If you’re driving in New South Wales, you might spot a sign that says “Safe-T-Cam ahead” but what do these cameras actually do?
You’ll find them on major motorways in NSW and South Australia, and if you use a GPS app, you might have even seen them marked as speed cameras. But are they really tracking your speed? And how do they help manage driver fatigue?
Let’s break it down.
What is a Safe-T-Cam?
A Safe-T-Cam is like a seatbelt, average speed, and registration camera all in one. These cameras have been around since 1992, first introduced by the then-RTA (now Transport for NSW) to monitor heavy vehicles along major freight routes. They’re also used in other Australian states, sometimes under different names and without signposting.
According to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), these cameras are designed to track heavy vehicles only and are used for:
Detecting unregistered and uninsured trucks
Identifying fatigue offences by checking travel times between camera locations
Spotting trucks that attempt to avoid detection
Enforcing mandatory inspection station stops
Catching speeding trucks
The system automatically logs heavy vehicles as they pass, allowing authorities to check if drivers have falsified logbooks or exceeded their maximum driving hours.
How Do They Enforce Fatigue Laws?
Truck drivers in Australia must follow strict fatigue management rules, requiring rest breaks at set intervals based on their work schedule.
Safe-T-Cams help enforce these rules by comparing timestamps from multiple locations. If a truck covers a certain distance faster than legally possible, it suggests the driver hasn’t taken required breaks, or worse, has forged their logbook entries.
Fines for fatigue breaches range from $4,470 for minor offences up to $22,790 for serious violations.
Do Safe-T-Cams Apply to Cars?
Despite many GPS apps marking Safe-T-Cams as speed cameras, they currently do not apply to light vehicles.
There are no official plans to activate them for cars, but the technology does exist to use them for:
Seatbelt enforcement
Mobile phone detection
Registration monitoring
Could Safe-T-Cams Be Used for Speeding?
Safe-T-Cams work similarly to average-speed cameras, which calculate how long a vehicle takes to travel between two points.
Currently, NSW has 35 average-speed camera locations, but they are only switched on for heavy vehicles. That means cars can technically exceed the speed limit in these areas without getting fined.
However, this could change, NSW is trialling average-speed cameras for all vehicles on:
📍 The Hume Highway (Coolac to Gundagai)
📍 The Pacific Highway (Kew to Lake Innes)
If these trials succeed, Safe-T-Cams could be used more broadly in the future.
For now, Safe-T-Cams only target heavy vehicles, tracking speed, fatigue, and compliance with registration and inspection rules. But as camera technology advances, it’s possible they could one day apply to all vehicles, so stay informed and keep an eye on future road rules.
