Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Traffic Offence Detection) Bill 2009

The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Parliamentary Secretary) [10.03 p.m.], on behalf of the Hon. John Hatzistergos: I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The main purpose of this bill is to amend the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 to allow for the introduction of two crucial sets of enforcement technologies for driving offences. First, the bill provides for the installation of point-to-point speed enforcement. The technology will enforce only speeding offences committed by heavy vehicles. The technology has been targeted at heavy vehicles because they are overrepresented in serious road crashes. They make up only 2.6 per cent of vehicle registrations and 7.4 per cent of kilometres travelled by New South Wales vehicles, however, they are involved in almost 20 per cent of road fatalities. The point-to-point technology works by having two cameras at the beginning and end of a designated enforcement zone, which will calculate the total time taken by each vehicle to travel the distance of the zone. If the time taken to complete the journey is less than the minimum time that it would have taken to complete the journey within legal speed limits, then the vehicle is recorded as speeding.

Point-to-point speed cameras will calculate a driver's average speed over the duration of the zone. Overseas motorists have found this to be a fairer way of measuring speeding because they are charged only if they exceed the speed limit for a sustained period, not for a one-off momentary lapse. The second part of this bill will provide for the updating of soon-to-be-obsolete wet film red light cameras with new digital red light cameras. The current red light program involves the rotation of cameras between 183 sites. The New South Wales Police Force and the Roads and Traffic Authority advise that occupational health and safety issues are associated with constantly rotating cameras at busy intersections. The current cameras require manual collection and replacement of film. This is resource intensive and also may be dangerous for staff. This bill will allow the introduction of upgraded, new digital red light cameras. The red light camera replacement program is a significant commitment by the Government to improve the safety of signalised intersections. I seek leave to incorporate the rest of the second reading speech in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The upgrade to digital technology is essential to ensure that some of our busiest intersections continue to be protected by red-light cameras.

Crashes at intersections are some of the most serious and devastating accidents. More simply T-bone accidents are caused when one car hits another on its side and the impact is direct.

There is reduced protection for passengers in the back seat and in T-bone accidents they often take the full impact.

Red light cameras are used widely in Australia and internationally and research indicates that they reduce casualty crashes at intersections by about 30 per cent.

The new cameras will also have the ability to detect speed offences.

It is important that we are stop red light running. Put simply, speeding drivers and unsuspecting drivers travelling through intersections is a deadly combination.

The dual function cameras will also be used at a small number of sites. Locations with these cameras will only be used where the greatest road safety benefit can be achieved.

This technology will protect innocent road users from reckless drivers running through red lights, speeding at intersections and, most dangerously, speeding through a red light.

I commend the bill to the House.

The Hon. TREVOR KHAN [10.06 p.m.]: The Liberals-Nationals will not stand in the way of the Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Traffic Offences Detection) Bill because of the road safety measures contained in it. However, we want to make the following points. Whilst there are road safety components to this bill, it is important to recognise that a major component of the bill is fine collection. It is a revenue-raising bill by another name. Point-to-point camera programs are not the silver bullet to preventing truck-related accidents, as the Government would have us believe. Point-to-point cameras should be used only as part of a suite of options aimed at lowering truck-related road incidents. Increasing the number of police cars and highway patrol officers on our roads and highways is a far more effective way of preventing speeding and truck-related accidents. But under Labor there are fewer highway patrol officers now than there were as far back as in 1984.

Heavy vehicle checking stations are also an important measure, as they check trucks for faulty brakes, overloading and driver fatigue, amongst other things. These checks help identify trucks that may be at risk of causing accidents so that they can be taken off the road. However, in recent years the Government has downgraded truck safety checks. There were 82,173 fewer trucks scrutinised at checking stations last year than in 2007, according to documents obtained under freedom of information legislation. While point-to-point cameras may target speeding truck drivers, they must not replace the existing methods of enforcement. I also make reference to a concern that has been expressed by various community groups, that is, the Government will extend the use of point-to-point speed cameras for heavy vehicles to all vehicles.

Whilst I accept the Minister and Parliamentary Secretary have made observations along the lines that there are no plans to introduce this measure for other than heavy vehicles, it remains a concern to the public that this State Labor Government adopts a method of creep when it comes to revenue collection. I also want to make some comment about the red light cameras. We recognise the need to update the red light technology from the outdated wet film cameras to digital technology. However, the Government's bid to increase the number of fully operating red light cameras from 32 to 200 is underhanded and a blatant attempt to increase revenue.

