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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-17 Daily Xml
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ROAD TRAFFIC (AVERAGE SPEED) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

Received from the House of Assembly and read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (16:42): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading explanation inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Leave granted.

The Road Traffic (Average Speed) Amendment Bill 2012 is a Bill to amend the Road Traffic Act 1961 to introduce point to point speed detection.

Death or injury from road crashes is a major public health issue in South Australia. Excessive and inappropriate speed on rural highways continues to be a significant contributing factor towards road crashes and the extent of road trauma sustained by crash victims.

Monitoring compliance with speed limits is a constant challenge. South Australia uses a variety of speed detection equipment to assist in the deterrence and detection of road users who breach speed limits. Conventional speed detection requires personnel and resources to monitor traffic, often on remote rural highways. In addition, oncoming motorists often warn other motorists when a speed detection device is operating nearby.

Speeding can be targeted at high risk locations with safety camera technology. Mobile or fixed spot speed detection can generate a positive 'halo effect' in the vicinity of the instantaneous speed measurement device, but this is limited to approximately 1 kilometre.

Point to point speed detection can have a far more widespread and beneficial effect. Point to point enforcement promotes area-wide suppression of speeding, because speed enforcement is sustained over a length of road rather than just at one single spot, thus modifying the behaviour of drivers over a larger area. Reducing the speed of all vehicles on a road has significant benefits to all road users. Evaluations of point to point enforcement conducted overseas found a statistically significant 20 per cent reduction in injury crashes in the first two years after point to point enforcement was installed.

Average speed is one form of point to point detection. It involves measuring the time taken by a vehicle to travel between two camera sites. The distance between cameras is certified by an independent surveyor. An image of every vehicle is captured by the first camera, together with a record of the time when the image is taken. The second camera repeats that process. The average speed of the vehicle is calculated by dividing the distance between the cameras by the time taken for the vehicle to travel between the sites. If the average speed of the vehicle is in excess of the speed limit then the driver of the vehicle has committed an offence.

Average speed detection is used extensively interstate and overseas. It has been reported that average speed cameras are perceived by the public as a fairer way of detecting speeding because the cameras detect speed over a length of road instead of at a single point. Average speed cameras are also said to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and accidents due to the traffic moving at a uniform speed and encourage safer driving over longer distances due to the higher level of compliance.

The Government is committed to road safety and has introduced this Bill to enable the use of point to point cameras to detect speeding on stretches of roads where speeding has been identified as a road safety problem.

The first average speed detection system will operate on the Port Wakefield Road between Port Wakefield and Two Wells. It is then planned to develop a network of sites radiating out of Adelaide on the Victor Harbor Road, the South Eastern Freeway, the Dukes Highway, the Sturt Highway and the Northern Expressway. The expected distance between the cameras will be between approximately 14 and 50kms.

The Bill extends the evidentiary provisions of the Road Traffic Act to enable evidence of average speed to be taken as evidence of actual speed for the purposes of the Act. This means that the existing penalty structure for speeding offences in the Road Traffic Act and the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous) Regulations 1999 will apply to point to point speeding offences, including excessive speed in section 45A of the Act (with its associated immediate loss of licence, 6 or 12 month disqualification and the minimum court imposed fine).

The Bill also amends the owner onus provisions in section 79B of the Act to ensure that they apply to this offence. The current situation is that when the owner of a vehicle detected speeding by a safety camera is sent an expiation notice and the owner was not the driver of the vehicle, the owner can provide the Commissioner of Police with a statutory declaration naming the driver. The expiation notice issued in respect of the owner is then withdrawn and a new one issued to the driver.

This framework will continue, but the Bill amends the section so that any reference to the 'time' of the offence is, for speeding between 2 points, the whole period of time during which the vehicle travelled between the 2 points.

Further amendments to section 79B clarify obligations and liabilities where it is alleged that there was more than one driver of the vehicle between the 2 points. The current provisions of section 79B are designed for offences that occur at a single moment in time and cannot apply where there is more than one driver.

