Perth WA - Speeding fines income up $33m
Errant drivers were fined an extra $33.7 million last year after speeding offences increased almost 60 per cent on the previous year.
Police last year handed out 5600 more speeding tickets on average each week - issuing 789,134 infringements, compared with 496,468 in 2010.
Red-light offences dropped from 17,331 to 16,336 in the same period.
The total amount raised from red-light and speeding offences last year was $105.28 million, compared with $71.58 million in 2010.
The high number of motorists caught exceeding the speed limit by less than 10km/h is a concern to Road Safety Council chairman D'Arcy Holman, who claimed they caused the same carnage on WA roads as "high-level" speeders.
"Low-level speeding is one of the deadliest epidemics on our roads," he said.
"Driving just 5km/h over the limit doubles your crash risk."
Last year, 363,945 infringements were issued to WA motorists for speeding by 9km/h or less, which carries a $75 fine. In comparison, 54,533 fines were handed out for speeding by 20km/h or more.
The Office of Road Safety is reviewing penalties and will consider whether those motorists who exceed the limit by up to 9km/h should also receive a demerit point.
Despite the almost 60 per cent jump in speeding infringements issued last year Professor Holman claimed it was more likely to be a result of improved police enforcement and did not mean more motorists were speeding. "Compliance with speed limits in WA has been gradually improving over time," he said
Revenue from speed and red-light camera fines contributes to the Road Trauma Trust Fund - and the Government has committed to allocating 100 per cent of those fines to the fund from July - while the fines from on-the-spot offences are put into Treasury coffers.
The Road Safety Council's recommendations for RTTF spending include improving urban intersections, upgrading regional roadsides with sealed shoulders and audible edge lining and targeting drink and drug drivers.
Shadow police minister Michelle Roberts said last year's result was a "massive increase" in fines and most were at the lower end.
"I think it's the wrong priority," she said. "Complaints I get from the community are largely about hoon offences and the fact they cannot get timely police attention for hooning offences."
Speeding by 10km/h to 19km/h carries a $150 fine and two demerit points.
Perth - Mitchell Freeway Fixed Speed Camera - Poliscanspeed Hell Raiser
ALMOST 80,000 speeding motorists have been clocked by a single fixed speed camera on Perth's Mitchell Freeway since it was first trialled in December.
After the 12-day trial - during which 20,000 speeding motorists were snapped - Perth's first freeway fixed speed camera has caught 78,723 vehicles travelling over the 100km/h speed limit, according to police figures released today.
While most were only marginally over the limit, with 75,200 caught doing less than 110km/h, at least one motorist in the past week was clocked at 213kmh and another at 159km/h seconds later.
``That obviously gives us an indication that cars are racing on the freeway, which gives us great concern,'' Assistant Police Commissioner Gary Budge said.
So far, 36 motorists have been caught travelling at more than 45km/h above the limit, meaning they could have their vehicles seized under so-called ``anti-hoon law'' legislation.
Western Australia - Car Camera Blitz Planned
The number of cars scanned for speeding in WA would increase from 14 million to almost 300 million a year under a police plan to have roof-mounted speed cameras on 48 traffic patrol vehicles.
Supt Lance Martin said police were developing the technology which they wanted to fit to the new vehicles, with a view to eventually installing the devices on dozens more cars.
He said the roof-mounted radars would work like roadside devices and would turn the cars into roaming speed cameras.
Police aimed to develop the technology to a point where it could measure the speed of each vehicle it passed, enabling each police car to monitor about 1200 vehicles an hour or 6 million a year.
The State's speed cameras monitored a total of 13.8 million cars last financial year, reaping more than $60 million in fines.
The radars would be linked to roof-mounted video cameras which would film the speeding driver and send the evidence to the police infringement management section, which would then post out fines.
Police currently have 190 in-car speed radars in traffic vehicles across the State.
But they do not take photographic or video evidence of speeding offences, meaning that police have to pursue the speeding vehicle, stop it and write out an infringement.
The car-mounted radars would add to WA Police's big fleet of speed enforcement devices, which includes 16 roadside cameras, 14 hand-held radars, 28 integrated red light and speed cameras and seven cameras used covertly from the back of unmarked vehicles parked by the roadside. Supt Martin said the planned radar systems would be a significant deterrent against speeding.
"When people see our brightly coloured traffic cars around the city or the country they will be reminded of the radars they have and that will reinforce to them the risk they take when they speed," he said.
"It's important that drivers who are inclined to speed feel that they could be caught for speeding at any time."
He said police had asked the State Government for funding to buy the 48 new traffic cars, which were laden with other technology including automatic numberplate recognition systems which scanned an average of 1200 plates an hour.
