Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn After an eight-month education and caution notice period, enforcement will commence next week for offences detected by Western Australia’s new fixed and trailer mounted AI-enabled road safety cameras. A state-wide camera awareness campaign is now live across television, radio, print, digital, social media and roadside billboard channels to remind drivers that the cameras will begin enforcing from next Wednesday October 8. These cameras are being used to target mobile phone offences, not wearing or incorrectly wearing seatbelts and speeding. Road Safety Minister Reece Whitby said, “Our safety cameras are a critical addition to existing enforcement tools, helping to tackle the dangerous driving behaviours most commonly linked to serious and fatal crashes. “This is about fairness and safety. For eight months we have warned drivers, and our ‘Caught in a Flash’ campaign is another attempt to prompt people to change their dangerous driving behaviours before enforcement commences.” Six camera trailers operating in the Perth metropolitan area, Great Southern and Mid West, and fixed cameras on the Kwinana Freeway have detected over 300,000 mobile phone, seatbelt and speeding offences since February. Of those seatbelt and mobile phone offences in that period, more than 65,000 caution notices have been issued to drivers caught doing the wrong thing. The WA Government says that over the course of the caution notice period, there has been a decrease in offences detected by the safety cameras. “Too many lives are lost or forever changed because someone chose to speed, look at their phone, or not wear a seatbelt properly,” Whitby added. “Drivers have had months of warning and plenty of time to adjust. Now it’s time to enforce the rules that keep our community safe.” The state government has also committed over $750,000 across five new community partnerships to help inform people about the new safety camera technology, as part of its “education-before-enforcement approach”. These partnerships, funded under the Road Safety Commission’s Community Initiatives Program, will deliver education programs across the metropolitan and regional areas, including those in remote communities. Partner organisations will lead community workshops, provide resources, and support awareness campaigns tailored to local needs and contexts. The safety camera program is funded through the Road Trauma Trust Account, which sees 100 per cent of safety camera infringements allocated to projects and programs aimed at reducing injuries and deaths on WA roads. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn