Mobile phone detection cameras in the nation’s capital will soon be able to pick up a broader range of offences, prompting a warning to drivers to behave responsibly on the road.
Should a motorist be caught breaching multiple laws on the cameras, they will face as many infringement notices, authorities say. In the ACT this week, the Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Amendment Bill 2025, expanding the detection powers of the territory’s cameras.
They’ll now be able to pick up seatbelt offences by both drivers and their passengers from November.
ACT Attorney-General Tara Cheyne said the move is not only about holding those behaving dangerously on roads accountable, but increasing awareness. “This is a bill that builds on decades of data and decades of proven messages that show one simple truth: seatbelts save lives,” she told Region Canberra.
“[It] does not create a new road rule nor does it introduce any new penalties, it doesn’t create a new responsibility [for drivers] either.”
Canberrans are being warned device detection cameras will soon be able to track seatbelt offences. Source: Getty
An online explanatory statement clarified that people with a medical exemption from wearing a seatbelt — whether correctly or at all — who are detected by a camera while travelling in a rideshare vehicle can provide their medical information directly to Access Canberra, rather than to the rideshare driver.
Camera testing and system updates will be completed ahead of the law commencing on November 3, alongside a community education and awareness campaign.
Once enforcement of seatbelt offences begins, the cameras will operate in the same way as those detecting speeding, mobile phone use and registration breaches.
“If multiple offences take place at the same time, for example, a mobile device and a seatbelt offence, both can be captured in one event and the images can be used to issue multiple infringements,” Ms Cheyne said. “This is already a possibility through police enforcement.”
How a seatbelt must be worn
An infringement review process and payment management plans will also be available for those issued fines. A seatbelt is deemed “properly adjusted and fastened” if the clasp is buckled, the lap belt sits low and firmly on a person’s hips, and the sash sits over a person’s shoulder.
The announcement in the ACT comes as virtually every other Australian jurisdiction ramps up the use of mobile detection cameras.
Road safety experts say cameras act as both a deterrent and an enforcement mechanism, targeting behaviours that are otherwise difficult for police to spot in real time. The use of artificial intelligence has also allowed the technology to scan for multiple offences at once, from seatbelts to speeding.
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