New roadside camera trial to target drivers breaching specific road rule in 'real-time'
Road authorities in one state are set to trial new camera technology aimed to change the behaviour of motorists while they're behind the wheel, and hopefully reduce a nasty habit that has been on the rise in recent years.
Queensland is rolling out new technology that will warn drivers to back off if they're caught tailgating on the state's roads.
The variable message signs will appear on the side of the road and will display messages to passing motorists if the monitoring technology detects them driving too close to the car in front.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) has launched the system at one site and has a couple of others planned for the very near future. A spokesperson for TMR told Yahoo News the trial is very much a "fact finding" mission that is aiming to better understand how prevalent the issue of tailgating is.
While drivers can be fined $376 for tailgating in Queensland, the data collected in the trial will simply be used to inform future road safety policies. For now, "there are absolutely no plans" to utilise such technology to issue official warnings or infringements, the spokesperson said.
The problem of tailgating is, at least anecdotally, on the rise in Queensland, with one in five drivers recently admitting to doing it. The latest RACQ's Annual Road Safety Survey showed that 20 per cent of motorists admitted to tailgating others on the road, a response that has seen a gradual increase over the years.
"Tailgating is a major contributor to road trauma in Queensland, being one of the main causes of rear end crashes," said Joanna Robinson, the general manager of Land, Transport, Safety, and Regulation at TMR.
"This new technology will detect unsafe tailgating behaviour, and display a message to motorists in real-time."
The signs will act much like the Slow for SAM (speed awareness monitors) signs in the state which are electronic displays which provide feedback to divers based on their detected speed.
According to the Motor Accident Insurance Commission, rear end crashes are the most common type of road accident in that state, with the organisation urging drivers to make sure they leave a "two second" gap with the car in front, and more of a gap in adverse conditions such as rain.
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Authorities around the country are working to reduce the number of road fatalities and change driver behaviour with greater surveillance and monitoring.
"We are seeing an increase in people admitting to aggressive behaviours," RACQ's Road Safety and Technical Manager Joel Tucker said following the group's latest survey in October.
"We all get stuck in traffic, we all have places to be and sometimes we make mistakes. It's important to keep a cool head and not to overreact to things that happen on the road, because the consequences of impatience or anger can be life-changing," he warned.
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