Questions over Western Australian speed camera accuracy

It adds that problems with the cameras were first identified in mid-February after police raised concerns about several questionable readings and the camera manufacturers found a fault in the software that prevented it accurately determining the speed of some vehicles travelling almost side-by-side in adjoining lanes.

The report continues: “But Assistant Commissioner Paul Zanetti said police decided to keep using the cameras while the manufacturers worked on a solution after being told the faulty readings happened only when a suspect vehicle and its numberplate were obscured by another vehicle, which meant an infringement could not be issued anyway.

He said officers already manually checked every camera image and data before issuing infringements so they were told to more closely screen images from the new cameras.

But alarm bells rang last month when a woman disputed she had been driving at 162km/h on the Kwinana Freeway near Baldivis. Police seized her car under hoon laws and charged her with reckless driving after she was caught by one of the new cameras.

Mr Zanetti admitted a review of her case found the camera had allocated a false speed reading but because it recorded her numberplate it “slipped through” the manual screening.”

The woman’s) is the only known case out of 53,000 but one is enough to raise doubts, which is why we’re checking them all,” Mr Zanetti said.”