Compliance Targeting Team – 11 November, 2008
Last week we launched our Compliance Targeting Team (CTT) to formalise ACT Policing's approach to road safety. Its primary focus is enforcement and education. The team comprises police officers and ACT Government representatives to target unregistered, uninsured and defective vehicles and unlicensed drivers, and uses ACT Policing's highly-successful RAPID plate-recognition system.
Since January 2008, Traffic Operations has conducted RAPID on an ad-hoc basis, detecting more than 900 drivers who have been unlicensed or driving unregistered or uninsured vehicles on Canberra's roads. But it is the continuing disregard for compliance and road safety which has prompted this latest crackdown.
It is important to recognise that unlicensed drivers driving unregistered vehicles are disproportionately represented in national fatal motor vehicle statistics. Furthermore, injuries suffered as a result of a motor vehicle driven by an unregistered / uninsured driver may not be covered by third party insurance companies. This could lead to lengthy judicial processes.
The CTT will conduct high-visibility activities until January 2009, encompassing the busy holiday period. At the CTT launch Traffic Superintendent Mark Colbran demonstrated the success of RAPID with a large collection of illegal number plates seized from the previous day. So if you drive unlicensed, unregistered or uninsured, you will be caught.