Secret tests show the camera sometimes lies
Farrah Tomazin
The Age
December 2, 2004
» link to article
The accuracy of mobile speed cameras was put in doubt yesterday after documents revealed differences between the speeds shown by the cameras and by hand-held radar guns.
The State Opposition yesterday released Government documents obtained under freedom of information that it said showed a "significant margin of error" between the two devices during tests.
It said the differences could result in motorists being unfairly penalised.
Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the figures showed discrepancies of up to 3 km/h between mobile speed cameras and the hand-held radar guns.
"On more occasions than not, the three-kilometre difference between the hand-held radar gun and the mobile speed camera works against the motorist," Mr Mulder said.
http://www.speedingisbullshit.com/article.php?id=64
"The number of crashes and serious injuries on the Western Ring Road appears to be falling, despite fixed speed cameras having been turned off since May. The decline, shown in police figures, undermines Police Minister Andre Haermeyer's repeated warnings that the absence of cameras encourages speeding and other driver misbehaviour. It also raises questions about the Government's strong linking of speed camera enforcement to reductions in the road toll."
-The Age
“As the authorities strive to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink-driving, this continual focus on speed could be costing lives every day while the real causes of accidents go unaddressed."
-Autocar
"...such is the vice-like grip on the public conscience of the anti-speed propagandists, backed-up by draconian police enforcement of stultifyingly low speed limits. Three things are now inevitable in Australia: death, taxes and speeding fines. Road driving is purely about getting from A to B without getting nicked..."
-evo Magazine
"The government and Association of Chief Police Officers are clearly totally out of touch with what is actually going on out on the roads. A key driving skill is to set one's speed to the conditions. This skill is being systematically destroyed by the obsession with numerical values of speed. Accidents occur when drivers fail to observe the road conditions properly, they do not need further distractions from this process. The authorities need to concentrate on improving driving skills and target enforcement at the main problems, those driving recklessly and dangerously — often those who are drunk or drugged, in stolen cars or driving without licence or insurance."
-Nigel Humphries
ABD (UK)
"The whole point of speed cameras is to increase the rate of reduction in the number of serious and fatal accidents, but the data shows the reverse. As the failure of the ‘speed kills’ policy becomes clear, the reaction of the government and police is not to review the obsession with speeding but to think of more ways of catching more speeders and imposing tougher penalties." - Dr Alan Buckingham
“The biggest cause is inattentiveness, or errors on the part of the driver [25.8% of all accidents], and the only way to deal with that is education”
-Kevin Delaney
Traffic and Road Safety Manager
RAC Foundation
"The data for the efficacy of speed cameras in NSW is not encouraging. Fatal crashes in NSW halved between 1980 and 1991, which is when speed cameras were introduced, writes Buckingham. "Since then, the decline has faltered with a drop of just 3 per cent since 1993, despite the implementation of double demerit points in 1997 and fixed speed cameras in 1999."
-Sydney Morning Herald
"State governments have been scratching their heads over the cause of recent rises in the road toll. These have come despite harsher penalties, more stringent enforcement and a growing number of fixed speed cameras. 'So, clearly that's not the solution,' said Ford Australia's president, Geoff Polites."
-Sydney Morning Herald
"The managing director of BMW Australia, Franz Sauter, said speed cameras alone were a one-dimensional, punitive approach and BMW preferred "a holistic approach" incorporating elements such as driver training, vehicle quality and road design."
-The Age
"Holden chairman and managing director Peter Hanenberger was particularly critical of the lack of training available to younger drivers, which he said was endangering lives."
-The Age
"naked profiteering"
"revenue raising"
"morally bankrupt"
Words recently used to describe Australia's current road safety policy.
When the US state of Montana discarded an enforced daytime speed limit, speeding accidents and fatalities fell. When an enforced speed limit was reintroduced at the start of 2001, the amount of accidents and fatalities increased.
-NMA
"None of the Government's $12.3 million budget will be allocated to driver testing or training."
-Motor Magazine
"No car company condones speeding or unsafe driving but my concern is that there is an over-emphasis on speed and perhaps neglect of some of the other equally or more significant issues."
-Geoff Polites
Ford Australia President
"The NSW Roads Minister, Carl Scully, dumped as transport minister after wasting a reported $385 million on lemons such as the Millennium train and the near-empty Liverpool-Parramatta bus transitway, has turned his sights to speed cameras as a cure-all."
-Sydney Morning Herald
"For years, motorists' advocates have used engineering-based facts against artificially low speed limits. They have claimed that by raising speed limits to reasonable levels, accident and fatality rates will actually be reduced. This seemingly wild assertion has been documented by the traffic engineering profession for 50 plus years. This fact–based position has again been proven to be true by the repeal of the National Speed Limit. The nation has recorded the lowest highway fatality rate since such records have been kept."
-NMA
My emphasis.