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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Lanie Tindale

Civic 40km/h zone speeding fines raise nearly $13m for ACT government

The ACT government raised nearly $13 million last year from drivers speeding in the Civic 40 km/h zone.

Meanwhile, potentially tens of thousands of Canberrans are waiting months to see whether their traffic fines will be dropped, as Access Canberra struggles with a backlog.

There were 67,293 infringements issued for speeding in the Civic 40km/h zone in 2021. This equated to an average of 376 fines per day.

Of those, nearly one in five were issued to drivers travelling at 46 km/h, and 95 per cent to people travelling up to 55 km/h.

About one in three fines were issued in July, just after the introduction of the zone.

Opposition spokesman for transport Mark Parton said the Civic speed zone would "continue to be a revenue raiser for the government".

He said Northbourne Avenue was essentially an arterial road from Sydney.

The data was published after Mr Parton requested it in the Legislative Assembly.

Transport Minister Chris Steel has previously said the lower speed zone would improve pedestrian safety.

Updated permanent signage was installed in March 2021 and displayed at each intersection within the 40km/h zone.

Signs had been switched over before the speed limit was reduced from 60km/h to 40km/h on July 5.

Accidents have decreased since the introduction of the 40km/h zone, according to ACT Government data released on Mr Parton's request.

From July 2020 until April 2021, there were 70 accidents involving vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooters in the 40km/h zone, compared to 24 from the same period in 2021/22.

While there were eight injuries in that first period, there were none after the lower speed limit was introduced.

Meanwhile, Access Canberra is struggling through a backlog of around 38,000 applications from people seeking to withdraw or transfer their traffic fines.

The Canberra Times understands the delay time for infringements is a few months.

An example of a transfer request would be a driver wanting to transfer a speeding fine into another person's name. There are 18,000 such requests waiting to be processed.

There are also just over 20,000 withdrawal applications due to be processed. For example, someone may request to have an infringement withdrawn because they were transporting a person to hospital in a medical emergency.

A spokesperson said Access Canberra has hired seven staff members and are currently recruiting for a further ten to deal with the backlog.

"On average Access Canberra issues 14,000 new infringement notices per month," they said.

Access Canberra said the backlogged infringement notices are on hold, meaning they would not take action against a person's licence until their request was processed.

They said the delay was caused by COVID-19, "including staff impacts due to illness and caring responsibilities within Access Canberra, as well as increased transactions following the lockdown period".

"If anyone has a concern about a transaction or timeliness of a service, please check the Access Canberra website at accesscanberra.act.gov.au or call 13 22 81 for assistance," Access Canberra said.

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Picture: Sitthixay Ditthavong.
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