Cameras to catch a million speeding drivers

MORE THAN one million speeding motorists will be detected each year by a privatised speed camera operation expected to begin within the next 12 months.

Up to 600 mobile speed cameras will be put on our roads, with over 80% of them hidden from drivers.

These will target accident blackspot areas and there will be more checks at weekends when most accidents occur, especially between the hours of midnight and 3am.

The operation of the system by the private sector, with the gardaí having an overseeing role, is the central recommendation of a report by a Government working group.

Transport Minister Martin Cullen will publish legislation in the autumn enabling the private sector to become involved.

Once the legislation has been passed, Justice Minister Michael McDowell will put the contract for operating the speed cameras out to tender.

"If we are to save lives and reduce injuries, speed cameras must be located at accident blackspots and overall operational responsibility must rest with the gardaí," Mr Cullen said yesterday.

Mr McDowell said: "This initiative will release garda resources to concentrate their enforcement efforts on other motoring offences which cause death and destruction on our roads, such as drink-driving."

National Safety Council (NSC) chairman Eddie Shaw said this was a positive move because speed cameras have a track record of substantially reducing road deaths in Britain and Australia.

"But it is wrong to have 80% of the cameras hidden because experience elsewhere shows the cameras must be seen by the motorists in the early years to ensure compliance," said Mr Shaw.

He said speed cameras must create a perception in the motorist's mind that if they break the law they will be caught.

"We had the lowest level of road deaths in the first three months after penalty points were introduced there was no increased enforcement, just the perception in the motorist's mind," he said.

However, the number of road deaths have been increasing since then 222 people died on our roads in 2005 up until last Friday, compared with 219 for the same period last year.

The cameras will have potential to make 1.1m detections (or 10% of all checks), with a fixed fine of 80 plus penalty points for each transgression.

The Government report estimates that the annual income could be as high as €70 million per year in the early stages of the service, based on 80% of detected motorists paying their fines.

However, the real benefits will be in the number of lives saved.

"If, by 2010, the number for fatalities in Ireland was reduced in line with the EU Commission's target of reducing deaths by 50%, the savings could be in the region of €234m," the report says.

The report favours private sector involvement because it would mean not diverting major garda resources to a technical service, though it recommends that strategic and operational decisions (choosing the locations and whether to use fixed or mobile cameras) should remain under the control of gardaí.

Mobile cameras would amount to a more practical approach, although it says it would be beneficial to use fixed cameras at a some locations on motorways and dual carriageways.