After an eight-month education and caution notice period, enforcement will commence next week for offences detected by Western Australia’s new fixed and trailer mounted AI-enabled road safety cameras.
A state-wide camera awareness campaign is now live across television, radio, print, digital, social media and roadside billboard channels to remind drivers that the cameras will begin enforcing from next Wednesday October 8.
These cameras are being used to target mobile phone offences, not wearing or incorrectly wearing seatbelts and speeding.
Road Safety Minister Reece Whitby said, “Our safety cameras are a critical addition to existing enforcement tools, helping to tackle the dangerous driving behaviours most commonly linked to serious and fatal crashes.
“This is about fairness and safety. For eight months we have warned drivers, and our ‘Caught in a Flash’ campaign is another attempt to prompt people to change their dangerous driving behaviours before enforcement commences.”
Six camera trailers operating in the Perth metropolitan area, Great Southern and Mid West, and fixed cameras on the Kwinana Freeway have detected over 300,000 mobile phone, seatbelt and speeding offences since February.
Of those seatbelt and mobile phone offences in that period, more than 65,000 caution notices have been issued to drivers caught doing the wrong thing.
The WA Government says that over the course of the caution notice period, there has been a decrease in offences detected by the safety cameras.
“Too many lives are lost or forever changed because someone chose to speed, look at their phone, or not wear a seatbelt properly,” Whitby added.
“Drivers have had months of warning and plenty of time to adjust. Now it’s time to enforce the rules that keep our community safe.”
The state government has also committed over $750,000 across five new community partnerships to help inform people about the new safety camera technology, as part of its “education-before-enforcement approach”.
These partnerships, funded under the Road Safety Commission’s Community Initiatives Program, will deliver education programs across the metropolitan and regional areas, including those in remote communities.
Partner organisations will lead community workshops, provide resources, and support awareness campaigns tailored to local needs and contexts.
The safety camera program is funded through the Road Trauma Trust Account, which sees 100 per cent of safety camera infringements allocated to projects and programs aimed at reducing injuries and deaths on WA roads.
As a heavy vehicle pilot escort constantly on the road, from the metro regions to country & remote regions, I’d like to say I have not seen a single example of the “education campaign” that’s apparently been happening for 8 months. And if this campaign has been running that long with enforcement commencing in a week, why are the governments throwing another $750,000+ at “education before enforcement” to 5 new community partnerships? It reeks of special treatment for certain demographics or minorities & another monumental waste of tax payers’ money when nothing will change.
The WA & Federal Governments are finding even more inventive ways to ignore the problems they have already created or are continuing to enable/allow to happen e.g. allowing people with no driving experience or English literacy skills (oral or written) to obtain licenses and drive on our roads; allowing interpreters to be used for applications, assessments and training; failing to authenticate qualifications, licenses, identification, accreditation, registrations, insurances, etc of trainers, companies and drivers; allowing one set of rules & complete lack of consequences for indigenous or overseas people who blatantly disregard the laws the rest of us have to abide by, including vehicle road worthiness, how many occupants are travelling in the vehicles etc. The list goes on!
Speeding – yep an issue for sure, but just as dangerous are the idiots on the road who sit 25, 30, 40, 50 kms/hr under the speed limit on major arterial roads, highways, freeways. Why are these people not being fined or losing their licenses as well? The amount of fools running red lights is astounding – with total disregard for the supposed red light cameras or the safety of other road users. And the use of phones etc doesn’t seem to be lessening despite the so-called efforts of the authorities.
And how about accepting responsibility for the abysmal state of our roads which is also a major contributing factor to accidents, infrastructure & vehicle damage, especially outside the metro or suburban areas. If our vehicles have to be road worthy, why can’t we hold the government responsible for not providing vehicle-worthy roads, and pass the costs of tyres, shockies, mechanical damage, delays to deliveries, etc back to them for reimbursement?
Providing safe, well maintained & clean rest areas, parking bays, truck stops, designated areas for caravaners etc is another area of complete failure by local councils, state and federal governments. They are failing in their duty of care to taxpayers, road users & visitors alike, as well as contributing to driver fatigue due to not having sufficient, safe & suitable areas to park up. And these organisations are obviously not managing staff, contractors or funding appropriately due to the sorry state many of these amenities are in.
It’s way passed time for action to be taken, and people really need to start questioning the ability of the powers that be to act in our best interests!
Excellent reply my friend. As far as the Ai cameras are concerned I’am 100% against their use and application to “police” those that may touch their phones, or not wear a seatbelt. it becomes a question of right of privacy and personal right not to be recorded in your car. I have seen people drive their cars to work early in the morning and eat cereal out of the bowl while they are driving. Hypothetically, would this person be fined for dangerous driving while eating out of the bowl with one hand and operating the vehicle with another. is it unlawful to eat in the car while driving? how about eating a sandwich? drinking a coke? what about fiddling with the GPS system in your car while waiting for the green light? I mean such person is distracted also by typing an address into a GPS or adjusting an aircon or chang radio stations. What about ladies who drive and put their make up on? it just seems that arbitrary things can now result in a fine of several hundreds if not thousnads of dollars.
What about people’s intimacy? when I was in my teens and 20’s my girlfriend at the time would get romantic with me while I was driving. I know that this is not very safe, but it is one of those things that are a calculated risk, and a part of life experience that actually enriched my life. Memory of an experience like that puts a wide grin on my face today. Hypothetically what happends If we were cought? Do I get a fine for not driving safely? does she get charged for indecent act in public? when you are on a road you are in actual fact in public, does she also get a fine for removing her seatbelt to reach me? The list goes on and on…and to be fair, I’de rather have have experienced such a an event than bot due to safety reasons.
in actual fact, we seem to live in a police state where big brother is everywhere. reminds me of that film “Demolition Man” with Stallone in the main role where he gets an infringement for saying a dirty word in public. We seem to be definately heading there. Please spare me the mantra “if for safety and we care about your safety- the government” please… you had several of your think thank guys brain storm how to raisd even more revenue from the overstreched average Aussie, how now holds two jobs if he wants to afford his own home. Your think tanks brain stormed and saw this new Ai tech in cameras if pretty cool, we can now spy inside of peoples cars and see if they are obidient little worker ants, god forbid they touch that mobile phone for a second or kiss their girlfriend or god forbid take their seatbelt off for one second so they can bend and reach for the wallet that slid off the centre console etc. This is not about the safety nor is it about saving lives. This is about unchecked government goons with too much power and too little resistance from the common people who are finally starting to wake up and resist the tyranny and unchecked tax collecting. There are more than enough speed cameras in WA , too many. Hundreds of millions are taken from the people who were not hooning, or dangerous driving, they were not racing or raging on the road, but were trying to over take a truck or a bus so that they are not late to their second job. Be better Australia.
Wow Well done you’ve addressed what the majority of country road users think .… well done !! Hopefully someone will listen and address the road conditions . New section of road between Northampton and Geraldton has been great , however overtaking sections are a nightmare as to overtake the slow vehicles on the downhill slope when they’re at speed is a challenge not to exceed the limit . an engineering disaster The massive amount of money spent to Oakagee ,a road to nowhere is a joke .. ..