Driving fines expected to jump as cameras officially target new road rule
Millions of drivers are being warned as new roadside camera capabilities are switched on from Monday.
When it comes to being fined on the road, Australian cities are in pole position on the global stage. And those fines are only expected to increase as NSW becomes to latest state to switch on new roadside camera technology.
Millions of drivers are being warned as new camera capabilities will now be monitoring motorists and their passengers for wearing their seatbelt correctly. From tomorrow, July 1, anyone snapped without a seatbelt will be getting a $344 infringement notice turning up in the mail.
For the first time in the state, mobile phone detection cameras will have the dual mandate to also catch out seatbelt infringements. It follows Queensland who previously rolled out the technology as well as Victoria as more and more jurisdictions work to bolster their traffic monitoring networks to crackdown on distracted drivers and other road violations.
Unlike other schemes, NSW politicians voted against implementing a grace period, meaning drivers will be immediately hit with fines without any warning letters.
"This technology is being used for other things," NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury told Yahoo News Australia ahead of the change on Monday. "It's a really serious matter, people still getting in the car and not putting on their seatbelts. Often it's people who are in an impaired state, those people getting in the passenger seat after they've been drinking."
However the mobile detection cameras and the underpinning software are far from perfect. In Queensland a driver was wrongly fined $1,160 in January for how his passenger was wearing her seatbelt. However as seen in the 'offending' photo captured by the roadside camera, the seatbelt simply blended in with the woman's outfit sitting in the passenger seat. Fighting the matter in court, the man eventually had the fine and four demerit points wiped.
The mobile phone detection cameras now being used to nab seatbelt offences in NSW have also had plenty of false positives when sniffing out mobile phones. One driver was forced to pay a $387 fine after being pictured touching her sunglasses case behind the wheel, swearing to Yahoo it was not her phone. However her appeal was ultimately denied by Revenue NSW.
Sydney woman Merridy Gordon had more success recently managing to get the same fine overturned after taking it to court after she was snapped holding a piece of banana bread while driving. Ultimately Transport for NSW (TfNSW) was ordered to pay her legal fees worth $4,000, and her fine was dismissed and demerit points reinstated. "They just run roughshod over people — and they don't care," she complained to Yahoo this week about the process.
Aussie cities among world's most expensive for driving fines
In NSW, drivers are fined $344 and one demerit point for each passenger not wearing their seatbelt, with the demerit penalty doubling if two or more passengers are unbelted.
Government data found 36 motorists or passengers, or 15 per cent of people who died on NSW roads in 2023, did not wear a seatbelt. The numbers were more damning for people living in regional Australia, with 85 per cent of deaths and 76 per cent of serious injuries occurring in situations where someone wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
According to consumer comparison company Compare the Market, which analysed the level of road fines from 24 major cities around the world, Sydney ranked 5th for the most expensive fines, on a currency adjusted basis, with Melbourne coming in at 11. However it didn't look at Queensland which recently hiked road fines dramatically, meaning Brisbane would likely appear at the top of such a list.
The money raised from the seat belt cameras in NSW will largely be reinvested into road safety programs.
Sally Webb, Deputy Secretary for Safety, Environment and Regulation with TfNSW said the rollout was a key initiative in the state government's effort to drive down road fatalities.
"Automated, camera-based enforcement, coupled with police enforcement, has played a critical role in addressing other high-risk behaviours on our roads such as speeding and red light running. These camera programs are proven to help prevent crashes and reduce road trauma," she told Yahoo this week.
The government's message: "Strap in".
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