Cherished Number Plates News

No escape for speeders

07 November 2008

Clusters of speed cameras and ANPR systems will be deployed to track, find and process speeding drivers from the beginning of next year. Drivers will find it very difficult to plot a route to avoided speed cameras, as they will cover every exit, junction, and stretch conceivable, it has been said.

Drivers who slow down briefly or who make a detour from the main route will still be caught because up to 50 of the cameras will work together in a network. They can be positioned more than 15 miles apart and will automatically read number plates and transmit data instantly to a penalty-processing centre.

The existing number plates recognition system gives speeders the chance to turn off in-between cameras and avoid protection. In addition, the cameras can only work in pairs and are expensive and time consuming to install, as they must have a cable running between them.

Police trials of the new cameras have concluded successfully in London and a second set of trials will finish this week in Northern Ireland.

The cameras are set to be approved by January and be deployed fully on our roads by as early as the following summer of 2009.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the Road Safety Minister, said, “When the Home Office approves the equipment, I think there will be great interest among the safety-camera partnerships. They will give a more sophisticated edge to cameras than the blunt instrument we have at the moment.”

The new cameras, known as Specs3, will cost typically £300,000 per network. They are likely to be deployed first on long rural A roads, where crashes occur frequently.

Local authorities are also expected to adopt the new systems to enforce residential speed limits, commonly broken by young male drivers.

Brian Gregory, a founding member of the Association of British Drivers, said: “People put the car in cruise control and the mind in neutral. It’s so boring driving through these sections at a constant slow speed that people are going to drop off.”