Victoria - Speed Camera News
More than a third of Victoria's TAC fleet cops traffic fines
by Fiona Hudson Heral Sun - Victoria, Australia January 13, 2008
MORE than a third of the Transport Accident Commission car fleet has incurred speeding or traffic fines in the past two years.
Despite the latest TAC advertising campaign - "Take a Damn Good Look At Yourself" - documents show the road safety body's drivers have incurred 37 fines.
Offences by TAC staff included excessive speeding, running red lights and throwing away a lit cigarette butt.
Four drivers were booked for speeding 10-15km/h over the limit, data obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun under Freedom Of Information laws show.
The worst breach recorded in a TAC car was a staffer caught doing 74km/h in a 60km/h zone, which attracted a $750 fine.
Four TAC cars were booked for running red lights. Read the Full Story...
The revelations come after the TAC axed a $500,000 sponsorship of Collingwood football club over rookie Sharrod Wellingham's drink-driving ticket last week.
Three TAC staff were repeat offenders and 26 drivers were nabbed for speeding at less than 10km/h over the limit - despite the State-Government-owned TAC spending millions of taxpayer dollars encouraging Victorian drivers to "Wipe Off 5".
And the road safety body said yesterday it could not be sure other staff weren't personally fined for failing to wear seat belts, drink-driving or using mobile phones, because telling management about those offences was voluntary.
About 700 employees share the TAC's fleet of 88 cars.
Drivers incur the penalties and demerit points attached to breaches, not the TAC.
Senior managers were among the offenders.
"A range of employees from all levels incurred infringements," TAC spokeswoman Lauren Treacy said.
Though all those involved in the offences could have faced dismissal, they had been given only mandatory counselling.
More Rush to Challenge Speed Camera Fines
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Article from:
Herald Sun
by Norrie Ross
August 27, 2007 |
THE accuracy of mobile speed cameras is under assault by the legal world.
Two Melbourne drivers have beaten speeding fines by challenging camera images in court, and more are set to follow. John King and Claus Salger won David-and-Goliath battles against Victoria
Police by using information contained in a speed camera operators manual. Illustrations in the manual, obtained through Freedom of Information, proved they could not have been speeding.
In November, a Melbourne court will hear a challenge to a speed camera fine on the same basis. Barrister and traffic law expert Sean Hardy will call two experts in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on behalf of a client who says he was not speeding.
Mr. Hardy said Mr. King and Mr. Salger had exposed systemic problems in mobile speed cameras and the case would test if their success could be repeated. "I don't think John and Claus have blown the system apart," Mr. Hardy said.
"But I think they've exposed cracks in it. And people have been exposing cracks in it for a long time. "Mr King and Mr Salger won court costs from Victoria Police in separate prosecutions and say their cases reveal a culture of secrecy, misinformation, cover-up and sloppy prosecution.
They said the system of verifying images was flawed and biased against drivers. The men claim the system is so complex and secretive most drivers cannot challenge their fines.
"Most people aren't going to spend three days in court fighting a $160 fine," Mr King said.
"I was able to win my case using their own operator's manual. It showed the camera didn't produce an accurate image in my case."
Mr Salger, who has 45 years experience in radio electronics and worked for 16 years at Melbourne airport, picked apart the camera manuals and studied the complex radar science that defeats most drivers.
Tests proved that radar-activated cameras can be triggered by street signs, road barriers and even the movements of car aerials, he said.
"As the system stands now you don't have to have committed an offence to be guilty of it," Mr Salger said. "The camera does not point and say, 'this car did it, or this one did not, or none of them did it'. It takes a picture. "And then that picture has to be interpreted. The flaw I see is in the interpretation.
Under Victoria's speed camera legislation police normally only have to prove the camera was properly set up and calibrated in order to obtain a conviction.
One of the men's claims that is hotly disputed is that speed camera infingements are computer generated by Tenix, the camera operators. Mr Salger and Mr King say the system simply identifies a number plate, searches for the owner of the vehicle and sends out an infringement notice.
