HAWKESBURY MP Ray Williams has called on the state government to place its mobile speed cameras where they will save lives not merely raise revenue.
``First thing last Monday morning [July 19] the very first of our new mobile speed cameras was installed outside the new Rouse Hill town centre, which I could quite easily view from the window of my office,'' he said.
``Since moving into this office almost two years ago, I can't recall an accident in this vicinity not one.
``This section of the new Windsor Road upgrade that we, the residents of Rouse Hill, paid for through the purchase of our new homes is a six-lane road with lay-off lanes for vehicles turning right or left at this point.
``It could easily be the best section of road in western Sydney.
``Pity we had to wait so long and fight so hard to get it constructed, especially when we paid for it.''
Mr Williams said a few years ago the traffic at 8am would travel ``at the exorbitant speed of perhaps three kilometres per hour if you were lucky''.
``It was the worst congested piece of road in this country.
``There were over 30,000 vehicles using this section of road each day compared with only 25,000 using the Great Western Highway at Wentworthville at the time.
``The point is, why the hell is the government locating mobile speed cameras on roads such as this, instead of putting them on our rural roads, where in the past two years we have seen numerous deaths and serious accidents occur at a prolific rate.''
He said Boundary Road, Box Hill, where a P-plater was booked travelling at 153km/h would be one place a mobile camera should be installed.
``Or Annangrove Road, where a young driver was killed after hitting a tree, caused by speeding.
``I am regularly called on to support lowering the speed limits on our rural roads because a few idiots can't drive responsibly and the good drivers then have to contend with lower speed limits.
``Why not install mobile speed cameras on these roads, catch the dopes abusing the speed limits and leave the rest of us alone, including the 2000 or so who have already been caught travelling at five kilometres above the speed limit at the front of my office on Windsor Road?
``The answer is because the government, which has wasted so many billions of our hard-earned taxpayers' dollars, needs a few bob to refill its coffers.
``Be warned: slow down and don't contribute a cent.''