By Michael Newhouse
A SPEED camera operator was taken to hospital after a semi-trailer careered into the rear of the camera-car he was operating last week.
According to witnesses, the semi-trailer was in the process of making a right-hand-turn onto Sharps Rd, Tullamarine, during peak-hour last Wednesday evening when it collided with the rear of car.
The impact shattered the Toyota Corolla station wagon’s rear window, and smashed its right-hand indicator lights and right upper panel.
The truck sustained only minor damage to its front left-hand-side bumper bar.
The camera car operator, who would only be identified as Dennis, was shaken by the accident.
“I was just filling out my paperwork. The next minute there’s a loud thud in the back of the car, and I looked over and there’s a semi-trailer sitting in there,” Dennis said shortly after the collision.
“It was a decent hit… it threw me around a little bit,” he said.
Dennis said the truck driver got out of his vehicle and started to abuse him for parking directly across from such a busy intersection. The truck driver denies he abused Dennis.
“I just said why is he parked there, that’s all I’ve asked him,” the truck driver, who would only be identified by his first name, Charles, said.
“He’s parked right opposite the intersection – I needed the room to get out,” Charles said, denying this was a case of speed camera rage.
“I didn’t even see him. I was trying to get around a car parked in the middle,” he said.
Australian defence and technology contract company Tenix is responsible for operating all mobile speed cameras across Victoria.
A Tenix operations team leader, who also said he would only be identified as Charles, said speed camera operators were often a lightning rod for community anger, although he said he would like to accept the truck driver’s explanation the collision was an accident.
“They’re all out here trying to do the right thing, but unfortunately not everyone likes them,” he said.
Following the crash, Dennis was taken to Sunshine Hospital emergency department for a check-up but was released a couple of hours later.
