The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has welcomed the NSW Government’s decision to trial average speed cameras to detect speeding by light and heavy vehicles.
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NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison introduced the legislation for the trial into state parliament on Wednesday 18 September.
“New South Wales is the only jurisdiction in the world known to systematically limit average speed enforcement detection to a subset of vehicles, rather than applying to all vehicles,” she says.
“Between 2018 and 2022, 753 crashes that did not involve heavy vehicles occurred within the 31 current average speed camera lengths in New South Wales. These included 25 fatal and 151 serious injury crashes.”
All other mainland Australian states and the ACT use average speed cameras for light vehicles as part of their speed enforcement programs.
ATA chief of staff Bill McKinley says, the ATA first began arguing that the state’s average speed cameras should detect speeding by light as well as heavy vehicles, back in 2011.
“Applying average speed camera enforcement to light vehicles as well as trucks and buses will be more effective at improving road safety,” McKinley says.
“In addition, average speed cameras are fairer than traditional fixed point speed cameras, because a driver has to speed intentionally over a long distance to get a fine.”
Road Freight NSW CEO Simon O’Hara says at the NSW Road Safety Forum, the NSW association advocated for average speed cameras in February 2024.
“Our members tell us that excluding cars from average speed camera enforcement is unfair, because cars and other light vehicles make up the bulk of the traffic on our roads,” he says.
The cameras will be trialled on a 15 km stretch of the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes and a 16 km stretch of the Hume Highway between Coolac and Gundagai.
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