More speed cameras among new measures to cut road toll

MOTORISTS will be fined millions of dollars more as speed camera surveillance of Victoria's roads spreads.

The State Government will announce an expansion of its automated speed enforcement program in an effort to cut the road toll.

It is believed this will include more point-to-point and combined speed and red light cameras, as well as an increase in the number of hours mobile cameras will operate, including greater use of them at night.

More than 1.3 million motorists paid almost $270 million in traffic camera fines in Victoria in 2011-12.

Under the Coalition's four-year road safety plan to be launched, the Government will:

SPEND $1 billion over the next decade to fix the state's roads.

ORDER every motorcyclist and scooter rider to wear boots when riding or face an expected $176 fine.

MAKE all drivers and riders carry their driving licence or face an expected $140 fine.

CREATE more 40km/h speed zones and scrap 90km/h and 70km/h zones, by raising or lowering those limits by 10km/h.

INTRODUCE changes that give priority to trucks and cars on some routes and to public transport, pedestrians and cyclists on others.

The Baillieu Government is aiming to slash the road toll by 30 per cent, from 282 last year to fewer than 200, within a decade.

It also wants to reduce the number of serious injuries on our roads from the current 5500 a year to below 3850.

The boost in the use of speed cameras is among a suite of planned radical new measures in its road safety plan.

The plan commits it to "increase our use of automated speed enforcement, including point-to-point, mobile, speed and red light camera systems".

Regional roads in particular will be improved by sealing road shoulders, installing rumble lines, wire rope barriers or guard rails, and improving intersections.

The plan also confirms the introduction of several measures that were revealed exclusively by the Herald Sun this week.

These include all drink-drivers being ordered to fit alcohol interlock devices to their cars, at their own cost; every P-plater being banned from using hands-free mobiles while driving; the automatic 30-day impounding of vehicles belonging to drink-drivers who blow .1 or over; and the creation of a new "cocktail offence", carrying a minimum $2800 fine, for motorists caught with both alcohol and drugs in their systems.

The new measures are based on the findings of last year's road safety survey, which was published in the Herald Sun.

Speeding and drink- and drug-driving motorists in particular are targets of the Baillieu Government's strategy.

Excessive speed contributes to nearly 100 road deaths and 1700 serious injuries a year.

And drink-driving accounts for about 30 per cent of the road toll. The plan also focuses on cutting serious injuries on the roads.

"In the last 25 years, the road toll has been reduced by 60 per cent but the 'hidden road toll' of serious injuries has only been reduced by around 45 per cent in the same period," the plan says.

"We'll also give people tools to make more responsible choices, for example - Intelligent Speed Assist, which will help drivers comply with speed limits."

Vehicles fitted with ISA can detect the relevant speed limit and alert the driver if it is being exceeded.

The system can even override the driver by automatically reducing the vehicle's speed.

British research shows ISA could reduce the number of injury crashes by 36 per cent and the number of fatal crashes by 59 per cent.

The State Government's strategy says: "Where people do the wrong thing and put their own and others' lives at risk, we will come down hard with stronger enforcement and tougher penalties."

heraldsun.com.au 28 Feb 2013

One of the greater lies perpetuated by government and supported by their lap dogs, the corporate media.

The installation of more speed cameras is a revenue grab, and not of the concern of the public's safety.

The New South Wales government has deactivated many speed cameras as it was concluded that they are not effective in the so called campaign to reduce the road toll.

Ex police whistle blowers have confirmed that there is a policy to fraudulently report that an accident was caused due to speeding rather than the real reason of driver error.

No corporate entity can expose the government fraud relating to speed cameras and their inaccurate operation, as this would show a lack of integrity on the government's behalf to the uneducated masses, a matter that no one really cares about anyway.

Australia is truly a police state, with various degrees enforced on the masses from within the states and territories.