❓ The Minister for Road Safety provides an update on the electronic speed enforcement program, detailing the expansion of speed camera operations and related initiatives, while emphasizing the importance of community responsibility in reducing road trauma.
AnsweredQoN 301Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD
SAFETY — ELECTRONIC SPEED ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM
301. Mr P. ABETZ to the
Minister for Road Safety:
Can the minister give the house an
update on the electronic speed enforcement program that she announced earlier
this year?
SAFETY — ELECTRONIC SPEED ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM
301. Mr P. ABETZ to the
Minister for Road Safety:
Can the minister give the house an
update on the electronic speed enforcement program that she announced earlier
this year?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Southern
River for his question on road safety. I welcome questions in this place on
road safety.
The rate of fatalities in Western
Australia has reduced by about 25 per cent since 2008, member for Southern River.
The government remains committed.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : This Liberal–National government remains committed to
reducing road trauma through our Safer Roads strategy, through enforcement and
also through education. I am sure that members of the house are familiar with
the statement I made earlier this year when I announced the government's
intention to significantly increase our speed camera fleet. The new program
will involve an additional 600 hours for mobile speed cameras, an additional 60
red-light and intersection cameras, an additional 25 fixed cameras, a
point-to-point camera trial, and the appointment of a consultant to assist us
in implementing the program and ensuring an adequate level of community
engagement, education and accountability around it.
So far, I am pleased to inform the
house, 300 annual hours of mobile speed cameras are already in use in the great
southern region, and that is in response to a high number of crashes in that
region in recent times. We will soon be in a position to have the five fixed speed
camera sites in the metropolitan area permanently installed, and the tender
process for that is well underway. The process to appoint our consultant is
well underway as well, member for Southern River. We are doing this because we
know that speed cameras are internationally recognised as the quickest and most
efficient way to change driver behaviour. Indeed, that has been played out when
we analyse the results of our red-light and speed camera program. At
intersections where they have been installed, we have seen a 60 per cent
reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes.
Last year, we lost 184 people on
Western Australian roads, and speed contributed to about 30 per cent of those
crashes. Sadly, unless drivers correct their behaviour this year, we are on
target to have a worse year than last year. This year we have already lost 57
souls on our roads. We need the community to get on board with us and to start
taking a shared responsibility for road safety so that we can make inroads into
correcting that terrible trauma toll on our community.
I remind people that a recent report
from Royal Perth Hospital has backed up what police had already started to
understand through their evidence-based policing model about the trauma of
those people admitted to the trauma wards of hospitals. We have found that 60 per
cent of adults involved in serious crashes had traffic records. Those are
records for flouting road rules, for drink-driving offences, for not wearing
seatbelts and indeed for using electronic devices in motor vehicles. There is
therefore some work to do there, and we work collaboratively with the
Department of Health, which is part of our Road Safety Council.
As we move into the Anzac weekend,
many people will be moving around the state as they commemorate and celebrate
Anzac Day. I remind people who are going to have a couple of shandies on Anzac
Day to plan their transport ahead of time, take advantage of the free public
transport and keep road safety as their primary and paramount focus to make
sure that we all come home from those celebrations after the long weekend with
our licences intact and safe and ready to start the next week.
River for his question on road safety. I welcome questions in this place on
road safety.
The rate of fatalities in Western
Australia has reduced by about 25 per cent since 2008, member for Southern River.
The government remains committed.
Ms
M.M. Quirk interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen!
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : This Liberal–National government remains committed to
reducing road trauma through our Safer Roads strategy, through enforcement and
also through education. I am sure that members of the house are familiar with
the statement I made earlier this year when I announced the government's
intention to significantly increase our speed camera fleet. The new program
will involve an additional 600 hours for mobile speed cameras, an additional 60
red-light and intersection cameras, an additional 25 fixed cameras, a
point-to-point camera trial, and the appointment of a consultant to assist us
in implementing the program and ensuring an adequate level of community
engagement, education and accountability around it.
So far, I am pleased to inform the
house, 300 annual hours of mobile speed cameras are already in use in the great
southern region, and that is in response to a high number of crashes in that
region in recent times. We will soon be in a position to have the five fixed speed
camera sites in the metropolitan area permanently installed, and the tender
process for that is well underway. The process to appoint our consultant is
well underway as well, member for Southern River. We are doing this because we
know that speed cameras are internationally recognised as the quickest and most
efficient way to change driver behaviour. Indeed, that has been played out when
we analyse the results of our red-light and speed camera program. At
intersections where they have been installed, we have seen a 60 per cent
reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes.
Last year, we lost 184 people on
Western Australian roads, and speed contributed to about 30 per cent of those
crashes. Sadly, unless drivers correct their behaviour this year, we are on
target to have a worse year than last year. This year we have already lost 57
souls on our roads. We need the community to get on board with us and to start
taking a shared responsibility for road safety so that we can make inroads into
correcting that terrible trauma toll on our community.
I remind people that a recent report
from Royal Perth Hospital has backed up what police had already started to
understand through their evidence-based policing model about the trauma of
those people admitted to the trauma wards of hospitals. We have found that 60 per
cent of adults involved in serious crashes had traffic records. Those are
records for flouting road rules, for drink-driving offences, for not wearing
seatbelts and indeed for using electronic devices in motor vehicles. There is
therefore some work to do there, and we work collaboratively with the
Department of Health, which is part of our Road Safety Council.
As we move into the Anzac weekend,
many people will be moving around the state as they commemorate and celebrate
Anzac Day. I remind people who are going to have a couple of shandies on Anzac
Day to plan their transport ahead of time, take advantage of the free public
transport and keep road safety as their primary and paramount focus to make
sure that we all come home from those celebrations after the long weekend with
our licences intact and safe and ready to start the next week.
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