In March this year Mr King had his speeding case dismissed and was awarded $1260 costs in Heidelberg Magistrates' Court. Mr King's expert witness was Mr Salger who beat a speeding offence at Broadmeadows Magistrates' Court in 2006.
It took Mr King 18 months to prepare a defence because of the difficulty of obtaining the speed camera manual that helped him prove he was not speeding.
Magistrate Roger Franich said the Tenix employee who set up the camera described the manual as his "bible". However police witness Chris Burden, an engineer from RMIT who calibrates all Victoria's speed cameras, dismissed the manual.
Speed Cameras are Soft in the Head
The Age
Lawrence Money and Daniel Ziffer August 15, 2007 VICTORY number two: feisty 76-year-old Joan Rowlands has just become the second Diary reader to beat a speeding charge on the very dodgy Geelong road. In this instance, the case was thrown out of Sunshine Magistrates Court after Ms Rowlands (below) claimed the camera confused the vehicles it photographed.
The case had been adjourned from last month so the prosecution could summon an "expert witness" to counter the technical arguments of Mrs Rowlands and her husband. But when the case resumed, the police "expert" was a no-show.
"They elected not to send one," Mrs Rowlands says. "So we were not allowed to produce our evidence on the cameras at all. If either my husband Bob and I mentioned the word 'camera' they became very twitchy."
According to their unheard evidence, the couple's car was travelling in lane three at 92 km/h when a truck doing 110 km/h, in lane two, passed them. The camera photographed the car and attributed it with the truck's speed. "The explanation of this error is almost certainly a software fault in the camera system," the statement says.
"As a result of the fault, there is no association between the vehicle triggering the camera and the vehicle exceeding the speed limit. This mismatch is probably not a common occurrence, as it will only happen if two vehicles cross the sensors within the processing time for a photograph."
On the same stretch of the Princes Highway out of Geelong last year, a woman was fined but beat the rap (Diary, April 11) after complaining that the speed advisory signs over the road had misled her. The speed read-out had shown her at 8 km/h under the limit, so she accelerated and copped a fine for travelling 8 km/h over the limit.
"In our case, the case was thrown out on the basis of fact: that the camera was wrong," Mrs Rowlands says. "The Government explanation was absolute crap. It's a software problem."
Australia: Speed Cameras on Strike
Police in Victoria, Australia go on strike, refusing to process speed and red light camera tickets.
Police in Victoria, Australia voted overwhelmingly yesterday to begin a strike that will leave the state's speed cameras and red light cameras idle. Ninety-nine percent of officers voted to cease collecting automated fines beginning August 21 unless the government increases officer pay by five percent.
"Your unprecedented response to the ballot and overwhelming 'yes' vote has sent a strong message -- we will stand together and we will not accept an unfair deal," police union CEO Paul Mullett said in a message to members yesterday. "We call on Premier Brumby to show the leadership and decisiveness he has promised and come back to the negotiating table to put an end to this dispute."
Mullett called the government's offer of a 3.25 percent pay raise "insulting" and ran a series of television commercials urging officers to strike. (View commercial on YouTube.) Union officials believe that the government will be forced to negotiate when its automated ticketing revenue stream is threatened. The state budget reports more than A$700 million in annual revenue collected from fines and regulatory fees.
Embarrassed cops admit ticket blunder
Ari Sharp - The Age Melbourne
July 20, 2007
Police have admitted embarrassment over a fixed speed camera fine wrongly issued to a bus driver on the Hume Highway, north of Melbourne.
A series of blunders led to the fine being issued, and an appeal rejected, until media interest forced police to concede they had made a mistake.
The speeding fine was issued after two buses of the same model and with just two digits different on their numberplates were confused by character recognition software.
The two buses were both driving on the Hume Highway near Seymour on April 28 when they passed through point-to-point speed check cameras eight kilometres apart.
