The cameras will be installed between Muswellbrook and Aberdeen (11km) and Muswellbrook and Singleton (46km) by the end of 2011.

The point to point cameras measure the time it takes a heavy vehicle to travel the length from camera to camera.

Minister for Transport and Roads, David Campbell, said the new cameras will only be targeting heavy vehicles weighing over 4.5 tonnes.

“If a truck’s average speed is higher than the speed limit for the road, the driver will be fined and incur demerit points,” he said.

Tougher penalties will apply to truck drivers who reach the second camera too fast with increased fines and an extra demerit.

Mr Campbell said there have been instances where a truck drivers will try to escape detection of point to point, speed and Safe-T-Cams by tail gating another truck.

Any truck that is caught trying to avoid the point to point cameras by tail-gating, driving on the wrong side of the road or turning their lights off at night will face fines of more than $1000 and four demerit points.

“Travelling a metre or two behind a semi trailer at 100km an hour is incredibly dangerous and stupid, that’s why these fines are so severe,” he said.

Local truck company, Martin’s Stock Haulage resource manager Bob Richardson, said he had no problem with the new measures in the eyes of road safety, but thinks what is good for trucks should be good for all vehicles.

“If the state government were really about road safety they would target all road users,” he said.

“If they truly want to save lives they need to get everyone to slow down.”

Mr Richardson said trucks feature in accidents because they are there and it is often not the heavy

vehicles that cause the accident.

“In the last three months there have been a lot of accidents involving heavy vehicles, but in most of these cases the trucks were not at fault.”

He believes that truck drivers trying to cheat the

system by methods mentioned earlier, they should not

be there.

“I don’t think there is any excuse for truck drivers cheating to get somewhere faster, we want all drivers to follow the rules and get home safely,” he said.

The new cameras will be installed in 20 locations across NSW, with warning signs posted at the start and end of the length of road from each camera.