Safety camera trial snaps 240,000 driving offences

Waka Kotahi’s six month long safety camera trial has drawn to a close, capturing over 240,000 driving offences on our roads.

Three cameras were placed at locations across Auckland to see inside vehicles which could detect drivers using a mobile phone behind the wheel or not wearing a seatbelt.

In the last three months of the trial, 103,000 drivers were caught using their phones which when combined with the first three months, totals to around 199,515 offences.

For four months, drivers not wearing a seatbelt were also snapped with a total of 43,444 infringements being recorded.

That makes for a grand total of 242,959 driving offences out of the 12,870,563 vehicles that passed by camera locations until November 23, 2022.

However, those caught won’t be getting tickets as the cameras were merely trialed. According to RNZ, a law will need to be changed in order to do so, which is likely to happen next year.

To protect people’s privacy, all images taken of the offending drivers were deleted within 48 hours while a small number were kept for reporting purposes, says Waka Kotahi.

We can likely expect more safety cameras to pop up across the country as the transport agency begins to take over the camera network from the Police. It also has plans to renew and expand it.