Speed camera secret is out

A LANDMARK ruling could give Victorians access to previously secret speed camera data in a big boost to motorists fighting their speeding fines.

In what the Herald Sun believes to be a Victorian first, the Supreme Court has backed an accused speeder's right to secret government documents that should reveal the accuracy and service history of the camera that nabbed him.
Legal experts say the precedent could allow every driver to demand access to previously secret speed camera data when challenging their speeding fines.
Until now drivers have had to hire expensive experts to help prove the cameras may be faulty.
Driver Barry Lane had been fined five times in 19 days - three times at 106km/h, once at 107km/h and once at 112km/h - at the Dandenong Bridge overpass on EastLink in 2009.
The engineer, aged in his 50s, claims the cameras were malfunctioning.
It was Mr Lane's first fine on the road, despite driving between work and home regularly, and he had not been fined before or since.
He first took his case to Dandenong Magistrates' Court where he persuaded a judge that there was enough doubt surrounding the camera's accuracy that he should have access to the government's reports.
In detailing his efforts not to speed, including using cruise control and a GPS, Mr Lane's lawyers persuaded the judge to give him access to the series of secret reports on the three EastLink cameras, including service history and calibration.
His lawyers hope the reports will prove he had not been speeding.
The State Government appealed against the decision, claiming Mr Lane had no "legitimate forensic purpose'' to inspect the documents and the magistrate made other errors.
But Supreme Court judge Emilios Kyrou ruled Mr Lane had been relying on several reasons to deny he was speeding - from the use of his GPS, cruise control and a clean driving history - and the camera documents might help him properly defend his case.
He also dismissed suggestions the original magistrate made other legal errors.
Barrister Theo Alexander said the ruling gave drivers a new way of challenging fines.
"This decision provides new hope to motorists . . . by providing an avenue to test the reliability or accuracy of the speed camera, which recorded the speed,'' he said.
Mr Lane's lawyer, Sam Norton, said: "Mr Lane is pleased that a man of his vintage with his exemplary driving history is entitled to access to materials which might cast doubt on the accuracy of readings which come from unmanned cameras fixed high up on a bridge on the road that is used all the time.''

heraldsun.com.au 8 Aug 2012

The government is deliberately keeping information away from the general populous that will implicate it in a nationwide fraud that has robbed the motorists of hundreds of  millions of dollars per annum.

The government warns that if any information given to it false or misleading then there are severe penalties enforced.