Steve Shearer says his association supports the new camera trials
The South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) has replied to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) new safety camera installation trial.
The NHVR says it will launch five new cameras, attached to drones and trailers, to scan heavy vehicle number plates and help monitor speed in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
Many truck operators have disagreed with the move, but SARTA CEO Steve Shearer told ATN the new move shouldn’t be an issue for most drivers who do the right things on the road.
“Operators who do the right thing like driver safely and comply with the speed limit will have nothing to be concerned about,” Shearer says.
Shearer says he has been in discussions with the NHVR about introducing these new measures and that the trial will help the enforcement regulators catch the minority of operators who aren’t driving safely on the roads.
According to SARTA, monitoring roads where operators are speeding and driving for excessive hours has been a difficult and expensive task for the NHVR to complete.
Shearer says the new trial is a huge step forward for the regulators to enforce safe driving and tackle speeding.
“The problem with speeding is you must be out there to see it, but it’s a very expensive exercise to complete with human beings,” Shearer says.
“The number plate recognition cameras fill the gap between safety cameras and human monitoring. We know there are drivers who go crazy between cameras and then slow down, so this may help stop that.”
RELATED ARTICLE: NHVR trial heavy vehicle cameras
Shearer says this new trial will be a useful tool to catch out the minority of operators who bring an ‘every person for themselves’ mentality to driving on the roads.
“That behaviour can be tackled by the regulator using drones and trailer mounted number plate recognition cameras, so we support the move,” he says.
According to SARTA, the new cameras aren’t being deployed to catch drivers going two kilometres an hour over the speed limit.
Instead, the technology is being introduced to catch drivers who go 20 or 30 kilometres an hour over the speed limit and to stop operators who speed for a commercial advantage from not complying with the road laws.
“A small group of individual drivers hold a king of the road mentality, and that’s not the way anymore,” Shearer says.
“It’s people who go along at 120 kilometres an hour who will get sprung, and so they should.”