WA police are dropping hundreds of AI camera fines because nobody can prove you knew your passenger's seatbelt was wrong

If you've ever copped a fine because your passenger's seatbelt was sitting wrong, and you were, you know, driving, WA Police now agree that's a bit rich.

Hundreds of seatbelt infringements caught by WA's AI-assisted traffic cameras are being quietly dropped, because prosecutors can't prove the driver actually knew a passenger's belt was on wrong. Commissioner Col Blanch says there is "no reasonable prospect" of winning these cases in court, so police are pulling the pin before they get there.

The scale is bigger than a few paperwork errors. Since the Road Safety Commission switched the cameras on in October last year, the Department of Transport has issued 81,412 seatbelt related infringements. Roughly 5,700 of those, about 7 per cent, have been overturned after drivers pushed back. Each fine carries a $550 penalty and four demerit points, so this isn't small change.

The stories behind the numbers are the good bit. One mum was fined after her 10 year old's seatbelt sash sat under her arm on the Kwinana Freeway in stop start traffic. Another driver copped it after his wife's belt slipped off her shoulder while she leaned back to hand their four year old a water bottle. Both eventually had their fines dropped, months later, sometimes with nothing more than a form letter saying there were "no grounds to reasonably prosecute."

Blanch is careful to say this isn't a free pass. "That doesn't mean everyone can make up a story and just tell us what they think," he said, adding police only take a fraction of contested cases to trial anyway.

The Road Safety Commission isn't walking away from the cameras. It reckons the mere presence of them has cut seatbelt and phone related infractions by 76 per cent between September last year and August this year, and that the rate of unbelted people dying in crashes has dropped from 20 per cent to 13.8 per cent since the crackdown began. A review is underway into whether the penalty should shift from driver to passenger altogether.

For now, if a camera nabs your passenger and not you, contest it. WA Police just told the state that's exactly what they expect you to do.