Nearly 400 Sydney drivers will have their fines returned and their demerit points wiped out after the Roads and Traffic Authority admitted a faulty camera was randomly photographing cars.

The fixed digital school zone camera on the Kingsway at Miranda took photos of cars outside school zone times, and as a result incorrectly fined drivers for speeding, The Daily Telegraph says.

“Last week the RTA detected a timing error at the school zone speed camera on the Kingsway at Miranda, affecting speeding offences from May 23 to June 11 inclusive,” the RTA said on Friday.

“The timer on the school zone speed camera was out of sync due to a software error, which meant some motorists were being incorrectly detected for speeding.”

There were almost 400 penalty notices, worth about $49,000, issued to motorists during the period the camera was faulty.

“The RTA has asked the State Debt Recovery Office to withdraw the 380 penalties issued to motorists at this location during the time of the error,” the spokeswoman said.

The RTA said it was the first time such an error had taken place, but the technology downfall was similar to a faulty sensor on a camera that recorded incorrect speeds earlier this year.

Yet again more evidence that’s proves people making comments such as “don’t speed and you won’t pay a fine” or “it’s a voluntary tax” need to wake up and realize cameras DO make mistakes, and innocent drivers are being fined. Yes they admitted there was a fault with this one, but what about all the other times when people have claimed they were innocent. What about the 1000′s of drivers complaining about the Wellington Road cameras on Eastlink? How can 100′s of drivers claiming they had their cruise control set at (or below) the limit [and only being fined at that one point] all be wrong?

How much does the government actually cover up with repect to faulty equipment?

NSW Transport Minister, Mr David Campbell, will today announce details of a $170 million package aimed at lowering the state’s road toll.

As part of the package, the NSW government will reintroduce mobile speed cameras. The cameras will be placed in unmarked cars parked beside the road and will be operated by civilian contractors, similar to those already operating across the border in Victoria.

The NSW government says it will make the possible locations of its roadside cameras known via the RTA website, but hopes motorists will slow down regardless of whether a camera is present or not.

The $170 million road safety budget also allows $50 million for repairs and upgrades to accident blackspot areas, a $50 million audit of six main highways and an increase in speeding fines by five per cent.

Truck safety will receive $9 million with a trial of electronic work diaries for truck drivers among the new measures. It is hoped the diaries will improve fatigue management among long-haul drivers.

Six mobile speed camera units will begin operating state-wide from July 19th.

The NSW government’s “re-announcement” of a plan to roll out digital red light cameras at busy intersections is incompetent and embarrassing, the state opposition says.

NSW Transport Minister David Campbell says 200 digital red light cameras will replace its network of obsolete “wet film” cameras.

The announcement comes seven years after it was first proposed by former Labor minister Carl Scully in 2002.

Mr Campbell admits the rollout of new red light cameras had taken a long time.

“This has been a project that has been longer in coming than people would have liked,” Mr Campbell told reporters on Tuesday.

“But we are in a position to roll out the first of these from December.”

When pressed on why the project had taken so long, Mr Campbell, who added responsibility for roads to his transport portfolio in September, said: “I’ve been minister for roads for a couple of months”.

Mr Campbell said the rollout would help the fight against motorists who speed and run red-lights at intersections.

“The road safety benefit of red light cameras is a reduction in the number of right-angle crashes which are also know as T-bone crashes,” he said.

Opposition spokesman for roads Andrew Stoner said that despite inexplicable delay, the government would still take four years to roll out the new cameras.

“It’s just typical of a state Labor government that announced back in 2002 that it was going to do the job of replacing these red light cameras with new technology,” told at reporters.

“It was re-announced subsequently in 2004, 2006, 2008 and here we are Groundhog Day 2009 – the same old re-announcement.

“It’s no wonder our road system in NSW is in a mess.

“This government is incompetent and embarrassing.”

The RTA, which is responsible for new technology, will operate some of the new digital cameras as both red light and speed detector cameras.

They will activate combined red light and speed cameras at four permanent locations, while another five dual-use cameras will be rotated at 25 locations across NSW where a significant crash history has been identified.

The first digital camera will be operational by December 18.

The cameras will enable digital information to be transferred back to a central location and will not require regular visits by the RTA to retrieve and replace film.

PUBLIC servants need to realise ethics and integrity are not out of fashion, nor are they optional, the NSW Ombudsman’s annual report says.

The Ombudsman received more than 30,000 complaints in the past year, according to its 2008-2009 annual report, released today.

Some of the complaints referred to dodgy NSW police practices.

A police officer who was issued a speeding fine in an unmarked car attempted to avoid paying the fine by claiming he had been following a speeding car, the report said.

He told the fib after mistakingly believing a video taken in the police car at the time could not be retrieved.

In another case, two police officers tried to get out of a speed camera fine by falsely claiming they were driving a different police vehicle.

More NSW people are dying on the roads as a result of the economic downturn, according to a leading safety group.

The director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety, Soames Job, said an extra 64 people had been killed to date on the state’s roads compared with the same period last year.

Dr Job said yesterday speeding had increased as a factor in crashes this year. ”The pattern of crashes suggests that in response to the economic downturn, drivers are working harder, starting earlier and driving faster between appointments to try to maintain their income.

WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT
Where do you people come up with these ludicrous theories? Given the unemployment rate has RISEN then that means LESS people driving to and from work!

Another “wipe our hands clean – quick find something we can balme the increased road toll on” – rather than just admitting your road safety “initiatives” (yes I use that word losely) are flawed?