Currently, with only 32 red light cameras, these are rotated around 183 sites across New South Wales. The bill legislates for an additional 178 cameras, that is, an increase of some 500 per cent over the existing number. Along with this increase, the bill allows for dual red light speed cameras to operate in New South Wales. This will mean that motorists who are caught running red lights can be penalised not only for running the red light, but for a speeding offence over and above that. In essence, one can see the double-dipping component that can arise from what essentially is the one offence. The Government currently collects $11.5 million each year in revenue from red light cameras and with the introduction of the new cameras this amount will no doubt increase substantially. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary if she can provide the House with any estimation by the Roads and Traffic Authority as to the amount of revenue that will be derived from the new red light cameras; and, if not, why not?

One might also observe that the move to digital red light cameras has been foreshadowed for some time. It was in December 2006 that the then Roads Minister, John Watkins, announced that digital cameras would replace the wet-film red light camera technology. Over two years later the new technology is apparently now being introduced. Unfortunately, this would seem to be yet another example of a government that is more concerned with creating media headlines than with actual delivery of services and infrastructure.

Might I conclude by making some observation on the selection of sites for the new cameras that are to be rolled out? I note that the placement of speeding and red light cameras in the past has been as a result of consultation between the NRMA and the New South Wales police service, and that has been through the use of criteria known as the fixed speed camera site selection criteria. Apparently these criteria were based on crash and injury accident rates and travelling speeds. This ensured that cameras were installed on black lengths, if they may be so described, being lengths of road with high accident rates. From all accounts, this consultation process has been successful and it is hoped that the Roads and Traffic Authority will continue this process when determining the selection criteria for combined red light speed cameras and for point-to-point cameras. I invite the Parliamentary Secretary to confirm that this will be the case. The Liberal Party and The Nationals will be not opposing the legislation.

Reverend the Hon. FRED NILE [10.13 p.m.]: The Christian Democratic Party supports the Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Traffic Offence Detection) Bill 2009, which will allow the Roads and Traffic Authority to use point-to-point technology to enforce heavy vehicle speeding and to replace outdated wet-film red light cameras with digital red light cameras that can also enforce speeding. As members know, road crashes are one of the major causes of death and injury in our community. The figures for 2007 prepared by the New South Wales Centre for Road Safety indicate that there were 45,395 recorded road crashes in New South Wales. Of these, 20,319 were casualty crashes. There were 435 persons killed. Last year that figure dropped to 395 and this year we are about 50 ahead of the figure for the same time last year, so it is to the credit of everyone involved in road safety, as well as the drivers of New South Wales, that the death rate has been progressively dropping. The report also indicated that 25,845 people were injured. As to what it costs in terms of dollars, the estimated cost to the community of these road crashes was around $4.4 billion, so it is having a major impact not only on families affected by a fatality or injury but also on our economy, which affects the whole State.

The bill will enable the introduction of point-to-point speed enforcement of heavy vehicle speeding. I have travelled to Queensland in the January holiday period, as I am sure other members have, and semitrailers have sped past—especially at night—when I have been travelling at the speed limit. They are obviously going well over 100 kilometres an hour. The roads are not safe for speeding semitrailers to start with, so the condition of the road and speed makes the situation doubly dangerous.

Point-to-point technology works by detecting a vehicle at the start and end of a length of road and calculating the average speed across the length. The bill will allow for evidence of a vehicle's average speed measured by point-to-point devices to be used to prove that a vehicle was exceeding the posted speed limit. There are also provisions making it an offence for drivers to try to avoid the new system by driving on the wrong side of the road, swerving across lanes, tailgating and turning lights off at night in an attempt to avoid detection at point-to-point cameras.

The bill will also allow the Roads and Traffic Authority to replace obsolete wet-film red light cameras with digital red light camera technology, which is very efficient. Combined red light-speed cameras are already used in Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory and this bill will allow a new provision in the Act for a single device to be approved for multiple functions such as red light and speed enforcement. The combination of red light and speed enforcement will further enhance the safety of some red light camera locations where there is a significant crash problem along the length of the road adjacent to and including the intersection.

The bill has been developed in consultation with the Roads and Traffic Authority, New South Wales police, the Attorney General's Department and the State Debt Recovery Office. There will now be a need, and the Government has announced that it will do this, for a public education campaign to ensure that all drivers of heavy vehicles are well aware of the new system.

Ms LEE RHIANNON [10.17 p.m.]: The Greens support the bill, which introduces new methods of detecting traffic offences—average speed detection zones that measure the speed of heavy vehicles between two points and the introduction of dual purpose digital red light and speed detection cameras. The Greens have called on the New South Wales Government to provide a time frame for the rollout of new digital red light cameras. The Government has known for a long time that current red light camera technology is inadequate and outdated. Red light cameras do save lives, but the Government has been dawdling for years on introducing digital technology.