The software, and a further human check, failed to distinguish the two and calculated the bus as travelling 123 km/h on the 100 km/h road.
Seymour Coaches, the owner of the buses, appealed the fine and argued that the Mercedes Benz bus was physically incapable of obtaining the speed police claimed it had reached.
Police rejected the appeal, but refused to provide copies of the speed camera photos.
After media interest, however, police reviewed the case and the mistake was discovered.
Superintendent Shane Patton from the traffic camera office blamed human error for the glitches but said the unusual circumstances meant that the problem would not be widespread.
"It's a simple human error. There's been a misverification (sic) of numberplates that were of a similar nature and the infringement was sent out. It's as simple as that," Superintendent Patton said.
He was keen to stress that the problem was not with the cameras themselves, but with the processing of the information.
The point-to-point cameras had been operating on the Hume Freeway since early April.
Internal police research showed that numberplates not being verified occurred in 0.018 per cent of fines issued in the second half of last year, Superintendent Patton said.
"There will be mistakes, we concede that, but readily that needs to be weighed against the value to the community of the road safety camera program. Independent testing has shown that cameras save lives."
He said the police officer who wrongly rejected the appeal would not be disciplined.
"Everyone make mistakes at work occasionally, he's made his and hopefully we'll learn from it."
No Traffic Speeding Tickets in Victoria During Industrial Action?
Friday 13th July 2007 - VICTORIAN police plan to use work bans to pressure the state government for a pay rise after unanimously voting to take the steps needed to take industrial action.
About half the state's 11,000 officers flocked to a massive meeting in Melbourne today and unanimously voted to begin the legal steps needed for a protected industrial campaign.
The work bans would include a refusal to issue traffic fines for speeding, a refusal to attend court, a refusal to volunteer for duty such as at AFL games and on providing information to government agencies.
Police want a five per cent pay rise and have rejected the state government's offer of 3.25 per cent as "insulting''.
Premier Steve Bracks has promised Victorian politicians' pay will rise by the same 3.25 per cent, despite being entitled to a rise closer to 6.7 per cent.
Victorian Police Association secretary Paul Mullett claims he recently negotiated with Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon to have a 4.1 per cent wage increase but that she was later overruled by the state government.
Police Minister Bob Cameron denies Ms Nixon ever agreed to 4.1 per cent.
He said Victorian police were already paid above the national average when salary, allowances and superannuation was included.
"If the 3.25 per cent offer was accepted ... the majority of our police members in Victoria would immediately become the highest-paid police officers in Australia,'' he said.
But Senior Sergeant Mullett says the offer will make Victorian police the worst paid in Australia, by $500 a month.
He said police were reluctant to use more serious strike action but would do "whatever it takes'' to get a fair wage rise.
"When it gets tough, Mr Bracks, when it gets tough Mr Cameron, there's none tougher than 11,000 police officers in this state. We know about tough,'' he told the meeting.
Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby told reporters he was confident the bans agreed to today would be "administrative'' and not a risk to public safety.
The government has warned any larger pay rise would need to be offset by productivity gains.
Mr Ashby said police command was considering offsets that would create a more flexible workforce, but would not say what this might involve.
Police will have to vote in a secret ballot to protect their industrial campaign before it begins and the union plans to lodge an application for that vote on Monday.
Herald Sun
Ellen Whinnett
July 02, 2007
Remarkably, it's the second time in a year Brett Pownceby has beaten traffic authorities. |
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A MAN has escaped a speeding fine by producing a GPS readout of his vehicle's movements showing he was travelling 21km/h slower than police claimed.
Remarkably, it's the second time in a year Brett Pownceby has beaten traffic authorities.
Last July, the Cororooke farmer forced CityLink to cancel a $11.97 fine after he pointed out his rusty, derelict old tractor could not have been the vehicle snapped on its tollway.
This time the 47-year-old battled a policeman who said a radar gun last month caught him doing 121km/h in a 100km/h zone near Warncoort.
