Filenews 2 November 2021 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
Only a week may have passed since the operation of the pilot phase of the cameras on the roads, but the Traffic Police are thinking of ways to catch drivers who are escaping the measures.
The photo-labelling system, as reported to "F" by the Police Traffic Department, has the ability to calculate the speed of a driver on the motorway and report him if he exceeds the limit. As explained to us, this can be done by setting up a mobile camera at the beginning of a highway and one at the end. The camera that will be mounted at the beginning will record the vehicle and the second at the end as soon as the vehicle passes will make the calculation and if the vehicle passes earlier than the estimated time, then it will be reported.
This is applied abroad, so that the drivers are prudent and their speed is within the frames throughout their journey and not when they go through a patrol car to develop speed or knowing where the radar is set up to reduce and then violate the limit. As we have been told, this move may be made sometime in 2022 and if the system is tested.
It is noted that such a move has been discussed for years, i.e. to detect the average speed of a vehicle and if it exceeds the estimated time the driver should be reported, but with the compatible radars it was not attempted due to the reactions that would exist. With the cameras, however, the probability of error is minimal, so it is not excluded that it will be decided. As we have been told, if the problem with fatal accidents gets worse, then this will be one of the measures decided upon.
In the meantime, all revenues from the cameras will go to the state coffers and the state will pay the managing company a respectable amount provided for by the contract. This is because all violations are made on the basis of the law on extrajudicials and not on municipalities, which end up in municipalities (illegal parking, etc.).
Moreover, the cameras, a week after their operation, continue to record dozens of illegalities, since some drivers, knowing that they will not get an extrajudicial but a warning, defy them. Many violations are made by moped drivers who cross the white line even in red, while the majority of drivers comply. According to the assistant director of the Traffic Police Harry Evripidou, each camera during the hours it is in operation records about 500 violations, stressing that if they continue like this after 1/1/2022, then many drivers will lose their driving license, in addition to the fines they will be required to pay.
