Seeing a lot of mobile speed cameras on your summer road trips? Here’s how they work

By Simon Raftery, University of Adelaide

As you’re driving around this summer holidays, there’s every chance you’ll see a strange-looking white or yellow box on the side of the road.

It might have cameras protruding overhead, or be emblazoned with road safety slogans.

It’s a mobile road safety camera. It’ll catch you out doing everything from speeding, to using your phone while driving, to failing to wear a seat belt.

So how did these cameras come about, and how do they work?

Road toll refusing to budge

In Australia, around 1,200 people die in car crashes every year.

The number of people seriously injured has risen from 34,000 in 2011 to around 39,000 in 2019 (although this may partly be explained by changes in the way admissions to hospital are reported).

Alarmingly, these numbers are showing no sign of decline.

It is widely recognised that behaviours such as speeding, drink or drug driving, fatigue, distraction and dangerous driving increase the risk of a crash.

Failing to wear a seat belt can lead to more severe injuries when a crash occurs.

To reduce the trauma on our roads caused by these behaviours, we need to increase compliance with the road rules and encourage safer driving. The use of safety cameras for enforcement has become a crucial part of the road safety response.

A short history of safety cameras

Safety cameras were first used in Australia in 1985 with the introduction of speed cameras in Victoria.

Since then, the use of safety cameras has grown to include fixed red light and speed cameras, mobile speed cameras (that can be moved to different locations), and point-to-point cameras (also known as average speed cameras).

In the past three years, mobile phone detection cameras have been introduced in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the ACT and Tasmania, and will soon be operating in South Australia. They have also been trialled in Western Australia.

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