Mr Pownceby was issued with a ticket alleging he did 119km/h.
To fight the charge, Mr Pownceby downloaded data from the global positioning system satellite tracking device on his dashboard and took it to Corio police.
Faced with that, police withdrew the ticket.
However police have since said that this was an error, and the ticket should not have been withdrawn.
They said other motorists should not expect to escape speeding fines by producing satellite tracking records.
However things could change after a Sydney court threw out a speeding case when a man produced a GPS readout of his car's movements.
Mr Pownceby said: "It's annoying. All I want is for them to get it right.
"If I didn't have a GPS sitting on my dash, I'd have been gone."
Mr Pownceby's readout showed his speed, the distance he had covered, and his exact location in snapshots recorded every few seconds.
He said he was travelling at 100km/h when booked by police on May 12 on the Princes Highway near Nanny Brown's Hill at Warncoort.
Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said Mr Pownceby's experience cast doubt on the accuracy of police radar guns.
He said if Mr Pownceby hadn't been able to produce the GPS data, he would have had to pay a $215 fine and cop three demerit points.
"How many innocent motorists who lack onboard GPS units have been wrongly fined by Steve Bracks and Bob Cameron's dodgy police radar guns?" he asked.
Mr Mulder called on the Government to investigate the incident and ensure all hand-held radar guns were correctly calibrated.
Mr Cameron's spokesman, Alex Twomey, said Victoria Police had told him the officer should not have withdrawn the ticket.
Victoria Police spokeswoman Natalie Webster said the ticket had been based on a legitimate radar detection, and that the police officer who withdrew the ticket several days later had "incorrectly considered it to be competing evidence".
She said the ticket should have been reviewed by the traffic camera office.
Ms Webster said the traffic camera office did not record why tickets were withdrawn, so she could not say how many tickets had been withdrawn as a result of GPS readouts.
"The production of a GPS report alone to avoid any speeding infringement is insufficient, and any application as such will be rejected," she said.
"In the absence of other corroborative evidence, the TCO would proceed with the speeding infringement."
Mr Pownceby said the GPS and software cost about $470.
"I'd recommend it for anyone doing a fair bit of travelling," he said.
The use of satellite tracking systems is booming, and companies advertise their products as a way of disputing police fines.
Hire car companies in the United States are also using them to check speeding by their customers.
In Victoria, the Transport Accident Commission is testing the use of GPS in heavy vehicles as a way of limiting speeding by truckies.
Victoria -Thousand Risk Losing Licences
Mark Russell - THE AGE
June 24, 2007
MORE than 45,000 Victorian drivers are on the brink of losing their licences — and the proliferation of speed cameras is being blamed. The Sunday Age can reveal that thousands of drivers are only just hanging on to their licences, sparking fears that jobs and family mobility are in jeopardy.
VicRoads figures show that as of May 31, there were 29,016 drivers with 10 demerit points and another 16,459 with 11 demerit points. This is 9000 more drivers at risk of losing their licences than at the same time in 2005. VicRoads does not have figures for last year. State Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said he was staggered at the high number of drivers with so many demerit points.
"I don't think there's any doubt that this has been caused by the proliferation of speed cameras in Victoria," Mr Baillieu said.
"And there's no doubt Victorians believe that there is revenue-raising going on"It looks like we're on the cusp of an awful lot of people losing their licences, which will be of great concern to a lot of families and businesses."
But the Government and the Transport Accident Commission strongly defended the use of speed cameras in tackling the road toll, which stands at 151 compared with 153 at this time last year. Police Minister Bob Cameron's spokesman, Alex Twomey, denied that speed cameras were being used as revenue-raisers.
VicRoads did not have a breakdown of the traffic offences committed by the 45,000 drivers at risk of losing their licences, but a spokeswoman said speeding was believed to have played a significant role. The risk of drivers crashing doubled if they were speeding 5 km/h over the 60 km/h limit, the Transport Accident Commission said.
