Anti-speed surveillance cameras are set to be upgraded after a significant drop in fatalities on roads where they are used in the North, it emerged today.
Tests on more advanced technology could begin before the end of the year in a new police move to reduce the level of carnage. Deaths and serious injuries dropped by 27% since July last year after the
introduction of the four fixed and eight mobile cameras.
The new equipment will be able to detect or monitor average speeds while the fixed cameras are to be developed to detect in either direction, police said.
More than 15,6000 detections were made by the cameras as well as another 3,000 by other means, and they included 288 motorists caught twice and another 33, three times. Six were detected four times, and five at least five times.
Speeds varied between 112 mph on the A1 at Sprucefield, near Lisburn and 90 mph on the A5 outside Omagh.
Superintendent Ian Hamill, head of the road policing development branch said he was encouraged by the fall in fatalities and serious injuries.
But he added: "I am disappointed that, despite our efforts to publicise the introduction of the scheme and where the cameras will be used, there were over 15,000 motorists detected driving well in excess of the speed limit."
PA