Tenix looses speed camera contract

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source:http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...92-661,00.html

A BRITISH firm has won the contract to operate Victoria's controversial speed cameras after a string of costly blunders by previous service provider Tenix.

Serco would take over management of traffic camera services from Tenix at the end of October, Victorian Police Minister Bob Cameron announced today.

Although dumped from operating the cameras, Tenix - which came under fire in June last year after it wrongly issued more than 1,100 speeding tickets - will retain the contract to issue and enforce infringement notices.

Following last year's bungle, the company was hit with a six-figure fine and the following month was forced to withdraw a further 72 speeding fines after another embarrassing processing error.

Serco - which will be responsible for installing and maintaining digital speed and red light cameras - has been warned it faces fines of up to $50,000 for each wrongly set up camera that leads to speeding fines issued in error.

Mr Cameron said the government had learnt from experience over bungled speeding notices, adding that the penalties clause had specifically been built into the new contract.

"There will always be human error in any system," Mr Cameron told reporters.

"We want to make sure that there is more attention in the system and that's why part of this contract there are penalties of up to $50,000 as a consequence of any human error."

The speed cameras have been a thorny issue for the government and motorists alike, ever since Tenix and US firm Lockheed Martin jointly won the $460 million tender to operate the network.

In recent years, the system has been hit by faulty cameras, wrongly-issued speeding fines.

The government, on several occasions, has denied claims the cameras were just revenue-raisers.

But figures released in June 2003 showed the state was collecting $260 in speeding fines every minute.

That figure amounted to $33.5 million in the first three months of the year and a 66 per cent increase compared to the same period a year before when speed cameras raised $20.1 million.

In 2004, the government promised to pay tens of thousands of motorists $19.7 million in refunds and compensation as a result of faulty speed cameras.

Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) Victorian secretary Karen Batt called on the government to release more details about the $150 million tender to reassure the public that price was not the only determining factor in awarding the contract to Serco.

"Safety and not the bottom line must be the first priority for Serco under their new contract to operate traffic camera services," she said.

Today, the government and Victoria Police were keen to highlight the role traffic cameras play in reducing speeding and cutting the state's road toll, saying the percentage of motorists caught speeding had dropped from 24 per cent to just two per cent since cameras were first introduced in Victoria in 1989.

"Victoria Police will continue to use cameras as an integral part of practices in order to reduce speed right across the state. Reduction of speed is a good thing, it's one of the key killers on our roads," Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby said.

"Red light cameras have also proven highly successful, not only in reducing speed through intersections but stopping people running red lights and reducing crashes in that context.

"Victoria Police will continue to assess high risk locations and continue unapologetically to target the areas particularly where road trauma is likely to happen or has occurred previously."