Each car would cost $70,000 to kit out with the technology and custom fittings.
Police Minister Rob Johnson said the funding request would be considered "as part of the normal budgetary and Cabinet process".
"In the past three Budgets, I have managed to secure record funding for WA Police, which has enabled them to equip our officers with the latest technology," he said.
Speed Camera Company Boasts "20,000 Perth Motorists Fined "
(openPR) - Wiesbaden / Perth. Only a few days into operation a PoliScanspeed speed enforcement system is currently delivering convincing results in Australia: In just five days the system from machine vision specialist VITRONIC caught 20,000 speeders – despite widespread publicity of the system’s installation.
The Australian website “Perth Now“ quotes Police Minister Rob Johnson “When you get 20,000 people in five days exceeding the speed limit on the Mitchell Freeway, these people are just absolute plain idiots.”
The Australian Police’s figures once again show the superiority of modern speed enforcement systems. PoliScanspeed from VITRONIC captures considerably more violations than conventional technologies. It operates with state-of-the-art LIDAR technology that makes in-road loops and sensors a thing of the past. The laser based enforcement system is reliable even in challenging situations such as road work areas and bends or when vehicles tailgate or change lanes.
Since its foundation in 1984, VITRONIC GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, offers machine vision systems in three main areas: industrial automation, logistics and traffic technology. The product range spans from standardized to individually customized solutions. All products are developed and produced in-house by VITRONIC.
VITRONIC's core competence in the field of traffic technology is the enforcement of vehicles in free-flowing traffic. State and local authorities as well as private service providers use VITRONIC products for increased safety. Tolling system operators use these technologies for automating toll collection and enforcement.
The company is the among the world's leading industrial machine vision companies and has a workforce of about 340 in five continents. VITRONIC products are currently in use in 40 countries.
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Perth (Australia) - Freeway speed camera nabs 20,000 'idiots' in 5 days
New Fixed Speed Camera on Mitche Freeway. (The new installation has been on every news station the past week.)
WA'S first fixed freeway speed camera has snapped 20,000 "absolute idiots" in the five days since it was installed - including one driver clocked travelling at 199km/h.
Launching the 2011 Christmas road safety campaign, police today revealed 20,000 motorists had been caught exceeding the speed limit on Mitchell Freeway despite widespread publicity about the installation of the fixed camera.
Twelve drivers were travelling at more than 45km/h over the speed limit and two were flashed while drag racing each other at 9am on Sunday.
Police will allege a 28-year-old Mt Nasura man was driving a Holden Commodore at 199km/h in the 100km/h zone, while the 23-year-old Tapping man was allegedly nabbed travelling at 176km/h in his Mitsibishi Magna.
Both men had their cars seized under anti- hoon legislation and charged with reckless driving. They will face court in January.
Police Minister Rob Johnson said the the number of drivers caught speeding on the freeway was disgraceful.
“They could have killed themselves, they could have killed other innocent people on the roads,” he said.
“These people are just completely disregarding the law. When you get 20,000 people in five days exceeding the speed limit on the Mitchell Freeway, these people are just absolute plain idiots.”
WA Police Commissioner critisized by judge for killing off cops career
CHRISTIANA JONES, The West Australian
A policewoman convicted of trying to cover up a speeding offence has been fined $300 and given a spent conviction, after a Perth judge criticised the Police Commissioner’s "loss of confidence" finding that ended her police career.
Kim Vary Rainier, 38, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice after falsifying paperwork to suggest she had been catching up with a vehicle being driven erratically when she drove 72kmh in a 60kmh zone in South Perth at 2.13am September 21 last year.
She had been in a "state of urgency" and responding to a call about police pursuit at the time but had not been officially allocated the job or given approval to breach the speed limit.
Today, the court heard that she had confessed the cover-up to senior officers while totally unaware the matter was being investigated internally.
At the time, she had just re-started her police career after a long period of recovery from a car accident, and had been suffering considerable stress regarding a suicide bid by her then-partner.
District Court Judge John Staude today said it was unfortunate that despite her early and honest confessions about trying to escape a minor traffic offence, the matter had proceeded to court and ended the career of an otherwise impeccable policewoman.
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- Western Australia - Fixed speed cameras for freeways
- Perth - WA The $3m freeway speed camera cash cows
- Western Australia police: Greater speed detection effectiveness using PoliScanspeed
- Mitchell Freeway to get first fixed speed camera
- Use of Speed Cameras Abused in Western Australia
- Liberal Govt Declares War on WA Motorists with Hidden Van Cameras
- Challenge to the Premier of Western Australia
- Police speed blitz rakes in the money