Speed camera tally rockets

By RUTH BERRY

Police issued a record number of mobile speed camera tickets last year - but critics say the blitz is having little effect on the road toll.

Opposition parties say this adds weight to their claim that the cameras are intended mainly to gather revenue.

In the year to July, 392,333 mobile speed camera tickets were issued, a 10.5 per cent increase on the previous year's 355,028.

Figures given to Act deputy leader Muriel Newman by Police Minister George Hawkins suggest police have collected close to $50 million from all speed camera fines in the past financial year.

Dr Newman and National MP Tony Ryall say they are particularly concerned by the use of mobile speed cameras at the expense of unmanned stationary cameras.

They say this takes frontline police away from fighting crime.

Dr Newman said yesterday that the reasoning behind such intensive use of speed cameras was that it would bring the road toll down.

Yet the toll was continuing to rise, "so you have to conclude that revenue gathering is what it's all about".

Land Transport Safety Authority figures since 1996 show the road toll at a peak of 539 in 1997.

It reached a low of 404 in 2002, but rose again last year, to 461.

Dr Newman said that of the three 'Es' of road safety - enforcement, education and engineering - the Government was focused only on enforcement.

"That is causing outrage because it's taking more police off the beat and stopping them fighting crime."

Mr Ryall said: "We need a complete rethink. The policy of aggressive ticketing does not seem to have had the impact the police said it would, because the road toll is still higher than it was a couple of years ago.

"We would like to see more emphasis on seat belts, drink-drivers and driver fatigue."

Mr Ryall said the party wanted a summit on the issue, and he did not want to pre-empt its findings by giving firm commitments now on how, or by how much, National would reduce speed camera use.

But he said that was the likely result of increasing the police focus on other fronts.

The police acting road policy manager, Inspector John Kelly, was yesterday unable to give figures on the cost of the past year's ticket take.

"I don't know and I don't care. The reason I say this is because I have no interest in revenue, my interest is in road safety."

Police had increased the use of mobile cameras because they were less predictable.

Drivers had learned the locations of fixed speed cameras, defeating their purpose.

The "anytime, anywhere" approach to speed cameras introduced in May had led to fewer tickets being issued.

But it was too early to say whether this was a trend.

Mr Kelly denied the claims the cameras were taking officers off core duties, saying the "significant majority" of those staffing camera cars were non-sworn police staff.

They were paid for from a separate budget dedicated to road safety.

Though the road toll had increased last year, it was still the third best result in New Zealand's history, he said.

Mr Kelly said police were always open to ways to cut the road toll, but international research continued to suggest speed cameras played an important role in keeping it down.