New road penalties to rake
up $20m
From The West Australian
By Graham Mason
May 06, 2006
The State Government will rake in an
extra $20 million a year from tough new traffic fines it officially
announced yesterday.
As revealed in The West Australian yesterday, speeding
fines will rise across the board with the fine for speeding more than
40kmh over the limit nearly trebling from $350 to $1000.
Fines for drivers not wearing a seatbelt will increase
from $150 to $200 while drivers not keeping to the left-hand lane
will now lose two demerit points instead of just receiving a $50 fine.
A Road Safety Council push for tougher penalties for
people driving while using a hand-held mobile phone was rewarded with
the demerit point penalty trebling from one to three.
The council had also pushed for the fine for speeding
up to 9kmh over the limit to be increased from $150 to $100 with the
loss of a demerit point but Police Minister John D’Orazio said
the fine would only be $75 and there would still be no loss of demerit
points.
“We’ve not added a demerit point to the
0-9 kmh category because we think there are some times where people
might inadvertently speed,” he said.
The new fines and penalty structure, due to begin
on January 1, has been based on crash risk with those offences more
likely to result in collision being more heavily punished.
Defending the fine rises, Mr D’Orazio said that
the Government would also increase the money it spend on safety.
“I anticipate we will spend far more on road
safety but I can’t outline those because you will see them in
the Budget,” he said.
The Government has also introduced higher speeding
fines for drivers of heavy vehicles weighing more than 22.5 tonnes.
This would see drivers of heavy vehicles fined $150
for speeding between 0-9 kmh over the limit.
Truck drivers more than 40kmh over the limit would
be fined $1250.
Transport Workers Union boss Jim McGiveron said he
was disappointed that heavy haulage drivers were being treated differently.
“All people should be treated the same by the
law regardless of what configuration of vehicle you drive, the penalty
should be the same,” he said.
Road Safety Council director of policy and strategy
Jon Gibson said there was evidence that a mix of increased fines and
demerit points and community education would deter people from speeding.
“We are very happy in terms of the increased
in the penalties” he said.
“This is not about raising additional revenue,
this is about trying to change people’s behaviour, it’s
about penalising those people who break the law.”
RAC spokesman David Moir said the new penalties were
fair and he supported no demerit penalty for drivers only speeding
up to 9kmh over the limit.
