Controversial changes to Victoria’s speed camera rules will allow police to hide behind trees and road signs and position themselves at the bottom of hills in the name of camera operator safety.
A News Limited report reveals the new policy changes – which come into effect immediately – that claim to be designed to protect mobile speed camera operators from motorists by allowing them to hide behind bushes, poles and other fixed objects.
While previously speed cameras were “under no circumstances” permitted to be covertly concealed and banned from use on downhill sections of road, the new wording allows their use in such instances if the “road safety objective” can’t be achieved in another position.
Victoria Police defended the changes to the speed camera rules, contending that the amendments embraced some of the recommendations made by the state’s speed camera commissioner.
“The amendments were made to specifically focus on the occupational health and safety of mobile speed camera operators, which is paramount in ensuring they can work in a safe environment,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
The mobile speed camera policy changes will be made publically accessible on the Victorian Government’s ‘Cameras Save Lives’ website.
The website explains mobile cameras are used in unmarked vehicles at approximately 2000 locations across Victoria’s road network. A list of the locations is also available online.
Locations for mobile cameras in Victoria must satisfy at least one of the following: there has been a serious or major collision at the location in the past three years; there have been complaints of excessive speed; it has been identified by Victoria Police to be a speed-related problem location; and, speed enforcement by non-camera devices is unsuitable.
