1y ago

After 'technical issues' Queensland's school zone cameras are snapping 500 drivers each week

www.abc.net.au After 'technical issues' Queensland's school zone cameras are snapping 500 drivers each week

In the first three weeks of operation the cameras, distributed from Cairns all the way to the Gold Coast, issued 1,607 fines to speeding drivers – the equivalent of 100 penalties every school day.

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This included one motorist who was nabbed travelling between 31kph and 40kph over the speed limit, as well as 29 drivers who were snapped speeding 21kph to 30kph over the limit.
If we assume these are the typical (sub)urban school zone where it's 40 km/h during school zone hours, in what is otherwise a 60 km/h zone, that means these 30 drivers would have been speeding even if it wasn't currently a school zone, and one of them was going 10 over the non-school-zone limit. That's shocking.
Honestly, while I'm sympathetic to all the people who complain about being stung for going a couple ks over the limit, when you're more than 10 over the limit and there are no other extenuating circumstances (unclear signage, close to the speed limit change, etc.), the punishments for speeding do not seem anywhere near high enough. Nor, more crucially, are the chances of actually being caught and fined.
- I have so much less sympathy for anyone who speeds in a school zone, signage or otherwise. If there are kids around, drivers need to show caution. It's basic consideration and helps make our communities safer.
  
  I'm almost never even driving during a school zone time, let alone driving in a school zone, let alone speeding in one.
  That said, I did cycle through a school zone just this morning. It was right at the start of the school zone time (literally I think about 7:05 am). There were no children about.
  So while I still think speed limits are a good thing and I have no sympathy for people who disregard them, I'm not convinced that it's necessarily any worse in terms of child safety for a driver to have been going 55 then than it would be when I drove down the same street when it was not a school zone at about 12:30 pm today.
- That’s shocking.
  Is it though? People speed constantly on every street or road.
  EDIT: It is also possible some of them could have been 70 zones normally.
- Omg 10! 10 kph over?!!!! Monsters.
  If that many people are speeding it's poorly designed.

I wish school zone times weren't so long though. I go through a few at somewhere between 6:45 and 7:15, so usually just as the zone comes in to effect... and there ain't no kids there, ever.
Like constantly driving through road works with no works, constantly driving through a school zone with no school activities happening gets you pretty blase.
Also if you don't have kids you don't know when school holidays are. Not the biggest deal, but when you're holding up traffic at 40 clicks and getting all of the beeps and angry Ford Ranger cut offs cause you didn't know the grommets had yet another month off you kinda err on the side of standard speed limit rather than 40kph when you're not sure.
- I get the stress of dealing with impatient dickheads behind you, but you should absolutely be erring on the side of caution. If you think it might be a school day, slow the fuck down. School zones are generally what, a couple hundred metres? The impatient wankers in their emotional support vehicles can wait a few extra seconds.
- Yeah that’s definitely a problem. I’m lucky enough to have a large part of my social circles be made up of teachers, so I’m usually aware of when holidays are. But even then I sometimes forget plus or minus a week or two. I can’t imagine how bad it is for people without even that connection.

6 cameras, so about 15 per camera per day on average. id assume after a few months the numbers would drop as people become more aware of them
- Good! I've been guilty of speeding, but never in a school zone. Kids are stupid, they run right out onto the road with no warning at all.
  I lived over the road from a school for 5 years until recently, and saw a few close calls as is. I shudder to think what would have happened had those drivers been doing 60 or more.
  
  agree 100%. I walk my kids home and the amount of kids especially younger ones that just fly off onto the road without looking is scary

This is the best summary I could come up with:
The six cameras, which are attached to school zone signs, began snapping drivers on August 7 after "technical issues" delayed the rollout of the initiative.
In the first three weeks of operation, between August 7-28, the cameras issued 1,607 fines to speeding drivers – the equivalent of 100 penalties every school day.
"It's outrageous that drivers continue to speed through school zones, putting the lives of children at risk," Mr Bailey said.
A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesperson confirmed the cameras only operated during school zone times and said they would be located between Cairns and the Gold Coast.
Mr Tucker said RACQ had long been calling for an increased on-road police presence, but the club also acknowledged that speed cameras were an "important part of the enforcement mix".
ABC Radio Brisbane revealed in July that the cameras had not initially issued any fines, despite the government announcing at the start of the school year that the technology had been switched on.
The original article contains 425 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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