Mum appeals "incorrect" $410 seatbelt fine
April Miller and her husband had been visiting family in the Blue Mountains last month when the new detection cameras flagged her for not wearing her seatbelt properly.
The Sydney mum argued otherwise, saying that the couple clearly had their seatbelts on and they were incorrectly fined.
“We came back to a fine in the mail (claiming) our seatbelts weren’t on correctly,” she told 7NEWS.
“In the corner you can clearly see that we have our seatbelts on, both of us.
“If you’ve broken the law, you’ve broken the law, but if you haven’t and there’s no reason for it, then that is frustrating.”
She has since appealed the $410 fine and three demerit points, and while her first appeal was denied, it is not stopping her from trying again.
The seatbelt detection cameras were implemented on July 1 this year, with the intention of saving lives, as 15 per cent of deaths on NSW roads each year involve seatbelt noncompliance.
Shadow Transport Minister Natalie Ward said, “if the seatbelt was on, then the fine should be repaid”.
“Fining motorists who do the right thing is unacceptable because it reduces community confidence.”
Transport for NSW Centre for Road Safety executive director Bernard Carlon told 7NEWS that “although the AI works to identify whether there is an offence that has been committed, there are two human reviews that happen after that” before an infringement is issued.
“There can always be human error and we want to have a system that’s fair.”
In just five months since the implementation of the cameras, 50,000 fines have been handed out.
Fines for not wearing seatbelts have plummeted from more than 16,500 in July to about 9,800 in October.
“There’s a massive reduction in the number of people offending, that’s really good,” Carlon said.
Image: 7NEWS