The road safety focus of Tasmania Police has been enhanced with the purchase of new state-of-the-art speed cameras and speed camera trailers.

Excessive speed was the number one crash factor for fatal and serious injury crashes in 2011.  Speed cameras are used across urban and high-speed zones as part of Tasmania Police’s speed-detection enforcement program.

The ten new mobile laser cameras were built by a Victorian company at a cost of $600,000, with funding by the State Government.  Eight cameras will be allocated across the Districts and the two Tasman Bridge cameras will be replaced. 

The new technology replaces the ageing fleet of ten cameras.

Tasmania Police will be the first jurisdiction to use trailers to house the speed cameras, after a successful trial with a prototype in Southern District.  Tasmania Police contracted a local company to build three new trailers, with $42,000 in funding provided by the Motor Accidents Insurance Board (MAIB).

The trailers will be deployed to Southern, Northern and Western Districts.  The mobile laser cameras will be deployed in the high visibility trailers and also in staffed police vehicles.

The new cameras and trailers are in addition to new road safety equipment purchased earlier this year with funding from the MAIB; including five handheld Speed Detection Units, eight in-car Radar Speed Devices, forty handheld Breath Testing Units and the refurbishment of four road safety vans.