Page 2020 - Week 06 - Friday, 6 May 2005

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Roads—speed cameras
(Question No 346)

Mr Pratt asked the Minister for Urban Services, upon notice, on 5 April 2005:

(1) How many infringements were issued from the Territory’s (a) nine fixed red light and (b) 52 fixed speed cameras in (i) 2002-03, (ii) 2003-04 and (iii) 2004-05 to date;

(2) How many of the fixed (a) red light and (b) speed camera infringements were incorrectly or invalidly issued in (i) 2002-03, (ii) 2003-04 and (iii) 2004-05 to date;

(3) What are the reasons for any red light and speeding tickets being incorrectly or invalidly issued and why did this occur;

(4) Have all incorrect or invalid infringements issued from (a) mobile speed camera vans, (b) fixed red light and (c) fixed speed cameras been retracted;

(5) Is there any possibility that motorists may have paid a fine that should not have been issued to them in the first place as they did not question the infringement or did not seek to inspect the photo; if so, what will the Government do to investigate this and ensure no one has paid a fine for an offence that they did not commit.

Mr Hargreaves: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

* Information unavailable

(3) The reason that infringements are incorrectly issued is due to typographical error or an incorrect reading of the vehicle number plate on the part of the authorised officer.

(4) All incorrect or invalid infringements that the Department is aware of have been retracted.

(5) Yes. It is possible that a driver may have received an invalid or incorrectly issued infringement notice and paid the monetary penalty. Although possible, it is considered unlikely that this has occurred on a large scale if at all. This is because all infringement notices contain details of the vehicle, the registered vehicle operator, infringement penalty and infringement details. The infringement details include the date, time, location and nature of the offence. These details provide vehicle operator the information required to determine if they are in fact responsible for incurring the infringement. The infringement notice also advises the vehicle operator of their rights in relation to the infringement. This information includes disputing the notice and advising they were not the driver at the time of the offence. To investigate this would require an officer to review every fine paid since the inception of the program and manually check against the image taken. This would be an inordinate amount of work at very large expense to the taxpayer.

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