SMS alert to warn drivers
or RBT sites
From The West Australian
By Peta Rasdien
January 12, 2006
A new SMS service
which alerts WA motorists to random test location, speed traps and
traffic hazards using “spies” could be on offer within
months.
Known as Road Spy, the service
was launched on the Gold Coast this week and is expected to be rolled
out across Australia over the next six months. It involves a team
of spies gathering the information, which is then sent to subscribers.
But it has already raised the
ire of Queensland authorities who are threatening to make it illegal
to profit from publication of RBT sites.
Creator Adam Bush said he had
already received calls from people interstate who want to subscribe,
particularly in Perth, where WA Police Minister Michelle Roberts plans
to outlaw the sale and possession of radar detectors. A subscription
costs $149 for six months.
Mr Bush said the service had
300 road spies, including regular road users like taxi drivers and
couriers, who alerted the service to RBT units, speed traps and traffic
problems.
But he denied it would undermine
road safety measures. “The more people are aware of where the
RBTs are and how many there are, it will hopefully reduce the number
of drink drivers, “ he said.
Road Safety Council chairman
Grant Dorrington said the scheme went dangerously close to encouraging
people to break the law. He questioned the legal implications for
Road Spy if one of its subscribers used the information to avoid and
RBT location and ran over someone while drink driving. It was not
the same as the existing system of revealing speed camera locations
because it would reveal the exact location and time that a speed trap
or RBT was set up.
Motor Trades Association executive
director Peter Fitzpatrick said the scheme would not be in the best
interest of road safety.
