A red-light speed camera switched on less than a year ago has shot into the top three Illawarra cameras in terms of revenue.
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The camera at the Princes Highway-Moombara Street in Dapto was switched on in late August 2022 and operated in warning mode - where speeders got a letter in the mail rather than a fine - for the first month.
It has only been pinging motorists since October but in those nine months it has pulled in more fine revenue than the usual suspects like the camera outside The Illawarra Grammar School or the one along the speedway that is Windang Road.
![Switched on less than a year ago, the red-light speed camera at Dapto has become the second-highest earner in the Illawarra. Switched on less than a year ago, the red-light speed camera at Dapto has become the second-highest earner in the Illawarra.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/4FavSveeQdYEHssZq5umRQ/b30bb795-be0d-45ca-bf9f-6c0acc2d6b78.jpg/r0_0_1760_990_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
In the last financial year, the Dapto camera raked in an astonishing $857,141, placing it in second spot behind the regular top-ranking camera on the Princes Motorway at Gwynneville.
That camera catching northbound motorists brought in $1.1 million in fines.
Rounding out the top three is the northbound camera on the Princes Highway outside TIGS at West Wollongong.
Despite it being an uphill stretch, it brought in $716,366 - due in part to it operating in a school zone where fines are more expensive.
Transport for NSW said longer term statistics showed the speed cameras in the Illawarra were having an effect.
For instance, the Dapto camera has seen speeding fines drop by more than 50 per cent, from 730 fines in January 2023 to 360 fines in June 2023.
It was a similar story with the northbound Princes Motorway camera. Installed in October 2003, in 2023 Transport for NSW said the number of fines had dropped 70 per cent compared to that time.
"Enforcement camera programs encourage drivers to slow down and avoid dangerous behaviour such as speeding and red light running," said Transport for NSW's Deputy Secretary of Safety, Environment and Regulation Sally Webb.
"This is evident from the reduction in fines from the various enforcement cameras at locations in the Illawarra region, all of which have a speed compliance rate of more than 99.5 per cent.
"It is good to see that the vast majority of drivers comply with speed limits where we have our cameras, and we see less than one in 200 drivers speeding."
Combined, the top three cameras accounted for 25 per cent of the fine revenue across the 17 fixed red-light speed cameras across the Illawarra.
The Illawarra cameras brought in a total of $10,513,437, with the top three accounting for $2.6 million of that.
That $10 million figure for the Illawarra cameras is just 4 per cent of the total revenue from fixed cameras in NSW - which stands at $244 million.
The big surprise in the figures is the fall in revenue from the camera on Windang Road.
While it still finished in fourth position, its revenue fell 40 per cent compared to last year - $923,828 down to $549,210 in the last financial year.
Incidentally, the lowest camera on the list in terms of revenue was the northbound camera on the Princes Highway at Bulli with $71,800 in fines.
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