 2011
AFTER nine weeks of radium treatment in Brisbane, the last thing Sidney Dooley wanted to come home to was a $200 speeding fine.
Especially when the December-issued ticket was for his boat trailer, which hasn't left the shed at his Zilzie home in nine months.
"I thought, what's going on here?" Mr Dooley said.
After taking a closer look at the infringement notice, Mr Dooley realised the photo, captured on a speed camera, was of a four-wheel-drive vehicle caught speeding in Brisbane.
"I don't own a 4WD and I've never ever driven a car in Brisbane," he said.
The 69-year-old, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 18 months ago, said that at this stage of his life it was something he didn't need to deal with.
Mr Dooley said it was mistakes such as this that showed a need for human contact to be brought back into the system.
"Everything is done by a computer these days. But we've got a brain and they haven't," he said.
A spokesperson for the Queensland Police said the incorrect infringement notice was a result of human error and apologised for the inconvenience caused to Mr Dooley.
They said the police had a rigorous quality assurance process in place to adjudicate on camera detected offences to minimise errors similar to the one present in this matter.
They confirmed that the notice had been waived and no further action would be required from Mr Dooley. But Mr Dooley said it came down to better surveillance. "Things have got to be checked and then double checked."
Your Comments Are Welcome - (No need to login to have your say!)
Queensland Australia - More than 3000 speeding drivers nabbed
Almost 100 people have been booked for drink driving and more than 3000 have been detected speeding in the first 24 hours of the annual Christmas Queensland police road blitz.
No deaths were recorded, although 24 people were injured in 20 accidents across the state, police say.
In the 24 hours from midnight on Thursday, police conducted 11,914 breath tests and 37 drug tests on Queensland drivers.
Just one person tested positive for drugs while 95 drivers were taken off the road for driving with a blood alcohol limit above 0.05.
Police cameras detected 2318 vehicles speeding while another 854 were booked manually.
Both figures are up on last year, when during the same period 1720 motorists were booked by speed cameras and 561 manually.
Overall 900 more people were booked (3316 offences) in the first 24 hours of the annual Christmas police road blitz than for the same period last year (2408).
Your Comments Are Welcome - (No need to login to have your say!)
Queensland (Australia) Bruce Highway gets first point-to-point speed cameras
By Andree Withey ABC News
Queensland's first point-to-point speed cameras will be operating on the Bruce Highway on the state's Sunshine Coast tomorrow.
Two cameras on the highway between Beerburrum and Landsborough will average the speed taken to travel 14 kilometres.
Police Minister Neil Roberts says that stretch of the Bruce Highway is known for serious car crashes.
"Motorists who believe they can speed on this section of road will have three chances of getting a ticket," he said.
"It will be either at the beginning or the end or indeed the average speed travelled over that distance."
He says the system has been trialled and is ready to roll out.
"We need to be sure that they are going to be 100 per cent accurate in terms of the technology so they can stand up in court," he said.
"We've learnt from some of the lessons in Victoria in terms of the timing of the camera system.
"It's now been verified as being accurate and ready to go so it'll be operating in Queensland for the first time from tomorrow."
He says the technology will improve road safety.
"The thing with speed cameras is they do reduce the speed of motorists over time," he said.
"We've got clear evidence from our fixed speed cameras and our mobile and covert speed cameras that over time, the number of detections per 1,000 vehicles has been lowering quite significantly.
"That's a good thing and I'm confident that we'll see that with this point-to-point location as well."
Mr Roberts says there is no plan to roll out new speed cameras across Queensland.
Your Comments Are Welcome - (No need to login to have your say!)
More Articles...
- Queensland police trial new hand-held speed cameras that automatically issue tickets
- Queensland - Hi-tech point-to-point speed cameras to cover entire distance of Brisbane Airport Link tunnel
- Queensland's speeding drivers want to be caught
- Queensland Police told to move speed cameras to catch more speeding drivers
- Queensland motorists speeding towards a record after police nab 1731 people speeding a day