There are 3.6 million registered drivers in Victoria, and more than 150 speed cameras and 83 red light cameras operating to catch them out if they break the law. Drivers who lose 12 or more demerit points in any three-year period (and P-platers who get five points in a 12-month period) face having their licences suspended for three months, or they can agree to enter into a 12-month "bond".
If they incur any further point losses within this 12-month period, they lose their licence for six months.
The State Government hopes to reap $843 million in fines and regulatory fees, including speed camera revenue, in 2007-08, a 6.2 per cent increase on 2006-07's revised estimate of $793.3 million.
The increase has been attributed to several factors, including the re-establishment of the Western Ring Road camera network, the start of the Hume Freeway point-to-point speed camera system, completion of the roll-out of the red-light speed camera network and the annual indexation of fees and charges.
Fixed cameras are being used in eight locations along the Western Ring Road, with four operating in the Princes Freeway-bound direction, and four on the Hume-bound side.
Justice Department documents leaked to The Sunday Age show the number of Traffic Camera Office infringements issued in Victoria in 2005-06 was 1,079,169, worth $200 million. The number of TCO infringements from July 1 last year to February 28 this year was 806,760, worth $148 million.
The Sunday Age has revealed in a number of recent reports that many motorists are refusing to pay speeding, parking and tollway fines, with thousands sending them back marked "return to sender".
The amount owed by fine defaulters has leapt from $40 million 20 years ago to more than $1 billion this year. By the end of February this year, 346,373 speed camera fines, 86,757 on-the-spot police fines and 132,108 speeding tickets issued to motorists using the Burnley and Domain tunnels were unpaid — worth a total of more than $100 million. Revenue collected from fines forms part of the state budget.
Former High Court Judge Marcus Einfeld outside Court 19th April 07By Brad Clifton - Daily Telegraph
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Einfeld a 'serial fraudster': court
FORMER Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld is a serial fraudster who has lied about other people driving his car on at least three separate occasions to get out of speeding fines, police claim.
Court papers allege Einfeld falsely blamed a professor friend named Nadine Levick for driving his car when it incurred a traffic fine in September 1999.
He is also accused of creating a false statutory declaration to beat a November 2003 fine by wrongly claiming his car was being driven by Englishman Tim Oliver.
Both these incidents pre-date his claim last year that a speeding offence committed in January 2006 was the fault of another professor friend, Theresa Brennan.
The Daily Telegraph revealed Ms Brennan died in a road accident in the United States in 2003 – three years before Einfeld claimed she had borrowed his car.
A defiant Einfeld appeared in a Sydney court today, where his lawyer indicated he will plead not guilty to 14 charges.
He arrived at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court shortly before 9.30am to face charges including perverting the course of justice and perjury.
Einfeld, 67, of Woollahra, dressed in a grey, pin-striped suit, did not speak during the brief court hearing, but instead listened as his lawyer announced "there will be pleas of not guilty in each of the matters".
Shortly before 10am, Einfeld emerged from the courthouse and negotiated his way through a huge media scrum to a waiting black Honda sedan.
As he took a seat in the passenger side, the car took off with tyres screeching, narrowly missing newspaper photographers who were standing on the road.
Einfeld was charged late last month following an investigation by fraud detectives from Strike Force Chanter.
Also appearing in court yesterday was Sydney woman Angela Liati, who has been charged with perverting the course of justice and hindering a police investigation relating to the Einfeld matter.
Liati, who has never met Einfeld, gave a statement to police claiming she was in his car with a professor at the time the vehicle was snapped by a speed camera.
She is apparently going to fight the charges.
As part of her bail conditions, Liati is prohibited from contacting Einfeld.
The matters relating to both Einfeld and Liati were adjourned until June.
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The Age March 9, 2007
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The Age March 4, 2007
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New Speed Camera for Victoria's Easter
Point to Point Speed Cameras for Victoria
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VICTORIA will unroll its latest technology to tackle the road toll in time for
the Easter holidays.
