If police are fining riders for wearing helmet cameras, how can police wear them without breaking the road rules?
The question has been asked by Australian Motorcycle Council representative Guy Stanford who says SOME police are misinterpreting the helmet standards and applying them to riders to harass them.
“They don’t know what they are doing and just pretending they understand the standards,” he says.
“But all they are doing is causing confusion and bringing the police into public disregard.”
Police are bound to road rules as are all motorists and only allowed to speed while responding to priority one or two jobs and to go through a red light after stopping to ensure it was safe to do so.
If wearing a helmet camera is interpreted as breaking the road rules, then aren’t police also breaking the road rules, unless they only wear them when responding to emergency situations as above?
We asked NSW police that question as they seem to misinterpreted the helmet standards and have fined at least two riders.
The following response was attributed to a NSW Police Spokesperson: “NSW Police continue to use a range of technology for the benefit of road safety.”
That really means nothing, but it is believed that NSW police have stopped issuing fines to riders for non-compliant helmets based on attachments and an official position on the issue is pending.
Meanwhile, Victorian police have also fined riders for wearing helmet cameras, but their police do not wear them.
Guy says riders need the road rules clarified to remove confusion over use of “attachments” by riders and police.
He says there is no evidence of increased rider injuries due to use of cameras on helmets and that testing of helmets with cameras appears inconclusive.
If a link was ever established, Workplace Health and safety would probably immediately require police to move the cameras from their helmets and trigger a change to road rules, he says.