Give drivers 10kmh grace
for Multanovas
From The West Australian
By Robert Taylor (State
Politics Editor)
April 4, 2006
Drivers should be given
up to 10kmh grace because of accuracy problems with police speed cameras,
a former CSIRO scientist and WA Liberal MP Dennis Jensen said yesterday.
Joining the attack on Multanovas, Dr
Jensen said the cameras had a minimal effect on cameras had a minimal
effect on reducing accidents put a big impact on government coffers.
The Tangney MHR’s comments come
on top of claims by international radar expert Stuart Nixon that WA
motorists were being fined and losing their licences because of errors
in Multanova readings.
Mr Nixon claimed that cameras could be
out by as much as 15kmh if speeds were measured while drivers changed
lanes.
Dr Jensen, who is seeking a publisher
for a book he has written on road safety, said a range of factors
contributed to the inaccuracy of speed cameras.
Apart from problems with the cameras,
drivers also had to contend with Australian design regulations which
allowed new motor vehicle speedometers to be 10 per cent inaccurate.
He said variations in the rolling circumference
of tyres that were nominally the same size could also provide inaccurate
speedometer readings. But Dr Jensen said his most damning finding
on speed cameras was that their impact on road trauma rates was minimal
while they continued to collect millions of dollars a year for the
State Government.
“They’re being used as revenue
raisers. They should only be used in areas with a clear crash history
and in such a way that you’re not detecting everyman but those
who actually are a danger on the roads,” Dr Jensen said.
He said the biggest contributing factor
in OECD countries to the declining road toll as a percentage of population
was improved vehicle design.
“A Monash University study on crash
worthiness of vehicles indicated that 70 per cent of the reduction
can be explained purely in terms of the crash worthiness of cars.
And obviously cars have improved, they handle better, they brake better,”
he said.
“Enforcement has a place put enforcement
has been nowhere near the major contributor that government would
indicate.”
Dr Jensen said the Australian standard
tolerance for speed cameras was 3kmh or 3 per cent, whichever was
higher, but WA Police operated on 1kmh up to 150kmh. “If they
set up the camera not perfectly parallel with the road there’s
potential errors there that has never been codified by the police,”
he said.
“There’s another potential error if the road has curvature
and then there’s the matter of changing lanes or the car not
travelling exactly parallel to the lane which can happen in high wind.”
But despite the mounting scientific
evidence against the cameras, Premier Alan Carpenter stood by them
yesterday. “I support the use of Multanovas as a road safety
tool,” he said.
