Residents have won a decades-long fight for red light and speed cameras on a busy road near a Yarraville school.
Two cameras will be switched on by mid-year at the intersection of Francis Street and Wembley Avenue to help improve safety for nearby Wembley Primary School pupils, who cross a road used by about 4600 trucks a day.
A 13-day study by VicRoads in 2014 recorded 219 drivers running red lights and 16 speeding at the intersection.
Resident Lola Anderson said she had campaigned for the cameras for 30 years.
“Our daughter was almost killed at the intersection when she was 18,” she said.
But there has also been criticism of a decision to remove a red light camera from the nearby intersection of Francis Street and Williamstown Road. Maribyrnong Truck Action Group president Sam McArthur said that decision was baffling.
“Surely the volume of trucks and other traffic using this intersection … warrants continued monitoring for speed and red light offences?” he said.
And Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the decision defied logic.
“Clearly there are safety risks at both intersections … and both need heightened safety,” she said.
Fixed-camera locations are determined by a committee of representatives of Victoria Police, VicRoads and the Department of Justice and Regulation.
A government spokesman said the committee had decided to relocate the Francis Street/Williamstown Road camera because of the low number of infringements recorded there.
