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MOBILE SPEED CAMERAS THAT WORK IN THE DARK


17:55 - 28 October 2004

Drivers in Bristol are to be targeted by new controversial night-vision speed cameras which can work round the clock. Mobile digital cameras cannot currently work in the dark, but the Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership is to spend almost £10,000 on special instruments to adapt their six mobile units to work after dusk and before dawn. They become operational from January.

Unlike fixed Gatso cameras, which flash when triggered by a speeding car, motorists will not be able to tell when these modified cameras go off as they will not need a flash to work. They will only need the light from nearby street-lamps.

This does, however, prevent them from being used on rural roads and large sections of the motorways around Bristol which do not have roadside lights.

The traps will be mainly used in the winter but the partnership has not ruled out using them at night throughout the year, which could potentially lead to mobile cameras catching drivers 24 hours a day.

The adaptors, which will be fitted to cameras currently on board the partnership's mobile vans, have been on trial in South Wales for the last 18 months. Officials in Avon and Somerset tested a number of cameras before they settled on their chosen model, which will cost around £1,600 for each unit.

They will only be able to use the cameras at locations where mobile units are currently able to operate during daylight hours.

Avon and Somerset Safety Camera Partnership spokesman David Gollicker said: "We're in the process of purchasing these units and they will be up and running early next year. Before we do, we'll be letting motorists know in a high-profile campaign that our cameras can operate in the dark - we weren't just going to start using them. We're not trying to catch anyone out."

One motoring organisation condemned the new machines.

Paul Smith, founder of the Road Safety Speed Campaign, said: ''If they're going to operate at night then drivers are not going to be able to see them, and that goes against the visibility principle. It's certainly an opportunity to make money."

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Paul Smith
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