{"id":341962,"date":"2023-12-13T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=341962"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:00:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T06:00:53","slug":"target-risk-not-revenue-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/12\/13\/target-risk-not-revenue-councillor\/","title":{"rendered":"Target Risk, Not Revenue: Councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rosemary and Ray Dunbar … Rosemary is facing speeding fines totalling $1000 (Photo: Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cr Jane Erkens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 13, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett Regional Council will complain to the State Government about the siting of yellow speed camera trailers in the region, dubbed “flash for cash” on social media.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday’s general meeting Cr Jane Erkens moved a motion from the floor that Council write to the Premier and Minister for Transport and Main Roads to express concerns about the placement of the mobile, roadside traffic cameras.<\/p>\n

Council wants the cameras to be positioned in areas of known risk for road users, and not where they could be perceived to have a non-safety focus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The motion, seconded by Cr Kathy Duff, was passed unanimously.<\/p>\n

The yellow trailers have been spotted in recent months near Nanango, Wondai and Murgon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cr Erkens said she had received many complaints about them.<\/p>\n

She said the cameras had been put up in areas where motorists were either just coming into a town or leaving a town, ie. transition areas between different speed limits.<\/p>\n

“We are all well aware that the South Burnett has a very high (road) fatality rate … I just believe there are lot more places that these cameras can be located so that they are addressing road safety rather than people who are just slow at dropping their speed coming in, or they are anticipating the speed going out,” Cr Erkens said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the people that have come to me (have) only very, very minor changes in their speed.<\/p>\n

“We are a very low socio-economic area and this is impacting very badly on our community.”<\/p>\n

Cr Erkens said the State Government was raising millions of dollars from the speed trailers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It is not, in my opinion, to do with road safety. It is purely a money-making, revenue-raising exercise which is taking advantage of people,” Cr Erkens said.<\/p>\n

She cited the case of a Nanango resident, whose husband is terminally ill, who has picked up $1000 worth of fines.<\/p>\n

“She was ducking backwards and forwards to chemists and doctors for him, and only a very small increase in the speed,” Cr Erkens said.<\/p>\n

“She wasn’t – what anyone would consider – speeding and it was not a danger to anyone except her husband who was at home sick and waiting for her to get back with medication.”<\/p>\n

southburnett.com.au later spoke to the South Nanango resident mentioned during the Council meeting by Cr Erkens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rosemary Dunbar said she was a 75-year-old pensioner and her husband, Ray, 77, was dying of cancer.<\/p>\n

“I’m nursing him and I didn’t need (the fines),” Mrs Dunbar said.<\/p>\n

She said she didn’t even see the trailer on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

“I was going into Kingaroy to get catheter bags for my husband because we had run out and I needed to get them back here,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But I do not speed, I do not drive like that.”<\/p>\n

She said it was definitely just revenue-raising.<\/p>\n

“I’ve spoken to that many people that have all got tickets,” Mrs Dunbar said.<\/p>\n

The Dunbars have appealed against the fines and are now awaiting the outcome.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The trailers are part of a $31 million contract with technology company Acusensus<\/a>, which has developed both fixed and transportable cameras that can detect speeding as well as seat-belt offences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A trial of the technology was announced by Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey during Road Safety Week in 2022.<\/p>\n

A media release at the time quoted Minister Bailey as saying the new cameras would target speeding drivers in school zones and roadworks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to see another roadworker killed or someone\u2019s child badly injured on their way to school just because of the recklessness of a speeding driver,” Mr Bailey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cameras will pop up in high-risk locations next month (September 2022) so I am giving Queenslanders fair warning that these can be anywhere, any time.”<\/p>\n

According to the Acusensus website “the system can be provided in the form of fixed or trailer-based enforcement for anytime, anywhere deployment”.<\/p>\n

“The system captures high resolution, prosecutable evidence of individuals undertaking illegal driver behaviour, 24\/7 in all weather conditions and operates autonomously to capture photographic evidence, automatically detecting illegal driver behaviour. The system hardware is compact, light and unobtrusive, permitting economical deployment on a wide range of pre-existing infrastructure or a trailer-based solution.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A media release from the company in August said it had varied its initial contract with TMR for five years from December 1, 2023, at a cost of about $10.2 million, taking the company’s total revenue over the lifetime of the contract to about $31 million, including GST.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Member for Hill Shane Knuth (KAT) and Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett (LNP)\u00a0 spoke out against the trailers after media reports of drivers being repeatedly slugged in rural areas at Malanda, in North Queensland; and Bororen, in Central Queensland.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In October, Transport Minister Mark Bailey told metropolitian media that Transport and Main Roads would be investigating.<\/p>\n

[UPDATED with correction]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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