Warning signs will be erected at entrances to the ACT to indicate that these cameras are in use. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Canberra’s mobile device detection cameras will soon have another road offence in their sights: seatbelts.
The cameras can already detect drivers using their phones and ping unregistered and uninsured vehicles.
Now the plan is for them to also pick up on incorrect use of seatbelts, or not wearing them at all, from 3 November of this year.
The Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Amendment Bill 2025 has been introduced (but not yet passed) to the Legislative Assembly.
City and Government Services Minister Tara Cheyne said setting up the regulation to allow the cameras to detect seatbelt offences was another “significant step forward” in improving road safety across Canberra.
“Ensuring that seatbelts are worn correctly is crucial to protecting the lives of drivers and passengers,” she said.
“Unsafe behaviours on our roads network threaten the lives and wellbeing of all members of our community.”
According to the National Road Safety Partnership Program, failing to wear a seatbelt more than doubles a person’s risk of dying in a car crash.
“Seat belts protect vehicle occupants by decreasing the time it takes them to come to a stop in a crash, spreading the impact force over a greater area of the body, minimising contact with the interior of the vehicle and helping stop them from being ejected from the vehicle,” a discussion paper noted.
“If you don’t wear a seatbelt, you are 10 times more likely to be killed or be seriously injured in the event of an incident.
“[When driving at] speeds over 20 km/h, it’s not likely that even the strongest man can hold themselves back from the wheel or within the cabin for a rollover.”
Between January and April of this year, ACT Policing officers have issued 16 fines for incorrectly fastened or unsecured drivers and passengers and 11 cautions.
“Not wearing a seatbelt, including not wearing it properly (for example, under your armpits), is one of the fatal five – the leading contributors to fatal collisions on our roads,” a spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, police have attended fatal collisions where the main cause of the death was not wearing a seatbelt.”
The fatal five are speeding, alcohol and drug impaired driving, driver distraction, failure to obey traffic lights and signs and seatbelts.
Looking at data from 2022 to 2024, 175 fines and 45 cautions were issued by police on Canberra’s roads.
A vast majority of these were due to a driver either being unrestrained or not wearing their seatbelt correctly.
The ACT Policing spokesperson said the new seatbelt detection camera technology would complement existing enforcement activities and education.
“[We] will always work to reduce road trauma. We support these cameras as part of a wider road safety strategy, and police will continue to enforce seatbelt wearing anywhere, anytime,” they said.
Seatbelt-wearing has been mandatory for drivers, front and backseat passengers across Australia since 1972.
Ms Cheyne said the expectation for people to wear them was “more than reasonable”.
“When you make the decision to drive on ACT roads, you are accepting responsibility for following the road rules and making sure that your passengers are properly restrained,” she said.
“Complacency brings consequences that we, as a community, cannot afford to risk.”
Mobile device detection cameras in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland can already detect seatbelt offences and Western Australia is undertaking a trial.
“Given these advancements, it is imperative that the ACT does not fall behind,” Ms Cheyne said.
The amendment bill, if passed, will also create a single offence for passengers found not to be wearing a seatbelt (it is currently split for passengers under 16 years of age and passengers over 16 years of age), and give people who are exempt from wearing a seatbelt correctly up to 28 days to produce proof of the exemption (if they receive an infringement notice).
