Road safety camera watchdog admits he didn’t know about possible new speed camera issues until last week

Victoria’s road safety camera commissioner has admitted he didn’t know about potential problems with new T-Series speed cameras until the issue was raised on 3AW Mornings last week.

Neil Mitchell was tipped off about possible accuracy issues with Victoria’s new “game-changing” speed cameras last Thursday.

On Friday, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) revealed it has been flagging possible problems with the new speed camera system since November.

Road Safety Camera Commissioner Stephen Leane said he was already aware of some problems, but admitted he only learnt of other issues late last week.

But Mr Leane stressed that checks and balances are in place to ensure Victorians do not mistakenly receive driving infringements when they have done nothing wrong.

“I’ve been given comfort last week that these incidents, as they’re recorded, are not working their way through to infringements, so the community is safe from that,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“The operator is one line of defence, and then two Serco operators review it in their office. If they disagree it goes to a supervisor so there’s a call.

“Less than half of the incidents the camera might detect will go through to infringement, so there’s a very strong sieve there in the community interest to make sure these are accurate and fair.

“We’d rather, I think, see that we get this right than get this wrong as we’ve probably seen in years gone past, and lose confidence in the system.”

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Neil Mitchell tipped off to potential problems with new ‘game-changing’ speed cameras

Union confirms concerns surrounding ‘game-changing’ speed cameras

Image: Simon McGill / Getty