Speeding fines to treble,
extra demerits in traffic shakeup
From The West Australian
By Graham Mason
May 05, 2006
Some speeding fines are
to treble and drivers guilty of other offences will be hit with increased
demerit points in a shake-up of traffic penalties to be announced
by the State Government as early as this weekend.
The West Australian understands the penalty
for travelling more than 40kmh over the limit will leap from $350
to more than $1000, bringing it in line with tough penalties in the
Eastern States. The penalty for speeding up to 9kmh over the limit
will double from $50 to $100.
Fines for using a mobile phone without
an approved hands-free kit will jump from $100 to $300 with demerit
points trebling to three.
Other lesser traffic offences will be
downgraded after the Road Safety Council recommended that fines and
penalties be based on the collision risk factor associated with each
particular offence. The West Australian understands penalties for
some pedestrian offences, such as crossing a road within the vicinity
of a red light, will fall.
Council chief Grant Dorrington said yesterday
penalties associated with incidents that could lead to death on the
roads should be higher.
Police Minister John D’Orazio refused
to detail increases in penalties or demerit points.
But in his strongest hint that fines
are due to rise, he said there had been no substantial increase in
traffic fines since 1997.
“The Office of Road Safety commissioned
a review in 2004,” he said yesterday. “That report has
concluded and I’ll make some announcements at the appropriate
time of what those outcomes will be.”
The report was presented to Mr D’Orazio
two months ago. It has not been released publicly.
Senior traffic police have been frustrated
for years that speeding penalties in WA are outdated and not a big
enough deterrent.
Opposition road safety spokesman John
McGrath said Mr D’Orazio’s comments were inappropriate
when there had been 64 deaths on WA roads this year, more than in
the same period in the previous two years.
“The Police Minister has been totally
negligent in his duty in sitting on the report when we have had too
many deaths on WA roads in the first four months this year,”
he said.
