Call for more country cams

Report urges rewards for good drivers

COUNTRY roads might be getting more speed cameras.

Police Minister Lisa Neville yesterday agreed to consider a recommendation by traffic camera commissioner John Voyage that more point-to-point speed cameras were needed for use outside the metropolitan area.

Mr Voyage also used his annual report to recommend that the Government investigate rewarding good drivers by reducing their registration or licence fees.

He blasted the thousands of drivers legitimately caught speeding who then mounted social media campaigns to protest their innocence.

His annual report, which was tabled in State Parliament yesterday, also revealed: VICTORIANS who have had a speed or red-light camera fine are three times more likely to have had a collision when compared with those who have not. SEVENTEEN more fixed speed and red light cameras have been installed at traffic light controlled intersections in the past year. VICROADS should review its guidelines for roadworks at or near traffic cameras to ensure motorists are provided with conspicuous signs showing the reduced speed limit zone. CONSIDERATION should be given to amending legislation to provide Victoria Police or the courts with an opportunity for discretion not to cancel the licences of people with good driving records who make a single mistake of judgment in a variable speed zone. ABOUT 54 per cent of respondents to his road safety survey agreed with the statement “speed cameras are more about making money than road safety”, down from the 61 per cent in a 2013 study. A THIRD of the survey respondents said they wanted more speed cameras in their local area.

Mr Voyage was particularly critical of the more than 1000 Peninsula Link 108s group members who complained about their Peninsula Link fines by claiming the cameras were faulty and the hundreds of motorists who claimed they had been wrongly booked on the Western Ring Road.

He said his investigations proved every one was speeding.

Mr Voyage said the behaviour of many of the Western Ring Road complainers was “abhorrent”.

Ms Neville said yesterday the recommendations were important ones.

“I will be discussing these recommendations with Victoria Police and the other road safety partners, like TAC, through the ministerial road safety council, and seeking their advice on the impact these recommendations would have on improving road safety,” she said.