Cops candid on flash sites

The Great Southern’s top traffic cop says he would support regional speed camera locations being made public as a way of reducing the road toll.

The comments from Great Southern traffic enforcement Sergeant Andrew Norton come as the region moves towards its fifth month without a fatality after recording a horror start to the year with 19 deaths until June, including 13 in the first three months.

Sgt Norton said since taking over in the role as the head of traffic enforcement in the Great Southern in July there had been a shift in focus of placing the multanova in 110km/h zones.

The WA Police Union condemned the use of speed cameras in April after a disastrous Labour Day long weekend when eight people died on country roads. It questioned why speed cameras were being hidden in bushes on low-speed metropolitan roads instead of in the country where the fatalities were occurring.

Sgt Norton said the region’s permanent camera was “most of the time” now placed in locations where a serious or fatal crash had occurred in the past two years, while another multanova from Perth was also used in the region.

“I want to dispel a few myths as to where we put cameras,” he said.

“I know there is a lot of chatter about that it’s revenue raising and lots of negative comments, and that’s fair enough as they’re probably coming from people who have never lost a loved one in a road crash.

“So if people are speeding where people died it’s logical we do something about it and the public expect us to do something about it.”

Sgt Norton said knowing where the speed camera would be placed could act as a deterrent for speeding drivers.

“I’m more than happy to put it out there in the public domain, I want people to be aware and know the camera is out there,” he said.

“Most of the time it will be in the 110(km/h) zone, not entirely though, probably 80 per cent of the time but from time to time it will be in built-up areas.”

WA Police Union president George Tilbury said the State Government needed to invest in more police officers on country roads as the most effective way of preventing road trauma.

“When the public sees a police officer, their immediate reaction is to slow down — even if they aren’t speeding,” he said. “Some speed cameras, by virtue of their deployment, have been used to simply raise revenue in the past so we do not object to speed camera locations being made public.”

Road Safety Commissioner Kim Papalia said he supported revealing regional speed camera locations to the public.