News location:

Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Speed camera vans coming to a school near you

Shane Rattenbury

SHANE Rattenbury says a total of 43 school zone sites will now allow mobile speed cameras in an attempt to reduce speeding and improve road safety around schools.

“Last year the ACT Government announced it would expand the number of locations where mobile speed vans could be located, including allowing them in school zones for the first time,” Shane said.

“The initial expansion included 52 additional sites, and focused on sites with a history of crashes. This year the expansion is focusing on school zones.

“Children are our most vulnerable road users and people who speed in school zones put children’s lives at risk.

“When I speak to parents and teachers at schools, one of the biggest concerns they have is road safety.

“The 40km/h speed limits in place around school zones aim to provide a safe environment for our children.

“Children do not have the developmental skills to make the crucial decisions to keep them safe when crossing the road. If a child runs onto the road 30 metres ahead of you while you’re driving at 50km/h in a school zone, you won’t be able to stop in time.

“We must ensure we have measures in place that deter and penalise those who break the law and put lives at risk by speeding.

“Mobile speed vans are a proven deterrent when it comes to speeding and it makes sense that we should allow these in schools zones, which is why I introduced regulation changes last year to support the use of mobile speed cameras on any road in the ACT.

“Schools across Canberra are now being assessed in order to confirm their suitability for mobile speed vans. The remaining 50 school sites will be assessed this year, and if suitable they will become part of our mobile camera expansion program.“Mobile speed cameras have been deployed to school zones over 200 times since the launch of school zone operations in October last year. Over this period the cameras have checked the speed of over 80,000 vehicles with 1,177 camera detected speeding infringements being issued.

“The highest speed detected was 40km/h over the posted speed limit at Radford College.”

“The key focus of the ACT Road Safety Action Plan 2016-2020 is to improve road safety for vulnerable road users, including addressing driver behaviour and road safety in and around our schools.

“Mobile cameras are just part of a range of new measures to improve road safety at schools. Other measures include the Active Streets Program which involves the use of 30km/h speed zones around high risk schools and dragon’s teeth road markings to further alert drivers on entry to school speed zones.

“The ACT Government works with schools and ACT Policing to ensure that we address risk taking behaviour around schools,” Mr Rattenbury said.

All mobile speed camera locations can be found at justice.act.gov.au.

The schools which have been added to the mobile speed camera program in 2016 are:

Early Childhood Centres

  • Lyons Early Childhood School
  • Isabella Plains Early Childhood School

Primary Schools

  • Ainslie School
  • Arawang Primary School
  • Canberra Boys Grammar
  • Chapman Primary School
  • Curtin Primary School
  • Duffy Primary School
  • Fadden Primary School
  • Farrer Primary School
  • Florey Primary School
  • Fraser Primary School
  • Gold Creek School
  • Kaleen Primary School
  • Majura Primary School
  • Maribyrnong Primary School
  • Red Hill Primary School
  • St Jude’s Primary School
  • St Thomas the Apostle Primary School
  • Torrens Primary School

High Schools

  • Alfred Deakin High School
  • Lanyon High School
  • Melrose High School
  • St Francis Xavier High School

Colleges

  • Canberra College
  • Daramalan College
  • Dickson College
  • Hawker College
  • Narrabundah College

(Note: Some schools have multiple sites identified for mobile speed camera enforcement.)

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews