http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1059202007
Film runs out of road as speed cameras go digital
ALASTAIR DALTON
TRANSPORT CORRESPONDENT
IT WAS the last refuge of speeding drivers - as the dreaded flash goes off, the fleeting possibility the safety camera had run out of film.
But now Scotland's roads will have their first digital speed cameras which never require a film change and are permanently "live" - beaming images of offending drivers to processing centres 24 hours a day.
The new technology is ready for action in Edinburgh and West Lothian, The Scotsman can reveal.
The cameras will enable images of vehicles to be beamed back remotely. This eliminates the potential safety hazard to camera staff having to change the film weekly.
It could also mean drivers receiving speeding tickets the day after they are caught, rather than the current average of nine to ten days.
The first camera is expected to be installed at a new site on the A71 near Mid Calder by next month. It will also be West Lothian's first fixed speed camera. A second camera will be deployed at an existing red-light camera site at the junction of Queensferry Road and Drum Brae in Edinburgh.
Currently in Lothian and Borders, 24 cameras are rotated among 72 sites.
Others may follow at camera sites which are dangerous to service, such as in the middle of a dual carriageway on the A1, and on the M8/M9 at Newbridge.
Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership is also equipping four of its mobile camera vans with digital cameras to replace video technology. These will enable the cameras to be used in poor light, such as around dusk, when road accidents increase.
The current cameras are operated only in daylight, and the camera vans do not work at night because they could cause a safety hazard at the sites where they are parked. Fixed speed and red-light cameras operate round the clock.
Colin McNeil, the manager of the partnership, said: "This latest technology will assist greatly in improving our ability to operate in low-light conditions, while at the same time improving the efficiency of our processing system."
Dianne Ferreira, a spokeswoman for Brake, a UK road-safety charity, said: "We are 100 per cent supportive because it has been proved that speed cameras are effective.
"It is fantastic that technology can be used to improve on what is already life-saving equipment."
However, Paul Smith, the founder of Safe Speed, which opposes cameras, said: "Going digital is pretty insignificant in road-safety terms. The bigger picture is that we are still pursuing a policy that has demonstrably not made our roads safer."
FEWER DRIVERS CAUGHT
THE number of drivers caught speeding in Scotland has fallen sharply.
A total of 113,466 motorists paid speeding fines in 2005-6, over a fifth fewer than the previous year.
The largest drop was in Strathclyde, where fines paid were down by 38 per cent to 31,739 compared with 2004-5, and Lothian and Borders, where they were down by 26 per cent to 31,641.
However, there was a small rise in Dumfries and Galloway, while an increase in the Northern region was attributed to the area not joining the safety camera scheme until July 2004.
Central Scotland figures are not included, as the police area did not establish a safety camera partnership until last year.