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Extra cameras will be making their way onto West Australian roads, with dozens of “high risk” school zones around metropolitan Perth set to install new speed cameras.
The speed limit in school zones is 40 kilometres an hour, and is enforced typically between 7.30am and 9am, and 2.30pm to 4pm.
Currently, many schools are reliant on WA police setting up ad hoc near their campuses to catch speeding drivers, but Police Minister Reece Whitby announced on Sunday the government would be installing 20 new cameras through “high risk” school areas.
The cameras cost the government about $5 million to lease, and will be rotated around different schools.
The high-risk areas identified as needing cameras include:
- MLC, Christchurch Grammar
- Court Grammar School
- Maida Vale Primary School
- Kingsway Christian College and Ashdale Secondary College
- Osborne Park Primary School
- Hampton Senior High School
- Westfield Park Primary School
- Bannister Creek Primary School
- Banksia Grove Primary School
- Hammond Park Catholic Primary School and Hammond Park Secondary College
- Presbyterian Ladies’ College
- Churchlands Primary School
- Lake Monger Primary School
- Hale School
The first camera has been installed at Court Grammar School in Perth’s east. Infringement notices will start being issued on July 27, which is also the first day of term three.
Court Grammar’s David Gossage said it had been set up on Soldiers Road to deter drivers from speeding through the thoroughfare, particularly as it is an 80km/h road that drops to the school speed limit.
“It’s of constant concern to me and the school principal in regard to drivers … [who] simply don’t respect our school zone and put our students at risk at our pickup and drop off area,” Gossage said.
Figures from the Road Safety Commission identified 80 per cent of drivers passing through the Court Grammar school zone were likely speeding.
Whitby also announced extra cameras similar to Forrest Highways point-to-point system were also due to be installed along Albany Highway this week.
“If you can’t slow down to 40 kilometres an hour outside a school, you’re putting children’s lives at risk, so that’s exactly why we’re introducing these new cameras,” Road Safety Minister Reece Whitby said.
However the program has been slammed by the state’s Greens party, with leader Brad Pettit calling it “massive overreach” and likening it to the dystopian television show Black Mirror.
“A deeply concerning development from the most authoritarian Labor government we have ever seen,” he said.
“It’s like something out of Black Mirror.”
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