Cameras to enforce seatbelt compliance for road safety’s sake
Mobile phone detection cameras will begin enforcing seatbelt compliance in a new safety push aimed at reducing needless deaths on NSW roads each year.
The NSW Government will add seatbelt compliance to the work of the existing mobile phone detection camera network after a public awareness campaign and a nine-month period in which warning letters rather than fines will be issued.
In the five years to 2022, 142 lives were lost on NSW roads in fatal crashes in which victims were travelling in a vehicle but not wearing a seatbelt.
Despite five decades of enforcement and public awareness campaigns, more than 10,000 people a year are still fined for not wearing a seatbelt.
Independent modelling provided to the NSW Government suggests camera-based enforcement could save between 17 and 26 lives over five years and reduce serious, life-changing injuries by up to 62.