Point to point speed detection differs from point in time offences since the offence is committed during the time the person drove between the 2 points, and there is a possibility that there could have been more than one driver of the vehicle between those points. The amendments to section 79B require the owner of a vehicle who knows there was more than one driver to nominate all of them. In this situation, the expiation notice issued to the owner could be withdrawn and new notices issued to all the nominated drivers.

The evidentiary provisions provide protection for drivers who can satisfy the court that although they were one of the drivers between the 2 points, they did not at any time speed whilst driving the vehicle between the 2 points. To use this protection they first must have identified the other driver or drivers to the Commissioner of Police by means of a Statutory Declaration.

Speeding remains a major cause of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. The Bill introduces a new approach to the detection of speeding that has been shown to be effective at reducing speeding over large distances, not just near the location of the detection device. The Bill continues existing defences for owners of vehicles and provides protection for drivers in the new situation where it is possible for 2 drivers to have shared the driving. In such a situation a driver can provide evidence that he or she did not exceed the speed limit. At the same time, it deters the exploitation of this provision by the unscrupulous by requiring the evidence to be provided to the court.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

3—Amendment provisions

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Road Traffic Act 1961

4—Amendment of section 79B—Provisions applying where certain offences are detected by photographic detection devices

This clause amends section 79B:

to ensure that the regulations can make provision in relation to a notice sent with an expiation notice or reminder notice or a summons relating to a speeding offence where the evidence of speeding is evidence of average speed determined in accordance with proposed section 175A;

to make special provisions in relation to such speeding offences, to deal with the fact that the offence occurs over a period of time (ie the period during which the vehicle travelled between 2 average speed camera locations) and that there may have been more than 1 driver of the vehicle during the period.

5—Insertion of section 175A

This clause inserts a new section as follows:

175A—Average speed evidence

This provision provides for the calculation of the average speed of a vehicle between 2 average speed camera locations and for acceptance of evidence of that average speed as evidence of the actual speed of the vehicle between the locations.

Subclause (3) allows the Minister to publish a notice specifying 2 average speed camera locations and determining the fastest practicable route between the locations and the shortest distance that a vehicle could travel between the 2 locations along that route. This information is then used in calculating the average speed of vehicles between the 2 locations and vehicles are conclusively presumed to have travelled between the 2 locations by that shortest distance along that fastest practicable route (on the basis that this will produce the result most favourable to drivers). The average speed so calculated is then conclusively presumed to have been the actual speed of the vehicle while travelling between the 2 locations. Where there is more than 1 driver of the vehicle between the 2 locations, each driver is, subject to the provision, conclusively presumed to have driven the vehicle at that actual speed.

Subclause (6) allows a driver to rebut that last presumption in certain circumstances where another driver or drivers have been responsible for the speeding. The presumption will be rebutted if the driver satisfies the court that—

(a) there was more than 1 driver; and

(b) he or she has furnished the Commissioner of Police with a statutory declaration naming the other drivers or providing reasons why the identity of 1 or more of the other drivers is not known and the inquiries made to try and identify any unknown driver (so that the police have an opportunity to investigate the claims made); and

(c) if the statutory declaration does not name all other drivers—he or she does not know and could not by the exercise of reasonable diligence have ascertained the identity of any driver not named; and

(d) he or she did not speed between the 2 locations.

Subclause (8) ensures that a person cannot be convicted of or required to expiate multiple offences where in addition to evidence of average speed between 2 average speed camera locations there is also evidence of actual speed at a point between the 2 locations.

The provision also contains a regulation making power in subclause (9).

6—Amendment of section 176—Regulations and rules

This clause makes a minor drafting amendment to make it clear that the reference to 'this Act' in section 176(5b) relates to the Act, the regulations and the rules (which is consistent with the Acts Interpretation Act 1915).

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. J.M.A. Lensink.


[Sitting suspended from 16:43 to 17:33]


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