”This is causing more speeding-related serious crashes. We are 64 deaths up on the same date last year, so it’s a very significant turnaround in that time, a very tragic turnaround.”

YES it is tragic, but not one caused by people speeding between appointments. You really must think the public are mindless idots to believe that.

Figures from the Department of September still has eight days to run but provisional figures from the Roads and Traffic Authority to midnight on Monday show 337 people had been killed on NSW roads this year – a 23.4 per cent increase. Dr Job said while the road toll had decreased by 30 per cent between 2002 and last year, NSW was the only state to record a decrease for six consecutive years.

BOOM – and there is the smoking gun. Your speed camera system is NOT saving lives.

He said the number of deaths related to speed had increased over the past two years. Point-to-point speed cameras, special lane markings on curves and safety ropes are just a few of the latest initiatives the RTA is implementing to help curb the toll.

According to RTA research, a fixed speed camera only slows a driver for short distances, but point-to-point cameras work on longer stretches of road.

”Our surveys say that for the average fixed speed camera, people slow down for about 600 metres. So, while one camera is giving you about 600 metres of effective speed management, two cameras will actually give us 30 to 40 kilometres of speed management,” Dr Job said.

The RTA is also re-engineering roads and focusing on installing more wire rope medians – the wire ropes acting as a barrier to stop cars crossing on to the wrong side.

Dr Job was speaking yesterday at the launch of a website that has been established to tackle the problem of the high number of young drivers killed on our roads each year.

The young-driver database was set up by the George Institute and provides information on driver safety and recommendations based on research. The site says young drivers (aged 17 to 25) represent one-quarter of all Australian road deaths, but are only 10-15 per cent of the licensed driver population.

Dr Job says figures show the new P-plate and learner driver restrictions are working. ”From the two years before the new legislation and the two years after, there was a 35 per cent reduction in P1 fatal crash involvements, a 7 per cent reduction in the number of speeding P1 driver fatalities and a 15 per cent reduction in the number of P1 speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes.”

One of the state’s most senior traffic policemen has denied highway patrol officers were developing a culture of concealment to trap speeding motorists on the F3 Freeway in 2006 that went against standing orders and put police at risk, an inquest has heard.  Not so, according to local motorists.

The denial came yesterday on the second day of an inquest on the death of Senior Constable Peter “Gordy” Wilson while doing radar checks on the F3 in November 2006.

It came after evidence from motorists that the policeman appeared to jump out at them, because no police car was visible and he appeared from the right, or fast lane side of the road.

Public feed back on this:

“This has been going on for years.There are several spots on the F3 where you can almost count on a police car being concealed behind trees,culverts etc.I used to travel the F3 regularly and hiding behind the bushes in the middle was a common happening-also under bridges well back in the shade.You do not expect the police to come out of the right hand lane which is obviously a dangerous practice,so for the AC to make his comments shows that he does not really has a grasp on things.”

Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, of the traffic services branch, said he did not agree that police statements from that time showed there was an “attraction to the element of concealment”.

But a standard operation procedure manual issued four months after Constable Wilson’s death prohibited stationary hand-held radar checks from central median strips and repeated the requirement for cars with lights flashing to be visible, Mr Hartley said. (You could probably count on one hand ho many times this actually happens.

The manual still allowed police to walk onto the roadway for radar checks in some circumstances, despite a NSW Industrial Relations Commission judgement in 2004 that criticised the risks posed to police.

Using a speed camera on the notorious high-speed stretch of the F3 at Somersby known as the “flight deck” did not slow motorists down or provide a speed deterrent on the day, Mr Hartley said.

State Deputy Coroner Hugh Dillon questioned whether a highway patrol officer’s description of the highway patrol “catching and killing their own” (catching and fining people) suggested a “keenness” to stop people that could be a problem.

The inquest continues…

Speed camera divides Berry community
By KATRINA DAL MOLIN

THE Berry community is divided over the location of the highway speed camera south of the village.

Some residents have taken their concerns about the camera to Shoalhaven City Councillor Gareth Ward, claiming it is nothing more than a revenue raiser for the RTA and State Government.

However there are residents in the community who believe the speed camera should stay exactly where it is.

The camera is located on the western side of the highway several hundred metres from the Kangaroo Valley Road intersection.

Cr Ward said he had been approached by many residents of Berry concerned about the “illogical” location of the camera.

He believes the camera is being used inappropriately to raise revenue rather than acting as a safety device to slow drivers.

“This speed camera is being misused by the RTA for the purpose of revenue raising,” Cr Ward said.

Cars naturally sped up along that stretch of road, he said, as it crested and sloped towards the camera.

“The nature of that road and corner and the placement of the camera is deceptive.

“I think the RTA has designated a camera in that place to trap people rather than discourage people from speeding.”

But Berry residents Irene Birks and Brian Walster believe the location of the camera is justified.

Ms Birks and Mr Walster both believe the camera acts as a revenue raiser.

“But if people don’t speed, it won’t happen,” Ms Birks said.

“It may be hard to stick to 50 there, but we need to. No matter where you put it people will complain.”

Mr Walster agreed it was difficult to stop the car speeding up when travelling south and coming over the crest at the Kangaroo Valley Road intersection.

“You’ve got to be vigilant,” he said.

“But when you think about it, isn’t that what driving is all about?” Ms Birks added.

Mr Walster suggested a graduation of the decrease in speed heading north from 100km to 50.

“They should phase the speed change in. I think they need to make the speed 60 before it goes to 50,” he said.

Cr Ward will be moving a notice of motion at the next council meeting requesting council make submissions to the RTA to have the camera relocated, or at least have the organisation justify its position