If you speed in Victoria there is good chance you will be caught with a new police document revealing an arsenal of speed detection devices in use.
Police have access to more than 1400 mobile speed detectors to issue on-the-spot fines, the document shows, in addition to 300 fixed and mobile speed cameras.
During the summer road policing campaign, from mid-November to the first week in January, police detected 27,467 speeding motorists compared with 24,709 for the same operation last year.
Police also issued 250,292 on-the-spot speeding fines last financial year – an annual increase of more than 32,000. There were also almost 1.3 million fixed and mobile speeding fines issued.
New Peninsula Link speed cameras switched on in September nabbed thousands of speeding motorists in their first two weeks of operation.
The increased speed enforcement came at the same time Victoria recorded a historic record-low road toll last year. Speeding fines also boost state revenue with more than $278 million collected in the 2012-13 financial year. Road accidents are estimated to cost Victoria $3 billion a year.
Victoria Police advertised on Wednesday for a supplier to certify the accuracy of ”Victoria Police’s fleet of speed detectors used by members which encompasses radar devices, digitectors and laser devices”.
The tender said certification of the devices, required under law, ”maintains public confidence in their use”. The tender also showed the growth in speed detection devices. ”Historically the speed detector fleet has increased by approximately 5 per cent annually.”
It said Victoria Police currently uses more than 1400 speed detectors, including digitectors that measure speed between two points on a road, hand-held laser devices and mobile radar devices. Police expect about 1620 device checks a year, with speed detectors requiring annual certification.
A police spokeswoman said speeding was ”an absolute killer on our roads”, and contributed to about a third of all road trauma in the state. ”By wiping just 1km/h off our average speeds, we could reduce road deaths by 5 per cent and serious injury collisions by 3 per cent.”
The RACV’s Brian Negus said speed is a major player in both serous injuries and fatalities. ”It is really important that motorists do obey the speed limit to reduce the risk to both themselves and those around them,” he said.
He said the RACV would like to see greater uniformity in speed zones to help motorists stick to the limit.
