Access Canberra has released a statement on a system error which affected the issuing of hundreds of infringement notices for speeding offences detected by 10 road safety cameras last year.
The Agency said the error occurred between 29 February 2020 and 16 March 2020 and was caused by software coding issues that didn’t correctly account for the 29 February 2020 leap year day.
“As a result, infringement penalty notices for speeding offences detected from those 10 cameras during the relevant period were issued with an incorrect date,” Access Canberra said.
“The error was limited to the date on the infringement penalty notice,” it said.
“The evidentiary photograph of all detected incidents of speeding were time and date stamped correctly and were available to be viewed.”
Access Canberra said the road safety cameras measured speed correctly at all times and the system error, which occurred due to a third-party vendor system fault, was quickly corrected once identified.
The Agency said it had engaged with the system vendor to ensure the ‘leap-year’ error wouldn’t reoccur in the future and that infringement penalty notices issued to motorists caught speeding contained the correct information.
It said an independent check of the system had been commissioned to provide additional assurance that all issues related to the recording of the time and date on infringement notices had been fully rectified, the outcomes of which are to be made public.
Access Canberra said that in January this year, it had written to each recipient of an affected infringement notice to explain the system error and to outline its position that the notices were legally valid and enforceable.
“A total of 623 infringement notices were issued with an incorrect date,” it said.
“Anyone who has not yet actioned one of these infringements is encouraged to contact Access Canberra on 13 22 81 for assistance.”
Access Canberra said those who wished to dispute an infringement notice may elect to do so and have the matter referred to Court.