The state will become the first in Australia to introduce point-to-point cameras, which enable police to measure the time it takes motorists to travel between two points before calculating their average speed.
The new method aims to catch drivers who slow down to avoid single fixed speed cameras.
Five cameras will monitor a stretch of the Hume Freeway between the Western Ring Road to about 80 kilometres outside Melbourne. Large flashing signs will mark all cameras.
"They're highly visible," said Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby. "They're
mainly situated in the median strip area and there's nothing at all covert about them. They're quite substantial structures."
The cameras will be introduced in conjunction with parabolic cameras on the Western Ring Road. Police hope the new cameras will reduce the Easter holidays road toll.
"The difference with the point to point (cameras) is that it's a simple mathematical equation," said Mr Ashby. "It will catch those motorists that slow down for the single site cameras and speed up in the areas between."
Mr Ashby said police had consulted widely before deciding to introduce the cameras, and would publicise their introduction.
As with existing mobile and fixed cameras, the new cameras will include a "legislative tolerance" for motorists who have exceeded the speed limit by
a small amount.
A multiple infringement policy means motorists will not be booked several times over the same stretch of road.
RACV general manager for public policy Ken Ogden said he supported the new cameras but called on police and the State Government to ensure the public
knew about their benefits.
"We don't object to automated enforcement where there is a clear road safety benefit," Dr Ogden said. "I think it is absolutely essential that the
Government explains to the public what the road safety benefit is of this technology."
Speed-camera firm pleads for a second chance
Jason Dowling
March 4, 2007
THE operator of Victoria's trouble-plagued speed camera network has applied to retain the contract despite receiving a "six-figure" fine for past bungles.
Applications close tomorrow and Tenix Solutions has applied to retain the multimillion-dollar contract. Speed camera operations in Victoria have been plagued with bungles, leading to more than 1000 motorists being wrongly fined.
Tenix Solutions is believed to be under pressure over its retaining of the contracts because of the mistakes. Last June, the State Government revealed 1130 motorists had been wrongly fined by Tenix.
On 13 occasions, operators either set up their cameras in the wrong speed zone or failed to ensure there were not objects in the area that could distort readings. Less than a month later, the Government announced another 72 motorists had been wrongly fined because a camera had been set up incorrectly. Former police minister Tim Holding said at the time that the Government was "fed up" with the mistakes.
Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the Government had to consider the awarding of the next contract carefully. "Tenix has a number of black marks against its name due to previous failures. Labor must consider this before it awards the new contracts," he said.
Tenix Solutions would not comment to The Sunday Age about the new contracts. The new speed camera contracts come as the Opposition accused the Government of politicising road safety in Victoria, with the roll-out of 300 "road safety camera" signs across the state. Mr Mulder said the use of "road safety camera" wording was a deliberate political ploy.
"The Bracks Government uses the term 'road safety camera' to deflect attention away from what Victorians see as a 'speed camera revenue-raising bonanza'," he said.
He said the generic signage failed to warn motorists of impending speed and red light cameras.
"Red light speed camera signage would have a greater impact at locations where these cameras are in use — but such signage would not only reduce the incidence of motorists speeding through intersections — it would also lower the revenue take from these locations," he said. "The latter takes precedence with the Bracks Government."
Since 2003, 300 road safety camera signs have been erected in Victoria, costing about $400 each. But Government spokeswoman Liz Armitage said the road safety camera signs were valuable.
"The signs are an effective way of deterring motorists from speeding and running red lights," she said.
The wording "road safety cameras" was adopted by the Justice Department when it took over management of the speed camera system in May 2004.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Christine Panayotou, said the department chose the wording because of international standards and space. " 'Road safety cameras' is the internationally recognised term for the devices, as evidenced in jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Europe and the United States," she said.
"The title 'safety camera' is used as a general term because Victoria uses speed, red-light and red-light speed cameras. "There's not enough room on a sign to say, 'Speed, red-light, and red-light speed cameras are in operation in this area.' "
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