UNDERCOVER speed cameras are needed to deter Riverina’s speed demons before more lives are lost, a prominent road safety advocate believes.
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It comes as several Riverina towns made the state’s top ten areas for speeding, not wearing seat-belts and failing to abide by road rules, according to police statistics released this week.
Wagga’s PCYC traffic offender intervention program has also doubled its sessions from five to 12 per year after a “surge in drug, drunk and dangerous driving”.
Jon Morgan, coordinator of the PCYC program, said the Riverina is currently seeing a “huge peak” in the number of reckless drivers on the roads.
He has called for the implementation of speed cameras and undercover cameras on a number of the region’s main highways.
“I certainly see the spikes we’re having and we mostly see people who have driven on ice and other drugs, which I would guess is linked to the speeding,” he said.
“We need to re-do the speed cameras because there’s just not enough deterrence at the moment.
“People see the warnings and they slow down – and then they can speed again without getting caught – it’s too easy to get away with.”
Tumblong, a small town near Gundagai with roughly 400 inhabitants, saw 29 drivers clocked 45 km/h over the speed limit in 2016 alone.
It ranked seventh in NSW for serious speeding, despite having just two percent of the population of other high-ranking Sydney suburbs.
Griffith was a hot-spot for drivers not wearing seat-belts, with the Riverina city ranking alongside Sydney, Byron Bay and Parramatta with 171 offences this year.
Wagga Speedway president Peter Price blasted “lunatic” drivers for speeding in the wet conditions after he told The Daily Advertiser his raceway had even been closed because of the rain.
“A car is like a gun, if you put it in the wrong hands it will kill,” he said.
“The roads are deadly at the moment with all this rain – it’s the worst time to speed.”