Ten Thousand New South Wales drivers have been charged for driving on a toll road in another state - despite their cars never leaving their home state. It seems that a glitch in the number plate recognition software confused state of origin when the same numbers and letters configuration were used in both states.
Motorists are advised to carefully check their toll accounts but the company is confident that it will quickly reverse any incorrect charges - and install upgraded software to make sure this does not happen again in the future.
This fiasco raises the question of error when it comes to police speed cameras. From time to time we get instances of motorists getting an unexpected fine notice - from a state they or their car have never visited. It doesn't happen very often, but it serves to underline the chance of an incorrect booking when number plate recognition encounters a difficulty.
Obviously number plates are not fully identical between states, but perhaps insects or debris from a muddy road can create sufficient change to fool the system - and then an innocent motorists faces both a fine - and a loss of demerit points.
That can be a costly problem to rectify. Any such fine can be challenged in court, but that involves the retention of a solicitor and in most cases the magistrate would accept a signed statutory declaration of innocence - and dismiss the fine.
Unfortunately, dismissing the fine does not automatically restore lost demerit points. One of the peculiarities of the law is that demerit points remain in force irrespective of the outcome of each court case - and that is clearly a denial of justice.
It is time the law was changed to treat fines and demerit points in tandem. When one is dismissed - the other should automatically suffer the same fate !
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