AA rejects hidden cameras

By STUART DYE transport reporter

Fixing accident black spots is a better way of saving lives on the road than introducing hidden speed cameras, says the Automobile Association.

The Government is considering a range of measures to reduce the road toll.

As well as hidden speed cameras, they could include lowering the legal alcohol limit for drivers, giving demerit points to speeding drivers caught on camera, and lowering the tolerance limit for speeding from 10km/h to 5km/h above the limit.

Transport Minister Paul Swain said "concerted steps" were needed to reach the Government target of no more than 300 deaths a year on the road by 2010.

All the possibilities are being discussed by the National Road Safety Committee, a think-tank that reports to Mr Swain.

But the possible proposals, which were revealed at the Local Authority Traffic Institute's annual conference this week, drew criticism from the AA.

It says problems are being tackled in the wrong way.

"Hidden cameras evoke all the negative feelings about police enforcement," AA northern regional manager Stephen Selwood said.

"While almost all motorists know they must keep within the limit, being caught by hidden speed cameras is seen by many motorists as just revenue gathering."

Officials at the Ministry of Transport said yesterday that all the options were still being investigated and no decisions had been made.

There were problems, such as how to determine who was driving a car caught speeding on camera, said a spokeswoman.

The AA's director of public affairs, George Fairbairn, said all the proposed measures had potential problems.

"In the majority of drunk driver fatalities, the offender is way above the limit and not between the proposed 0.05 and current 0.08 level.

"And it would be difficult to enforce demerit points for those caught on camera.

"The emphasis has to be on improving the roads themselves."

Mr Swain said last night that the 2010 strategy did concentrate on road engineering issues.

Any possible extra measures were a long way off.

Proposals would be put together to present to the Cabinet by the end of the year.

Transport chiefs, including the chief executives of Transit, Transfund, the Land Transport Safety Authority and ACC, and the commissioner of police, were still working on them.

Some measures would need legislation before they could be introduced.

Mr Swain said he was keen to target habitual offenders with harsher penalties as part of the road toll reduction plan.

Camera trial

* Hidden speed cameras were introduced for a trial period in the Waikato in 1997.

* Land Transport Safety Authority figures show the number of road deaths dropped from 54 to 33 in the first year of the trial.

* But in 1999 it increased to 44.

* In 2000 it rose again, to 53.

* Mark Gosche, then Transport Minister, dropped the trial.

Herald Feature: Cutting the road toll