The timetable for the introduction of the new technology should be on the table so that the Roads Minister can be held to account if it is not met. This is a key safety provision and it needs to be fully transparent. In 2006 the former Roads Minister John Watkins said he would start the tender process for digital red light cameras. It is now 2009 and the Government is still foreshadowing their installation, awaiting a review of intersections by the New South Wales Centre for Road Safety. Minister Daley said in his second reading speech that his Government would be carefully considering the rollout of combined red light-speed detection devices. They have been considering it for three years. For many years, funding for red light cameras was frozen. Freedom of information requests showed many red light cameras in New South Wales were not working or only operated intermittently. Lives are at risk while this technology is not in place and the Government needs to act quickly. The unpopularity of speed cameras and the potential backlash on drive-time radio is no doubt driving the Government's decision to use the red light camera capacity for only 30 of the 200 new dual purpose digital cameras. Therefore, 170 red light cameras will be operating around New South Wales with their speed camera function lying idle.

When inquiring about this bill my staff received an update from the Minister's office that the program to upgrade school crossings is making progress. But I was not very encouraged by the numbers. I understand that only 10 percent of the 3,100 schools in New South Wales are scheduled to have flashing lights installed at their main school zones because only 100 school zones are upgraded with flashing speed zone signs each year over four years. This low rate of progress remains unchanged after this year's budget, and given that each school typically has more than one school-crossing zone, it seems more like only 5 per cent of school crossings will be getting flashing lights. What is the Government's answer to the parents whose children use the other 95 per cent of crossings when they walk to and from their school?

The Hon. Amanda Fazio: They are not only getting flashing lights, they are getting dragon's teeth as well.

Ms LEE RHIANNON: Yes, I know. The dragon's teeth are really good. It is positive, but you would have to admit—

The Hon. Amanda Fazio: No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't admit anything to you, Lee—never.

Ms LEE RHIANNON: Fair enough. You should not admit anything; you are a loyal Labor soldier and people respect you for that. About 90 per cent of crossings have still not had the upgrade. It is disappointing that the Government is dragging its feet on installing flashing speed signs outside schools. Children's safety going to and from school should be the priority of this and any Government. We have the Walk Safely to School program, which is great, and I understand that dragon's teeth will be painted at school zones, which are incredibly effective. These low-budget measures will no doubt help improve road safety for schoolchildren. But the Government must stop stalling on this issue and allocate serious money to the program to put speed cameras and flashing speed signs at school crossings and tell us what the time frame is for the rollout.

The other area where the Government needs to increase its efforts on road safety is the upgrading of school crossings and rail level crossings across the State. As a member of Parliament I find it distressing to be contacted by members of the public who have lost their loved ones in road fatalities at country rail crossings and to know that not enough is being done by this Government to fix this urgent problem. I ask the Parliamentary Secretary in her reply to put on the record when the announcement will be made about the rollout of these programs and how long it will take.

The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Parliamentary Secretary) [10.22 p.m.], in reply: I thank honourable members for their contributions to debate on the Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Traffic Offence Detection) Bill 2009. I note that there is broad support for the bill. A couple of issues were raised in the debate. I do not intend to address them in detail. This bill is about improving safety; it is not about revenue raising. Red light camera sites will be selected using strict criteria developed by the New South Wales Centre for Road Safety. Site selection will be based upon several factors, including fatalities, vehicle speeds and road conditions.

The Hon. Trevor Khan asked a question about current arrangements in relation to consultation with the NRMA and the police. I am advised that there is no intention to change current arrangements in relation to consultation about sites. Some of the sites will be existing sites and some will be new sites. Digital red light cameras also have the capacity to enforce speeding, and some locations will also have speed enforcement. The speed enforcement locations will be determined by specific criteria, including the identification of a length of road around a red light camera location that also has a significant crash history.

This Government has put in place a string of important safety initiatives over more than 10 years. Currently we are fortunate to have the lowest road fatalities for many years, something that this Parliament and this Government has worked very hard to achieve. In relation to the issue of the rollout of programs raised by Ms Lee Rhiannon, I am not in a position to give her a time frame, except to say that they will be rolled out as soon as possible. I commend the bill to the House.

Question—That this bill be now read a second time—put and resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Leave granted to proceed to the third reading of the bill forthwith.


Motion by the Hon. Penny Sharpe agreed to:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and returned to the Legislative Assembly without amendment.